going on an adventure

when my family get together, our kids just want to hear stories of when 'we' were children. there is so much to tell. my siblings and i had the best time while growing up, we had so many adventures. we went looking for treasure, we got lost in a deep dark jungle, we met giants, we travelled back in time, we sailed the seven seas, we travelled around the world, we faced so many difficulties and dangers but always overcame them because we worked together, and 'almost' all of this took place in our very own back yard!

so now when were out with the children, they always tell us to leave them alone as they too want to go on an adventure. we usually leave them to it.

:: this moment ::

quick and cheerful cup-cakes

after i couldn't keep a promise that i had made to my children and my neice (who is staying over), of doing something fun with them(for genuine reasons, i would never have lived it down otherwise), i had a few upside-down smiles, which i was feeling quite guilty about. i had to think of a plan to put the smiles back the right way round, and came up with this idea! it definitely did the job. soon enough, empty cakes cases had become full ones and clean sad faces had become happy chocolaty ones! mashallah

:: this moment ::

Muhammad (s.a.w) Lapbooks

we started working on lapbooks about a week ago, finally they are complete! its about the prophet Muhammad (s.a.w), obviously it's impossible to cover everything about the prophet in one lapbook, so i picked bits of information that i thought that the children could remember and would be of interest to them. i wanted them to work together but my daughter wants everything of hers to be perfect, so she refused to work with her brother and wanted to do her own one, so i gave in.

this is the cover of my sons lapbook, he is six years old.

i tried to keep it as simple as possible and with as less writing as i physically could (or he would have been put off altogether). the big blue square has the names of the Prophet (saw) parents, grandfather and his foster mothers names in each flap. the white square in the top left corners is a list of words describing the prophet (saw), i.e. shepherd, illiterate, kind, generous etc. the little blue square in the top right corner is a little pop-up saying the prophet (saw) is the Al-Ameen (trustworthy). the blue paper with the picture of the kaa'bah is telling us that the prophet migrated from makkah to madinah.

this list is of the prophets, that Muhammad (saw) met on his night journey, in the seven heavens. also the white flap has the names of some of the battles that the Prophet (saw) fought in.

the pink flap tells us that Muhammad (saw) became a prophet at 40 years old.

this the cover of my daughters lapbook, she is eight years old.

hers is a little more detailed than my sons.

we start of every lapbook with a brainstorm, this time my daughter stuck her brainstorm into the lapbook.

there is a flap with all the names of the Prophets (saw) wives. and a picture of cave Hira, where the Quran was first revealed, with a little bit of the verse written as well.

there are flaps with the names of the prophets, parents, grandfather and uncle, and another one with the names of his (saw) children.

there is an envelope with some true or false questions, and a list of some other names of the Prophet (saw).

every part of the lapbook was followed with stories, descriptions, questions and answers, discussions. i also want to do a family tree of the prophet (saw), and maybe look into some of the miracles that he done (miracles always seem to get the kids excited). inshallah.

origami

this is something that i've been wanting to try for a long time, so when i picked up a book which paper included, i was over the moon! we only managed to make a couple of things (a cup and a hat) the instructions were not very easy to follow, i have loads of paper left so i am on the hunt for another book with simple instructions.

:: this moment ::

little explorers

in the very beginning, when i took my son out of school, during the first week we were a little lost. i had so many ideas in my head of what i wanted to do with him, but it was a little strange (in the beginning, that is). playing out became our saviour, football, tig and tag, or whatever really. what i always knew from the very beginning is that i wanted to awaken curiosity in my kids, so often i would take him by a tree or something of interest and say 'lets see if we can find anything interesting' and we would both get searching. the first fascinating thing we found was a tiny snail which had a spiral pattern on it's shell, this led us to drawing our own snails with spirals! but what i have noticed in my son is that, now, almost three years on, whenever he gets ready to go out to the garden to play, as well as his football, his bats, skipping rope, and Frisbee, he also takes his magnifying glass, and as he goes out he tells me 'i'm going to see if i can find anything interesting today' i think he may become a little explorer after all. Mashallah

:: weekending ::

:: martial arts :: sleepovers :: quiet reading :: playing on your own :: comfort food :: naps whenever you want :: lazing around :: staying in pyjamas :: watching favourite video :: snacks every five minutes :: playing on the computer :: watching tv ::

oh, and not to mention......crying, tantrums, moaning, whinging, strops, arguing over the computer......

It's all good mashallah

Time4Learning

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