Pin the Tail on the Donkey

Assalm alykom:

I always loved this game as a child. So, I thought I would make one for my kids. I found this template of the donkey.

The pattern is for felt, but I thought I could just as well do paper. I made the donkey, the sun and the flowers out of construction paper. I painted the sky and the mountains out of water color paints. The board is just a cardboard display poster board that folds out. This way I can store it away easily. I glued everything on with modge podge. I even painted the whole board with it. This way, it keeps it lasting longer. It is like a varnish coat. I glued with a hot glue gun the mane from fringe. I also glued pony beads on the saddle. I put clear tape on the tail to act as a laminate, and then, I hot glued the left over fringe to the tails. My five year old thought the game was to hard and was always taking her blind fold off. Now, she likes it after she plays with her siblings.

A Morning Stroll on the Beach

Assalm alykom:

There is a famous hadith that says:

If you say 100 times a day, "Subhanna Allah wa be Hamdi" (Glory be to Allah, with His praise), your sins would be removed even if it were as much as the foam of the sea.

With our morning stroll on the beach there was a great deal of foam that reminded me of the above hadith. My son found this big crab that morning. He placed his pincher on the edge of his shirt. I did not think his pincher was so strong. It took two of us to pry the pincer apart. Al hamdolilah it did not pincher our fingers!





Here is a nice water bird we shot also.

A Field Trip

Assalam Alykom:



Taking field trips, in my opinion, are very essential to homeschooling. The advantages are numerous. My children and I begin to have would I call homeschooling cabin fever. We are always in the house together doing school. It really helps for us to get out. If you make the trip an educational one, it is a learning experience you can integrate with your studies. Our trip was to the Ponce de Leon light house. It is the largest working light house in the United States. Yes, My children and I climbed over 200 steps up and 200 steps down. It was raining that day and the steps were so slick. Needles to say it was pretty thrilling and scary for my five year old and three year old. Once we got to the top, you can see our view. It was pretty breath taking!





















Here is a look from the steps. This is going up from the bottom.






This is one of the old glass lights that was used. Just beautiful!











After the light house visit, we stumbled upon a marine science center and animal hospital. This was great! I was able to pick up all kinds of literature for free. We have been using them to learn from for about a month now. Here are some of the animals that we took pictures of at the center. They even had an I.C.U. unit for sick and injured sea turtles.















This trip was very inexpensive. It is very easy to find small museums in most cities. They are most of the time free or a very minimal fee. I encourage you all to take the time to take a break sometimes!

The Spider

Surah 29 AL-ankabut(The Spider)

From Ayah 41 Allah says: "The parable of those who take protectors other than Allah is that of the spider, who builds (to itself) a house; but truly the flimsiest of houses is the spider's house;- if they but knew. "

I took this picture of a spider that I saw making her web between two trees. I found her to be quite amazing. I was amazed at her markings after I viewed the picture. Look how her head looks like a small rabbit's face is painted on it. Let me know if you see it.