The pumpkin patch

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!

Field Trips

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.

In Touch with the Creation of God

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

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.

A Turtle

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!

Looking through a window

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.

A Morning Stroll on the Beach

Assalm alykom:

There is a famous hadith that says:

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

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





Here is a nice water bird we shot also.

A Field Trip

Assalam Alykom:



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





















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






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











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















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

The Spider

Surah 29 AL-ankabut(The Spider)

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

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

The Red Tide

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.