Starting homeschool: Family Tree

The beauty about homeschooling is that no matter what they tell you.. to use this or that method, this or that curriculum etc, at the end of the day.. you decide, of course, by the will of Allah..
May Allah guide us all.. Ameen.
Though it might appear beautiful at some stage, for me, it wasn't that straightforward at first..

It all started with the first official homeschooling letter from the department of education in which there was a long list of recommended websites for all the 8 different areas of learning..
being a first-timer, naturally i was excited with the heaps of resources... but at the end of the day I found that i am not going anywhere here.. or should i say i am just going everywhere and getting myself more and more confused?!

So yes... especially for homeschooling mums.. we really really need Allah's guidance throughout this journey or should i say.. this Adventure of Homeschooling.. somehow it describes it better.. ;)

You wanna make the moderator happy and at the same time you dont wanna get yourself distracted from your main aim of homeschooling..

So what did i do... after finding that i am not going anywhere on the net,
by the way.. there are lots of online programs which i found quite interesting at first, but after getting my son to do the free trial, i thought that i couldnt control what he was learning from the site, the pictures, music and topics etc.. plus they are quite expensive and to top it all.. it reduces my contact time with my kids,..
so i guess, at this point of time, at my kids stage, being 5 and 4 year olds, dont think that online programs are suitable for them..

So i ended up in officemax.. the textbook supplier..
instead of just getting the normal students workbook, i got myself a few teachers resource book by RIC publication. Very expensive indeed but the good thing is you can scan and print the worksheets and use it again and again..
For me, most importantly, it gives me an idea of what topics to cover at what age.. according to the australian curriculum..
i was just looking for the outline and not really the content or how comprehensive the book is on the topics..
cause i thought that, in the end, i will use my input to cover the topics..
inshaallah..

in a way, it helps me get things organized..i take it as the minimum things my kids should know at their age..
we have done a few topics now, and i found that there is always a way of turning these so called australian curriculum to an islamic australian curriculum..

One example i wanna share with you here is our family tree. This is the first topic in history for year 1. Instead of just learning who are their uncles and cousins etc, i used this topic to teach the kids the concept of mahram and non-mahram.

Mahram is green, non-mahram red..

Also to polish their family tree concept, instead of using the examples of family trees in the workbook, i used the family tree of the Prophet sallallahu'alayhiwasallam himself...

Get them to do some color coding; Pink for the wives, Blue for the sons, Red for the daughters etc...

Also some exercises...

The Little Red Hijaabii

Its been ages since i last posted anything on the blog.. time just goes by these days,

May Allah give us barakah in our time.. Ameen

I really didnt intend to post anything actually but since

I was preparing for my first meeting with the moderator tomorrow, inshaallah, so i had to open this blog to copy  and paste some images from the playgroup..

now that the materials for the discussion are ready..and it has passed my bed-time anyway, why not share something that might benefit the ummat out there..inshaallah

The Little Red Hijaabi was actually a revised version of the Little Red Riding Hood.. or should i say, the islamic version of the story..

2 weeks back, we set up our own puppet theater and hold our very own puppet show entitled the little red hijaabi.
main aim of the story is to teach kids a few adaab of travelling and the virtues and adaab of visiting the sick.
i actually wanted to make the kids realize the importance of respecting the elders and the great virtues of visiting the sick, but i got myself too engrossed with the puppet show and of course with the 'wild' audience ;p.. i forgot to bring it up i our session...

But subhanallah, we had a great time, learning as we were having fun..
Just to give you an idea of how it went in case you wanna do it yourself for your next playgroup..

The little red  hijaabi, who was always in her red hijaab, wanted to visit her grandfather who was sick. 

Before leaving the house, she remembered reading the doa when leaving the house.

when walking up a hill, she remembered to say Allahu Akbar, and when going down a hill, she said Subhanallah. 

Then she met a tiger and forgot her mums advise, not to talk to strangers.

The tiger asked where she was heading to and suggested her to pick up some flowers as a gift for her sick grandfather. Then, the tiger raced to grandfathers house, locked grandpa in the cupboard and took his glasses to be used as a disguise.

In the mean time, the little red hijaabi was on her way when she saw an emu seeking help. The emu was very hungry, so the little red hijaabi gave her some food. The emu thanked her and went away..

As the story goes.. the little red hijaabi arrived at her grandfathers house to find the tiger pretending to be grandpa. Being suspicious of her 'grandfathers' weird appearance, the little red hijaabi started to ask questions when finally, the tiger exposed himself, and tried to eat her.

The little red hijaabi, being a good muslim girl, had a strong trust in Allah, she then asked Allah to protect her..

Then Allah sent the emu to help her. The emu was passing by the house when she recognized a familiar voice asking for help..

the emu immediately broke thru the house and chased the tiger away..

make the story interactive by asking the kids to remind the character of the doa to be read on different occassions.. 

after the show, i let the kids put up their own puppet show using their own sock puppets..

Subhanallah, amazing how these kids can come up with their very own story there and then..

I love this box.. got it from retravision (fridge shop) belmont

Homeschool is Cool!

yeah, rite!.. tell me about it...
 yes, homeschool can be cool.. and the secret is to have a cool mum around..
in reality though, its difficult to keep cool especially when you have a sink full of dishes, baskets of clothes to be folded, a baby to be nursed and changed, a toddler to be washed, a husband to be fed and a few kids to be homeschooled...oh yeah, plus the ironing, and the floor to be mopped, rugs to be vaccumed and the list goes on..

and to top it all..its summer.. temperature is up, fajr is at 3 and isyak is at 9..
so how can it be possible to keep cool??
find a cool homeschool buddy.. and support each other, inshaallah..
remind yourself why you choose to homeschool the first place..
a true and sincere intention can turn a seemingly difficult stress-inducing task easy and even entertaining, inshaallah
of course ask from Allah to give you the strength,
believe that there is no other intention that can keep you strong, other than, a sincere intention for the sake of Allah..

make doa for me inshaallah, this year is my first formal year of homeschooling my 5 year old Mus'ab..
inshaallah, i am feeling excited and fired up.. but i guess thats what most of us would feel when starting something new, yeah.. inshaallah, May Allah keep the fire burning! Ameen

the reason i am writing this post is to share some activities me and my homeschool buddy did, in what we call our eduplay group... educational playgroup..

Alhamdulillah, we had 4 sessions already, so far, and we focus on adaab and daily doas..

Theme for the first session was on the house, we talked about the different kinds of houses, and also learn duas on entering and leaving the house..

Paper house craft

Dua when entering the home

Dua when leaving the house

A paper cupboard

Dua when getting dressed

A toilets door hanger: we learn the adaab on entering the toilet. Note the simple pictures depicting things you have to do upon entering the toilet..

This side is for leaving the toilet

Here we learnt about the story of how Allah sent the spider to protect the Prophet SAW and Abu Bakr RA in the cave 

This is just one way of making learning dua fun for the kids. i just googled for the images, including the dua and paste it on a word document..

Inshaallah... thats it so far.. hope this will benefit mums out there who are trying to live up a deeni environment in their houses..in the effort to create love for deen in the hearts of our future generation..

Verbal Diarrhea...

We know how kids just love stories... And we know how much they will be affected by the stories they read, heard or watched...
Subconsciously, it plays an important role in shaping the children's way of thinking and perception towards the things around them... It might just be a fairy tale to us but to them.. That's the real world... I have no problems with animals or trains talking really, but I find it difficult to accept the existence of fairies in these stories..

Anyhow, the purpose of this post is basically to encourage Muslim parents out there to train their kids to talk about deen...
Nowadays many people can talk about many things ie the latest news or iPhone or the latest car, sports, politics, economic etc.. We can talk about everything..except.. About Allah...about deen..
Whatever comes out of your mouth ( what you say) will go to your ears first before everyone else's .
And if you notice, the more we talk about the goodness of a thing for example, the more the love towards that thing will settle in our heart...
So that is why our elders advice us to talk about the virtues of amaal again and again so that inshaallah love towards that Amal will increase..
Talk about the greatness of Allah again and again, so that the greatness of Allah will enter into our hearts inshaallah.
 On the other hand, we thought that we should not be talking About deen or Allah to other people because we re not scholars. See how shaitaan works! True, we have no authority to give our own Tafseer of the Quran or come up with our own fatwa, talking about these things would be wrong and dangerous for us and others as well but this doesn't mean that we can't talk about deen at all ..

So yea, I remembered the first time my husband asked me to talk about the greatness of Allah,  I had what the medical students termed as verbal constipation.. I didn't know what to say..
In fact, at that time it never occurred to me that that could be a topic of discussion... Especially with family members..
Moral of the story is, let's train our kids from young to talk about the greatness of Allah and to love talking about it...
Tell them stories of those whom Allah was pleased with
Those who had gained the pleasure of Allah... Tell them and train them to tell others too..
Let them hear, digest and let them speak..
May Allah make our kids daie, inshaallah..
May Allah grant them verbal diarrhea, when it comes to talking about deen!

Muslim Homeschool Activity: Cut and Paste Frenzy

Have your child reached that age when he or she just love scissors, cutting and gluing things?
Both my kids are definitely in this era now, so i thought why not direct it to something beneficial?... like learning the history of islam..
Teaching islamic history is not an easy task especially when your students are just toddlers and most of the books on islamic history are not really toddler-friendly.i came across some websites on lapbooking and found it a very interesting and fun way to teach the kids islam.
Tried it with my toddlers, and this was what we came up with..

i let my son choose a topic and he chose the battle of badr..
so there i was.. looking through the seerah books.. thats the bea uty of homeschooling.. you thought that you're the teacher, true enough.. but most of the time you'd find yourself teaching your teacher!
you know what i mean?!
back to the topic of discussion... so after reading the history book myself..
i used simple and short sentences, wrote it in boxes of different shapes, let them color, cut and paste them all.. Alhamdulillah, my kids really enjoyed it ..

Having fun memorizing the Quran !!

I had mentioned in my previous posts the rewards and honour that Allah had promised those parents who make their children haafiz. 

Hadhrat Mu'aaz Juhani (RadiAllahu'anhu) reports tha Rasulullah Sallahu'alayhiwasallam said:
Whoever reads the Qur'an and acts upon what is contained in it, his parents will be made to wear a crown on the Day of Judgement, the brilliance of which will excel that of the sun, if the same were within your worldly houses. So, what do you think about the person who himself acts upon it?

In another narration, it was said that: One who recites the Qur'an and acts upon it will be made to wear a crown woven with noor, and his parents will be made to wear garments which will be more valuable than the entire world. They will say; Almighty Allah! what is it that we are given these garments for? In lieu of the reading of Qur'an by your child, will be the reply.

Also, it is given in Jam'ul Fawaa'id by Tabrani (rahmatullah alaih) that Hadhrat Anas had reported the saying of Rasulullah:
Whoever teaches the reading of Qur'an to his son (without memorizing it), all his sins whether previous or subsequent, will be forgiven; and

 whoever makes his child memorize the Qur'an will be raised in the Day of Judgement in the ssemblance of a full moon; and his son will be asked to start reciting, and for every ayat read by the child, the status of the parent will be raised to the next higher grade of Jannat, till the recitation of the Holy Qur'an is completed.

Subhanallah, may Allah choose us to be amongst those parents... Ameen.

I know everyone has their own way of getting their kids to memorize the Quran. Here I wanna share what i did with my kids. Hope it will benefit all..

1. its never too early.

 i found this out when i was teaching my then 2+ year old son to memorize surah an-naas. his sister maryam was just 1 plus then, and she was always around when we were doing hifz, and it was not even a proper session, i was just repeating the surah again and again while doing household chores. Then suddenly 1 day i found that she could read the surah too. I know some people say that we must teach the kids how to read first but the thing is, most kids, i would say, learn to memorize first before understanding how to read. in fact now that my son can read, i found that its still easier for him to memorize by listening to my reading instead of he reading it himself. I would suggest that we teach both at the same time.. memorizing and reading... as early as possible..

2. let them complete the verse.

start by reading almost the whole verse ie "qul 'a'uudhubirabbinn".... let them say..."naaass" 

praise them when they are able to complete the verse.

repetition is the key word.

then slowly reduce the words, let them read more ie you say "qul 'a'udhu.. " and let them complete the verse.

3. keep them interested

this is the most difficult part i guess. there was one period of time when my son didnt want to read.. i think he was around 3 then.. I was soo worried then, i can only ask from Allah to give him love of deen. Love of the Quran. Also when i reflect back, I knew that I wasnt really living up an Islamic environment in the house then.. you know sometimes when your iman is weak, your amaal goes down as well.. I found that each time this happen, the kids will be affected..

secular knowledge is in the brains but deeni knowledge especially of the Quran has a lot to do with the heart...

 so yeah, our amaal and doa as mothers are very important!

Also i found out as they grow older and as the surah become longer, they tend to loose focus and interest more easily. So i knew i need to get their attention and interest.. how? illustrations and actions! and facial expressions too, of course! what makes them sit down to a storytelling session? the combination of all these..

so yes you have to look into the meanings of the words of the Quran..

of course we are not teaching them tafseer, just simple keywords from the verse that can make them remember more easily.. 

I used to draw it for them but just recently I get them to copy my drawings on the whiteboard so they can enjoy drawing themselves and practise on their writings too. They really enjoy it.

Then from the illustrations you can make actions.

This is fun for the kids but quite challenging for me..since i have to think of what action to do for each verse and i usually end up repeating the same old actions.. its fun though!

The following is an example of how it goes..

And before i end this post, one very important thing on top of all the above is to protect them from distractions ie haraam entertainment as much as possible...

May Allah keep us in His path.. May He give the love of deen to us and to our generations to come.. Ameen!

 

Muslim Homeschool Activity: Today is...

I know it looks a bit messy but it really helps in teaching the kids about days and months.
The wheels makes it easier for the kids to grasp the concept of cycles of days and months.
The kids active involvement in changing the numbers on the chart and turning the wheels everyday help to refresh their memory on the concept. I let my son colour in the months according to the different seasons ie brown for autumn, blue for winter, green for spring and yellow for summer. and the glitter around the gregorian months denotes the sun as the point of reference for the gregorian calendar while the stars on the muslim months denotes the use of the moon as reference in the islamic calendar. Let them write themselves as much as possible. Here, I let my son write in the numbers, including the arabic ones..
After all the hard and serious work, what better way to let them loose than letting them do some stampings and sticker-sticking!