Painting Wooden Crafts

Assalam alykom:

My children go to the workshop each month at Home Depot. They so far have made many nice things. This is a free workshop on the first Saturday of each month. I have listed it on my blog before and you can read more about it here. One thing that the workshop provides is a nice wooden project to paint when you get home. The last workshop was a nice wooden tool box. It is a great piece for holding books, toys or whatever.


This one I painted for my son.









This one my eight year old daughter painted








And, this one my four year old daughter painted.









This one I painted for my girls. In Arabic, it says,"our books" on one side. The other side says, "we love to read."





Here is a list of materials:

*Wooden object (The craft stores have many unfinished wooden pieces. You can pick small pieces such as birdhouses and small boxes for around 1 dollar)
*Paint brushes different sizes
*Kilz water base primer
*Variety of colored Acrylic paints
Directions:
Depending on the piece, you may have to use a little of sand paper to smooth it. Apply 1 coat of Kilz to your piece. Let it dry and then apply another coat. This allows you to paint colors or even white paint onto your wooden piece. If you apply the paint directly, it will absorb into the wood. After the Kilz is completely dry, start painting your designs with the acrylic paint. Let them dry for at least 24 hours before you start using them. Enjoy!

So, what does a homeschooling mother do over the summer?

Assalam alykom:

Since I am in K12, I have the summer off from school. That means time for me to do all the things that I say I never have time for because I am homeschooling.




After the school is finished for us,
we take a family vacation.
The passed two years we have
gone to Gatlinburg ,Tennessee. We rent a cabin and stay in the mountains. Here is a view from our cabin. The kids really enjoy it. There is the Smokey Mountain National Forest. You can spend days there just walking through the trails and endless waterfalls.


Here is one of the water falls that we saw.

After vacation, the next thing that I do is clean out our study room. I throw out all the old papers,broken crayons,dried up markers without lids and reorganize the room. The next thing I do is began to organize my house and do the deep cleaning. During the school year, there is really only time for surface cleaning. The last thing that I do is try to find time for myself. I love doing crafts. I usually take the summer as an opportunity to do my craft projects. I hope to be posting them over the summer. Many of them are kids crafts. As far as the studies for my children, they work in more detail with my husband on their Quran, Arabic, History and Islamic Studies. I am having them work on their multiplication tables. There is not much time to work on these during the school year. I am also having them write letters to a pen pal. I think this is good to keep up their writing skills. In Shallah, I will be posting my crafts soon. So, keep checking back.

Highlights Magazine for children

Assalm alykom:

As a child, I use to get the subscription for this magazine and I loved it. Now as a Muslim, I tend to be selective about what my children read. Sometimes getting these magazines you have to edit alot of what you do not approve. Therefore I tend to stay away from magazine subscriptions. I remember with this magazine, my favorite thing was their hidden pictures. When I came across their website, I found you can print these out from the website. From my previous posts, you know my family loves the I Spy books. These hidden pictures are very similar to the I Spy. You can find them here in the Parents' Corner. There are some stories, crafts and of course the hidden pictures. I hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

Is no child left behind stupid in America?

In the state of Florida, the motto for education is "read by nine". I think that this is too old to expect a child to be able to read. They should start reading as they recognize letters. My children began reading in both English and Arabic by the age of five. I do not think that this is because they are exceptionally smart. I think that they are normal. The United States government wanted to hold schools accountable for their students. They implemented The No Child Left Behind program. This required the students to take state mandated achievement tests and the schools were left responsible for the results. When the program was first introduced, my state was at the bottom of the list in scores. The schools get funding based on their test scores. With the low scores, the state became very aggressive to raise the scores. My question is: "Does designing the whole educational process to pass a test and get funding educate a child?" Many parents have expressed to me that their child's curriculum is completely centered around passing those tests. I think that achievement tests are great to track your child's progress, however the entire teaching process should not be studying for those tests. The tests in my state are only for reading and math. If the education is mainly concentrated on this, what about the social sciences such as History, Social Studies, and Science? Is this really making children smarter and more educated? If you saw this piece on 20/20 you might wonder. It is called Stupid in America. I myself was raised in rural Indiana. I attribute my lack in education due to the environment mostly concentrating on farming. Therefore, when I started college I was very far behind in Math. After taking several remedial courses,I was able to catch myself up to the college level. I have a good friend whose son graduated from highschool last year in urban Orlando Florida. He had the same problem. He also had to start in remedial math. According to the ABC article, this may be a trend. There is another interesting piece of information about education out there. This one is put out by the National Geographic. They did a survey to test the geographic literacy of 18-24 year old individuals. I was really shocked at the results.
Take a look and see what you think. I have to say, that the k12 curriculum does an excellent job with geography. They start having the children in kindergarten learn all the continents and the oceans. At first I though it was a bit to much for a five year old. But now, at 8 and 10 years old, they know all the continents, the oceans, many of the rivers, mountain ranges and many of the countries inside each continent. I also think that being Muslim educates my children about different cultures and countries. I look forward to any responses about this subject. Until I started homeschooling, I never really new the problem existed.

Testing

In the state of Florida, a traditional homeschooler can
be accountable for their work in one of three ways. One
way is to have your child tested along with the public
students. Your child can take the state standardized test.
I would not recommend this unless you prepare your child
with many sample tests before hand. The public school
system works long and hard to prepare their students
exclusively for this test.
Another way to hold your child accountable is to have
them tested with a general standardized test. This would be for
example the Stanford achievement Test. This has to be
given to your child by a professional teacher.
The last way to show your childs academic progress
would to be to maintain a portfolio of all of your child's
work. You would present this to a professional teacher.
The teacher would then evaluate the work . The teacher
may talk with your child or have your child do some
reading or writing. This evaluation determines if your
child is prepared for the next grade.
As you know, I am part of the K12 virtual public school.
Therefore, my children are required to participate in the
state standardized testing. This requirement starts at 3rd
grade. I have to say, that I am not a fan of achievement
tests. I think the preparation for them consumes a lot of
quality educational time. I have friends who have hired
tutors for the children and do nothing but worry about
those tests. K12 has testing booklets through out the
curriculum. They also have a short course that teaches
the child strategies for test taking. I found this helpful.
They had a program on the computer to practice for testing.
The child would take a series of tests on the computer. After they
passed each test they earned blue ribbons. The administration
created competition amongst the students to win prizes. I feel
that the K12 preparation for this test did not detract from our educational experience. My son felt very confident in his ability
to take the test. As a matter of fact, his scores where very high.
I was very happy with this because my children do several hours
a day of Arabic, Quran and Islamic Studies. I had some
reservations that they will be able to keep up with it all.
Alhamdolilah, they are doing great! The virtual school itself
rated number one with scores in the third grade. That left an
impression with me that the k12 curriculum is accountable and
good. I also thought that since it is a "controlled" public
education for my children, if they keep up these high scores,
maybe they will qualify for scholarships or elite programs.
This entry is just another way to share my experiences down
my road of homeschooling. InshAllah you find benefit from it.

Ants and Cheerios

Assalm alykom:

You might be perplexed by my title in this entry. You are probably already asking yourself: "What is the connection with ants and Cheerios?" Well it starts with a little riddle I read the other day. So, here it goes:

What do ants use for hula-hoops? See answer below








Answer: Cheerios

I thought this was just the cutest little riddle. Only a mother who has ever had toddlers would find this funny. I have four children and the oldest is ten now. Therefore, I have been carrying in my purse in a ziplock bag Cheerios for the last ten years. Oh my, they have changed over the years. There is the plain flavor, the honey coated flavor, the frosted flavor and the newest one is the yoghurt covered. There is one problem with this flavor and that is, not all the cheerios have the yoghurt on them. Therefore, my children pick all the yoghurt covered ones out of the ziplock bag and eat them first. I think Cheerios is one of first finger foods that all my children had tried. It is quite amusing watching them try to pick them up. Their little fingers just fit into the hole perfectly. As they get older they go from eating one by one with their finger to just grabbing them by the handful and eating them. I even found a nice little activity with Cheerios to do with my three year old. I gave her a nice long piece of yarn and she made a Cheerios necklace. Then her and my two year old daughter had fun eating it. This created a slight little break so I could teach my older children. Are Cheerios a staple in your family like mine?

Wind Sock an easy craft

Assalm alykom:

I am a volunteer at my masjid. I hold a craft class for children once a month. I have been doing it for about 3 months now. I have really been enjoying it, and I hope the children are enjoying it too! This is the craft that we did this month. It was so easy and it can accommodate children of different age groups doing it together.

Materials needed:

craft foam sheets

foam glue

foam stickers

assorted ribbons

paper punch

Directions:

Design the foam sheet while it is flat. For the younger children they just peeled the stickers and arranged them on the sheet. The older children cut out designs from the extra foam and glued them on. Make sure to leave about one and a half inches from each end free from design. This is where you need to glue it. After you have finished the design, you need to use the paper punch and put 4 holes in the bottom and tie your ribbons to it. The more ribbons you use the more attractive the sock will become. The next step is to punch two holes in the top. Next you need to fold the foam over like a tube and glue it. It is best to set something heavy inside the tube while it dries overnight. Finally tie one last ribbon through the two holes in the top. This is what you use to hang it. The socks in the photos at the top are the ones my daughters and I made. I hope you enjoy this as much as we did.

A Vacuum and Allah's Qadar

Assalm alykom:

When you homeschool, finding a tool that will help you with your house work can be essential. This is especially true if you have multiple children, with some being toddlers. When you homeschool everyone is home with you alllllllllllll day long! Therefore, they are eating and making messes as they go. You can try to keep after them, but you really cannot be in two or even three places at one time. I was struggling and wasting time sweeping my hard floors with a broom several times a day. At the end of the day, it would take me almost 45 mins. just to vacuum all the messes on the carpet. After this struggle, I decided to buy a small cordless upright stick vacuum. I first bought a medium priced model. I was excited with it for about the first two weeks. I was sweeping up crumbs and what not 3 times a day with ease and quickness. Then, the motor quit on it. I began to panic because this became such a much needed item in my house. I immediately returned it and got the same model once again. I am happy once again with my new found treasure. Then, after a week the motor quits again. I return it and decide this store does not have a better one. I go to another store and decide to buy a much more expensive model. This one is still cordless but it has a detachable hand-vac. I take it home and I am very excited to try it out. Well, I was very happy once again. This one is even better than the first one. I plug along with this new luxury vacuum for about 2 weeks. Then "it" happened again. The motor started to fade. I was really beginning to wonder if a vacuum was really met to be for me. I took it back again and exchanged it for the same model. I liked it so much, and I thought I would give it another try. Well, after I took it out of the box, I made two swipes across the floor and the wheel fell off. I tried snapping it back on, but it would not work. It was an obvious factory defect. I took it back and decided to get yet another model. This was like a stick vac but with no detachable hand-vac. It was also a deluxe model because I did not want the cheap stuff that would fall apart. Eventhough, up until now the expensive stuff was doing just that. I arrive home with less enthusiasm because I was growing tired of the trips back and forth to the store. I start to assemble the handle and realize I cannot not even put it together properly. The reason being is due to another factory error. The handle was made backwards. I was so disappointed. My husband offered to save me a trip and returned yet another vacuum. When he arrived home he had the economical version of the same one he returned. Well, needless to say almost a week later, it is truly a blessing. Finally, after two months and six vacuums I am truly happy with the vacuum that Allah blessed me with.
The lesson that I learned from this is no matter what we try to do to make the outcome of what we want, Allah's Qadar will prevail. He is the Decider and the Planner of everything. I know that I tried everything to get the right vacuum. I tried different brands, different stores, and different priced vacuums. The result was all the same. The vacuum that was the best for me did not come until Allah willed it for me. I also know that what is willed for me is the best. Eventhough, it may not feel that way to me. In the case of my vacuum. I ended up with the best vacuum at the best price. I just had to keep my patience to achieve that in the end. May Allah make for all the Muslim what is best for them! AMEEN

Summer Is Near

Assalm alykom:

I will finish another year of homeschooling in just two weeks. Since I am in a virtual public school, I do a nine month school year with three months off for summer. The school technically runs through June. However, I have finished everything early for my two children. I debate all of the time whether or not I like to have the entire summer off. I cannot decide if I would rather school the kids more laid back during the year. I would teach them, for example 4 days a week and take three days off to attend better to my household. On the other hand, I kind of like the idea of having three whole months to work on long projects. I also like the three month break to evaluate the things I did the year before. I tend to use this time to do some hard reorganization if my schooling room. My children continue in the summer to learn Quran, Arabic and Islamic studies. During this time, my husband takes the opportunity to work with them harder. I usually do not work with them at all in the summer,but this summer I want to concentrate on working with them on their multiplication tables. I think that is enough. The k12 program I use is quite intense sometimes. I think that we are all looking for the break. I would love to hear how others do the scheduling. Maybe I can get some new ideas from what I am doing now. Please let me know your ideas. Do you homeschool all year around or do you take the summer off?

Butterfly

Assalam alykom:

My daughter just finished studying in Science the life cycle of the butterfly. It is truly an amazing process that this creature endures. I think SubhannAllah, how it starts as an egg, then a caterpillar, then it goes into this strange cocoon, and then emerges as the beautiful butterfly. I absolutely love butterflies. They are truly an exquisite creature that Allah has created. Here are a few websites that give a good explanation of the life cycle:

http://www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/jackhulland/projects/butterflies/

http://www.vtaide.com/png/butterfly.htm

http://www.shrewsbury-ma.gov/schools/beal/curriculum/butterfly/butterflies.html

I can remember, when I was a young girl, living in rural Indiana, I had the opportunity to witness the migration of a group of monarch butterflies. They flew in one evening just before the sunset and covered several mulberry trees on my neighbors land. You could hardly see any leaves on the trees. It was if all the leaves had turned orange and where walking around. They looked exactly like this picture. It is surely a site to see if you are so fortunate. The monarch butterfly is a fascinating creature, and here are a few sites to give more detail about its life and habitat:

This one has a nice little movie where the butterfly emerges from its cocoon.

http://www.units.muohio.edu/dragonfly/cycle/index.htmlx

http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/monarch_butterfly.htm

http://www.kidzone.ws/animals/butterflypuzzle.htm

With all this inspiration of the beautiful butterfly, I decided to write a poem for my kids that went along with what we learned.

BUTTERFLY

Butterfly, butterfly

High in the sky.

Allah created you a beautiful creature.

He made you different from many other insects.

You are made with a metamorphical feature.

Butterfly, butterfly

High in the sky.

You start your life as an egg, carefully placed on a leaf.

After you hatch, you emerge as a caterpillar and you eat and eat.

Alhamdolilah, this stage of your life is a time that is only brief.

Butterfly, butterfly

High in the sky.

You wind into a silken thread, so hidden from those who see.

You are happy in your small tight little bed.

This is how Allah made you to be.

Butterfly, butterfly

High in the sky.

You sit in this thread called a cocoon for only a limited time.

You push your way out of your silken world, to become a butterfly.

Your flying above the trees, not as before where you had to climb.

Butterfly, butterfly

High in the sky.

Your wings give you the beauty that you contain.

They are liked colored glass that I can see the sun shining through

I love watching you in my garden passing each flower again.

Butterfly, butterfly

High in the sky.

I pray that Allah keeps you an enjoyment for me.

I hope you will visit my garden, so I will not miss your flight.

I praise Allah for creating you making your beauty for all to see.

Here are some fun websites theat are also related to the butterfly:

http://www.concord.k12.nh.us/schools/bgs/TIBG/Games/games.htm

http://www.butterfliesinbloom.com/games/

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/coloringbook/sketch_butterflies.html

This one I really enjoyed:

http://www.mrnussbaum.com/butterfly.htm

This is a general site full of a great deal of sites on butterflies:

http://edtech.kennesaw.edu/web/butfly.html

I hope everyone enjoys this information on the butterfly as much as we did!

A Prophet of Allah is in the news

Assalam alykom:

For the past few months, Our beloved Prophet Jesus has been mentioned on the nightly news frequently. The first controversy that came about was the Davinci Code. It is a book with a different account about the life of Jesus than what the Bible states. It became a bestselling novel and is soon to be a newly released movie. There is another controversy about this book. . There is different author that wrote a similar book, and he is suing the author of the Davinci Code for plagiarism. This story gives yet another opportunity for the media to mention Jesus.
Last week ,I saw another piece on Jesus. There is another book out called the Jesus Papers. This author claims that there is proof that Jesus never died on the cross. I found this interesting because we as Muslims also believe that he never died on the cross. However ,the claim in this book is that he was hung on the cross and then removed before he died. We as Muslims believe he was never even hung on the cross at all.
Also, last week The National Geographic did a piece on the Gospel Of Judea. Apparently, this is a lost text that scientist are piecing together after it was found. It is supposedly shedding some light on this disciple of Jesus. It is stating that he was not actually a betrayer of Jesus as the Christians believe.
With all these accounts in the media about Jesus, we Muslims should be brushing up on our knowledge about him. This subject gives us a perfect oppurtunity to give dawah . I think most Christians probably do not even know that we recognize Jesus or any other prophets mentioned in the Bible,for that matter. For starters, we can go to the Quran and know what Allah said about Jesus. Here is another nice tool for dawah.

This lecture was given to an MSA:

1. Jesus in Islam A
2. Jesus in Islam B

The invitation was for the general public. Therefore, most of the people in the audience are not Muslim.
Be aware of what the Media is saying about Jesus. That way you can be prepared to tell someone what Islam says about him.

Finally!.........A positive story

Assalam alykom:

I turn on the radio in the car. They are talking very negatively about Islam. I turn on the television to watch the news. There is more negativity being spread. I look at articles on the internet written by Muslims and many times they are about their bad experiences while living out their life in society. Well, I have a wonderful story that happened to me and it is because I am a Muslim.
My 18 month daughter had a minor dental procedure that required a short hospital stay. She had to have general anesthesia so she had not eaten since the day before. After the procedure was finished, and she had been released, and I could tell that she was very hungry. I took her down to the hospital cafeteria in hopes to find her something appropriate. After finding the cafeteria, I proceeded to search for something like yogurt or jello or apple sauce. As I was looking, a woman who worked in the hospital called out toward me. She said to me, "Sister, Can I help you find something?" She looked at me quizzically and said," You are a sister are you not?" I told her that I am not Catholic and that my religion is Islam. She told me that was wonderful and I was still a sister to her. I continued to search for an appropriate food item for my baby. I finally found some yoghurt and a small bottle of juice. By the time I found these things the line had about twenty people in it. As I approached the line, my "sister" friend was already close to the front. She grabbed my items from my hand and insisted to purchase my items for me. I was very adamant to pay for the items and handed her a few dollars. However, she was more adamant and told me that she wanted to buy the items for her "sister". She handed me the items and told me "Have a great day SISTER!" I was really touched. Sometimes I do not know what to think. Do people see me in the hijab and conjure up all the evil things that are being said in the media or are they like my sister friend and they do not buy into all of that? I feel apprehensive with myself in public. Sometimes people give me unfriendly stares, but mostly they smile and are kind. However, my incident with my sister friend really made me feel better about it all!

Spring !

Asslam alykom:

Spring is my favorite time of year. I love to see the flowers blossoming. Spring can also bring some lessons in homeschooling. You can start a little garden with your children by seed or just getting a few already grown plants from your nearest store. We do a little bit of both. I take my children with and they pick out all of the flowers and seeds. Beware: this could take some time. There were so many flowers at our local store that my children had a hard time deciding which ones to get. Once we chose just the right ones, we carefully transported them home to plant. The children where involved in the whole process right down to the planting. They carefully planned and plotted where they would plant each little flower before they started to dig. After it was all complete, we had a nice little garden. As you can see from the pictures below it is quite modest but it has potential.














This is the beginnings of the herb portion of our garden. We have planted mint, thyme,dill, parsley and two different kinds of basil.








This sign is at the front door stuck right in with the flowers. It is quite easy to make. Making a few with your kids as a nice garden project is real simple. I used a tile left over from a bathroom remodeling we had done. You paint the tiles with glass paints. Just follow the directions on the paint in how to cure it. I attached mine to a pole I painted white. I attached a piece of lace to the tile with clear silicone glue. Then, I nailed the lace on to the white pole. Here is another nice little project for some more garden art. I have made these before but not quite as flashy as these. The ones that I made where simpler in design. Just be careful when making these the metal can be a little sharp.



Now that you have seen the part of the garden that we planted from already grown flowers, you will have to wait for the pictures of the ones we planted as seeds. We dug a small area for those and planted mostly sunflower seeds, marigolds and four o'clocks. The four oc'clock seeds we harvested from last year so, it will be interesting to see if they grow. While we were digging up the ground to plant the seeds, my son was so interested at what was under the ground. He could not keep up with the amount of creatures we dug up. There where worms, beetles, spiders and many bugs we could not identify. He said that Subhanah Allah there is so many living things just right here in the ground next to the house. Here is a nice website to help you and my son identify these bugs. Here is one more site about plants that I would like to share. My kids love the Venus fly trap plant, and really want to get one. Here is a site that has some nice videos on carnivorous plants.

The Reality of Death

Assalam alykom:

It was Sunday morning and my husband just received a phone call that a dear sister in our Islamic community has fallen ill. She is in a coma and in critical condition. We were outside as he is telling me the news. I can hear the birds singing their morning tunes, but my mind is drifting to this shocking information. I am stunned, I just saw her two days ago at the masjid. Her conversations with me that evening, delightful as usual. Apparently, she had an aneurysm in her head on Saturday night as she lay sleeping. She was rushed to the hospital where they hooked her up to all the life saving machines. She laid there for two more days until the doctors determined that she was brain dead. Now, it is Monday evening and they unhooked her from the machines. The impact of her death on our whole community was felt that day. She left behind two teenage boys and a husband of twenty seven years. The reality of death set in for most of us in our small circle of Muslims. She was someone who was health conscious. She was only in her late forties with no serious ailments. It just goes to show us that Allah is the decider of our fate.
No matter how substantiated we are in living healthy and prolonging our life, Allah is the one who plans when our death will actually arrive. There is an old saying that I know. "Live your life as if everyday will be your last day" As Muslims we should remember this. We get all caught up in to the fast paced world ,and we forget about the "other world". That is the world of the life in the grave.
With the realization of death through this sister, it became a reminder for us all. Many of us where talking about how frightening it is that you may go to sleep at night and never wake up. However, Allah gave us benefit in dua. So there is hope for our fears. There are certain dua you say in the morning and evening. There are also certain dua that you can say each night before you sleep.
The sadness of my dear friend's family must be intense. Therefore,I pray that Allah grants ease to them.

"To Allah we belong and to Him we shall return"

Islamic Parenting

Asslam alykom:











We live in a time and place of demoralization,values deterioration, and severe desensitization to wrong and right.

Two main reasons are as follows:
1. Lack of adequate and correct methods and standards to raising children to be good men and women.
2. Excessive freedom. Personal freedom in many cases becomes the license to be immoral.

Personal freedom in many cases becomes the cover under which hide all kinds of evil. Promoters of immortality under the cover of protecting personal freedom want us to believe that the immoral practices people do as long as it does not affect you directly, it is not of your business. This could be one of the biggest lies of the 21st century.

This lie is in direct contradiction to the Torah, Injeel and most importantly, the Quran.

7:164 {When a group among them said, why do you admonish a people whom Allah is about to destroy or to punish with a severe punishment? They responded, to be absolved before your Lord and maybe they will protect themselves from Allah.}

3:131{You are the best nation that came to humanity, because you enjoin in good and eradicate evil and believe in Allah.}

The affect of immorality is like contamination in the air. Believers must speak out against evil practices. We as Muslims, still preserve a higher level of morality and values than the other classes of the society. We still have a mighty challenge ahead of us. That is to raise our children to be pious men and women in an arena of moral and theological chaos.

This introduction was taken from the study guide for the Parenting series available at www.loveallah.net.

You can listen to the audio for these very important lessons here:

Parenting Workshop
by Abunour
1. Parenting Models

2. Parents' Requirements

3. Children's Psychological needs A

4. Psych. needs and the role of the home
5. Roles of the Father

6. Roles of the Mother

7. Disciplinary Rules A

8. Disciplinary Rules B

Crayons

Assalm Alykom:

I think crayons are a top staple in the journey of homeschooling. The young and the old find uses for them. My older children use crayons to color maps for History, label bone parts for Science, or just to draw and color. If you have toddlers like me, you will find that they use them too! They may have them for an afternoon snack. They may also draw you a beautiful mural on your living room wall or your dining room table. What ever the age, there is a use for crayons. However, do you know how they are made? I did not until I read this.

There are alot of projects and ideas for using crayons. Here is an article that I came across that had a number of good ideas in it. The article is called Crazy for Crayons.
http://familyfun.go.com/arts-and-crafts/drawpaint/feature/famf18crayon/famf18crayon.html

One of the most original ideas for crayons has to come from Crayola. They even have a section for Islamic Art

Do you have alot of broken crayons? Well, with my toddlers and their activeness, I have alot of these. Well, if you do too, do not throw them away. Here are some ideas to recycle crayons.
http://www.crayola.com/search/results.cfm?keywords=recycling+crayons&x=5&y=8
http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/crayon.html
http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/ckcrayon.html
http://www.kidsdomain.com/craft/staingl.html

I hope you find this post helpful in using your crayons!

Do You Know Allah?

Assalam Alaykom:

The best way to know Allah is to read what He said about Himself in the Quran.

Know Allah by His words
Know Allah by His Names

Jesus in the Quran

Assalam alykom:

The best way to know Jesus is to read what Allah said about him in the Quran.

Jesus in the Quran

MWA Poetry Contest

Assalam alykom:

This is a wonderful opportunity for the older writers in the homeschooling world.


Announcing the Muslimah Writers Alliance First Annual People's Choice Poetry Competition and Blog!
The Muslimah Writers Alliance First Annual People's Choice Competition held in conjunction with National Poetry Month, April 1-30, sponsored by the Academy of American Poets, is a free-style category contest open to anyone age 12 and up.This event is designed to support creativity and fun with writing in honor of National Poetry Month! Yes, it's a little early to start thinking about April, but not too early to start thinking about writing that poem! If you would like to enter your poem in MWA's First Annual People's Choice Poetry Competition, please be sure to include contact information when emailing your entries to: http://us.f326.mail.yahoo.com/ym/Compose?To=PoetryContest@MuslimahWritersAlliance.com. Limit: 3 entries per person. There is no fee for entering this competition.DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: APRIL 21, 2006. Contest 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners will be announced and winning entries posted May 1, 2006, Insha'Allah. (Prizes to be announced, subscribe to contest blog for updates.) Copyright remains exclusive to you, the author and will be indicated at the bottom of each entry. VOTING: Each entry will be voted on by YOU the reader! The MWA contest blog has been set up to receive comments (votes), however, only registered users will be able to vote via the blog in order to deflect duplicate votes from being made. If you do not wish to vote as a registered user, you may cast your vote via email. A comment (vote) link is shown under each entry posted on the contest blog. When commenting (voting) on entries, please leave your Poem Rating. Each poem is rated on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the highest. Any comment/vote that does not specifically include a rating will not be counted as a vote. Submit your entry today and don't forget to share the blog link (http://www.mwapeopleschoice.blogspot.com/) with your friends, insha'Allah!To learn more about Muslimah Writers Alliance visit: http://www.muslimahwritersalliance.com/ To Join Muslimah Writers Alliance visit: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Muslimah_Writers_AllianceVisit The Academy of American Poets at http://www.poets.org/Copyright © Muslimah Writers Alliance 2006. All Rights Reserved

Homeschooling Burnout

Assalam Alykom:

Around this time of year, I usually start suffering from homeschooling burnout. I think it is very normal because you have been working hard for about six months. Things start to pile up about this time and the ambiance and excitement of starting the new school year is long gone. The only thing you want at this point is to just finish for the summer.

Well, this is the first year I did not feel like that. I think the reason is because I am more organized and I know what to expect. I think that having high expectations is a large factor in suffering from burnout. Do not have lofty goals with your children. Do not do more than your children can handle. Make sure that your goals are realistic and attainable. The other reason that I think I did not experience this burnout is that I am more organized this year. I remodeled our study room last summer to make our accommodations comfortable. Our "classroom" is a more pleasant place to be now. We do not dread coming in every morning. I strived to make it a comfortable room. After all, we are only spending 5 to 6 hours a day in it. On the subject of organization, I have done a better job in mastering the housework with the homeschooling. I think the housework is another big contributor to
burnout. If you can overcome that, you are on your way to avoiding this setback in homeschooling. Here is a nice link with many articles that can help you with homeschooling burnout.

Google Earth

Assalam Alykom:

This is my latest find for homeschooling. It is Google Earth. I found it to be a highly prized asset to homeschooling. In the history for my children, we are studying Asia. In particular, we are concentrating on the country of China. The children just learned how the Ming Dynasty ruled China for many years. They also just studied the Forbidden City, which was built by one of the Ming emperors. Here is a view from the Google Earth of the city. The satellite picture is amazingly clear. It is exactly the printout that came in the kids history. Have a look:
After downloading the program,(which is free by the way). The kids and I have been thinking of all kinds of places we should visit. Here are some of the places that we have been to so far.



The City of Chicago






Niagara Falls, Canada






The Grand Canyon,USA







The Pyramids of Egypt




Basically, it is a 3D view of the planet. It is interactive in a way which makes you appear that you are flying to each place you are searching. Many of the places have a 3 dimensional look to them. Not all places are so visible. For example, I tried Mecca and Medinah, and they are very blurry. Back on the subject of China, I also tried the Great Wall of China and was unable to locate it. It is fun to look up your own house. The kids and I did this too. You just put your street address and the Google Earth will fly you there. I encourage you to download this program if you can. I found it to be very educational, fun and exciting at the same time.

Homeschooling Multiple Children with Toddlers

Assalm alykom:

I have four children. The ages are 10,8,3 and 18 months. Homeschooling this variety of ages can be very challenging. The biggest part of the challenge comes from the toddlers. This can be very distracting to the older children who are trying to concentrate and pay attention. During school, my toddlers have done quite a bit to distract everything. They have written on the walls, climbed on the desk,torn up the books, ate markers and crayons. Then there is the everyday tasks that involve todddlers. The tasks involve breaking up disputes amongst them, feeding them, change their diapers, potty train them. The list is endless. So, you may ask how do you do it? Well the first thing you have to realize is they are toddlers and that is how they are. You can do your best to limit the distractions but always keep in your mind that this is how they are. If you remember this it can relieve a lot of frustration.
Here are some things that I have done to entertain my toddlers:

I recently have bought several buckets of foam stickers. I found them at Wal-mart for around $5. They are big and easy to peel the stickers. My three year old will sit for at least a 1/2 hour and play with them. I also found large foam beads that she can easily string. She strings them and them takes them off and starts again. Recently, I found a box of 1000 little stickers at the dollar store. My daughter mixes them with her foam stickers and has fun.

I make my toddlers homemade playdough. I add food coloring or tempera paints to the salt dough recipe. I also add glitter sometimes to make it even more exciting. I have all kinds of tools such as cookie cutters and plastic utensils. I also found at the dollar store all kinds of neat tools just for playdough. I keep everything in a large closed tub and the girls play with it when they want.

Over the years, I have picked up things to keep everyone busy . The large Lego blocks are good. I have all sizes of wooden blocks also. I have wooden puzzles and foam puzzles with various themes. While they become bored with these items quickly, taking them out from time to time does help.

Making your toddler feel included in your homeschooling atmosphere is important. Give your child some assignments so your toddler feels included. The child may feel jealous when you are working with your older children. I give my toddlers some coloring pages and worksheets to work on. Here are some links that I use:
http://www.abc.net.au/countusin/default.htm
http://www.meddybemps.com/9.600.html
http://www.islam4schools.com/
http://www.preschoolcoloringbook.com/
http://www.kidzone.ws/prek_wrksht/dynamic.htm
http://www.primarygames.com/holidays/ramadan/coloring.htm

I use to be worried about the educational benefits of my older children with all these distractions. However, kids are very resilient. They can adjust easily. A teacher from the K12 program I am using informed me that kids have the ability to concentrate easily with many distractions. She said that an adult who sits and reads a book, has to concentrate on that book with limited distractions. However, she said a child has the ability to concentrate easier with many things developing around them. It must be true because my children do quite well considering all that happens in our homeschool.

Update: Henna-like bracelets

Assalm alykom:

Here is an update for the henna-like bracelets that I posted earlier. These are the ones that my girls and I made. This was a very easy and inexpensive project. I would recommend it for girls seven and up. Many crafts I do with the kids require a lot of clean-up time. This one was pretty tidy! I actually think it was less messy than henna because it dries on the wax paper and not you. The girls liked them more than henna because they are so colorful.

The Home Depot Kids Workshop

Assalm alykom

Home Depot has a free kids workshop on the first Saturday of every month. This was our first month to try it. We coordinated going with other kids from our masjid to make it more fun for the kids. The workshop is an unassembled project that the kids have to put together. They give the kids the Home Depot apron and a nice pin to show they completed the project. This month's project was a mail organizer. With my help even my three year old daughter was able to participate. Her favorite part was the stamping. The first picture(with all the stamping) is hers. The other two are for my older two children.






For those of you interested here is a link that gives more information:
http://corporate.homedepot.com/wps/portal/Kids_Workshops

I encourage you to take advantage of this. It is great because it is free and fun!

I Spy

Assalam alykom

My kids love the I Spy books. I have to admit, I love them too. Every time we go to the library, one of my kids checks one of these books out. Even my three year old finds them in the toddler section and she loves them. Scholastic has an official website for I Spy.

http://www.scholastic.com/ispy/index.asp

At the site ,you can create your own I spy picture. You can make up your own rhyme or use theirs. You can print them out or email them to a friend. There are games related to I spy that the kids can play too!

Another book similar to the I Spy books are Can You See What I See? They are nice too. They do not have the same nice rhymes but they have really nice scenes that you have to look for the things. So the next time you go the the library spy an I Spy book they are great fun for the whole family!

Are You A "Peace Maker"

Assalm alykom

Are you a "Peace Maker"? Do you need help in this aspect of your life? Do you make peace with your children, your wife or husband, your family members and neighbors. This khutbah was given in my masjid for Eid. I found it to be very inspiring and relative to how life is for everyone. To listen to this inspirational khutbah follow the link and go the the individual lectures section. The title is Eid Al -adha 1426
http://www.loveallah.net/main/etools/audio-archive.html

Time Well Spent

Assalam alykom:

I just checked a book out of the library called Help for the Harried Homeschooler. It is a practical guide to balancing your child's education with the rest of your life. It had an advice that I really think is great. It said to set aside time to do things together. Well while your homeschooling you are already together. How does setting more time aside for each other help? Are you not a little tired of one another? After all, you are only together all the time. Well I just finished the first semester with my kids and took some time off for the Eid. I even had activities that we spent time together. It was really great. I took the kids shopping for things they need. We did not have to rush home to finish our Math or take a spelling test. We could look around and go to different stores to buy the things we needed. When we are homeschooling it is a 2 hour rush only to Wal-mart to get everything that is needed. If they have what we need that is good if not there is no time to look anywhere else.

One place we took the kids was a state park called Deleon Springs. It is a beautiful park because it has a natural spring. Here is a picture of where the water flows.

At the park there is a unique restaurant that is an old sugar mill. The restaurant serves all you can eat pancakes and you make them yourself right at the table.

After we were stuffed with pancakes, we rented one canoe and one peddle boat and ventured down the river that is connected to the spring.

The next day I took the kids for ice-cream and a trip to the local park. Even though we spent a lot of time together, it helps us to be refreshed to spend a lot more time together homeschooling. Sometimes as homeschoolers we may feel burnt out with it all. Taking a little time to spend together can do wonders and make everyone feel refreshed to start again

Henna-like bracelets for Eid

Here are some really cute bracelets in the style of henna. I have three girls and they loved the look of these. The directions look really easy. InshAllah we will have time to try them. Have a look and see what you think.

http://www.inspiredathome.com/MyFree/My%20Free22.htm