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!

Muslim Playgroup Activities

Mashaallah, i had a guest early this week, a lovely young australian revert with her 2 sons, a 4 year old, and a 14 months old. This post is especially dedicated to her. i was so amazed by her zeal to raise up her boys in the islamic way...
despite being brought up in australia, in a nonmuslim family, and being in the religion for just 7 years, she understood and realized the importance of raising up her kids the islamic way.. and is soo motivated to do it herself.. the right way
not many of us, the born-muslim mothers can really appreciate and comprehend..
thats one of the things that i like about being with reverts,
soo iman-rejuvenating.. you know what i mean?!
her level of concern is up to the level of changing non-muslim names in childrens storybook to muslim names...like bill to bilal! mashaallah! may Allah reward her and give her the strength to have istiqamah! Ameen! it is said that, when you make doa for another person, the angels will make that same doa for you.. what is my doa compared to that of the angels! may Allah make all of us istiqamah in providing our children with the best islamic environment and make them the means of our entrance to jannah.. Ameen!

am not planning to make this post a long winded one, so to cut it short, this sister, decided to homeschool her son and conduct a playgroup of her own, inshaallah.. so here i wanna share some of the activities i did with the kids in my playgroup, not long ago..

In my 2012 playgroup, i decided to choose a theme for each session ie a prophet a session.
so in the first session i told a story about:

Prophet Adam A.S. and an art related to it.. the hand-foot print fruit tree:

Prophet Salih A.S. and the egg carton camel..

Prophet Yunus A.S. and the paper plate fish:

Prophet Musa A.S. and the snake staff (you can get the template for the paper snake on this link:
http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/mspiralsnake.htm :

 Prophet Sulaiman A.S and the egg carton butterfly (i know egg carton ants would be more related but since i have done that before, so i chose butterfly this time):

Surah Al-Fiil and the paper plate elephant mask (you can get the templates from this link: http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/mplate-elephant.htm) :

in a special session, i invited a friend with her rabbits. she presented her rabbits and relate it to the greatness of Allah...:

 the template for the wooly paper plate rabbit can be found at this link: 
http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/mhalfplate-rabbit.htm

I usually start of the playgroup with some games:

1. floor puzzle
2. passing parcel (in the prophet sulaiman AS session, the kids were asked to make different animal sounds based on the animal on the cards that theytook from the parcel)
3. giant pictorial floor dominoes for kids by TINKERS
4. guessing game (this is my favourite; try to get their mums to draw on the  white board and the kids guess what it is)
5. coloring 

Then, when everyones present, we start the art and craft.
While waiting for the paints to dry, we have a snack-time.. the sunnah way..
everyone is required to bring their snacks, preferably fruits, put them all on a big tray and eat together. on the sufrah (mat) beginning and ending with doa...

Then finally, STORYTIME!

This was the most challenging part for me, but the most fun part too!
It was more challenging than the normal playgroup cause i was telling stories of the prophets..
and if you look through the range of books on the stories of the prophet, you would find that most of the time, the languange and pictures are not toddler-friendly at all...
so i decided to draw on the white board, as i tell the story myself..
make it more interactive for the kids..
let the kids hold the marker once in a while.. they just love it!
Dont forget the Quiz time at the end! You'd be amazed at how these kids can really absorb your story!

Thats it! just 2 hours a week.. really a great way to get together with the other muslim ladies, especially when you're living far away from relatives and in a place like Australia.
If you're thinking of starting one in your area, make intention to do it for the sake of Allah..
inshaallah Allah will make it easy and at the end of the day, you might lose your voice and energy but believe me its fulfilling, inshaallah!

Recharged after Hajj

Almost 2 months now since I left Mecca.. I remember after just 1 week of leaving the holy city, while I was spending some time with relatives in Malaysia, it felt like I had left the city for ages!
It was like coming back from a totally different world!
And come to think of it.. Yes! It was totally a different world...
Where else can you find people competing with each other to please Allah...
Sacrificing their wealth, time, energy, sleep and comfort in order to seek the Beloved?
Other than those people who spend time in the path of Allah... I don't think there's any other place where you can find such a large number of people striving to please their Lord in such a manner..
The zeal for performing amaals were overwhelming!
Just looking at the crowd near the hajarul aswad, people would risk even their lives there to kiss the black stone...
To pray 2 rakaat behind the maqam Ibrahim , people would risk their heads being stampeded by those performing tawaaf.. At the rowdah, for just 2 rakaat there, people would wait for hours for their
'turn' that's not yet guaranteed that is... For tahajjud at the holy mosque, you would be lucky if you can find a spot on the roof if you come 1 hour before fajr... And that's after a long, arduous journey through a sea of people!
But why? Why do we do this only in the holy cities?
When the whole world belongs to Allah.. And all our actions elsewhere is in the knowledge of Allah...
Why is it that we tend to be 'pious' in just these 2 cities?

The answer is, according to scholars... 3 things mainly...

1. Our weak environmental iman..
We have to admit that because of our weak iman, it is very much affected by the environment we are in...
naturally, its easier to cover our awrah appropriately when everyone does.. easier to pray more sunnah solat, wake up early, everyday for tahajjud when everyone else does so.. on the other hand, to dress up like how you did when in makkah when you live in Australia, is not easy at all!
 Like my mum always tell us last time, don't be like the weed or lalang in Malay, what do you call it in English?!.. , that long unwanted grass that can easily be blown to different directions by the wind..
We should be like the banzai tree, it can be growing at places where no other plants grow, and it stands firm..
Have you ever experienced that feeling you get after a motivational course at school, that you wanna be a better person etc, you're all pumped up, all recharged as you walk out the hall..
Then by the time you reach home....it's gone with the wind... Back to square 1...
It's just a sad reality of being a human being..
But Alhamdulillah, Allah knows what's best for us, and through His mercy, there is always a way of overcoming our many weaknesses, if only we turn to Him...and make some effort to deserve His Guidance..

and that brings us to the second factor..

2. sacrifice..
thats the word man! sacrifice!
we all know the value of a hajj package, unpaid leave, the fact that you have to leave your loved ones, leave your comfort zone, these are all sacrifices.. and we know in this world, naturally, everything that we get with more effort becomes more valuable in our eyes.. the more we use our wealth, energy and time for something, we would naturally appreciate it more...
its a great quality of man that Allah has given us, if only we know how to use it...
unfortunately most of us just use it for our worldly gain..
when, in reality, it will benefit us the most when its used to gain the only thing that will benefit us in the Hereafter..eternally... our IMAN!
nowadays, even to use the toilet we need to pay some amount of money, and yet we thought that we are gonna enter jannah for free... strange...

conclusion is.. reflect.. how much have we sacrificed for our desires and this temporary deceiving dunya, thus making it more valuable in our eyes..
and how much have we sacrificed for our iman and deen in an effort to make it valuable in our lives..
in reality, most of us are only willing to give away our extras for our deen..
extra time, extra money.. which.. unfortunately, with our ever unfulfilled desires, dont come often..

and giving away extras is definitely NOT a sacrifice.. agree?

3. knowledge of the virtues of amaal..
everyone knows how many times the reward of any deeds done in the holy cities will be multiplied...
so yeah. inshaallah.. with firm believe in these promises by Allah, naturally one would get the zeal to perform more amaals..
everyone knows the reward of a mabroor hajj.. but not many know the virtues of  other simple but yet very virtuous deeds for example the use of miswak before salat, the 4 rakaat nafl solat before zuhr, some simple zikr for the morning and evening and many more.. these are simple daily amaals that will make a lot of difference on the day of Judgement... imagine it is said the difference of just 1 subhanallah will make a lot of difference between a persons jannah and another who said it more in his lifetime..
 problem with us nowadays is that we know the value of $1000 but we fail to realize the value of 2 rakaat of sunnah solat. in fact our scholars say that we have to have this feeling of ihtisab, thats believeing in the promises of Allah, when worshipping Him, in order for our amaal to be accepted...
in the end, am not encouraging people to be businessmen here...expecting profit from everything..
by knowing the values of amal, it will give one a clue of how much Allah love that amaal.. and that should be our main aim... to please Him...

conclusion is... we need to return to Allah with the best state of iman, but not all of us can go for hajj everyear.. even if we can, with our everfluctuating  iman, its difficult if its possible at all, to maintain our level of iman from one years hajj to the next.. so how can we survive this battle?
how can we get the environment, make some sacrifice for deen so as to value it and really embrace it and be reminded of the virtues of amaal so as to increase our zeal to be constant in our amaals??
the answer is.. go out in the path of Allah.. take a time out off this dunya for a while and spend some time in an iman-friendly environment, with iman-boosting friends, you know what i mean?
i found that the tableeghi jemaah provide a perfect platform for those who wants to achieve this in as minimum as 2-3 days, as frequent as monthly to 3 monthly...
find out more about it in the mosque near you!
or you can ask me personally via email!

may Allah use us all for His deen and keep us all in His path till the day we shall return to Him... Ameen!

Mecca 2012