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!

Finger knitting

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

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Assalm alykom:

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

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

A Morning Stroll on the Beach

Assalm alykom:

There is a famous hadith that says:

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

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





Here is a nice water bird we shot also.

A Field Trip

Assalam Alykom:



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





















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






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











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















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

The Spider

Surah 29 AL-ankabut(The Spider)

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

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

Math for Muslims

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

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

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

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

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

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!