Loving Allah and Raising my Kids

Home schooling High school

2010-02-17T04:54:00.001-08:00

Assalm alykom:

With all my years in homeschooling, I have noticed that most families home school in the younger grades or at least until 8th grade. I have had a very difficult time finding any families who home school in high school. Well, I will be reaching this point next year. I am looking for any families who home school in high school. I would like to know if you use an online school and any pros and cons that you can tell me about your experience. You can contact me at umnour1@yahoo.com.

Some of my Favorite websites for Homeschooling

2010-02-02T06:28:00.000-08:00

Assalam alykom:

I want to share a few websites that I find to be an integral part of my homeschooling. I use these sites everyday with my children.

http://www.spellcity.com/ This site is has made my children great spellers. You can create your own spelling lists for each of your children, regardless of the level of the child. There is a section that teaches the child the words, tests the child, and a games section that uses the words. They have a new feature now that you can create your own sentences to go with your words. I used the kids names. They were excited to hear their names in Arabic being pronounced.

Another site that I found, helps with memorizing Math facts for addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. It is full of interactive games that they can play. My kids just love it and cannot wait to do it each day. This is the web site: http://www.fun4thebrain.com/ They have a sister website for multiplication that has worksheet drills that you can print out. I like to use them to time my children. http://www.multiplication.com/

Here are a few other websites that I use for the younger grades to help with their phonics.

http://www.iknowthat.com/com

There is also http://www.starfall.com/ . I am sure every homeschooler knows this site. It has been around for a long time. I have used it for all my children and really taught them to read from it. I hope you find these useful.

Play Dough Arabic Letters

2010-01-08T07:09:00.000-08:00

I am now on my fourth child learning Arabic. My husband and I make a combined effort to teach our children Arabic. I start them out with their letters and then we work up to connecting words. Once we reach the grammar rules, I have to turn them over to my husband. I like doing play dough with my children. The Arabic letters are so curvy and artistic that the younger children have a little trouble writing them at first. Doing play dough helps them to create the letter that they would not likely be able to write very well. I used a common recipe for play dough.

You'll need:
Flour 3cups
Salt 1 1/2 cups
Water 3 cups
Vegetable Oil 2TB.
Cream of tartar 1TB.
Food coloring few drops or unsweetened "Kool-Aid" 1pkg.

Mix ALL of the ingredients in a large saucepan.Cook over medium low heat, until the dough comes away from the edges of the pan and it becomes difficult to move the spoon. Remove from heat. Cool until it can be handled.Place on counter or wax paper knead 3-4 times.Store in an air tight container. I put glitter in mine to make it more fun. I also found neon colors of food coloring, and they are nice and rich with color. I have also used tempera paints in the past.

I have a second grader also and she is now forming sentences. I found this book and I really like it. She is able to do the book and it is nice and colorful to keep her interested.

The pumpkin patch

2009-10-31T06:08:00.000-07:00

Assalam alykom:

Here is another field trip we took. It was a local pumpkin patch. Here is the link for it.

It is quite a place! It has animals , rides, and of course pumpkins! My children had a great time!

A Fly Craft

2009-10-27T05:49:00.000-07:00

Assalam alykom:

I was teaching my little girl who is in kindergarten about bugs. We were learning about the house fly as one of the bugs. It is quite a gross creature! We stumbled upon this little craft and my 7 year old daughter made one also. They had fun running around the house smacking their older brother and sister with the flyswatter. Click here for the template.

Field Trips

2009-10-27T05:35:00.000-07:00

Assalam alykom:

I am planning this year to do many field trips with my kids. This has been something a little lacking in our past homeschooling days. We were always moving around. So, planning field trips did not make the school year each time. We took our first trip to a local family apple orchard. It is very close to our home. The orchard was family owned and operated. The family was so kind to us. The owner gave each child a bag and allowed us to pick all different kinds of apples. She explained how the orchard worked. She had a small area where they made apple cider and showed the kids how it was made. She had a apple sorter and polishing machine and she ran a few apples to show us how they sort them all. In the end, we bought a bag of apples and some cider. From the bags she gave the kids to pick their own, we had so many apples. My daughter tried her hand at an apple pie and it was very delicious. We are planning to go to a local pumpkin patch this week. My son is studying American History and of course the American Indian. I am calling around to local reservations with the hopes to visit and learn more about their culture.

Another year down in homeschooling

2009-08-02T09:17:00.001-07:00

Assalam alykom:

I have been so busy to put time in my blogs. I have really wanted to update my readers on my homeschooling journey. This is our 9th year of homeschooling with the exception of one year that we all went to an Islamic school. This year and last we used the Oak Meadow books. I had one child at 7th grade, then, 5th grade, and 1st grade. I have to say, this is the most economical full packaged curriculum. I also have to say it is not the most high quality either. The saying goes that you get what you pay for. For first grade, I still am not happy at all with the level of teaching. It is so light that it almost seems uneducational. I realize that it is a different form of education that is similar to the Waldorf style. However, I wonder where the child eventually catches up with reading and math. At first grade, there is still very little reading, if any and math has almost no computation at all. I supplemented my own, and felt I wasted my money on the curriculum. For second grade, I just went to Ebay and bought some things. I got the Scott Foresman Language Arts and Singapore Math. The local Catholic school was retiring their Science, Health and Social studies. I bought them for a small donation along with the teachers manuals. Last year, I had a 5th grader and a 7th grader. I like some parts of the Oakmeadow in the upper grades. For next year in 6th grade, I already have that whole curriculum from my other child. To save money, we are just going to go ahead and teach it to my daughter. For 8th grade, I decided to pick and choose. I like the English and the History in Oak Meadow. It has them reading classics instead of the new books. These classics tend to be more wholesome and have more meaningful stories. I also like the writing that is in the Oak Meadow. It has a great deal of writing and my children are really good writers from it. They can writer a 2 to 4 page report on something in a blink of an eye. Their reports are organized and their content is very good. I decided to switch to Singapore Math and Science. The science in Oak Meadow is really uneducational. There is not much explanation and the experiments almost never work. The math is very light and easy for my son. I think that he could be more challenged. So, I decided to try the Singapore math. Also, I got it much cheaper on Ebay than the Oak Meadow Math. This year I am going to also add another student. My 4 year old daughter will now be part of our school. She will be 5 soon and needing to be taught kindergarten. I have not worked with her at all. I am in no hurry since I have my hands full with the other three. My husband is taking over my oldest exclusively. This way I have more time to spend with the other three. Also, the higher grades are more complicated, and I spend alot of time studying and understanding the material so I make sure they are getting the best knowledge. Overall, we had a great year! Our new little farm was a great educational lab for the kids. We saw baby goats born before our eyes, we watched barn swallow build nests and raise their young, we have so much area to run and play, it is so dark we can see every star like a planetarium, the list of wildlife is on going, we have seen pheasant, deer, porcupine, raccoons, woodpeckers, opossum, chipmunks, honeybees, lighting bugs, coyotes, hawks, geese, humming birds, rabbits and the list goes on. I pray that all of you homeschooling families have had as much success this year as my family has had!

A Recycled Picnic Table

2009-06-12T07:54:00.001-07:00

Assalam alykom:

The nice thing about old farm properties is that you can find alot of Junk. I made this table out of old planks of wood that I found in my barns and cinder blocks that where scattered through out my pastures. My kids and I cleaned up the wood an nailed them together to form the top. Then we just used planks of various sizes to form the seats. It is not as stable as a real table, and I always tell everyone to sit at your own risk. We have enjoyed many dinners outside so far on it. I love any craft that turns junk into a usable item.

The Good Life

2009-05-25T05:31:00.001-07:00

We have lived in Nebraska for about 7 months now and survived the winter. When we first entered Nebraska upon moving here, we noticed the sign at the state line saying: "Welcome to Nebraska...... the "Good Life". We now have a little masjid with a handful of familes, Alhamdolilah. My husband has been recently doing some very inspiring khutbas about living the "Good Life", not just in Nebraska, but everywhere and for everyone. I hope you enjoy them and have as much inspiration as our little community has had from them. Just click the words next to the number and have a listen to each inspiration.

Good Life
by Radwan Kouatli
1. Good Thoughts

2. Good Words

3. Good Deeds A
4. Good Deeds B

5. Corporate Mercy (will be added soon)

6. High Standards

Good Life Through Remembering Allah
by Radwan Kouatli
1. Your Wali

2. Let Allah Remember You

3. Keep Your Inner Peace
4. Remember Allah's Names

5. Remember the Day's of Allah

6. Remember Allah's blessings

Good Life Through Keeping Allah's Commandments
by Radwan Kouatli
1. Remembering Allah's Commandments

2. What are the Commandments

3. Purpose of the Commandments-A

Learning Geography

2009-03-03T06:03:00.000-08:00

Assalm alykom:

I have been really busy with life to commit time to my blog. This is my latest craft that we did with my first grader. As you know, I use the Oak Meadow curriculum. They teach the beginnings of geography in a different way that I am not used to when comparing the ways to my older kids. My older kids you would start with a flat map or a globe and teach them North, South, East and West. They would always look a little lost because that cannot conceptualize it to their scale. With Oak Meadow, they teach the child from his/her small surroundings. They have them make a map or a model of their room. With this, they can relate to where something is because they are familiar with it. Then, you teach them the directions from their room. The next step, the place gets a little bigger. The child needs to make a map of their house. Also, they need to know the directions here. Again, the child learns a little bigger area. They need to make a map or model of their neighborhood. I like this method very much. At this age, they really can conceptualize each step of making the area bigger. We made this little model of her room that she shares with her two other sisters. We made the all of the furniture from boxes and then painted them. The bed is a bunk bed that we made from Popsicle sticks and small boxes. We made the floor, which in their room is wooden, from Popsicle sticks that we varnished. We made the windows from magazine picture of the outside and the put fabric curtains. She loves it and does not want anyone to touch for fear it will break. I encourage you to try this concept in teaching. I really loved it!

The Tortoise and the Hare

2009-01-23T06:58:00.000-08:00

Assalam alykom:

We were doing the story of the Tortoise and the Hare. My girls had happen to check a book out at the library with crafts related to old stories. This one was in there and we thought it would be fun to act the story out with them. They are made with little toy cars. We just used double sided tape and tabed the puff on the rabbit and the paper for the turtle. Since they have wheels, we could just race them accross the floor. I love the story too! It is such a classic!

Weather/Wind Vane

2009-01-22T06:47:00.000-08:00

Assalm Alykom:

With my first grader, I have been teaching about the weather. They have the typical weather vane that you make from a straw, pencil and paper. I wanted it to be more exciting. We made this one from junk we found in our barns. It took a little bit of engineering and rigging, but it actually turns. We used PVC piping, metal scraps that we found, a long nail, washers and a metal hose fitting. The girls painted it funky colors, and now it sits on a post near my pasture.

Fancy Bird Feeders

2009-01-02T07:16:00.001-08:00

Both my 5th grader and my 1st grader have studies of birds and making feeders. Well, here is our idea. I visit local auctions where I live. At these auctions, they sell everything by the box load. Therefore, I usually have a few treasures that I do not want or need. So, we made bird feeders from them. The first two feeders, we painted a hard plastic bowl, glued some buttons, and stenciled some teapots. We glued the bowl on to a glass vase using Hard As Nails Glue. Lastly, we used the same glue to put it on a fence post near my pasture. So far, I am glad the glue is holding up to the fence post, but we still have not seen a bird. The bottom feeder was a little more complicated. We uses to glass candle stick holders, a vase and a piece of pvc piping. We glued the first candle holder on to the vase. We then glued the pipe and then another candle holder on top. The way we mounted the candle holders, allows them to be like cups to hold the seeds. The pvc pipe, we coated with peanut butter and than seeds. Again, there are no birds, but they look nice on the post.

James Herriot

2008-12-23T19:22:00.000-08:00

Assalm alykom:

Last year my daughter did the Oak Meadow 4th grade. This book was part of the reading for that grade. I had never really heard of James Herriot and thought the book looked childish for 4th grade. However, after reading the book, my daughter loved it. I read the book and loved it too. I looked in the library for more of his books and found he writes adult books and have been enjoying them ever since. James Herriot is a Veterinarian and all of his book recount his adventures as an animal doctor. I love all the animal stories. They are heart warming as well as educational. He is from England and all of his stories revolve around small town farmers and their animals. His books are pretty wholesome and can be enjoyed by the whole family.

Duck Light Bulb

2008-11-27T09:14:00.000-08:00

Assalam alykom:

We just got a couple ducks on our farm. My friend has so many. When we visited my husband cornered a male and female and brought them home. Since we have our little farm, I decided to work in to our studies with my first grader lessons about a farm. We studied a few animals and of course we had to study the duck. I am amazed at how freezing it is outside and the ducks are swimming in the little tub we have for them. While studying ducks we read that they have no nerves in their feet so they do not feel the cold. Also, their feathers are designed in such a way that their skin does not ever feel the water. Glory be to Allah how he creates things so perfect. You can see my ducks in my other blog. Here is our little craft we did about ducks. We made it from a old burnt out light bulb. We painted the light bulb with Kilz primer. This stuff will stick to anything. We cut the feet and beak out from foam and colored them orange with a permanent marker. We used feathers from our chickens and we glued the eyes, buttons, hat and lace with a glue gun. We drew the eye lashes with a sharpie pen. I think she looks really cute!

Live Your Life on Purpose

2008-10-20T20:49:00.000-07:00

Assalam alykom:

This is a spectacular book that everyone should read. There is nothing in Muslim publications like this. It was such an easy to read book. It was not a book of rules like most Islamic books. It was done in a light conversational tone that mixed humor and great advice on spirituality and just living life the right way. Here is the abstract on it:

Book Abstract

In Live Your Life On Purpose, Radwan endeavors to awaken our senses by sharing with us basic truths about being more successful and fulfilled through living our lives according to God’s purpose for us. This book is replete with quranic and biblical passages, yet it is laced with humorous anecdotes, clichés and quotes that make the tone of the book conversational, rather than as an aloof religious authority. Radwan expounds in a loving and peaceful manner to all people of God, seekers, and skeptics. Also, he offers chapters of positive and practical solutions to life’s stumbles, with simple yet invigorating advice that helps view ourselves with a fresh and positive perspective. The book shows a behavior model and sheds light on understanding and appreciating our relationship with God, improving our interactions with others, as well as building and maintaining a healthy, functioning community. Whether contemplating the age-old mystery of the purpose of life, seeking to enrich your spiritual path, or desiring to improve your Islamic knowledge and character, Live Your Life On Purpose will provide food for thought, inspire, and leave you hopeful and uplifted.

You can read the first 45 pages HERE

Here is where you can order your copy today!

http://loveallah.net/main/etools/LYLOP.html

Fabric Notebooks

2008-10-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

I am an avid thrift hunter. I scour thrift shops, estate sales, and yard sales. I was recently at an estate auction where I picked up a huge box of vintage fabric scraps for a dollar. Here is what we did with some of it so far.

Materials: Fabric scaps cut in small squares with pinking shears, Composition book, Mod Podge or any decoupage medium, 1 button, elastic hair tie, paper punch, paint brush.

Directions:

After you cut enough fabric squares to cover the book, you can begin to over lap them on the front of the book. I left about 2 inches on the end so I could fold them over to the other side. After I was sure I had enough squares I took them all off. I would put the Mod Podge in a small area, and then I would place the fabric with overlapping them. Then I would put the Mod Podge over the fabric until I covered the whole book. I let the first coat try and then applied a second coat. After that was dry, I used a hole punch to make a hole and tied an elastic hair tie through it. This is how I closed the book. I glued a vintage button on the other side and pulled the elastic around it.

A Year in Homeschooling

2008-10-05T06:20:00.000-07:00

Assalam Alykom:

This year for me was like no other for homeschooling. It took us a whole year to finish. We lived in three states, and stayed in five different homes. We have finally settled in Nebraska. It looks like we are here for a while. While living in all of these temporary places, my schooling was very different. We had three plastic tubs that we kept all of our school supplies in. We had everything from books, to markers, paint, glue, notebooks, maps........Just everything we needed. Every time we moved, I would just pull those tubs along and set up our little mobile school. We started in Florida living in a vacation condo along the beach. We did many science experiences from the beach. I capitalized on the museums in the area, and we did field trips. We later moved to Tulsa Oklahoma. But, before we did, we stayed a few weeks in Orlando with my husband's family. I could not just sit around and not school the children for two weeks. I brought my plastic tubs/mobile school into my in laws home and started our school again. We spent 6 months in Tulsa and lived in an apartment until we were able to find a house. My mobile school started for a little longer period of time. During our time in Tulsa, we had taken a few road trips to Nebraska to visit friends there. We loved the area and found a house we wanted. We were at the end of July and we moved all of our things with the idea we would close on our home in a few days. We went to our friends house. The closing of the house was not going as planned and we ended up staying three weeks with our friends. We had to put all of our things into their garage. Well, I only had a week left to finish our curriculum. I could not let the kids not finish soon. I searched through the garage for my tubs, and I found them after much difficulty. Alhamdolilah after a week we did it! My advice to parents who always need perfect conditions for homeschooling is that you really do not. You just have to have a great deal of patience and for me I needed determination to keep going and finish. Parents need to ask Allah for patience and determination because I believe under any conditions and circumstances you can make it with these two attributes. May Allah give us the patience, strength and determination to educate our children to please Him. AMEEN

Vintage Embroidery

2008-06-01T09:42:00.001-07:00

A finely done crewel embroidery from 1965

Embroidery can take on many different styles. There is crewel embroidery which is usually done in yarn that can be wool or acrylic. Embroidery can even be done on sweaters using this method. There is embroidery that is done with fine cotton floss or even silk. This is usually more delicate in nature and can be found on linen, cotton or even silk. There is long stitch embroidery too. This is usually done with yarn that is similar to crewel embroidery. Creating a picture that is a work of art is very rewarding. All of the pictures shown here are items that I have picked up and sold through Ebay. Some are just exceptionally beautiful.

This is a stunning sweater from the 1950's. I gave it to my daughter and she loves it!

This is a cute folk

art style using crewel

embroidery

Another fine example of crewel embroidery in a folk art style

This one is done in a cotton floss and is machine embroidered on a napkin.

The next two are antique table runners that have a beautiful crocheted lace.

This one is another example of cotton floss with a folk art look.

This is an old pillowcase doll that I picked for my daughters. It combines embroidery with crochet. The detail is just fabulous!

A nice sachet that is done on linen and uses silk floss.

This one as an Asian design. It is done in a wool embroidery yarn.

Beautiful 3D flowers in crewel embroidery.

This my only example of long stitch embroidery. A Very nice picture and done in a stunning frame!

I apologize if this was a little hard to read. Blogger does not always cooperate with me when I try to put alot of pictures with the text. I hope you enjoy these works of art!

Vintage Needlepoint

2008-05-30T09:02:00.000-07:00

Assalm Alykom:

I have been selling on Ebay for about 1 year now. I read in a book once that you should sell what you like. Anyone who knows me knows I love all types of crafting. My first items that I sold on Ebay were old vintage buttons and a couple of needlepoint pillows. After that I was hooked on searching for those items. I search estate sales, yard sales and thrift stores for old vintage handmade items. Here are some photos of some of my favorites. This little trinket box is so cute and has all needlepoint on the top. I listed it once and it did not sell, but I will try again.

This one was a beauty. I think that it sold for around $20. I just love the colors. It was a huge picture. It must have taken the person so long to do.

I purchased this one at a yard sale. I wanted to keep it, but I did not like the way the purse does not close. That is the style and just was not mine. It sold for $20.

This one is a chair cover. I purchased it with a bunch of other stuff, super cheap. It sold for around $20.

This one is so cute because it is a clock. It sold for around $10

This has alot of detail and sold for around $8.

I love the retro design of this one. It never sold, but I will try again.

This little guy really surprised me. He went for $122 to a buyer in Canada.

This was another shocker she is so simple, but she went for $79.00 to a buyer in Canada.

This one has such fine needlework. It never sold. I am surprised because it is in with the retro look.

I love this little picture and decided to keep it.

This was a beauty that was done in a stylish chrome 70"s frame. It went for around $50.

This is a sweet little pillow and sold for around $10.

I just love the old handmade items. I cannot resist not to keep some of the ones that I buy. I hope you enjoy looking at some of these art pieces!

Oak Meadow Sixth Grade

2008-05-23T20:07:00.001-07:00

Assalm Alykom:

The sixth grade is the best of all of the grades I taught this year. It is very organized and the material is interesting to my son. It starts out by having them make an outline map of the area of time that covers the Ancient Times up to the Renaissance. We are adding countries until the end of all the lessons. I love this integration of geography. The curriculum basically integrates the history with the grammar, vocabulary and spelling. I did not get the reading books because it was Greek Myths and another book about the middle Ages and the Renaissance. I really do not like those books for reading. So we just substituted reading other books from the library. There are definitely things that I needed to skip and substitute. However, overall the projects and papers had many choices. This way, we picked things that suited us from an Islamic view. There is a great deal of written Islamic History during this time. Therefore ,many of the written reports my son did was related to our history. The Science is good too. It is studying animal and plants. Each weekly lesson has many questions to answer and a project or two. In the end, they take a five question test that usually requires a little bit of writing. I really love the way the math is taught. Most traditional school text books teach a math concept, and then there is a test after a few concepts. They may never return to that concept the rest of the year. This math teaches a new concept each week. Every other week there is a "review" of all the concepts. Also every other week there is a test and this test has many old concepts from before. Therefore, every week there is either a review or a test. Overall, I like the sixth grade. There is a great deal of writing and research. My son does complain about this, but after all the whining, he is able to do it. He says that he cannot do it because it is to hard. My motto these days is "It may be hard, but it is not impossible, and you can do it". He does do it and does a great job!

Vintage and Violets

2008-05-23T19:40:00.001-07:00

Assalam Alykom:

This is an introduction to a new category on my blog. The new category will be "VINTAGE" I have been selling on Ebay for about one year now. During this time, I have cased garage sales, estate sales, and thrift shops. During this most exciting search, I have bought many wonderful vintage items. Some I have kept and some I have sold. Many of them are handmade beauties. Some of the things are neat and interesting books and some of the things are beautiful pieces of costume jewelry. I am introducing this category with violets. My Irish grandmother always loved violets. Her house was filled with them, and I loved them. I love how their leaves look like a piece of delicate green velvet. I adore the delicate flowers that bloom continuously for my pleasure. Therefore, I like to keep violets in my home. A few weeks ago, I was at a garage sale and picked up an old book about violets. In this book, I found a lovely newspaper clipping with a wonderful poem. Here is the poem:

Home

Why turn so fast those pages of time,

Thinking happiness lies in some other clime-

When so much can happen within four walls,

Just making a home and meeting its calls.

For life's great happiness comes from within,

Not the number of countries we've been in;

It's simple contentment that makes life shine,

I'm thankful Lord, for this home of mine!

Author: Mildred Lee Klan

Walking Stick

2008-05-15T05:19:00.000-07:00

Assalam alykom:

My children wanted to make walking sticks. We collected some sticks from outside and went to work. I decided that I wanted to try one too. My son started his first. He was working so long and hard to whittle the bark off, then sand it all down. He then varnished it, and it looked pretty good in the end. My stick was much taller than his. I started trying to take the bark off, and I really did not have the patience. So, I decide that I would just leave the bark on and decoupage it with Mod Podge and tissue paper. I started by tearing small pieces of tissue paper. I applied each piece over another with the Mod Podge until I achieved to color and look that I wanted. Finally, I just put several coats of the Mod Podge until it was very shiny. After it all dried, I wrapped gold jewelry wire at the top an glued a few beads and accent pieces. It turned out better than I expected. It was much easier than taking all that bark off and varnishing it too!

Clothes Pin Dolls

2008-05-14T11:15:00.000-07:00

Assalam alykom:

A few years ago, I bought a huge bag of craft sticks at a yard sale. Well, we dug them out to make a covered wagon for my daughters 4th grade project. In the bag we found a whole bunch of wooden clothes pins. I had seen some projects about how to make dolls from them so, my daughters and I attempted to make some of our own. Here is how we did it:

We took the clothes pin and wrapped a pipe cleaner around the middle to form the hands. We used a hot glue to make it stay. Then, we picked our clothes from scraps of fabric and trimmings. We also glued them with the gun. We glued beads to the ends of the arms. I thought this made them safer. we glued yarn to the head for hair. The last thing we did was paint the face and paint shoes on some of them. The Praying ones, I did not put any hair or arms.

This first doll in blue, I used an old piece of linen that had some nice embroidery on it. My 9 year old daughter picked out the outfit.

My 3 year old daughter picked this wild hair!

This is my favorite. She is made with vintage fabric and an old piece of embroidered linen.

Another wild hair by my youngest daughter.

This one is made from an old vintage pillow case that had the trim that was unusable. Part of the trim was still good and made a lovely skirt for her.

My 5 year old picked this one's outfit. I love it she looks so elegant.

Oak Meadow Fourth Grade

2008-05-14T08:52:00.000-07:00

Assalm Alykom:

I have kind of a love/dislike relationship ship with the fourth grade. Compared to the 6th grade in which I also teach, it is like it was written by a different company. It has some of the aspects in which I love, but in my opinion, it was not written or organized very well. The substance is there, but the material is disorganized. The 4th grade is summarized by saying that it teaches state history and moves a little into U.S. history. It begins by having the student learn the topography of his state. The student makes a model of the land he lives in. Then, it moves to learning and observing all the plants, animal and habitats. After that, the student starts to research the people that inhabited their state. They have to do some research on the Indians and do a report on them. Along, they are reading very nice books that are related to the subject. We did some projects and reports on our state history, bird, flower, motto and seal. We have about 11 weeks left and the subject has moved to the U.S. history and the movement of the people out West. Along the way there is some nice projects that my daughter has enjoyed. We just finished making a log cabin and a covered wagon. As soon as I get a picture of it, I will put it on my blog. The thing that I dislike is that sometimes it just seems like there is not enough to do. It will have about 2 weeks in a row that just says review and teaches no new skills. Maybe, for my family this is not good. During these times, we just supplement more. The Science is kind of integrated into the Social Studies. There is not much to it. We studied the native animals and habitats in our state, a little about nutrition, and we are now studying about the stars and planets. I think the thing I really dislike is the Math. It has a large amount of errors in it. They are aware of the problem and hopefully will issue new editions to correct it. I would not advise that you not waste your money on the teachers manual. It only has answers for math. You can work the problems yourself. The rest is not answers but guidance in your teaching. I did not find it much guidance. If you have a library near you, do not buy the reading books. There is one Indian reader that you need that Oak Meadow makes themselves. Overall, I liked the curriculum. It has great substance and teaches the child learning through his own research. My daughter expressed to me that she liked the independent work. I do supplement the website edhelper. I print out grammar,math and reading worksheets to make sure that she is at a 4th grade level and to plug in work when there is nothing but review in the curriculum.

Kindergarten Oak Meadow

2008-05-07T07:44:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

The first thing you need to know about the kindergarten is that it is VERY informal. It does not have the child reading. It only focuses on recognizing letters. It does not really even focus on writing them. My daughter was in a Pre-K 4 program and she knew all her letters and could read easy words. Once I started this program, I could see that it was not going to be enough for her. As far as math, it was only having them recognize numbers up to ten. She could already write them up to 100. I think if you have a child who your starting from scratch with, this would be fine. For reading them stories, they have the Beatrix potter stories in one book. You could save some money and just get them from the library. There is a nice craft book. I really should not have bought it because I have a passion for crafts and usually incorporate my own with my kids. I did buy the health book called Growing, Growing, Strong. It is used for the first three years. It is a really nice book. It teaches them about their body parts, germs, washing and more. It has nice activities and is put together very nicely. The rest of the curriculum has them connecting with nature and observing things outside, such as the change of seasons. Even though the kindergarten was less than I wanted, I am still going to purchase the 1st grade for her. I could see the reading book titles and they will be the level that she is at. I do not know about the rest. It is all a chance I have to take. However, based on the higher grades, it seems to be a good fit for my family.

A Review of Oakmeadow

2008-05-06T06:36:00.000-07:00

Assalam alykom:

I get quite a few private emails asking me what do I think about the Oak Meadow. I decided to just make it a blog entry and hope people can be helped from it. This entry is going to be the advantages and disadvantages of the curriculum in general. I used the kindergarten, 4th grade and 6th grade this year. There is a definate difference in the quality of each grade. It is not completely uniformed. I like some of the grades better than others. I would say one of the biggest advantages is that it is very affordable. Compared to other major curriculums, it is functional for a large family to be able to afford several grades. Another great advantage is that it is reusable from one child to another. There are no work books. There is only text books. The student writes all his work in a note book. This is great for someone who has four children like me. I can just pass it down to the next child with out having to buy anything else. Oakmeadow is designed to teach the child to independently learn and observe. Therefore, he or she is not just reading from a text book and then being tested on what he or she read. Nor, is he sitting down being drilled with worksheets. The student is continually researching and learning through writing assignments and projects. This could be an advantage or disadvantage, depending how your child learns. Because the price is low compared to other book companies, the text books are pretty plain looking. The ones I bought last year are all black and white photos and not very exciting looking to the student. I found each grade to be different and not all grades that I taught, I feel the same about. Stay tuned to my blog and I will go into more detail about each individual grade. One more word of advice, If you live in the States or Europe where there is easy access to the library, I would not buy any of the reading books. They are all common books that are found in the library. This will save you some money in the end.

Decorated flower pots

2008-04-24T20:29:00.000-07:00

With a little of my assistance, My 5 year old and three year old daughters made these. We tore small pieces of floral printed tissue paper. We took these piece and used Mod Podge. We just applied the Mod Podge onto the small pieces of paper until we covered the pot. The next day I hot glued lace and beads onto them. I had some wild flower seeds that we planted inside them. The turned out so Victorian. The girls just loved them. They are so excited because the seeds are already starting to grow.

Vintage Tea Cup Pin Cushion

2008-04-24T20:07:00.000-07:00

I made this from a small vintage tea cup. I glued the tea cup to the saucer. I made the cushion part from an old vintage crewel embroidered pillow. I even put a steel wool piece in the top to keep pins and needles sharp. I glued an old vintage butterfly pin to the handle. The I glued ric-rack ribbon and small paper flowers on to the edge. I made vintage pins from old buttons that I glued to the top of the pin heads. I have made this for sale on Ebay,
If it sells, I think I will try to make more. They are alot of fun to make.

Grass Heads

2008-04-14T15:53:00.000-07:00

Assalam alykom:

This project has been in the crafting world for along time. We did this a few months ago. Once the grass started to grow, my kids cut really wild hair styles. My son cut his in a mohawk. My one reccomendation would to make the heads smaller. Our heads were huge and heavy and the little plastic cup kept tipping over and making a mess. We should have used a bigger cup or smaller head. It was fun and the kids love them!

In Touch with the Creation of God

2008-04-13T06:28:00.000-07:00

Assalam Alykom:

I have always instilled in my children to have a keen sense to what God created for us. I absolutely love and find pleasure in the nature outdoors. This love has spilled over into the hearts of my children. We love to take walks on trails or parks. It always takes a while because they find bugs, intricate leaves and flowers that they would like to preserve. The following pictures are from walks we have taken recently and trips in the car when we have been out running errands.

This picture was taken on a walking trail near our house.

On this same walking trail, my children spotted a nest of worms weaving their nest in a tree.

Tulsa had a frightening ice storm a few months back. There are many trees fallen through out the city. On the walking trail, there is no exception. There are creeks running through this walking trail and one area had a great deal of fallen branches. I spotted one branch down by the water were a beaver had obviously munched on it. We could see were the dam was, but we never saw the beaver.

Every weekend, I go to garage sales and estate sales looking for things to sell on Ebay. While stopping at a yard sale there was a squirrel moving very slow across the road. From far away, it looked like it was carrying a toy football. As it got closer, the kids and I could see it was a baby she was holding. Of course, I had to attempt to take a picture of it.

Another yard sale stop, the lady had beautiful tulips blooming. I asked to her permission to go into her yard to snap some pictures. I really adore tulips.

The colors are just breath taking!

Spring is in the Air

2008-03-27T20:15:00.001-07:00

Assalam Alykom:
Have you ever heard the saying or maybe it is lyrics from a song "You do not know what you have until it is gone" For me, that would be the change of seasons. Living in Florida for so long, I have not experienced the change of seasons for 20 years. I am just driving around starry eyed from the blooming flowers. The trees here in Oklahoma have these beautiful flowers on them and no leaves. I drive around on the weekend to garage sales looking for treasures to sell on Ebay. I am armed with my camera and I stop at these beautiful trees. I think the locals think I am a little goofy taking a picture of the tree in their yard. I am ooohing and ahhing as I snap the picture. They probably have been looking at that tree for the last 20 years and never noticed the beauty that I held in the tree from my eyes. I just marvel at the beauty that Allah creates. I implore you to enjoy my pictures as much as I enjoyed seeing them first hand.

Compass Rose

2008-03-27T19:43:00.000-07:00

Assalam alykom:

While teaching my 5 year old a little geography, we found this little project. It is a nice little compass rose for telling direction. After we made it, we have been using it to learn our directions. She is learning her continents, oceans and direction. Here is how we made the compass rose:

Materials needed:
*Compass rose template
*Flat glass marble
*Mod Podge
*Old Cd or DVD

Instructions: Color your template as you wish. Put a coating of Mod Podge on the disc. Place you template over the Mod Podge. Next ,do one coat of Mod Podge on the template and place the glass marble in the center. Last, apply several coats of Mod Podge, allowing each coat to dry. This will make it more glossy.

Polymer Clay Bugs

2008-03-24T11:32:00.001-07:00

Assalm alykom:

When teaching my 5 year old daughter about insects, I wanted her to understand the three body parts and the names of the parts. So, I came up with this idea. Here is how we did it:

Materials needed:

*Polymer clay(Sculpy or Fimo)

*Jewelry wire

*Glass Beads

*Google eyes

Directions:

Make three small balls from the clay. Stick them together to form the bug. Stick colored glass beads all over the body. Next, measure out about 3" of wire and wrap a small glass bead at the top for the nose. Stick the other end through your insects body. Leave some of the wire sticking from the end for a stinger or tail. Cut wire for the antenna any link you want. Wind the top for the appearance to look real. Cut three pieces of wire about 3" each for the legs. Stick the legs through the body and bend them to make them stand. Cook them according to the directions you have for the clay. After they cool, just glue on some eyes. The bigger the eyes, the more bug-like they look.

Art Deco Clock

2008-03-24T10:00:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

I love this clock. I made it from a vintage ceiling light plate. I had stopped by an estate sale one Saturday morning and found it on a shelf in the garage. When I saw it, I thought it looked like a clock. I had purchased the mechanics of a clock on sale last summer. I put the mechanics through the clock and added the rhinestone stickers. I think it looks like it came right out of the 1950's. It was so easy to make! I decided to try and sell it on my Ebay listings. So far, there are no takers. Inshallah there will be before the end!

Taking an Unplanned Day Off

2008-03-19T06:47:00.000-07:00

Assalam Alykom:

The great thing about homeschooling is that school is when you want it. For someone who has lived in Florida for the last twenty years, we really needed to play in the snow. When we woke up in the morning, we found a blanket of snow on the ground had fallen peacefully during the night. In Oklahoma, if you do not get out before noon the snow will be gone from your eyes. We took the children to the park in the morning.

Here are some Canadian geese that were sitting by the pond. I think that they look so majestic, until they honk. Then they sound like a broken semi-truck horn.

I like to call this picture above Powdered Sugar Rocks. It looks just like someone sprinkled powdered sugar on the rocks.

By the afternoon, we decided to explore another park area outside Tulsa. It is a huge lake that has a dam on it. As you can see, the snow has all melted and disappeared from the land.

Homeschooling can be busy, stressful and an immense load of work. However, you can take a break from that work at anytime and enjoy the beautiful world that Allah created!

Friends

2008-03-01T17:15:00.000-08:00

This was an interfaith event that took place in Tulsa, OK. Have a look it is a great talk!

A Turtle

2008-02-24T06:36:00.001-08:00

Assalm alykom:

Before I left Florida, my family and I went on a small camping outing. A friend of ours owns a large piece of land with a nice lake on it. My husband and this friend have taken the kids before. They camp there, hunt and fish during the day. This is the first time that the wives went with. The first day we arrived it was a nice day. We set up our camp right by the lake. You can see how beautiful it is in the picture. As we were setting up the tent, I saw this turtle from far away walking from the woods to the lake. He was moving pretty slow, and I cannot run so fast. However, he was slower because I caught him before he reached the lake. He was really heavy to carry back to the tent area. My kids were so thrilled with him. Everyone wanted to pick him up and touch him. We eventually let him continue his decent into the lake.

After our adventure with the turtle, the kids went to gather sticks and wood to prepare a fire to cook with. As they were bringing the sticks, little scorpions started to scamper on the ground. They were inside the wood pieces they brought. They were like a transparent brown. This was the first time I had seen a scorpion that was not in a zoo,book or on Animal Planet. They were really neat. The kids were pushing them around with sticks. Well, the outing was alot of fun. It rained all night. It actually stormed. We survived and left in the morning due to the rain. The kids were disappointed because they wanted to hunt a deer in the early morning. We returned in the afternoon after the rain. We fished a little and caught nothing. The kids did target practice with the bee bee guns. Overall it was a great time!

Finger knitting

2008-02-15T07:03:00.000-08:00

Assalm alykom:

I had my daughters who are ages 5 and 9 try this finger knitting. I tried it too and found it quite easy. Here is a tutorial on how to do it. It was a little difficult for my 5 year old daughter, but she was able to make a small bracelet. My 9 year old daughter became really good at it once she made few scarves. The first scarf in the picture is her first try. The next two are much better. The orange one is mine. I made a few of them and braided them. The one on her bear was made with a real chinky yarn, and she made it real long. You should try them with your kids, it is great for their eye hand coordination!

Quotations

2008-02-15T06:26:00.001-08:00

Asalm alykom:

Here is an Islam related writing asignment for higher grades. My son is in 6th grade and he was able to do it. Quotations can sometimes be difficult. Once the student learns the basic rules, he or she just needs practice writing with quotations to get better. I had my son take a situation or story from hadith or Quran that involves a conversation. Some examples would be the conversation of the prophet Sulayman and the hud-hud bird, prophet Ibraheem and his son, or Prophet Dawood and Goliath. We used these situations because at the time we were studying the history of Mesopotomia and the history involves the Biblical prophets and their stories.

Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!

2008-02-15T06:08:00.000-08:00

Assalm Alykom:

The move to Oklahoma has given my family the blessing of seeing snow. what a beautiful site from Allah the snow is. Twenty years ago I left rural Indiana and have not been able to enjoy the beauty of falling snow. Last week, I was able to enjoy it once again. Florida is hot and green year round and this scene does not fall there. My children have never seen snow, and it was so thrilling for them. We are really enjoying the colder weather. You feel a sense of energy with it. I just hope we get a little more snow before the spring!

Rock Turtles

2008-02-03T20:38:00.000-08:00

Assalm alykom:

While studying reptiles with my 5 year old daughter, We made these rock turtles. Here is how we did it:

Materials:

Small round smooth rocks
Card stock paper
Acrylic paint
Markers
Clear nail polish
Glue

Directions:

Clean the rocks and paint the top side and let dry
Once it is dry paint the bottom side of the rock
Once it is dry go back to the top and paint a design for the shell
Cut out the shape of the head and feet and color with markers
once the paint is dry apply to the rock clear nail polish to seal the paint.
Once the nail polish dries glue the feet and the head on the underside of the turtle.

Moving

2008-02-03T20:12:00.001-08:00

Assalm alykom:

I have done a great deal of moving over the last twenty years. I feel like I am kind of an expert at it. I have moved on a small scale from apartment to apartment. I have moved on a large scale where I needed a moving company to move a whole house full of furniture. I have moved overseas and was down to two suitcases per person. This last move was across the states. This is quite a distance and would be costly to move everything. We sold all of our furniture and was just down to books, clothes, toys, kitchen items and a few miscellaneous sentimental stuff. If you have to do this kind of move here is some companies and places that I advise to make it easier. We used a moving company called U-pak. You pack the truck and they drive it to your destination. This way was better than U-haul. First, we did not have to drive a truck 1200 miles and it was less expensive. The company was very polite and came through with all of their promises. For selling all of my furniture, and for buying it all over again, we used free-cycle and Craigslist. We sold all of our funiture in Florida through Craigslist, and what we could not sell, I gave away in free-cycle. Now, we are in Oklahoma, and we are buying through the same way we sold it. My last bit of advice for those who have to move, do not keep too much stuff, "Less is better!"

Memorizing

2007-12-30T05:32:00.000-08:00

I think that my children should memorize poems and stories as part of their studies. I am not seeing that too much in the books I have used for them. Therefore, I am doing it myself. In the 1928 English book I have they have a whole section about memorizing different pieces of poems or stories. I found this one beautiful poem about somebody's mother. I am having my son memorize it. He complained a little, but he is able to accomplish it. Here is the poem. The author is unknown.

SOMEBODY'S MOTHER

The woman was old, and ragged, and gray,

And bent with a chill of the winter's day;

The steet was wet with a recent snow,

And the woman's feet were aged and slow.

She stood at the crossing and waited long,

Alone, uncared for, amid the throng

Of human beings who passed her by,

Nor heeded the glance of her anxious eye.

Down the street, with laughter and shout,

Glad in the freedom of "school let out,"

Came the boys like a flock of sheep,

Hailing the snow piled white and deep.

Past the woman so old and gray

Hastened the children on their way,

Nor offered a helping hand to her-

So meek, so timid, afraid to stir

Lest the carriage wheels or the horses' feet

Should crowd her down in the slippery street.

At last came one of the merry troop-

The gayest laddie of all the group;

He paused beside her and whispered low,

"I'll help you across if you wish to go."

Her aged hand on his strong arm

She placed, and so, without hurt or harm

He guided the trembling feet along,

Proud that his own were firm and strong.

Then back again to his friends he went,

His young heart happy and well content.

"She's somebody's mother, boys you know,"

For she's aged poor and slow;

"And I hope some fellow will lend a hand

To help my mother, you understand,"

"If ever she's poor and old and gray,

When her old dear boy is far away."

And "somebody's mother" bowed her head

In her home that night and the prayer she said

Was "God , be kind to the noble boy,

Who is somebody's son and pride and joy!"

Author Unkown

I tried to put these in stanzas. Blogger does not like to cooperate always and the spaces did not show up. I hope you can still find it easy to read. Enjoy!

Life is Precious

2007-12-27T04:39:00.000-08:00

Isn’t it oxymoronic to dishonor God so as to make another person honor God? To read more, please see:

Life is Precious

An old book brings a new light

2007-12-11T16:10:00.000-08:00

I picked up this 1928 6th grade English book in a yard sale recently. The book is by a current famous publisher, Houghton Mifflin. I only paid a dollar for it,but I found it worth more than that. My son is in 6th grade and I decided to use it with him. The book seems to be much more advanced that the books that we have today. It concentrates a great deal on spoken speech as well as written speech. I love what the beginning of the book says. It gives the purpose of the books as follows:
This book is intended for the 6th grade in elementary school. It endeavors to aid pupils during this formative year in establishing habits of thought and expression that will prove a permanent value.
I hope to use this book for its intended purpose. I have picked up many books lately from the 1920's and 1930's. I have bought many for teaching and many for myself to read. The language is so rich in these older books and the themes are more innocent and moral. I hope to share more from my 1928 English book.

Looking through a window

2007-12-11T15:49:00.000-08:00

This project is partly part of the Oak Meadow 4th grade curriculum and partly my idea. My daughter and I each made one. Here is how we did it.

Items needed:

Card stock paper white

water colors blue, green, red,yellow and paintbrushes

crayons

construction paper, brown

small amount of fabric

I painted the ground green with very light painting. The sky was done the same way in blue. I waited for this to dry. Then, I drew the tree and the falling maple seeds with a brown crayon. Then, I painted the leaves onto the tree with various fall colors. I cut the window frame from construction paper and glued on top of the picture. Finally, I positioned scraps of material for the curtains. I just stapled them on to the artwork to give the window appearance.

Pin the Tail on the Donkey

2007-11-18T18:31:00.001-08:00

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

2007-11-18T18:19:00.000-08:00

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

2007-11-07T15:55:00.001-08:00

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

2007-11-07T15:37:00.001-08:00

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.

Math for Muslims

2007-10-26T12:42:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

I always dreamed of an integrated curriculum made by Muslims. I think it could encompass every subject. So far now, I just make little things here and there that gives my children a sense of commonality with what they are studying. I was searching for math worksheets the other day, and I thought I should just make my own using clip art on Microsoft. She loved it. I used one of the problems with a woman wearing hijab and she was so happy with it. I hope to make her more of these.

Learning Arabic

2007-10-26T11:12:00.001-07:00

Assalam alykom:

My son Nour who is eleven and my daughter Muryam who is nine can read write and speak Arabic fluently. Now, is the time to teach my daughter Zaynab who is five and my daughter Faatimah who is three. Even though I am American, I have been blessed to be able to speak, read and write Arabic. I speak formal Arabic and it was my wonderful husband who taught me. I can teach the children myself, until they reach the level of needing the grammar. This is where I have never been able to excel, yet! However, I am not giving up. As far as teaching the young ones, this is how I began. We start about four years of age just recognizing the letters and their sounds. This lovely sister has a great site for manipulatives. I have used many things on this site. After they are able to recognize the letters and the sound of the letters, we began writing the letters and using words that began with each letter. This is what I will concentrate on for most of the year. Arabic has many curves in the letters and this will take a great of practice for the child to master it. Probably towards the end of this year, I will start to introduce the Tashqueel. This is the Fatah, Dumah and Kaserah sound for each letter. Next year, I will start to work on the letters when they are in different positions in the word.

The notebook pictured above is a composition book for early years. I just draw a picture in it of the letter, and she practices writing the letter. Here are letters that I printed out from sister Sumayyah's site. I printed the clip art from Microsoft. I printed two pictures of each sound of a letter. We use it as a memory game or just matching letter sounds. I laminated them before I cut them all up to preserve them longer.

Here is a connect the dots using the Arabic alphabet. I just drew it myself first and then erased the lines.

Here is the finished picture that Zaynab did.

Here is another worksheet that I made Zaynab. I just typed the letters out and then used clip art to match a picture that has the beginning sound. If anyone would like me to email this one, just send me an email, and I will be more than happy to send it.

The Red Tide

2007-10-26T10:03:00.001-07:00

Assalm alykom:
We are temporarily staying in a condo on the beach. Last week a natural event was taking place. It is called Red Tide. Red Tide is actually algae blooming off of the coast. This type of algae is toxic and kills a great deal of the marine life. The ocean appears to have a red a brown tint to it, hence the name Red Tide. For us humans, the Red Tide was affecting the air. When we went outside, it would cause us to cough and sneeze and would cause irritation to the eyes and nose. As far as swimming in it, we did not. However, the news reports said you could swim, but it may cause a rash. I was not taking my chances with the kids. One thing it did provide for us was a giant interactive science lab. My son Nour needed to observe a water habitat and make a map of it and my daughter, Muryam needed to find lines, shape and geometric patterns in nature.

The waves were rough, so the young sea turtles were washing back up to shore. We found a conservationist saving them. She said they were not affected by the Red Tide, but they were tired from the rough seas. She was collecting them and taking them to a rehabilitation center. She said these were about a year old.

I really love these sea horses and the star fish. Nour just finished a research report on the process of mummification. He learned in his research that these two animal naturally mummify once they are exposed to air. Well, that was enough information for them to start drying the dead ones that they found on the shore. The starfish actually looks like a rubber or plastic toy. It is dark purple and bright orange. I almost did not pick it up because I really thought it was a rubber toy.

Nour had to draw a diagram and label the parts of a water habitat, we took pictures of some of the fish that were along the shore. Then we went home and tried to find their names.

These are Atlantic Spade fish.

This one we were never able to identify. Nour calls it a Monster Fish because it is so weird looking, Subhannallah!

These little fish are called Mullet.

Here is Nour's diagram of his beach habitat.

A field of black eyed susan

2007-10-19T17:29:00.001-07:00

Assalam alykom:

These shots were taken in a field off of Lake Jessup in Oviedo, Florida. We were on a toll road traveling to Daytona Beach from Orlando. The view was just breath taking, and Thank God we had the camera in the car. When we got out on the side of the rode, the smell was very over powering and so sweet. It looked just like a sea of yellow and smelled like sweet perfume. The beauty that Allah gives His creations are so magnificent! The bottom picture looks like a black eyed susan, but I am not sure if it is one. I shot this one off the beach near Daytona.

Salt dough project

2007-10-19T17:02:00.000-07:00

Assalm Alykom:

My five year old is reviewing her alphabet right now. At the same time, we are daily learning the English alphabet along with the Arabic alphabet. We made some things out of salt dough that represented the letter we were working on. The "B" is shaped like a butterfly and the apples are for the Arabic letter "ta". This would be the word "tifaha" for apple. Here is how we did them.

Materials used:

Salt dough(take any recipe from the internet)

Acrylic paint

Assortment of plastic pony beads

Plastic craft string

Paint brush

Clear nail polish

Directions: After we formed the shape we wanted, we poked a hole in the top to run the plastic craft string. We then baked them in the oven until they were very hard. I put it around 300 degrees. Be careful not to burn them. Allow them to cool. Then we painted them with acrylic paint. Paint them on both sides so you can use them as a pendant for the necklace. After they are really dry, I painted them with clear nail polish. This is basically a varnish to preserve them. Once this was dry, both my three year old and my five year old daughter were able to string the beads they wanted on the necklace. It makes a really nice project, and it reminds them of the letter they learned.

Learning about Shapes

2007-10-18T05:12:00.001-07:00

Assalm alykom:

You probably think that I am going to tell you some pointers about teaching shapes to young children. Well, actually this was a lesson for my fourth grade daughter and me. In the Oak Meadow cirriculum, the science starts out with alot of observing. I was skeptical about it at first. I was thinking what is the point to all this. They provide these small jewelers loupes for looking at things close up. They have the student go and look at things in nature to look for shapes. Look at the wing of a dragon fly, the bark on a tree, flowers, or leaves. From these observations, they want you to look for shapes. Look for obvious shapes such as circles and squares. Also, they should look for shapes that are not defined. After all these observations, they are to go and look at early primitive tools and artifacts. They want the student to look for the shapes that these early people carved or painted on these artifacts. Then, the point is that these early people did not know shapes. They were not taught these shapes in school like us. They have never seen these shapes. These early people learned shapes through looking and observing Allah's creations. Therefore, if the student also observes Allah's creations closely, he or she will inevitably learn something. I am 39 years old, and this was something I learned that was new about shapes!

Decorating Notebooks

2007-10-17T04:35:00.000-07:00

Assalm Alykom:
This year, I am having my older children write in a journal every couple of days. Sometimes, I tell them what to write, and sometimes, I let them write anything. They love poetry that rhymes, and most of the time the will write a poem if I did not give them something to write about.
We decided to decorate their journals to make it more personal and fun. Here is how we did it:

Materials Needed:

composition notebook

flat items to place on the book. we used pressed flowers, cards and construction paper. Other suggestions would be: fabric, wrapping paper, stickers, cut up magazine pictures. I do not suggest computer printouts. The ink tends to bleed.

Modge Podge gloss (you can pick up at any craft store or craft section in Wal-mart)

paint brush

Directions:

Brush a coat of Modge Podge on the notebook. Next, we carefully put a piece of construction paper the size of the book. Then, we put another coate of Modge Podge on the top of the paper. Next, we put our flat objects on the top of this. Again, you apply another coat of Modge Podge. Be sure to apply the coats evenly. The Modge Podge is very thick and leaves streaks. Finally. we would continue to put several coats of Modge Podge until we achieved to gloss we liked. Make sure you let the Modge Podge dry in between each coat. If not. it will be a thick goopy mess.

Oak Meadow

2007-10-07T06:08:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

Well, we have been using Oak Meadow for a month now. We really like it so far. The grades that I am teaching is 6th, 4th and kindergarten. The 6th and 4th grade are designed to have the children explore and research the subject areas on their own. This exploration has a great deal of hands on work such as creating maps and creating models of things. There is also a great deal of writing and reading involved in these upper grades. The children expressed to me that they like it because it is not just sitting down an memorizing definitions and concepts. While they were attending the Islamic school last year, they told me that the curriculum and the studies were so boring. Through the projects, they are having fun while they learn. They give the children several projects to choose from each time. Therefore, they are also involved in their own decision making process. They do not have the children reading short stories in a reading book. They are reading classic novels and most of them I like. I sent some of them back because I did not approve of the content. I intend to have them substitute with something more approving. This way they still get the quality reading that is needed. This curriculum is great if you also have multiple children. There is only a couple of books that you work from and no workbooks. All their work is done in notebooks. Therefore, if you maintain the books you can just pass it down to the next child. It is also very affordable. After checking with other curriculum's, this was the least expensive. The kindergarten is very laid back. My daughter already knows how to write the alphabet and can even read a few sight words. The kindergarten has them just learning the alphabet. I am using this repetition as a review for her and trying to spend more time on her Arabic letters. The stories they have them reading are the Beatrice Potter stories with Peter Rabbit and Benjamin Bunny. I like these classical stories because they are not full of the sorcery like most fairy tales that they are exposed to at this age. There are many great crafts that are included, and I am excited about doing them all. If anyone would like more information or questions about my experiences, please feel free to email me in the box of my side bar.

Learning about bugs

2007-09-18T05:52:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

Last week my husband was giving a khutbah about Fasting in Melbourne, Florida. The kids and I decided to tag along and join him. After Jumah, we were waiting for some time for my husband to talk with the people. My kids were exploring the grounds of this unfamilair masjid, and they found this HUGE bug. I always encourage my children to explore the outdoors. With this sense in mind, they see so many things and notice so much about Allah's creation. Some parents inhibit this type of exploration because they find outdoor items to have germs, or they do not want them to get dirty. This limits the imagination of the child. Encourging outdoor exploration can be a science lesson, a writing assignment or just a love to the creator that made it so wonderful. This bug looked like many nature shows of insects from the Amazon Rain Forest. I have never seen one with my own eyes this big. Eventhough this bug looked mighty scary and was so mammoth, I still let my kids pick it up and examine it. When we got home I researched all kinds of beetles on the internet. I discovered that its scientific name is Archodontes Melanopus, and it is a live oak root borer. It destroys the roots of the tree. I implore you to let your children to discover the world that Allah made for us.

Ramadan Mubarak

2007-09-17T19:59:00.000-07:00

Assalam alykom:

Listen to this wonderful inspiring Khutbah about fasting.

Fasting

Be "Muhammad" in your character poster

2007-09-13T11:17:00.000-07:00

Assalm Alykom:

Here is a great new product for education now being offered by loveallah.net. These posters are a great tool for creating a super hero within our children. The poster uses the name Muhammad as an ancronym to describe some of his attributes. You as a parent or educator can use these attitibutes to enforce good behavior and manners in your chidren or students. Here is the link that you can order them and get more information and pricing.

Little Blessings That We Take for Granted

2007-08-21T15:34:00.000-07:00

Assalam alykom:

There are two incidents that have happened to my family that have really made me think about the little blessings we take for granted. Many of these bounties we do not even recognize in our lives.

When asked about the importance of your senses, most will respond that they are grateful to God for their ability to see or hear. We may even thank Allah everyday for these two bounties. But, have you ever thought about your sense of smell or your sense of taste. Many of us may never once thanked God for these bounties. Last month, my Uncle took an over the counter natural medicine for a cold. It is called Zicam, and it is a nasal spray to help clear your sinuses. He sprayed the medicine one time and has never smelled or tasted again. If he drinks a glass of water or a glass of perfume, there is no difference. If he eats a steak or a piece of bark on a tree, there is no difference. Allah has definitely made tasting and smelling a joy in this life. Just to be able to wake up and smell and taste a delicious cup of coffee in the morning is a great bounty from Allah. For my uncle, it is just hot brown water with no taste or smell. For my uncle, the doctors say that this is permanent. Therefore, thank Allah today for your ability to smell, taste, and enjoy the bounty of food and drink.

Another incident that happened was with my grandmother. She suffered a small stroke. With this stroke, she lost her ability to transmit information and some of her ability to process it. In other wards she can think what she wants to say, but she has an extremely difficult time telling it to me. She cannot write it either because it takes the same memory ability to transmit it. She no longer can drive, and she cannot dial a phone or even use the remote for the T.V., without a struggle. She no longer can remember how to crochet or knit, do crossword puzzles or even read the newspaper. I understand that she is 78 and that she is elderly, but only a few days ago she was driving, crocheting, knitting, and reading. Therefore, we should thank Allah tremendously for His bounties upon us. Maybe tomorrow one of them or all of them could be gone.

Did she really hear the complete Message?

2007-08-09T11:57:00.000-07:00

I do not know if I mentioned it before, but I am an American convert to Islam. I think my journey to Islam began with my immigrant Irish grandmother. My great- grandmother was a VERY devout Protestant Christian. The rest of my family had no religion. That includes my parents, my grand parents, cousins, aunts and uncles. Through my 38 years of life, I never saw them enter a church, except for a wedding or funeral. I had no brothers or sisters. I was an only child.

I lived my life in Rural Central Indiana. My parents were city folk from Chicago who wanted a more simple life. They were middle class working people. When the summer time appeared each year, they needed someone to look over me while they went to work each day. That ended up being my great grandmother. She lived in Chicago, and they would drive me there every June and pick me up in August. My grandmother was thrilled to have a helper and a companion each summer.

She was a meticulously neat individual, who would have me cleaning everything in sight. She was also an individual who had a wonderful green thumb. Everything she seemed to touch grew lush and beautiful. Outside she had roses that smelled of the most expensive perfume, she also had snap dragons that I could not wait to pinch. She had a small garden where she grew fresh herbs. She would have me clip the chives each night for the salad at dinner. On the inside of her house she had many African violets. I remember always wanting to touch their leaves because they felt like velvet. To this day, I keep several of them in my house. Another notable quality of my grandmother was she was extremely devout in her religion.

Every summer, it would be memorize verses from the Bible, go to church, go to Sunday school. She was always after me to be a strong believer. I really followed her advice and tried to be as devout as she was. At the end of the summer, it was back to my parents who never went to church. My grandmother called and wrote my all the time to find someone to take me to church. I always did, but the variety of churches would be many. It was Baptist, Methodist, Pilgrim Holiness, Wesleyan, and non-denominational, to name a few. With all of this variety, I would eventually be confused.

When I reached college and was able to expand my horizons outside the small town churches of rural Indiana, I found Islam. It was 15 years ago and still seems like yesterday. Islam was introduced to me in college and it made so much sense to me. Shortly after my conversion, I married my husband. Shortly after this, my grandmother died. I was living in Florida and it was very far from my grandmother. I never told her that I converted, but I always felt she was the one to inspire me to become a Muslim because she always encouraged me to believe in God.

A year or so after her death, I become sad at the notion of my grandmother dying and not a Muslim. I was so convinced that she was the one who ultimately led me to Islam. This is when my husband told me that you do not know if she ever really received the message. You do not know how Allah will deal with her devotion. You really do not know what she believed in her heart. That night I went to sleep feeling much better about my grandmother. In my dream that night, I saw my grandmother. In the summers, when I stayed with her, she would get her square vinyl cushion and put it on her retro metal chair. She did this just before maghreb each day. She would sit in that chair and read from the newspaper or her Bible, or a book she liked. In my dream, she was sitting on that retro metal chair, but she was reading from the Glorious Quran. She was even reciting it in Arabic. I could not wait to share my dream the next day with my husband. I really felt better about her not being a Muslim, and Allah is the only One who knows her Final Abode.

Crocheted Monkeys

2007-07-27T10:42:00.001-07:00

Assalm alykom:

My 5 year old daughter loves monkeys. I am not sure why. She said that she likes to collect them. When I saw a pattern online for one, I had to make her one. Of course my 3 year old daughter wanted one too. So, here is the pair. I got the pattern here. After you reach the page, on the side you can click on the pattern. She had very strict copy right rules on her pattern. Therefore, I wanted to meet her link issues that she requested. Her monkeys are alot cuter than mine, but my two daughters love them. I personally love to crochet with thread, therefore, I am trying the pattern with it. It is looking so tiny as I am making it. The girls are very excited to see it. I will probably have to make a pair again.

I do beading too. So, I made their earrings and I crocheted their scarves too!

Homeschooling vs Islamic schools vs Public schools

2007-07-23T16:38:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

I am back to homeschooling after a year of teaching in an Islamic school. I think this year has really let me evaluate and change my mission for why I homeschool. My mission used to be that I did it for religious reasons. Now, I truly believe that it is for educational reasons mixed with a little bit of religious reasons. I discovered that the quality of my children's education was very high when it was me teaching them. After a year in an actual school setting, their level of education declined. I can control my children's accountability much better. If I find they are lacking, I have the time to reteach it to them. I can take more time to make sure they do their best.

Islamic schools, in general, are at their infancy stages in America. Most of them in my area, have been around for less than ten years and many less than five. They are going through the process of always getting better, but not quite there yet. Many of the schools have low funding and low pay for the staff. Therefore, the more qualified teachers tend to go elsewhere. While I am sure there are great Islamic schools in the States, as I stated, many of them are just starting up and going through the learning curve. During this curve, the level of education may not be very high.

Public schools are tied to the No Child Left Behind Act. I really hate this Act because it leaves behind all creativity and learning in the classroom and teaches the child only to take the State Standardized tests. This is my opinion and I know it is a big controversy. Some of you may have great public schools that try to go around this act and maintain actual learning and teaching.

My blog will began to fill with homeschooling posts once again. I am not going to do the K12 this year because it has to be completed in the 9 month school year. This is if I go through the state program. If I buy the program as a regular homeschooler, it is soooo expensive. With four kids, it is too much. I am looking into the Oak Meadow cirriculum. It is affordable and seems good. I will let you know once I purchase it and get into how it really is. That is the only way to know of a cirriculum really works for your family.

Hijab pins I made

2007-07-23T10:17:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

I have decided to take my hijab pins and began selling them. I like to use a variety of materials. I use vintage items such as old pins, or buttons. I also use mostly glass beads. Some of them I make especially to appeal to younger ladies. These are made from polymer clay in the shape of mini-food. Here are the current ones that I am selling this week. They are all listed on eBay.

Beaded pins

Vintage Pins

Girls Pins

The Iguana

2007-07-13T11:03:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

When I moved to South Florida, I did not expect to see iguanas as part of the habitat. When my husband first told me that he saw a bunch of them near the masjid, I wanted to go and see them. There is a walking trail that has a canal. This trail is right next to the masjid. The kids and I decided to take a look one day. Since that day, we started to research about these amazing creatures that Allah created. For one, they are definitely not native to South Florida. They are escaped or neglected pets that thrive in the tropical climate. However, it is interesting to mention, that since they are not native to Florida, they do not have any natural predators. Therefore, they just keep multiplying.

With a little research we discovered that they are not an aggressive animal. They like the warm weather and you will find them sunning on the hottest of days. Than can grow very large and look quite frightening. They look almost as big as a small alligator. They are herbivores, and will only dine on your flowers and your mango trees. If they are cornered, they may scratch or bite, if they feel threatened. We read that many residents do not like them and will have a trapper come and remove them. All the pictures that you see her are from my 11 year old son Nour. After snapping these picture, he thought he might like to become a wildlife photographer.

This one is quite large here. The big ones appeared to be orange and the smaller ones were green

I did not know they could swim, but this one was swimming away down the canal.

Can you spot the one here? I will give you a hint: He is green.

Do your own research on this interesting reptile. For school, it would make a nice research report.

Recycle Your Crayons

2007-07-13T10:30:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

This is an easy project, and I am sure many of you have tried it yourself, or have at least seen it done. We had so many broke crayons. All of my kids and I just sat and peeled them all. Next, we put them in paper muffin cups. If you have a nice metal cookie cutter that is a unique shape, this will look better. I put my oven on about 375 degrees. I placed the muffin cups on a cookie sheet. It only takes a couple of minutes to melt. Take them out when they are all melted and let them cool. You just peel the paper off after that. We made so many that we gave them away as gifts. They are really great for the little ones because they are easy to hold. Enjoy!

Children do what they are told

2007-06-30T08:37:00.001-07:00

Assalm alykom:

Are you a little baffled by the title? I was confused by this statement when I was listening to a motivational tape and the speaker said this. Children do what they are told to do. The example he gave is that you tell your child to go and wash the dishes. You go in the kitchen some time later, and there are all these pots and pans in the sink, and the counters are still full of food. You are upset and mad and go to your child and say to him: "Why didn't you finish the pots and pans and clean off the counter?" He says, "But, you told me to do the dishes." He is right. I did not say anything about the pots and pans or the counters. Therefore, he did not do it. As a parent, I run in to this all the time. Then, I get frustrated that they did not complete the job. I really learned from this that I have to give specific instructions. From those instructions, I should only expect what are in the details and nothing more. If I want the entire kitchen cleaned, I need to tell my child to clean the dishes, wipe the counters, and clean the pots and pans. I really find this advice great, and it will help me as a parent to have less conflict and get the jobs done efficiently in the house.

The Sweetness of Faith

2007-06-27T11:23:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

The Prophet Muhammad(Peace be upon him) said: There are three qualities that if a person has them, they will taste the sweetness of faith. These three qualities are:

1. A person must love Allah and His messenger more than he loves anything else.

2. A person hates to go back to disbelief as much as he hates to be thrown into the Hell Fire.

3. A person loves another for the sake of Allah.

I used this hadeeth to create a really great writing assignment for my students. I told them that if they could taste the sweetness of faith, what would it taste like. They needed to write me one paragraph describing what the sweetness of faith would taste like. To give you an idea of what to expect from the writing, most of my students wrote that it would taste like a sweet they liked. Most of them put some type of cake, ice cream or candy. However, some where very creative and descriptive about it. These students stood out from the rest with creativity. This assignment would probably be good for grades starting out at 6th and up. It takes a little more maturity to relate food with something that we cannot touch. Therefore, it may be difficult for a student below that grade. I thought that this assignment really caused them to reflect on how wonderful faith really is for a person. Faith is compared to the taste of something sweet, and I think that most all children love anything sweet! Let me know how some of your kids do with this prompt!

Here is another shot of the owls

2007-06-21T16:45:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

Isn't he just beautiful!

Baby Gifts

2007-06-18T17:24:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

I had a couple of friends having babies, and I made these for them. They are so easy, and they look so personalized. To make these, you just need to get onesies and bibs that have no decoration on them. For the onesies that are painted, I just used fabric paint in squeeze bottles. The paint is air dry and very easy to use. It is also washable. For the items with crochet, I used bedspread weight thread. For the lace, I crocheted a single crochet right onto the t-shirt and bib. Then the second time around, I used different stitches to make the lace. For the flowers and the balloons, I crocheted them first and then I sewed them on.

In Arabic, this one says: "I love my mother"

This one says in Arabic: "I am the beloved of my mother"

This one says in Arabic :"I love my father"

This one says in Arabic: "I love my mother"

Burrowing Owls

2007-06-14T04:26:00.001-07:00

Assalm alykom:

Next to our masjid, I found these adorable little owls. They are federally protected birds. The area where they are at have federal signs around it indicating that it is a crime to bother them. Here is more specific information about them.

Finding these owls was such a treat because I had just read with my sixth grade class the book Hoot. I will give you my impression of the book. First of all, it would be appropriate for grade 5-8. The story was great! It was about environmental protection of the owls and really anything in nature. It was funny and very entertaining. However, the book did use some inappropriate language. This really surprised me because it had won so many literary awards for children. I suppose if you white out the words or just explain to your child that this is bad it would be better. One thing I did like about it, that I found was lacking in most novels for that age was "love scenes". Even in the curriculum reading books at school, there were too many stories with that. This book was absent from the male- female attraction scenario. I purchased along with the book a teacher's guide. It was really informative and had great lessons. It had fun ways to teach vocabulary, it contained tests, integrated science and social studies, it also had writing assignments.

If I snap some more pictures of the owls, I will upload them, Inshallah. They are very close and easy to snap, but they blend in with the ground so they are hard to see.

Quran

2007-06-08T19:29:00.001-07:00

Assalm alykom:

I have just added an audio on the side bar of my blog of my son Nour reciting Quran, when he was 6 years old. I hope this CD is an inspirational tool for children in reciting Quran. The recording is slow and easy to follow. Each ayat is repeated three times to help the child perfect his or her recitation. Nour recorded the entire Part 30 of the Quran. It is really a great CD for young children who are just beginning to learn their surahs. Here are a few other surahs that are available for your listening enjoyment

Quran Recitation
by: Nour Kouatli (6yrs old)You can buy the entire part 30 on two CD's
1. At-teen 2. Al-'laq 3. Al-qadr
4. Al-byynah5. Az-zalzalah6. Al-'adiyaat

A Garnet Bird

2007-06-04T07:24:00.001-07:00

Assalm Alykom:

I am adding a new label for my blog and it is nature. I have continually loved nature in my life. I have lived in many places. Where ever I have lived, I have always been in tune with the nature around me. I can usually name every animal, bird, and insect that lives with in 100 feet of my home.

I grew up in rural Indiana and now live in suburban South Florida. My rural home was filled with many types of birds, field mice, deer, fox, and wild geese flying over for migration. I even witnessed the monarch butterflies landing by the millions on the mulberry trees of my neighbor.

Florida has different nature that I needed to learn. I found many water fowl that I had never seen before. I also have found many animals that are not native to Florida, but are able to survive and thrive here. I have captured with my camera many animals that live around me and, I hope to share them on my blog soon.

This picture of a beautiful ruby red bird is that of the male cardinal. Here you will find more statistical information about this wonderful bird. The female looks the same but she is a grayish brown. I took this picture in my backyard. These birds are very common all over the United States. You can attract them to your backyard with a bird feeder and common bird seed.

It is okay to laugh sometimes

2007-05-02T17:11:00.000-07:00

Assalm Alykom

Clean and Thoughtful Jokes

Card Purses

2007-04-23T16:21:00.000-07:00

Assalam alykom:

My grandmother sent my children some money a while back. She wanted them each to buy something that they really liked. I wanted them to send my grandmother a nice thankyou card. I found this purse card on the internet and my three girls made one each. Here are their creations. See what you think!

We used card stock paper to make the purse. The girls used markers, beads and glitter to decorate the purse. The handle was a gold string of beads that was already together. We just cut it to the size of handle that we wanted. Let me know how your purses come out!

The Color of Hunger

2007-04-01T14:06:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

I teach 6th and 7th grade Lanuage Arts at an Islamic school. I have created many writing prompts this year, and I thought I would post them on my blog. All of these prompts are mostly for Middle School aged students.

The Color of Hunger was a prompt that I did during the month of Ramadan. I told the students to think of hunger as if it were a color and not a feeling. If hunger were a color, what color would it be? I made them write me a paragraph describing what color they thought hunger would represent, and why did they pick that particular color.

Many of the responses from the students were black because they felt dark when they were hungry. Some of them said white because it made them feel empty. Try this out with your kids and see what they think. I think this writing prompt works best when the student is fasting. You might try it in Ramadan with your students.

Create Your Own Cereal

2007-03-25T06:13:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:
My daughter is in 3rd grade. The teachers in the lower grades held "The Great Cereal Box Contest" All of the students did a great job creating their own cereal. This is what my daughter did. This makes a wonderful art project for homeschooling. It could be appropriate for a wide variety of ages too.

Mutual Mercy

2007-03-12T13:42:00.000-07:00

Assalam alykom:

Imagining yourself standing before Allah and He says to you, "I was sick but you did not visit Me."

Is that possible? What would you say?

To find out, listen to this about mutual mercy.

Mutual Mercy

This Khutbah was taken from www.loveallah.net. I hope it is as uplifting to you as it was for me.

Matchbook Notebooks

2007-02-25T05:02:00.000-08:00

Assalm alykom:

I found these on another blog awhile back. I just had to try them with my kids. Here is the directions for them. My kids put them in the goody bags for Eid that they made for their cousins. I made the book for them and they decorated them. It was soooo easy. Have fun making them!

My Projects with Sculpey Erasers

2007-02-12T14:45:00.000-08:00

Assalm alykom:

My children got a small sculpy eraser kit as a gift. I really liked it. It works just like the sculpy polymer clay. You just make your shape and bake it. The end project is an eraser. Here is the website for sculpey and some project ideas for the clay. It was very easy that even my two year old could make one.

The pencil erasers we made by just forming the clay right on the pencil. We baked the clay right on the pencil. I hope you enjoy doing these as much as we did!

An Acronym for a Parent's Job

2007-01-22T14:43:00.000-08:00

Acronyms are a lot of fun. You can pick a word and have your kids try one. Here is one that I did for a parent's job.

People whose job is to work hard raising their children.

Artist: for school projects continuously brought home.

Referee: for a game of soccer in the backyard

Entertainer: for a baby who is awake at two in the morning.

Negotiator: for two children fighting over a toy.

Teacher: for teaching life lessons.

Storyteller: for stories told just before bed.

A Catch-all for Toys

2007-01-16T15:24:00.000-08:00

Assalam alykom:

I have three girls and one boy. The toys for my girls can get too much sometimes. I am always looking for ways to open more space up and keep toys off of the floor. This idea came to me from those cheapy toy nets you get at the dollar store.

Here is how I made mine: I took a really nice piece of flannel material. I tied the ends with rubber hair ties from my girls. I tucked the raw edges under the tie so that it looks finished. I place to nails in the wall and wrapped the hair ties around it to hang. I was really surprised how many toys I could fit in the material once I hung it up. Try it for yourself and see how many you will be able to fit.

Recycled Art

2007-01-08T19:03:00.000-08:00

Assalm alykom

In school, my son had a science project that was to create a sculpture from recycling items. He decided that he wanted to make a car. Here is what we used:

4 Computer CD's from the mail

1 Juice bottle

Popcicle sticks

1 soda pop can and the tabs from the top

Cardboard pieces from a cereal box.

Kilz Primer

Acrylic paint

Silicone Glue

Glitter

Tissue paper

We primed all of the pieces with Kilz primer. Then, we painted each piece. Finally, we glued all the pieces together and added some detail with glitter. I always say that I love trash to treasure projects. This was a truly great craft in the trash to treasure catagory! I think I had as much fun doing this project as he did.

Another Song

2006-12-24T09:13:00.000-08:00

Assalm alykom:

Here is another song that I sing to my kids. It is the remake of the original "If Your Happy and You Know It".

If your happy and you know it praise Allah

Subhannallah!

If your happy and you know it praise Allah

Subhannallah!

If your happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it.

If your happy and you know it praise Allah

Subhannallah!

If your happy and you know it, say God is Great.

Allahoakbar!

If your happy and you know it, say God is Great.

Allahoakbar!

If your happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it.

If your happy and you know it, say God is Great.

Allhaoakbar!

If your happy and you know it, thank Allah

Alhamdolilah!

If your happy and you know it, thank Allah

Alhamdolilah!

If your happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it.

If your happy and you know it ,thank Allah

Alhamdolilah!

If your happy and you know it, do all three

Subhannallah, Allahoakbar, Alhamdolilah!

If your happy and you know it, do all three.

Subhannahallah, Allahoakbar, Alhamdolilah!

If your happy and you know it, then your face will surely show it.

If your happy and you know it, do all three.

Subhannallah, Allahoakbar, Alhamdolilah!

Recycled Soap Dispenser

2006-12-24T08:55:00.000-08:00

Assalm alykom:

Items needed:

1. Empty clear pump bottle. I get a body wash from Wal-mart. The bottle is very big and clear. It just has a sticker, and I just remove it.

2. Assortment of things to decorate it. I use beads, cheap silk flowers, marbles ect.

3. Clear soap

Directions: When your bottle is empty, just fill it with an assortment of things. Then, you fill it with clear or tinted soap. I keep one in my bathroom and my kitchen. I put things in them that match with the colors in each of these rooms. This also makes a nice attractive gift for someone.

Classic Songs Islamic Style

2006-11-27T18:56:00.000-08:00

Assalam alykom

My middle daughter who is four loves to sing songs. With growing up in America, I know many songs and rhymes that are part of my American culture. As an adult, these songs still remain imprinted in my memory, and I can recall them quickly. Eventhough, I have not heard most of these songs in over 30 years, I am still able to remember all the words. Many of these songs are quite catchy, and this could be one reason they remain with me. One of my favorites is Old Mcdonald Had A Farm. While singing this to my four year old daughter, I was inspired to change it around a little and make it more Islamic. This way in fits better with our life style as Muslims. Here is my version of this famous song:

Old Abdullah had a farm
Al hamdolilah, Al hamdolilah, Al hamdolilah,
And on that farm he had a sheep
Al hamdolilah, Al hamdolilah, Al hamdolilah
With a baaa here and a baaa there.
Here a baaa there a baaa everywhere a baa baa.
Old Abdullaha had a farm
Al hamdolilah, Al hamdolilah, Al hamdolilah

Old Abdullah had a farm
Subhannallah, Subhannallah, Subhannallah
And on that farm he had a duck
Subhannahallah, Subhannallah, Subhannallah
With a quack here and a quack there.
Here a quack there a quack everywhere a quack quack.
Old Abdullah had a farm
Subhannallah, Subhannallah, Subhannallah.

Old Abdullah had a farm
Allaho Akbar, Allaho Akbar, Allaho Akbar
And on that farm he had a cat.
Allaho Akbar, Allaho Akbar, Allaho Akbar.
With a meow here and a meow there.
Here a meow there a meow everywhere a meow meow.
Old Abdullah had a farm
Allaho Akbar, Allho Akbar, Allho Akbar

I hope you enjoy this song as much as my daughter and I have liked it. I have a few more, I have rewrote. I will save them for future posts, Inshallah.

The Story of My Cat

2006-11-15T11:16:00.000-08:00

Assalm alykom:

I recently wrote a story about our family cat. I sent my story to www.islamonline to see if they were interested. I have never written anything before, therefore I was very surprised that they liked the story. They published it to the website in Ramadan. They did an excellent job putting the story together and illustrating it. The story is for children and was inspired by our family cat who is pictured here. Our cat had runaway from home. It is a true story about this misfortune. The only untrue part is the ending. Our real life story did not end as happily as the one I wrote. For the link below, go to the stories called The Power of Duaa': Yusseff's Wish and The Power of Duaa': Bootsie's Return. I hope you enjoy the story as much as my family liked it.

You will find the story here

A Name Change: Loving Allah and Raising My Kids

2006-11-13T14:49:00.000-08:00

Assalm alykom:

I have recently had an opportunity to teach in an Islamic school. With this new career, I was also able to enroll my children in school for the first time. I am no longer considered an official homschooling mother. I am now a middle school Language Arts and History teacher. For the first time in their lives, my children are experiencing school.

The whole life style change has had many ups and downs. I think one of the positive things is the excitement that my children have to get up and go somewhere. There are many afterschool activities for them to involve themselves. Another positive note is the praise for the K12 cirriculum I was using. It is very advanced and has equipped my children above the normal level. My son was even able to skip a grade. One downside was the fact that my children never had to be responsible for organizing themselves. They had to learn to write down assignment in their planners. They had to learn to keep track of homework, they had to know when to bring what book for a test. It was hard for them at first, but now they are catching on to it all.
I hope to share my ideas that I have from my experience as a teacher. Keep checking back. I have many writing ideas to post in the future, Inshallah.

Bubble Painting

2006-09-06T05:12:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

Here is a quick and easy project for all ages. Be prepared to do it in a safe area because it is very messy. Here is how we did it:

Materials needed:

Paper(I used colored construction paper and white paper)
Dish soap
Bowls
Straws
Food coloring or tempra paints

Directions: Put water and dish soap in a bowl. You then add either tempra paints or food coloring. If you have little ones, I would use food coloring because it is more safe. Then you put your straw in the mixture and blow bubbles. Make sure you are in an area that you do not want to spill the mixture. Also, make sure your children are wearing a smock. When they start blowing the bubbles, the colors splash everywhere. When the bubbles are filling up in the bowl, gently place your paper over them. It makes a nice print on the paper.

Here are some more:

My kids made them into cards and sent them to their pen pals.

Tip #3 Multiple Children

2006-09-05T10:46:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

Here is a great helpful tip for those of you who have multiple children. If your children are between one and two years apart in age, you can combine some of your subjects. As many of you know, I teach from the K12 virtual school . The K12 school recommended that I teach some of the subjects at the same grade. They also said I should take the higher grade on these subjects. I started this in first grade. The subjects I decided to combine were History and Art. I could have combined Science too. However, I did not feel that my daughter was ready for the higher grade in that subject. At the time, there was a great deal of material involving measuring in the metric system. I did not think my daughter could skip a grade in that. Now, we are doing third and fourth grade. Teaching the History and Art at the fourth grade level saves me a good deal of time. I would recommend any of these subjects to combine with your children. Math and Language Arts would not be advised unless one child is more advanced and could just skip a grade. I find that any amount of time saved in homeschooling is a real valuable treasure. I hope that I have helped you achieve some of this value in your school.

Arabic Tile Magnets

2006-09-03T04:33:00.000-07:00

Assalam alykom:

Here is yet another tile project. Here is how I did it:

Materials needed:

Small ceramic tiles
Glass paints that are oven curable
Paint brushes
Hot glue gun or strong adhesive
Small thick round magnet

Directions: Paint your Arabic letters or numbers on to the tile. Follow the directions on the manufactures label for the paint. The one that I use, has a curing time in the oven for around a 1/2 an hour. After the tiles cool, you add your magnet with a hot glue gun or your choice of adhesive.

Jesus God the Son or Son of God or Son of Mary

2006-09-01T06:18:00.001-07:00

Assalm alykom:

The Da Vinci Code brought Jesus to the minds of hundreds of millions of people. Jesus is a very controversial figure. The controversy about him includes speculations ranging from being a liar bastard to being Almighty God. As people disagree about the reality of Jesus, they agree on the importance of finding the truth about him. In your quest to find the truth about Jesus, you may turn to historical writings, New testament writings or to the movie theater. But, have you thought about the Quran as a source to find the truth about Jesus? Do not be surprised, you can find the truth about Jesus in the Quran of Muhammad. In the Quran, Allah communicates to us pivotal truths about Jesus, his birth, mission, message, ascension, and return. Loveallah has just produced a small booklet listing everything that Allah said about Jesus in the Quran. This booklet is very instrumental to the dawah efforts. Friends, family members, co-workers and neighbors are great candidates to receive this powerful booklet. You can send your email to abunour@loveallah.net and request a free copy of the book.

This entry was taken from the introduction of the booklet "Jesus God the Son or Son of God or Son of Mary Read the Quranic Testimony." All credit should be given to the website www.loveallah.net for its effort and support to the dawah.

WOW! Look what a little paint can do!

2006-08-07T14:09:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

This was my last big project of the summer. It was the biggest project by far. We live in a house that is well over 30 years old. I have the kitchen cabinets to prove it. They were in really poor shape. They were packed with dirt that I had tried many things hoping to remove it. I looked into having the cabinets refaced. This is the existing cabinets with a laminate put on the outside. Well, the price tag for this was $7000. This was way above my price range. I then proceeded to check Home Depot and they told me the price would be 30-40% higher than the refacing. Well my next idea was painting them. My husband told me no last year, and that it was to much work. He said the cabinets just needed replacing. This year, I decided to present him with more information to make it more convincing. I searched the internet for all the different ways to go about repainting them, and changing the hardware. I researched all the different kinds of paints, cleaners and hardware for the cabinets. I went to home depot and priced everything and then I presented my case. This year, that approach seemed to work, and he said yes. Here are some before and after pictures of how it all turned out:

The paint that I used is called Kilz Colors It was a real thick durable paint. We did not have to paint so many coats and we did not have to paint a primer before we painted them. Here are some more before and after shots.

The tiled counters were also in bad shape. I took a small grout saw and cut all the grout out . Then, I just regrouted the counter and the wall. I found a product that was called a grout sealer. This is suppose to prevent it from staining when food spills happen. I am still skeptical if it really works. Here is a before and after of this job.

This part of the counter was completely missing all of the tile. I did a little mosaic work on this part. This way I could fit the tiles without having to cut them. Here is the before and after on this.
I have a bar that divides the kitchen from the living room. The wood had started to peel off in sheets. Therefore, I could not paint it because the surface would not be even. I researched it at Home Depot and came up with a few options. One was a laminate that could be glued on to the bar. This was a little pricey and looked complicated. My husband thought we could use vinyl tiles that we use on the floor. So that is what we did. We also painted some molding the same color as the cabinets and placed it along the bottom and the sides. See what you think about the before and after on this one?
After the very expensive estimates I had got for new cabinets, how much do you think this little remodeling job cost me? Well it cost 2 weeks of my time, a little sweat and around $200. I am very pleased with the results and the price! Therefore, if you decide to replace your cabinets, try a little paint for a fraction of the price.

Home Decorating: Bar Stools

2006-08-02T05:49:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

Last year I spray painted these bar stools white. Well, with four kids the paint did not last long. This year I decided to paint them with latex paint. After painting them a nice tan color, I decided to paint flowers and vines down the side of them. To assure that the paint would not be scratched off, I put a couple coats of polyurathane on it. Now, they look really shiney, and they clean up real easy too. For the covers, I needed something that would be easy to clean. I have tried putting a plastic over the covering with a staple gun. However, my children always complain about the plastic and it usually starts to rip. So, I came up with an easy removable cover that I can just throw in the wash. I choose fabrics that would not show to much stains. I cut a large circle bigger than the stool. I sewed a casing large enough to run a small elastic piece through it. I just tightened the elastic so it would fit snug over the stool. Now, I can remove them and wash them easily. Here is how they turned out:

My counter where the stools are, extend out to the living room area. Therefore, I just made some pillows for the couch from the same material as the stools.

Tic-Tac Name

2006-07-30T14:31:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

Here is a nice little game that I made for my children. We call it Tic-Tac Name.

Materials Needed to Make the Game

Small tiles(usually sold in sheets with a lot of tiles on the sheet)
Larger tile
Oven cured glass paints
Hot glue gun
felt

Directions for Making the Game
Paint at least five small tiles with each name of your family member. As you can see, we did ours in Arabic. For mine and my husband, I wrote mama and baba. If you have friends over often, you might want to paint one that says friend or guest. Paint the lines on your larger tile with the grid for a tic-tac toe game. After you paint everything, place them in the oven as directed with the glass paint you choose. Do not buy air dry glass paints because the paint may come off more easily. After the tiles are painted, cured and cooled off, you need to glue a piece of felt on the bottom of them all. I used a hot glue gun and it is still sticking to the bottom of mine. Here is a picture of what I did:

This keeps it from scratching your tables and other furniture the kids may set the game on. I hope you enjoy the game as much as we do! It is actually a little harder to play and pay attention because I am use to x's an o's. Therefore, my attention is not as sharp when I try to see the names. Let me know how you do InShallah!

Tip #2 How to keep up with the socks

2006-07-25T16:34:00.000-07:00

Assalam alykom:

Well, as all of you homeschooling mothers know, keeping up with your house duties can really be a challenge. Here is another advice that is part of the laundry. It might save you some time. Any time that you can save in homeschooling can be very valuable. I have six people in my family. Keeping socks organized as they drift through the laundry process can be impossible sometimes. I have been given the advice to pin them when you put them in the wash or wash them in a seperate bag. Well, none of these methods worked for me because it was to much trouble to pin them and washing them in a seperate bag was to much trouble for me to coordinate. Here is what I found works for me. When I take the clothes from the dryer, I right away remove the socks and place them in a designated sock basket. I do not worry about seperating and matching the socks at this point. Once a week, I have my two older children sort all the socks for the week. They make a game out of it sometimes and see who can match the most socks. After they finish matching, they each put them all away. This works great for us. We may still have missing socks, but at least those we could find are all matched up each week.

My mosaic Table

2006-07-19T09:41:00.000-07:00

Assalm alykom:

After Doing a few mosaic pots, I thought I would try my hand at a coffee table. I had acquired this old coffee table from a friend of mine. It had quite a bit of dents and scratches on it. Therefore I really could not decide what to do with it. Repainting would be too hard. There is a thick load of varnish on top and the pedestal is a different color all together. I liked the look of the table and it was sturdy and good quality. Therefore, I decided to tile it. First, I mapped out my design. I used whole tiles, broken tiles and glass jewels. I glued them on the table with silicone glue. Here is how it looked after I glued them: I let the tiles dry over night and the next day I added the grout. I bought a nice cream color to match the tiles. When I added the grout, I noticed that I could not cover the sharp edges on the broken tiles that were on the edge. Therefore, I just removed them all together. Here is how it looked after I added the grout: Since I took the tiles from the sides and the original paint was two different colors, I just sanded the edge and the pedestal and painted it to match the tiles. Here is the result: I was really surprised how nice it turned out. Then, I got to thinking what if my four messy children wiped chocolate, spilled juice or their just plain dirty hands messed up the grout. So, after a little contemplating and research on the internet, I decided to paint several coats of polyurathane over the top. It turned out better than I thought! It is also highly durable. See for yourself: This is what I call a trash to treasure project. Someone gave me the table, and the tiles were leftovers from house remodeling. I am really enjoying it and would not mind trying another piece of furniture.