Ibrahim took his 1st steps

Bismillah,

This post is about our boy. Alhamdulillah, Ibrahim started walking at just 10 months. He took his 1st steps a couple of weeks ago and now is officially walking. We are yet to buy a proper pair of shoes for him. Poor boy is borrowing Safiyya’s first pair of shoes (they dont get worn much right he-he ). He seems to borrow most things of his sisters, well we just say it doesnt really matter at this age lol. But, to tell the truth, we often don’t have time to take him to shops. Anyway, a visit to Clarks is long overdue inshaAllah.

He is so active physically, always on the move, mashaAllah. If he is not crawling, then walking, if not walking then ,climbing up and down the stairs. He does have very unique tricks that he loves to perform for us, mashaAllah. I need to record them sometime, inshaAllah.

Although everyone keeps saying he is big and healthy, he often has cold, subhanAllah. Coughs, runny nose and the past few days odd temperatures through the night etc, may Allah give him shifaa’ and make his illness the means of purification for us.

He went to his check up this week. He has 8 teeth, eats well, plays well, physically very active and weighed 13,5 kgs. Big boy, mashaAllah. He likes listening to some nursery rhymes on youtube, listening to surahs on our digital Qur’an, reading all sorts of books. He can use his index finger so well, he uses it for anything and everything. He makes a hook with his index finger and tries to grab things from under the table or sofa. He tries to open the door with that one finger. He turns the pages over with that hook style index finger.

He does say few words in our language, namely dad, grandma and grandad- maybe because these are easy to pronounce. He is learning the animal sounds and names of animals. He is also learning how to name his body parts. We ask him typical questions like “What does cow say?” or “Where is your ear? Show me your mouse?”. MashaAllah, he is doing so well on these.

We sing plenty of nursery rhymes with him. He likes Wind the Bobbin up best, also Apple Apple a a a and Once I caught the fish Alive. We watch both those on youtube, the ones by Barbara Milne. He gets real excited and copies the actions and tries to join in when it is playing. He seems to differentiate really well between sounds. He likes repeating after me too, he doesnt get the words right but he mimics my facial expression and says something in baby language in the same manner and tone. It is actually quite funny, Alhamdulillah.

We will continue in the same manner with him, listening to Qur’an daily, singing nursery rhymes, watching educational clips on youtube (the ones that help to learn phonics, numbers, shapes and colours for now), reading books and playing games. He is physically very very active anyway, so apart from taking him outdoors, parks, playgrounds as and when we can- I dont have to push him that much.

Oh, he started going to local playgroup on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I also plan to take him to the library on Thursdays with his sisters. Sisters are often kind to her but sometimes can be a bit mean. That often happens when I am cuddling him or playing with him, they will be like “Oh you dont cuddle us that way” or “Mommy why dont you ever play that game with us?” etc. SubhanAllah, they can be a bit jealous even if the gap between them and Ibrahim is so wide.

InshaAllah when he is a little older he can join his sisters. I am planning to do some painting and arts/crafts with him as well. InshaAllah, may Allah make him healthy and among the pious of this ummah, amin.

Fresh beginnings

Bismillah,

I said I have been reviewing lots of methods and materials re our home education. Alhamdulillah, we are having much more productive days, with the blessing of Allah swt.

Aqeedah. The past weeks we have been learning more about Tawheed- tawheed rooboobiyyah, tawheed uloohiyya and tawheed of names and attributes of Allah swt. We did the following workbooks and we also did Outside My World workbook from um an Numan.

We did this workbook about planets last year with Sumayya but I dont think she appreciated it much or understood it better. So we did it again mashaAllah. Though this time Safiyya didnt show much interest.

Arabic.Alhamdulillah, we get to do little bit of Arabic language daily. We read short stories, revise the vocab, practise the handwriting and watch the stories of prophets’ in Arabic language.

Safiyya’s writing worksheets includes tracing and copywork. Sumayya’s writing- She gets to do some matching and joining the letters type of activity worksheets. These were her homeworks from Arabic School. Alhamdulillah she can read words without fatha, damma, kasra and she can make out a word from individual letters.

Literacy. Alhamdulillah we managed to go to the library last Thursday after a long break. They got to choose lots of books from new arrivals. Our local library won some kind of big funding and keeps receiving lots of new books. They are all so lovely- I found many great examples of Aesop’s Fables. Each story was made an individual short story book with reading comprehension worksheets inside. We loved it. Sumayya has been reading her new books. We have also got 2 chapter books- one is Dora- which I didn’t really like but she insisted. It was actually nice set of 6 stories inside. The other one is about a girl who thought her parents were always nagging her. She went to a parent swap shop and tried all sorts of other parents but in the end thought her parents were the best, even if they nagged them all the time. Sumayya didn’t finish this one yet but I read it whilst still in the library and really liked the content, storyline and everything and suggested that she should choose it. She looked through and happily agreed. So we are doing lots of reading with both Sumayya and Safiyya. Sometimes Sumayya gets to do some reading comprehension worksheets but mainly oral narration of the story followed by discussion is very fruitful, mashaAllah. And Safiyya is trying to read and decided to do this spare workbook I got in sale sometime ago. MashAllah she can read the standalone words inside and fill in the missing phonics.

Creativity. We have been doing a lot more painting than before. Following our bug-hunting fun, we decided to make ladybirds one day. I think it is ladybirds breeding season as we found so many of them each time we went to the park.

We get to do baking at least a couple of times a week. Girls both love playdough and always make their own bread if I am making bread or whatever I am making. And they get to eat their own as well.

They play different kinds of pretend games and role-plays in the garden. Sometimes Safiyya plays the mommy, sometimes Sumayya plays the mommy. Or they both become aunty X and become friends and invite each other over for a meal etc. They have each got a designated area for a house lol.

Qur’an-hifdh. Sumayya mainly revising Juzu Amma. Safiyya is still memorizing Qoria. And we have been planning the Qur’an party for sometime in the end of May inshaAllah.

Qur’an reading. We practise from Ahsanul Qawaid daily. We also did Surah Maun wordbook from um an Numan. MashaAllah Sumayya reading well now. And Safiyya still hard to cooperate when it comes reading in Arabic.

When they dont know what to do they always come and ask me for a coloring page. I have big pile of Islamic coloring pages printed for use on days when we feel bored etc. Kids love coloring any time though, alhamdulillah. I will give link to some really nice Islamic coloring workbooks inshaAllah.

Outdoors and feeding birds

Bismillah,

Staying true to my plans, I took them to Lister Park 3 times last week. Each time we spent around 2 hours walking, bug-hunting, climbing trees, observing flowers, collecting acorns and leaves for Sumayya’s nature projects and finally, of course, playing in the playground. Alhamdulillah we live so close to this awesome park. One day I even took them to the Cartwright Hall Gallery- there was a gallery about 19th century English countryside with collection of people’s clothes, household items such as washboard, iron, rocking chair etc, and the exhibition of countryside pictures by some artists. It was really good and so interesting. I always loved history and especially like and try to learn more about the Victorian England. So, it was really interesting. They even made little displays of little towns such as Idle (not far from us) which used to be proper countryside back then.

Anyway, kids all love being outdoors, regardless of the weather. Sumayya can easily walk for a few hours without ever complaining. She likes climbing and is so confident in all her physical activities. She even jumped from the top of the tree once- which nearly gave me a heart attack lol. MashaAllah, she is so good. Safiyya, on the other hand, not very creative outside. She doesn’t have ideas about what to do and what to collect and what to make in nature. She is very creative inside, always cutting and glueing or even socially she is not reserved like her elder sister. She likes making conversations with people. But, I think we havent tried enough to develop her physically. She doesnt like climbing because she is always scared. She walks long hours with breaks in between. She often likes holding my hand and walk together instead of going off to explore things independently. I have to push her to get to the top of swing etc. Anyway, a friend offered to have Sumayya on Thursdays to teach her Maths and I think we are going to spend more one-one time with Safiyya to get on with her reading and gymnastics inshaAllah.

Apart from that, we have been exploring things in our garden. I mentioned before that Sumayya is so crazy about birds. She loves them so much, she always watches them from the kitchen window. As we have lots of different kinds of trees in the garden and the kitchen being high, we can easily see their nests and when we sit down for breakfast we all watch birds flying in and out of their nests. And Sumayya keeps making assumptions and stories about bird families. “I think this one is a mommy bird”, “She has just gone out for water”, “I think they are looking for a worm but cant find one and that’s why twittering very loud” etc.

So, today we went out to feed the birds in our garden. There were 4 bird feeding stations in our garden. I thought there were only two initially and I led kids to the 1st I knew. But then Sumayya found two other feeder stations- obviously kids have been spending a lot more time in the garden lol. Anyway, we didn’t have proper bird food but we had old breads. Kids made bread crumbs from old bread and we filled up the bird feeders. Alhamdulillah, they really enjoyed it. Sumayya kept saying “We are being kind to our birds and they will say JazakAllah khayr to us. But we dont understand their language. Only Allah and Sulayman alayhissalam know what they are saying”. She really wanted to hold a bird in her hand- this is her one time dream. Even when she was a lot younger she wanted to hold birds, feed them by hands etc. So, she was waiting for ages to see if birds will come down and land on her hand. But they don’t obviously, subhanAllah she was a little sad about it.

And we have a dish where our birds drink water from.

 

New classroom

Bismillah,

Alhamdulillah we have been having very productive days with kiddies. Our cellar has been converted into a granny flat with seperate bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom. It has been empty ever since we moved, well it has only been a month and a half. I have decided to turn it into a school- the bathroom is right next door to living room (which I am using as a classroom). And I can line up the kids to walk into the kitchen and give their snack there inshaAllah. I had this idea but I was thinking it might be a bit cold. But alhamdulillah, it is not that cold and it actually gets warmer quicker due to rooms being smaller in size (comparing to upstairs rooms).

So, I said to kids that they have got a new classroom now. And when we go down to our school I am not their mommy but the teacher. So, they have to listen to me better and work harder. They were both so excited about the new school within our house and they have been following all the school rules, alhamdulillah.

We have made a good deeds tree and hang it on the wall. They collect flowers with their names on it for reciting a surah nicely, neat writing and doing their literacy/numeracy work without being lazy. Alhamdulillah, we have been having more productive days as we get in a proper learning mood as soon as we go down (both myself and children).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have put some of our old posters on the walls; numbers 0-20, ABC phonics, The Solar Planet, Map of EU, shapes- these are mainly for Safiyya to keep revising inshaAllah. And we have a separate reading corder with shelf which we have been using to put up our Islamic Bulletin Boards. I gave most of ours away to Islamic nursery that a sister opened last year. So, we will be making more IBB and then display 2 different ones each week to review inshaAllah.

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I am using the drawers and worktops of the kitchen as my resource centre lol. Alhamdulillah though, it worked out nicely. I can put my things in the drawers and because it is in a seperate room kids dont get distracted. I only take whatever we need during our sessions into the classroom and if need be for some more paints, crayons, cards etc- I quickly get it as it is only next door to our classroom.

And I keep most of our materials in boxes- easy for me to take out when I need. There are 2 big red boxes. One is called literacy box and in there we can find all our literacy/reading related materials- flashcards, phonics matching puzzles, lots of reading related jigsaw puzzles, rhyme games, 3 part MTS cards, lots of phonics related wooden knob puzzles, learning box, Jolly Phonics books etc. The second one is called numeracy box- again full with numeracy/math/numbers related materials, matching cards, sorting cards, flashcards for shapes/numbers, marbles and beads for threading and other small objects/math manipulative, numbers related jigsaw and wooden puzzles etc. These are great for circle time activities, for quick revision and review to refresh kids minds inshaAllah.

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have smalled pink drawer style boxes. One keeps arts/crafts related things. The other one is for Academic workbooks- I dont heavily rely on workbooks but use them as a last resort when I haven’t planned something for the day. So, I would rather keep them in a seperate box and pull out one when we need inshaAllah. And the third is our Arabic/Islamic box. We use this box to keep our Islamic Studies and Arabic language related activities- Box of Manners, Dua Cards and Qur’anic Opposites jigsaw puzzles from Learning Roots, Arabic alphabet wooden puzzle and jigsaw floor-puzzle from Emaan Productions and lots of other homemade matching/sorting card games.

Summary week ending 29 April 2012

Bismillah,

I have been thinking a lot about how to get children in their cooperative mood be it cleaning or tidying the rooms or do our homeschool session. I have been reflecting and reviewing  and inshaAllah want to restart the things that we missed the past few weeks- I will add them to our plans for next week.

First, we have not been going for swimming for almost 2 months now and the girls keep asking me all the time. InshaAllah I am planning to take them again from next week.

Second, we have not been to library for more than a month. Again we used to go on Saturdays but ever since we moved we have been having visitors over at our new place every single weekend. Our local library is open till 7pm on Thursdays too and now I am planning to take them to the library every Thursday afternoon where they can do some arts+crafts and we can read books as well as taking new books for them to read at home.

Third, due to move and due to weather they have not been able to spend that much time outside. I really miss going for longer nature walks myself and I think the girls are getting bored too. I am planning to take them to playground at local park at least once a week and go for local walks. MashaAllah we have little woods nearby where we can walk.

Apart from these, I have been thinking of doing more practical things to instil the love of learning more in children. Teaching or improving life skills such as swimming, jogging, cooking, tidying etc as well as doing more arts+crafts for numeracy and literacy inshaAllah.

We do Qur’an hifdh, Qur’an reading and Arabic almost daily. I have been doing more numeracy with Sumayya. I have started using Math textbook used for Grade 2 at schools back home. Some bits she finds easy and some bits she finds it very challenging (book is aimed at 8 year old children). All in all, I think it is really good and a lot more challenging than any math workbook or textbook I have seen aimed at 8 year olds in the UK. But I think we will stop it for awhile now and do a lot more math manipulative activities to revise the math concepts presented in MEP Year 1.

Sumayya finished Juzu Amma and improving her reading. What I like best about her is that she is so well trained and understands things when explained. If she is feeling lazy I can explain to her that reading Qur’an would help us to get to Jannah easily. And she co-operates well and does what she is told to do easily and quickly. Alhamdulillah.

Safiyya is learning surah Qariah and we are still struggling to get her on co-operative mood. I had been using my phone the past week- I record her reading the surahs she revises daily and play it back to her. When she sees I am recording she sits still and reads them nicely and as soon as she finishes one surah she keeps asking me “Can I watch it mommy please?” I say “No, few more surahs and I will let you watch it at the end”. She keeps asking me and she keeps getting distracted and doesnt seem to sit and repeat after me without getting herself into trouble every time. May Allah give me patience with this one…. : P

We have done the tafseer of surah Falaq this week. We talked that we all get scared of dark sometimes and if we recite surah Falaq then we will be under Allah’s protection. Alhamdulillah they regularly read surah Falaq, Ikhlas, Naas before bed time and they finish off by making a long dua. I love listening to their duas every day mashaAllah.

Following 3 weeks non-stop rain we had really nice weather yesterday. But back to rain today subhanAllah. Anyway, yesterday they had a nice time painting in the garden. Our garden is levelled- it has 3 levels and they were sponge painting initially but got their paintbrushes out after little while and spent nearly an hour painting.

Alhamdulillah another week is gone. My plan now is to do lots of practical, hands-on activities that allow Ibrahim to join in as well as making it more fun and engaging for Safiyya. Do Qur’an hifdh, Qur’an reading and Arabic language minimum a day and literacy+numeracy constructively every other day. Otherwise they are always doing informal literacy and numeracy learning on the go. Sumayya did lots of math the past few weeks but we need to do something to improve her handwriting skills and spelling.

Safiyya has learnt all the phonics and numbers up to 20. She can easily identify beginning/ending sound in any given word. She can read short words if she concentrates well but she is just too lazy to focus and quick to read by pictures only. The same with additions- when she decides to focus she does them really well but she just shouts out any random number without even thinking most of the time. But, alhamdulillah, she is only 3.5 years old and I think she has picked up a lot. She needs more one-one time which I havent been able to give her subhanAllah. She has been enjoying doing the phonics related puzzles lately

Next Steps in terms of extra-curricular activities :

Wednesdays: Nature walks alternate between Chellow Dene, Lister Park and Heaton woods inshaAllah.

Thursdays: Go to playgroup in the mornings and visit library late afternoons.

Fridays: Gardening (we have so much gardening to do but done nothing due to bad weather)

Saturdays: Swimming

May Allah give us patience and tawfeeq to do things just for His sake.

Summary week ending 22nd April 2012

Bismillah,

Alhamdulillah we have settled in the new house well although at times I find the  size of it a bit overwhelming. Alhamdulillah though…

The girls have been learning fine , alhamdulillah. Sumayya is really thriving. She has finished her Ahsanul Qawaid book to help her how to read the Qur’an and every day she chooses one page to revise. We have to keep revising how to read, a page a day, otherwise children will forget the rules very quickly. She has been reading longer phrases from Qur’an such as below fluently. Sometimes she gets stuck with certain rules and I help her out. Usually she listens to a new surah a few times and she can read it from mushaf very fluently. We have also done the surah Falaq workbook from um an Numan.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Aqeeda. We have been reading books and discussing things in general. This week on Saturday’s class we did Allah Gave me a Healthy Body book from um An Numan and mashaAllah it was good to go over it with my girls again and other children embraced it enthusiastically.

Tafseer. We did tafseer of surah Ikhlas and children learnt that Allah has no family; He has no children and will never have; Allah is Self-Sufficient which I explained that we all need Allah but Allah doesnt need anyone’s help; children interpreted it “Allah is so brave, the most brave and therefore can live by Himself. Allah doesnt need help but He looks after us”

Arabic. We read from their books, revise the vocab they have been learning at school, practise handwriting and they get to watch the stories of the prophets in Arabic language which I think really helps with their listening comprehension. Safiyya has learned a lot of new vocab the past 2 weeks, she has learned the body parts, names of animals, colours and shapes etc. And she has been practising to write the Arabic letters  and some short words independently. Her writing mama- mom and baba- dad in Arabic. And the letters Jim, Wow, Taa (on the right) and in the middle Sumayya’s copywork from Scribe which she has nearly finished mashaAllah.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Math. Sumayya has finished MEP Year 1 math exercise book mashaAllah. She is getting really better at equations. She solves addition problems really quick and easily. She sometimes gets stuck with some substractions. But alhamdulillah finally got the concept of “how many” more lol. i.e you have 7 pencils and how many more you need to make it 10. There were lots of fill in the missing numbers i.e 2+x=5 or 2-x=2 kind of addition and substraction problems towards the end which she could solve on her own, alhamdulillah.

Safiyya uses a lot of math manipulatives. It is hard to get her sit still and do a math workbook, she finished one easily and used to love it as it had lots of stickers inside. But since we moved it is getting for me even harder to get Safiyya on her co-operative mood. She does learn but she is very active child. She develops a sense of herself from her actions and from results of her actions. I am trying to figure out to invite her to do something with action every time- she seems to participate  and learn better that way. She likes threading, playing with coloured sticks, flashcards, legos and blocks etc. So, I guess any learning has to involve her to be doing something fidgety with her hands. She might be doing Qur’an revision in the mornings but unlike Sumayya (who prefers to sit still and get it over and done nicely and quickly) she will be playing with pom-poms or cutting a piece of paper or looking through flashcards and making some comments every now and then. Anyway, she is always counting with stones, marbles, sticks, doing repeating patterns, making shapes, drawing and cutting out pictures etc. She like doing practical things mashaAllah and I will have to adjust to her learning style.

When we moved we rearranged lots of our homeschool materials and we got to revise most of our Islamic bulletin boards, alhamdulillah.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We have been reading a lot of books as usual. This is their cosy reading corner and couple of examples of living books. I have been meaning to upgrade the living books section but I think it will have to be a little at a time. So, these two are really good example of living books and I would highly recommend to beginner readers. The Mole and The Baby Bird by Marjorie Newman and Carrot Soup by John Segal.

Sumayya’s letters

Bismillah,

I have mentioned before that my 5 year old is always writing letters to her aunties and friends. The only problem is the pen pals at the receiving end dont always post a reply to her- poor thing keeps asking me when she is getting reply letters back. SubhanAllah, everyone is so busy and so entangled in their own lives and one can hardly make time to go out to post office to post a letter. I have a bunch to post and I have not been able to post to people.

Anyway, before I finally send them off I decided to post a few here.

Last Friday we have invited all the sisters and family friends we know over to our new place. Alhamdulillah there were so many people of all nationalities and backgrounds gathered for dinner at our house. Obviously a lot of them have children around Sumayya and Safiyya’s age, a bit older and a bit younger etc. So most of their friends were here. Sumayya noticed the next day that her friend Sarah didnt turn up.

-But you said you had invited them as well, mommy
-I did but they were on holiday in Europe so couldnt come
-But I miss Sarah all the time
-I know we will invite them again when they are back from holiday

She then sat down and wrote a letter to Sarah and asked me to post it the very same day. I havent been able to do so. So, Amina, if you are reading this please know that we miss Sarah and would be very happy if you could pop over sometime inshaAllah. It says “Sarah please come to my house. I have been looking for you. Love from Sumayya”

One day she was talking about visiting aunty Nargiza in London.
-Mommy, remember we stayed over at aunty Nargiza’s house in London
-Which aunty Nargiza? Omar and Yusuf’s mom?
-No we went there but we never slept in their house. It was a different Nargiza. She didnt have boys, she only had girls
-Oh you mean aunty Nargiza who came to sumalak party. She has no children she is not married. You saw here when we went to Eid party to Hafiza’s house as well, right?
-No, different Nargiza. She has children, she has two girls, Maryam and Aliya
-Ah, I remember now. How could you remember you were so small then
-I know but I still remember we all slept in their house
So, she sat down and wrote a letter to aunty Nargiza whom she had only seen when she was about 2-3 years old. It says in Uzbek “Aunty Nargiza, I have been to your house once. Let me go to your house again. (then in the box in the right hand side) Please come to my house” . She then decorated her letter.

Another one to myself which says “I love mummy”

Another one to myself. I was trying to have a Quran revision session with her and she kept refusing. After a couple of days of missed sessions she was not as fluent as she was before in her reading. MashaAllah she can now read the Qur’an and almost finished memorizing Juzu Amma. Anyway, I was upset that she had forgot how to read some surahs that she was easily reading before. She was upset too. She went to her room and came back with the following letter which says “Mummy I am sad I was crayying in my room I forgot the Quran. Please teach me the Qur’an”. She was crying so badly but even then she decided to decorate her letter for me lol.

This letter to her friend Rowda, our 6 year old Arab next door neighbour at the old house. The girls both are missing their friends and our neighbours but still dont want to move back. The letter says “I love you Rowda. I am kind to you. Please come to my house”

This one was to aunty Guzal. They were expecting her the other weekend when we had lots of Uzbek families over and when I told them aunty Guzal is not coming they were a bit sad. Anyway, every time Sumayya writes to Guzal she decides to make a purse for her. I cant remember the full story but when we went to visit them last summer I might have said something along the lines “Khala Guzal is rich and has more money” I cant remember why I said it but I might have been trying to explain something. Guzal do you remember anything and why she keeps making purse for you one after another? And always from a tissue paper and the incorrect spelling of “kashlug”, Russian word for a purse lol

 

Sumayya really misses her friend Hafiza. Even though she has plenty of English speaking friends, when Uzbek families get together and Hafiza is not there she keeps asking me if they will be coming or not. I say no because they live too far now. The other day we were looking at some old pictures and we were talking about place we went etc. She kept asking me and her daddy to print some old pictures of her and Hafiza for nearly half a day. Then when I did so she quickly wrote a letter with cutting and pasting the picture to the top of her letter.

Then she was in the process of writing a letter to Hanifa. Below is Safiyya’s not finished letter to Hamza and Sumayya’s not finished letter to Hanifa. Safiyya can write names of people mashaAllah. She can write anything when I spell them out but she is a bit lazy and leaves things half way through. (Sumayya was writing another letter to Hamza as well, all morning she kept busy with paints- she had decided to paint some pictures for Hamza.)

These are some of the letters they have been writing. They keep writing daily. Now I have a new idea in mind to practise their handwriting and spelling inshaAllah and will share it in due time.

We have moved- alhamdulillah!!!

Bismillah,

The great thing about home-schooling is to cope with life’s every aspect with children running under your feet. Wether you have a hospital appointment or moving a house- this is a real life education and children are part of it. To cut a long story short, we have moved a house. Moving in itself was such a big experience, packing, unpacking and organizing things around the house etc.  Add to that tests and trials we faced when moving, alhamdulillah it was all such a humbling experience. And we keep praying and asking Allah swt to bless us in this place and make it fruitful for us.

Thanks to moving I have completely reorganized our books and learning boxes and have been able to sort a lot of homeschool resources. We got rid of the junk papers piled up inside our files. Oh sisters, you all should have seen the amount of paper- honestly it took me good few hours to sort the papers and there was a mountain of paper to recycle. We have got a seperate library/homeschool room in our new house and we are all loving the space in it.  InshaAllah when I have more time I will share the pictures on how we organized the room.

Alhamdulillah kids didnt miss much of schooling during moving but I didnt have the will or time to post anything. I took a lot of time to reflect, review and making plans- both for myself and for my kids.

We do Qur’an hifdh and Qur’an reading daily in the mornings. The first thing we do to start the day is listen to Qur’an during or just after the breakfast. When we finish our hifdh session we read a page from Ahsanul Qawaid. Sumayya is on lesson 21 and Safiyya is still learning different shapes of letters on lesson 4/5.  Alhamdulillah both doing really well. Sumayya has memorized surah Naba and surah  Abasa. She has still got to memorize surah Naziat to finish juzu Amma. Safiyya has memorized surah Takathur and learning surah Qoria at the moment.

Arabic- we read from their Arabic vocab books and short stories. I always review the vocab with them during the day. I keep pointing to fruits/vegetables in the kitchen and asking for their names in Arabic when cooking or cleaning in the kitchen or pointing to objects and ask “Ma Hadha?” around the house all day long. So we get to practise lots of Arabic vocab during the day like this, very casually and informally. Safiyya has learned all the body parts and colours in Arabic recently. She can also read three letter words such as anf-nose, fam-mouth etc.

Arabic writing- Sumayya copywrites from books or Scribe and Safiyya is trying to independently write the letters. She has lost interest in tracing.

Reading- Sumayya is always reading and as usual I get her to narrate to me the stories on the go. She reads between 5-8 books a day on average, some days more or some days less then that. Safiyya can read from Jolly Phonics flashcards and I have not been able to spend much one-on-one time to improve her reading recently. She spends a lot of time on starfalls doing the phonics related activities. Before I used to allow them spend 30 mins daily on online interactive educational web-sites doing some phonics/math related activities. Now since Safiyya has figured out how to open up the web page on her own, I often find her sitting and doing starfalls on her own. I really used to restrict a lot but now I think since I am not doing anything beneficial with them then why not? Especially with moving, having both on the laptop doing some educational activity came in so handy to me that I stretched my daily 30 mins to an hour, some days up to 2 hours but with lots of breaks in between. Whoever is reading this, how much time do you guys allocate for your children to spend on interactive educational web-pages a day and at what age? Anyway, personally I didnt notice her reading improved with more starfalls activities. I think me spending more time with her on literacy would work better inshaAllah and I believe she is ready to read.

Writing- we do copywork for handwriting with both girls. Sumayya does written narration for composition. She also writes like a daily journal on one of her notebooks jotting down things she did during the day with plenty of spelling mistakes. But I can always figure out what she meant to write, alhamdulillah. She is always writing letters to her friends. In fact, she writes at least one letter a day. She was missing her friends Rawda and Kavsar- our old neighbours with whom they spent a lot of time playing together. I said we would invite them over for dinner one day inshaAllah. She wrote an invitation card for both of them and said “Please come to my new house and I want to go to your house”  with pictures. She spent a lot of time decorating those cards. One day we were expecting Dawud and Marjaan- their friends. Mum said they couldnt come because they were not feeling well. As soon as I announced this to the girls Sumayya did Get Well Soon card for both D and M, inside she wrote a letter and dua- La Basa Tohur inshaAllah and drew a picture of herself and D and M. In the picture the sick child was lying down on bed and Sumayya was touching his/her forehead. And underneath the dua, mashaAllah. And Safiyya kept asking me to buy flowers and presents for them because they are not feeling well.  I dont know if I have mentioned this before but Safiyya has started writing her full name sometime ago and now does so well, mashaAllah.

Math- we are doing 1-2 pages every other day from MEP Year 1 with Sumayya. It is just getting easier for her. I have got an Uzbek math workbook used for Year 2 at schools back home that got sent to us by grandma recently. InshaAllah will try to incorporate that as well. When we dont feel like doing workbook, usually I ask her to write numbers 0-50, and then circle all the odd numbers or even numbers.  Then to skip count by 2′s 0-20 or by 3′s 0-30 or I quickly write simple addition problems with numbers 0-20. Sumayya really likes spontaneous tasks like this. She does them quickly and enjoys the variety of tasks. I usually ask Safiyya count 0-20, write numbers 0-20, and do simple addition with numbers 0-10 or more/less activities with numbers 0-20. She counts 0-20, recognize numbers 0-20, is very confident writing numbers 0-10 and trying to write numbers 10-20. She is confident in identifying which number is more and which is less, improving addition and doesnt yet know the concept of odd/even. But inshaAllah, again I will have to spend more one-on-one time with her since she easily gets distracted and has shorter attention span than her sister.

Outdoors- mashaAllah we have got such a lovely and big garden at this place. They spend sometime outside every day even though the weather has not been that great recently. But we do miss going for longer walks in woods and going to playgrounds in parks. We have not been able to get out much recently and still trying to settle, subhanAllah.

Creativity- they have never missed making things. They never let me put yoghurt pots, cereal boxes, milk bottles in the recycling bin now. They have always got some kind of make and do ideas in mind. Especially little Safiyya!!! It takes us forever to clean up their mess but they always participate in the cleaning process so we are not bothered too much. Alhamdulillah, even when I am busy with other things and cant give them my full attention- they can keep themselves busy with one of their arty projects. I just give them a cardboard or cereal box, scissors, glue sticks and anything I can find and leave it up to them. They decide what to make and how to make and just get on with it, mashaAllah.

Aqeedah/Prophets stories- we have not been able to do anything constructive. But we do read lots of books on prophets, do little quiz on the spot, discuss the story, do Q&A on aqeedah on the go all day long. Any experience we come across- be it eating, dressing, talking- I try to remind that the angels are writing down and Allah is watching and will be counting our good/bad deeds on the day of Judgement.

Apart from these, Safiyya has been struggling with her eczema and asthma recently. I think her illness affects her behaviour- she becomes very whingy and keeps arguing with Sumayya or myself. I do believe this child is my test and I do blame myself for not being patient enough to bear some of her actions. She always gets herself into trouble, subhanAllah. I dont know how and why but she keeps falling off things, or does things that would hurt herself. We had so many visitors over the weekend and she somehow managed to hit her head against one little boy’s head and ended up having such a deep cut inside her lips. It was bleeding for ages. Then yesterday she put her finger inside pencil sharpener and pretended to be sharpening a pencil and ended up cutting her nails halfway through, subhanAllah. She does cheeky things not out of not knowing it would harm her but out of curiosity. She is an experimentalist and tries everything to find out what happens next, even after I have clearly explained to her that we should do A because of B etc. I often find myself shouting at her and then feeling guilty and asking to forgive me later on. I really dont know how to come out of this habit, out of this ritual. I seem to keep going round and round, no way out of it. It will surely pass but I dont want to damage anything in her, I dont want to damage her creativity, I dont want to make her even more stubborn with all this shouting and I dont want her to become attention seeker….I pray Allah swt make things easy for me and guides me to the right conclusion, amin.

I will do a separate post on our experience with eczema and asthma. I always find other sisters’ such experience helpful and sisters have asked me in the past what we did for Safiyya, what worked and what didnt etc. InshaAllah I will share the experience in due time but will have to finish my post here for now.

Best Foundation Summary weeks 12 March- 18 March

Bismillah,

I dont know how to name these posts, wallahi I struggle lol. It is the summary of what we have been doing the past week/weeks so decided the best way to go would be just putting the dates in.

Qur’an reading

We did Surah Kafirun from Um an Numan. MashaAllah girls did so well all the activities inside. It is a bit easy for Sumayya but perfect for Safiyya’s level.

    

Arabic Handwriting

Sumayya is doing a page a day from her Scribe book as well as independently writing/copywriting words from her Arabic books. Safiyya mashaAllah independently writing all the letters of the Arabic alphabet.

  

Arabic Reading

We have started using My First 100 Words from the Qur’an book. Kids read words in Arabic, copywrite them and talk about the meaning. They get to colour the pictures for each word. We were talking about how Allah created the earth and human beings; how some people have ears but they cant listen to; they might have eyes but they cant see; but for those who use their ears and eyes well and lived as Allah ordered them to live- there will be nice armchairs with soft cushions in Jannah etc. We are revising Ahsanul Qawaid. We read lessons 16-17 with Sumayya and lessons 4-5 with Safiyya. Alhamdulillah Safiyya just started reading the words with fatha.

  

Math

Safiyya finished her Math workbook from Autumn Learning Books. MashaAllah she can count 0-50, write numbers 0-20 and is doing simple addition problems. Sumayya is progressing on MEP Year 1. We are practising counting by 2′s with both girls.

 

Prophets’ stories

Sumayya read the story of Musa a.s. We did all the worksheets inside and talked/discussed the content in greater depth. Then I gave kids a paper and asked them to make snakes. They made one long chain-style snake by cutting and sticking paper strips. Then they drew and cut out lots of smaller snakes and were role-playing how big snake ate all smaller snakes using their crafts. MashaAllah good way of getting them narrating the story.

Creativity

MashAllah they are both so so creative. Sumayya is always drawing and describing her pictures to us in such great detal. Below she drew mommy, Sumayya, Safiyya and Ibrahim in Jannah. Apparently we were all by the lake and I was trying to get some water. There were green pebbles and she even wrote PRINCES MAMA for me lol. Then again she drew the whole family- mommy, daddy, Sumayya, Safiyya and baby Ibrahim in car seat. Me and daddy had crowns on our heads given by Allah swt because we have been good. Alhamdulillah.

We have also been spending a great deal of time outdoors, thanks to recent nice weather. They are always collecting stones, sticks, feathers etc to make something out of them when they get back home and mashaAllah they do. Sumayya has nicely washed one feather and decided to use it as a pen. She keeps asking me for ink and she wants to put her feather in ink and write with it. I dont know where to get such ink

  

Safiyya is N1 creative artist in the household. She never lets me put anything in the bin (recycling bin) be it food packaging or plastic bottles and bags. She is always waiting for me to use one of the packaging things so that she could have the box etc. She was asking me to use the lasagne sheets so that she can have the empty box. I gave her the empty box, she covered it with white paper; drew animals on one side and people on the other side of box and said it was Nuh a.s ship.

These two are ship as well and she has different stories to go with both. Her stories are never ending, she keeps going on and on making new sequence in a story

  

Aqeedah and Seerah

We have been learning more on Good/Bad Deeds and Jannah. InshaAllah I will try to reinforce the positivity to encourage the love of Allah, the love of Qur’an, the love of Jannah so they fall in love with being good and doing good deeds in order to get to Jannah.

We are still learning about prophet Muhammad saw’s family; who was who in the family; good and bad uncles etc. They have done one more coloring page from Easel and Ink

Russian

MashaAllah their interest in Russian language is increasing day by day. The past 2-3 days we have been reading the famous children’s book Buratino by A. Tolstoy. It was my favourite as a kid and I read and translated it to the girls at bed time a couple of days ago. Since then Sumayya pretends to be reading it, spending about 30-40 mins with her big Buratino book in her bedroom. She doesnt like being interrupted when she is not a confident reader. She could read 3-4 words in the book. She could read all these words; Buratino, papa (father), lisa (fox), kot (cat). And she started talking a little phrases here and there. Safiyya was trying to cut a large cardboard and Sumayya said ostorojna- be careful; just so randomly and so casually lol. I was surprised and amazed. InshaAllah with a bit of push she will pick it up very quick, she is literally teaching herself how to read in Russian. All I do so far is read books and let her watch the cartoons made based on the books we read.

So we read this book and we watched the cartoon here and I am trying to speak a little Russian every day for simple phrases such as: sit down, stand up, come here, eat, wash your hands etc.

 

Awesome conversations

Bismillah,

This is just for me to remember things my kids say. I want to remember and cherish these memories inshaAllah.

My next door neighbour is pregnant at the moment. One day girls wanted to go and play with their next door friends. I said no because Rawda’s mommy is feeling poorly. Sumayya asked me why she was feeling poorly.

-Because she has a baby in her tummy. And when Allah gives someone a baby in the tummy they feel a little sick at times
-Oh she made dua to Allah asking for a baby?
-Yes, she did
-Do you know mommy if the baby is a girl or a boy
-No, I dont know. Allah knows
-Do babies sleep in mommy’s tummy all the time? or sometimes they keep awake?
-They sleep sometimes and they keep awake some other times
-I know Ibrahim used to kick you before he came out.
Sometimes she keeps making dua asking for a baby.  And she explains her grandma how babies come out

-You know grandma, if you want to have a baby, first, you need to make lots of dua to Allah swt. Then Allah creates baby in your tummy. First, it is very small then mommy’s tummy gets bigger. Then one day baby wants to get out, so the father takes mommy to hospital. Then in hospital there is this red button and when you press the red button the baby comes out.

(We laughed so much at her instructions. She could clearly remember the day when they all came to see me after I had Ibrahim. She pressed the red button by accident then and I told her only mommies who give birth press that button to ask for help etc)

And grandma is always telling her endless stories of Uzbekistan and how one day we all go back home. One day I said

-Sumayya, you and Safiyya might have to stay here to study at university when we all go back.
-No, mommy. Daddy has to stay with us. You and grandma and Ibrahim can go
-Why? (I was so surprised since she is usually clingy to me more than her father) 
-What if Allah gives me a baby when I am studying at university like you? Who takes me to hospital then? So, daddy has to stay with us in case I have baby he can take me to hospital in his car (LOL)

There were a couple of day when I was feeling impatient last week. I kept shouting at Safiyya.  SubhanAllah very often anger takes me by surprise and one shouting leads to another. As soon as I start raising my voice, it just seems to get louder and louder without me even realizing it. So I end up losing control of the situation and afterwards keep thinking I could have sorted this out with just one hug or gulping my anger etc. So one day I was telling Safiyya off (can’t remember the reason) and Safiyya goes

-Now mommy, what did the prophet say? He said Do Not Shout at little children (stressing every word she possibly could). I am upset now, you are a naughty mama
-And prophet saw also said you should listen to your mommy and daddy (she cuts me off quickly)
-No, he didn’t say that. Allah said that. But the prophet said dont shout at your children. You listened to your shaytaan and made me upset (she says all these so quickly so that I dont interrupt her)
-Safiyya, how about me? you are making me upset as well. When you dont listen to me I get upset and when I am upset I get angry. And if I get angry then I shout
Sumayya interrupts me quickly
-No, you shouldnt shout. Even if you are angry with her you should speak to her nicely. She is only three. That’s why you only speak nicely to her
-But when I do so, she still doesnt listen. She only listens to me when I shout
-No, you only spoke to her nicely once. You should speak to her nicely many times. Ask her once, twice, three times and count till twenty and ask her again. Like this mommy (and Sumayya was demonstrating how I should explain things to Safiyya. We were amazed at her new technique. So, if I give instructions or discipline their misbehaviour I should explain things 20 times and I should count how many times I have said it lol)

Sometimes they fight over silly things. Sometimes they are a little mean to each other. But overall, I would say most of the time they are very kind to each other, mashAllah. Since full time homeschooling they spend a lot of time playing together. They are always together, eating, homeschooling, listening to Qur’an, learning, reading books, playing with teddies, playing with legos and blocks, playing in the garden. SubhanAllah I cant imagine one without another. They are like twins but with totally different personality. They are not like each other by nature.

Though Safiyya is so small and academically a lot behind her sister, she is so clever and manipulative when it comes to play. For example if Sumayya doesnt give her something, she says “Sumayya, give it to me. Share, if you share Allah gives you more” so Sumayya shares whatever it is. But if Sumayya wants something of Safiyya and asks in the same manner “Safiyya, share please. If you give it to me, Allah will give you more”. And Safiyya goes “But I dont want no more now. When I want more then I will give you, ok”.

One day Sumayya’s friends came over and I overheard their conversation about Jannah. Actually Sumayya drew a picture of me in Jannah (will share this pic later on inshaAllah) and explaining her picture to friends:

-You know grandmas become young again when they enter Jannah. It is very big park and you can have anything you want there. When you want something it will already be next to you when you look next to you (smile)

Some random question they ask me

-Mommy, are all the animals in the world Muslim?
-Mommy how young do people become in Jannah? Do they become like me 5 (her age) or do they become like you or daddy’s age? what age they become in Jannah?
-Will there be animals in Jannah?
-Will there be ambulances in Jahannam?
-How do we see Allah in Jannah?
-What if we cant speak Arabic and we dont understand anything in Jannah?