Books about Farms

Assalamo aleykum, these are the two main books we based our farm lapbook on.

 

^^ Yusef loves this book and he has wanted to have it read at bedtime almost every evening for the past month!
It is a nice book in the sense that each double page has exactly the same image, but the view changes according to the time of the year.  Some of the walls of buildings are taken out to reveal what is going on inside. It doesn't speak only about strictly agricultural activities (there's sport contests, visitors and even an archeological escavation taking place).
On the side of each double page there are pictures of a few items to find in the bigger picture, and here comes the criticism: This book features symbols of celebrations all Muslims should steer well clear from (i.e. Halloween and Christmas). In the October page you have to look for the jack-o-lantern and in December for the Christmas tree.The text in the December page mentions that "Christmas is coming soon", while in July there's a Summer fair with a band playing and people dancing,both in the picture and described in the text.

As my son cannot read everything by himself yet, I have simply skipped the relevant parts in the story telling and the pictures can easily be blocked out with a sticker (some are so small that a pencil will do the trick).

A smaller criticism is that there are fewer pages than there are months, i.e. there's a page for January, March, April, June, July, August, then October and December.

Other than this (which is understandable as it is a book written by a non Muslim author), it is a lovely book and the images offer plenty of topics for further discussion.

 

^^ I really like this book, particularly, I love the style of the illustrations. If I remember correctly it is from the 70s. Thanks to it Yusef has learned the names and sequence of the months of the gregorian calendar (there's a double page for every month, plus they are listed on the lovely cover).

As far as I can remember there's no mention, or representation, of festivities in this book. Hurray! It had large images and a very manageable amount of text for an early reader that is looking forward to turn the page.

Cooking with your child :))

 

Assalamo aleykum everybody.

I really believe that children should be taught to cook for many reasons, some of which are:

 

a) Because it makes them much better eaters (I have a fussy eater and his approach to lunch changes enormously if I let him add something to the pot, stir and taste the sauce!...).

 

b) It is a necessary life skill!!! (I have come to the UK from Italy aged 21 without having EVER so much as boiled an egg in my entire life. I cooked my first plate of pasta under the supervision of a friend, and always enjoyed cooking since).

 

c) I am (so far) a mother of boys only masha'Allah, and I want to make a point as strongly as possible, that boys should be taught to carry out every single household chore because they'll have to pull their weight in the house too when they are married insha'Allah, just like our beloved Prophet (saws) used to do!!!

 

d) Because I strongly believe children should be brought up to help in the house in a way that is appropriate for their age. Every morning, after having his bottle of milk snuggled on the sofa with me, my 18 months old trots with it to the kitchen and puts it near the sink masha'Allah, may Allah bless him and make him even better <3

 

Which brings me to the book:

 

 

It was recommended by a sister on Facebook so I got it from Amazon (used, although it looked absolutely new, for 1p!!!!).

This is hands down the best baking book for children I have ever seen, in fact one of the best baking books in general! Every recipe, as weel as ingredients and tools necessary, are shown in clear pictures so that even a child that doesn't read can follow the procedures. There are basic recipes and many great way to create variations on them. It is such an inspired concept!

 

I bought "Baking with tots blah blah blah" books before, and they use many hundreds words to explain to you how your child can do this and that "point 34c of recipe: now you can let your child mix"... the only child-friendly feature of the book was the decoration on the cakes pictured, which is absolutely too sofisticated and complicated not only for a child to do, but also for a grown up with a child in the kitchen!!!

 

This one is completely different: it is for children to use! My son liked it so much that used to "read it" a lot even when we were not baking.

 

A little while ago we went shortbread crazy with one of the recipes of this book.

This is the tray we baked (after "quality control"):

 

They were yummy masha'Allah, we also did lots of the chocolate variety.... <3