Beginning Sounds

Last year we introduced the ABC's of the Quran letter cards, this year we are going to use our letters to God Willing teach Lil A how to read.

As in the Sound of Music:
 We are going to start at the very beginning, a very good place to start, when you read you begin with ABC

Harriet Tubman

On 12-12-12, I love that date, we did the Finding a Way to Freedom Driving Tour. We were staying on the Eastern Shore with Humble Dad, our first work vacation since we moved to Maryland. Cambridge, MD is a beautiful old city on the Chesapeake Bay.

US State Notebook

El Salvador- World Study

We learned about El Salvador through many books, culminating with a famous Salvadorean artist: Fernando Llort. He is so remarkable because of his social service that he has done for his country's people teaching a whole community in La Palma to be self-sufficient through art. They sale many painted items using the techiques and rich colors that Llort is famous for.

Muslim Plays for Children

My children and some of their friends want to start their own business, where they write and produce plays for Children. This is a sample of what they started, there was absolutely no parent involvement in the production. They wrote, scheduled practices and edited the play all themselves.

If you are in the Baltimore/DC/Northern Virginia/Philadelphia area and would like for them to perform at your school, business, or home, please contact us here. They are willing to do their play in Urdu.

Edible Cells

We began by making a cell out of Halal Jello which is a similar law on food to Kosher. This isn't the brand I normally get, however I thought it would be fun to have green jello for the plant cell and the apple flavored jello was perfect!

Softball Snack Bags

Following the tradition of making elaborate snack bags, I wanted to make one for Big A's team before she was too old. Although, not quite that elaborate, I did want to fill it with some fun items and some of Big A's favorite snacks which included Kettle Corn.

Lessons from Abraham

One great reason to live in Maryland is the plethora of Scholars in this area, it really is almost too much. I have mixed feelings about it living all over the US. I believe that every community should have at least 1 good Imam which unfortunately many don't. However, I think more is better, just think it took both Umar and Abu Bakr to try to follow in Prophet Muhammad's (Peace Be Upon Him) footsteps. And our Scholars however great they are, are not even an Umar or Abu Bakr, or a Ghazali or a Abu Hanifa. Therefore, gaining from a couple of good scholars in each community would be better. What makes a good scholar, I think the proof is in the pudding, its in the community. We have some good Muslim communities in Maryland, Alhumdulilah, but it saddens me to not see this in other areas. However, I do understand why Muslim all seem to migrate to one area. When you have those numbers you can impact society and make changes, you can have Muslim Mayors and Representatives of State. So as of now, I enjoy the diversity of Scholarship.

One of the Scholars that I have heard about through a Native Deen Song of all places is Imam Johari. You might remember he is the one that promised to take his daughter to the park. Well, he was doing a talk for Hajj on the Lessons from Abraham. His whole talk was recorded and you can listen to it below. However, my favorite part of it was when he said if you want to have a child like Ismael then you need to be a parent like Abraham and if you want to have a parent like Abraham then you need to be a child like Ismael. If you want to have a wife like Hajr, then you need to be a husband like Abraham. You have to be obedient to God, to have family members who will also be obedient to God.

Making Pizza with Love ♥

Sometimes baking with love, doesn't have to consist of just desserts, in fact we do alot of fun baking with practical foods. My wonderful pizza bakers had fun creating all different kinds of shaped pizza.

Book Log- Introducing Noor & Janan

I am not a graphic designer, however I wanted some Muslim characters for my Beloved's worksheet. There are graphic designers out there who make Muslim characters, but none of them are free or low cost. No way do my characters show the talent and design of the ones you can purchase on a budget from Etsy.

 
No less the thrill is still there and my children are pleased with them, Lil A has named them many different beautiful names. I, however, have kept their names simple- the girls are all Noor and the boys are all Janan.
Their debut is on NoorJanan's book log. Noor and Janan are free to download, however, please use www.noorjanan.blogspot.com as the reference. Always link others back to this page. Thank you!

Download Free on The 3 R's Page

4 Free Bookmarks are included in the download.

In this download, I have shared a Fiction Book Log without Noor & Janan.  A special added bonus are bookmarks with Noor & Janan. I also shared a Nonfiction Book Log. The graphics are by Maggie Appleton. I am encouraging my children to read more non-fiction books by recording their books on the book log, once they have read a book from each 100 call number group, they will get rewarded. I want to see diversity in reading and I want them to learn how to use the Call numbers in the library.

Download Free on 3 R's Page

I made fun learning cards from each of Maggie Appleton's graphics that you can find here. You can use them to play memory or matching with your child. I put them all in a basket and played a scavenger hunt with the older children. At the library, they were let loose with 3 cards, whoever came back first with 3 books for their 3 cards wins.

Small Fox blog has great Dewey Decimal Learning activities. Mr. B also has a great page on the Dewey Decimal System. We also used this download from abcTeach below.

Have you checked out our Reading List for this year? You can find it here. We have also brought our side bar back, we missed our old format, however if you like the Dynamic view better leave us a comment. With our side bar, we were able to put Our Good Reads list there.

Our full Curriculum 2012-13 available for download, Free

We have a nice library in Maryland with many great activities. We have had some really nice libraries in most of the cities we lived. The best library has been in Nashville, TN, the downtown library has a children's section that no library can compare to with an awesome theater. Their book selection is also one of the best, from what I've seen it is second to Alameda County Library system in Northern California. And the whole library is an architecture masterpiece complete with chandeliers.

Nashville Library

Another great library is the Pleasanton, Ca library, although small, it has a great feeling. Like, the Nashville Library it is a place you want to pick up a book and snuggle down and read right there in the library. There are plenty of comfy places to sit and it is not over run by computers or electrical devices like our Maryland libraries. At least it wasn't when I lived there 7 years ago. 

Entrance to the Pleasanton Library

I guess we have become library connoisseurs, but I believe a good library encourages good reading. We are definitely book connoisseurs, you can read more about our modest bookshelves here. I am a little disappointed with the selections of books in Maryland. I have to order more books on Amazon than I care to, but overall we are having fun with their great programs!

Our Modest Bookshelves

S Man's twin at the library, everytime I walk in the library I have to do a double take, it is just too weird!

PS

Living Montessori Now just wrote a post on Montessori Ideas for Enjoying Books and on her post I found out that September is Library Card Sign up month. On her link, I saw a picture of a player from Humble Dad's favorite football team. So I am sharing this pic just for you, babe!

Islamic Education

These three videos on Islamic Education and what our goals should and shouldn't be are excellent.

Abdal Hakim Murad or Timothy Winters is on the faculty of Cambridge University in Britain and has been named one of the most influential Muslims. I just love him and have loved him for awhile now. Some of my favorite speeches by him can be found on Cambridge Khutbas. All recordings from this Great Scholar are free to listen to and to learn from. May Allah preserve him.

Greenbrier & Gambrill

Finding Bigfoot in the Greenbrier Park Quest game was just as difficult as trying to find Big Foot for real. I was beginning to think the blue painted big foot we were supposed to find was just as mythical as the imaginary creature. Until that magic moment when we found a blue big foot by the boat shed. WOW! I won't say it was all Park Quest fault, we could blame our lack of desire to search very hard to the very attractive lake that stood before us. It was calling us in and we obliged.

The road from Greenbrier to Gambrill is a short ride, but it is beautiful ride. We stopped to look at the locals.

Greenbrier was so much fun that it was hard to leave and we made it to Gambrill kind of late. Ok, really late, but unlike Wye Island, we did not get an eerie feeling. The views from Gambrill are majestic and we were excited to go down the trail even if it was dark, we had our flashlight after all.

Park Quest Home

Other Park Quest Post
Park Quest 2012
Patapsco Valley & Rock State Park
Tuckahoe & Wye Island
Greenbrier & Gambrill

Tuckahoe & Wye Island

We loved playing disc golf at Tuckahoe State Park. I don't think my Beloveds realized how much  fun it would be because I heard complaining from the ones who usually don't complain about outings. (Of course the homebody will always complain if you take them away from home). But once we were there, they were all into it. I loved playing frisbee as a child so I was sure that I would like it, and the challenge of each Tee makes it that much more fun!

Ramadan for Children

As long as women have been fasting in more industrialized areas, I am sure the question of what do with our little ones have existed. A healthy child should be full of boundless energy and a well fed healthy child should have that much more energy. While her fasting mother, will be even more tired than she normally is, at least this fasting mother was. As I mentioned in my blog post "Ramadan for Intelligent People", although the younger children are not expected to fast from food and water. They are to watch what comes out of their mouth and what comes into their ears and mind in general, just as adults should. We already have a rule of no movies and Wii on the weekdays, so it wasn't that hard for my children to give up Movies and Wii for the whole month of Ramadan. I say this, just to say I didn't have television as an option to babysit my children during Ramadan.

I'm Fasting

One of my favorite blogs: A Crafty Arab was selling "I'm Fasting" buttons during Ramadan. I thought wouldn't it be great to make t-shirts that say "I'm Fasting". Michael's was having a sale on t-shirts 2 for $5, so it was on!

Curriculum 2012- 2013

I have made a plan for the 2012-2013 school, but I want to be honest and say that I will probably not stick to the plan very well. I like to live in the moment and no one knows what any moment will exactly bring. However, I do like to: what the Arabs say "tie your camel" or be prepared for whatever might come. Therefore, a detailed plan of the coming school year awaits you below.

Gingerbread Masjid

Every Ramadan we fill the air with smell of Gingerbread. The funny thing is I never made Gingerbread houses in my home as a Christian. Although, I love going to hotels and seeing all the Gingerbread displays at Christmas, it was never a family tradition in my home until I became Muslim.

Ramadan for Intelligent People

Noor Janan's  Ramadan 2012 post begins with Preparation for Ramadan

I don't really like the title of those "for Dummies" books, yes I may be lacking in the sense of humor department. But I don't think being inquisitive is being dumb. So I have decided to name this post, Ramadan for Intelligent People because if you are here, reading my blog, you have to be intelligent :-)

Preparation for Ramadhan

A very dear Brother called Humble Dad, a few days before we were to leave for our Summer Road trip to tell us that Shaykh Salek Bin Siddina was to do a talk on Time Management, especially during Ramadhan in Pittsburgh. I have a hundred and one things going on (maybe exaggerating, maybe underestimating) and the Road Trip is on my mind, but my mind was resolute on being in Pittsburgh on July 13th. My husband told me about an Aqiqah, celebration of the birth of a Muslim child, that would be the same weekend and our local Masjid was having their annual Summer Fest with rides, food, and more fun. But still I was determined, Pittsburgh July 13th. 

Patapsco Valley & Rocks State Parks

We are working through our Park Quest. We are learning so much, especially at Patapsco where we learned how to tie knots and pitch a shelter. The hikes are breathtaking especially at Rocks above the 190 foot rock outcrop.

PATAPSCO VALLEY STATE PARK
At Patapsco they supplied a backpack full of items we would need on our hike.

Color Wheel

This activity is really alot of fun. Although, it was for the younger children, my older ones enjoyed it too! You can download the color wheel at Mama Jenn.

The Setup

Park Quest

We love to be outdoors: swimming, hiking, fishing, exploring nature, you get my point. Being cooped up inside is to chaos, as being outside in nature is to peace. . . and I love PEACE.

Azara building in the sand.

Our new awesome homeschool friends told us about a wonderful perk of living in Maryland: Park Quest. Maryland Department of Natural Resources sponsors an outdoor adventure "where a family becomes a team" as the motto goes. 23 Maryland State Parks will offers free entrance to 1000 families to complete a an adventure quest. Quest can be anything from canoeing to an Island, riding your bike along a mountain trail, or going on a mock archaeological dig.