Italian feast!

This is the activity that we have done today at "Italian Club" (which basically consists of my son and the daughter of a friend who is also Italian). The aim was to learn the expressions "I like..." and "I don't like..." and start introducing some food vocabulary.

This idea just popped inside my head this morning when I was lying in bed half awake, moments before getting up.

I took 2 large pieces of thick cardboard (they are a little smaller than A3 I would say) and covered them with brown wrapping paper, for neatness and to avoid paper cuts (I had cut them quite roughly...) and also to give them more the appearance of the surface of a table (a "woody" look).

I printed out labels that said "I like...<3" and "I don't like... :(" and started gluing the "I don't like" ones at the top right of the board. (I had to do some of the preliminary work myself, because Yusef and his friend really like to play together masha'Allah, so I have to keep the activity short and sweet or they might get a little restless...)

I remember I had a few scraps of this vintage re-claimed fabric (from the time I thought I was going to learn how to sew...) and I cut 2 rectangles, a little smaller than the boards, so each child could pick a table cloth for their table. I had them glue down only the left half of it, where the plate was going to sit.

Then I helped them stick the "I like ..." label on the inside edge of a plastic plate with hoops of tape at the back (if you have paper ones it's probably better, we had to use A LOT of glue to stick paper on the plastic ones!...).

Then I presented them with a lot of cut out pictures of food items (mainly fruit and vegetable and staples like pasta, rice, milk, etc.) for them to choose what foods they liked and stick them in their plate. Each time one would select a picture, I would prompt them with the name of the item in Italian and encourage them to say the whole sentence themselves: "Mi piace ... la pizza" and so on.

The children got very excited masha'Allah, and soon they were picking and sticking pictures faster than I could go through the 'ceremonial' phrase with them!... and they completely packed their plates.

It was actually hard to find something they disliked for the "I don't like..." section that was going to be hidden under the movable half of the table cloth: 2 good eaters masha'Allah!!!

Finally we glued the plate to the base (on the left), with some strong glue. Do allow some time to set before they proudly run to show it to daddy insha'Allah. It would be a nice touch to add a plastic fork (or to make one out of card and cover it with foil) or even a plastic glass! ... but I didn't have any, nevermind! here's the finished product masha'Allah:

Pillars of Home Education

My Pillars of Islam wall activity was the very first thing I planned as a home education activity (it was a trial). As it turns out, I started planning it and planning it, and I wrote pages about the first pillar, while jotting down ideas for the others as they popped into my head... with the result that I totally over planned it and I could only go trough half of the stuff I had planned for the first of the pillars!

... My over complication of things meant that the whole reality of these 5 entities being "a whole" was kind of lost, given that the activity was abandoned for months and has only recently been "resurrected".

One of the things that I love about home educating so far is that you learn by doing. And when you realise you have made a mistake, instead of beating myself up about it or questioning decision, I find myself excited about the discovery and start thinking of how I can implement what I have learned for the benefit of my son's learning experience.

The over complicated version of this activity featured, as well as pillars to be stuck on the wall and images that represent them, a home made book, which failed to capture my son's imagination (despite the fact I thought it was simply AWESOME) and was never opened again ...

What he finds really exciting was the painting of the pillars, the sticking on the wall, the fact he can remember a few things of what I (succinctly) explain to him to go and report it to his father, ma sha' Allah.

 

(Home education means you will never throw away a cardboard box ever again!!!)

 

This was in our old house, where the pillars were put up in the kitchen, so while sitting at the table, Yusef was asked about those things up there and soon he learned their names in English and in Arabic :)

Instead of worrying about the clarity and looks of the headings, now I know it would have been far more interactive if I had printed them out in a hollow font for him to colour in  (I downloaded some of my favorite hollow fonts from the internet, but fonts deserve a separate post: I love them!!!) , or if I had letters cut out of magazines or letter stickers for him to compose the words.

 

It's a steep learning curve for both.

 

The Zakah one was very interesting for Yusef, as we got to make a sadaqah box to reinforce the concept of giving to the less fortunate: that didn't need much planning at all :)

 

I will update when we finish the pillars in sha' Allah (still 2 to go).

Learning about pre-Maths skills...

I have always assumed that the basic notions of maths for a young child would be: a) learning to say the number in the correct order, b) counting objects, c) recognizing written numbers, and then you would just go on to add, subtract, etc.

 

When I had my first child (and after he got to an age that allowed me to) I did read something about my fellow Italian Maria Montessori, and learned that there's much more to early Maths, and that it is a lot "earlier" than I had envisaged.

 

The fact that Yusef was obsessed with pans and lids, with opening and closing tubs, filling them with things, taking everything out again ... was actually him practicing some of the skills that lay at the very foundation of Mathematics and Geometry!

 

Recently I discovered other skills that I wouldn't necessarily have immediately associated with Maths before: patters and symmetry! So here we are a couple of months ago, takign a step back from counting things, learning about patterns with the 3 bears family counters (we actually bought the tub of bears, the sorting bowls and the pattern cards separately off ebay, it was slightly cheaper. It is a little expensive but we used them for various things so far masha'Allah)

 

Some online games that involve patterns and symmetry can be found on the Starfall website although if I remember correctly you need to register for them. Yusef loves them masha'Allah.

 

...I need to think about something creative to implement symmetry... watch this space in sha'Allah!

Easy felt flowers

Yusef and I made these for his grandmother, I had found some nice ideas online on how to make felt flowers, but this is a much more basic technique, that a young child will have no problem with in sha' Allah.

We started off with colorful flat buttons and my awesome bag of felt scraps that I bought off ebay (the listing is still here it is a cheap way to get a lot of different colours!)

 

I cut the felt in strips about 10 cm (3in) long and as thick as a finger to be the petals. You need 3 strips for each flower. Have the child put a drop of glue in the middle of one of the strips, and teach him how to glue a second one on it to make the shape of an "X"

 

 

Then have him glue the third to make the shape of a star:

 

At this point, if you want, you can cut out (or have your child do it if he can) either a circle or a small flower shape on a contrasting colour, and glue it in the center of the flower. It's not essential but adds colour and detail.

 

And finally choose a button for the middle (and trim the petals if needed)

 

 

Leave the glue to dry and...TA DA!!!!

 

 

 

We glued our flower on a piece of cardboard cut in the shape of a heart (remember to make holes for it to be hung before you start sticking). As added decoration, we inserted pieces of ribbon between the flowers and the base.

 

Yusef really enjoyed himself and grandma was well impressed :)

 



Dar at-Ta... WHAT?

 Dar at-Tawhid is the name that I have chosen for our "home school" :) It means "house of Tawhid", Tawhid being the purest monotheism, the affirmation of unity and uniqueness of God.

 

This is THE single most important thing to grasp and live by, in sha' Allah, so I thought, what name better than this? May Allah keep us upon it always ...

 

^^ This post reminded me about a wonderful forum where extremely talented sisters (ma sha'Allah) share their beautiful graphics http://www.easelandink.com/t935-names-of-allah-for-coloring. My favorites are these series about the names of Allah to colour in. We are aiming to create a band going alla around the kitchen with them, coloured and decorated with glitter.

Assalamo aleykum and Welcome!

Assalamo aleykum everybody,

Alhamdulillah, finally I managed to get this blog started!

 

Given all the inspiration that I have got - and always get - from the blogs of other Muslim home educators (that are very talented masha'Allah!) I decided to share the highlights of my journey as a mother and homeschooler, just to pass around some ideas.

 

I have only recently started home educating, as my elder is only 4 1/2, but I have already learned a couple of important lessons, the first of which is: to be a good home educator you don't need formal teaching qualifications or experience, you need a strong motivation.

 

My motivation, as it is probably true for most Muslim home educators, is that I simply don't want my children to attend state schools. This decision is not motivated by personal experience: as a child growing up in Italy, I loved school and, despite feeling that my eagerness to learn and creativity were somewhat constricted by its rigidity, I thrived in the school environment.

 

It is not the academic side of things that I distrust in the UK education system (I don't know much about it anyway), as much as the ethical side of it. I want my children to be brought up with a distinctivly religious education. In the hours spent on the internet researching about home education, I have come across a number of blogs and websites of practicing Christian parents that had gone the same route for the same reason.

 

While I want my children to discover, enjoy and benefit from what is good in this society, I do not want them to feel "different", a "minority", those who don't celebrate birthdays, those that cannot eat such and such meat product, those who cannot get undressed in front of the other children, those who cannot take part in the nativity play, ... the list goes on.

 

I want my children to learn that God doesn't just say "No." In fact, He has said "Yes" to most things!!!  but, how would a child know, when everything around them screams hedonism and carelessness about God's commands? What I want to instill in my children is the Islamic perspective on things, the perspective that God meant for everybody to have in order to be successful, satisfied and happy.

 

Hence, the foundation of their education, as of that of every Muslim, must be the Qur'an and the Sunnah, according to the understanding of no other than the Prophet himself (may the peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) and his Companions (may Allah be pleased with them all).

 

I hope that this blog may give some useful ideas to all parents, whether they home educate or not, about activity that can be enjoyed with their children.

 

And may Allah the Most High bless, guide and facilitate all parents in educating their children to Islamic standards, it is He who grants every success.