R’s Quran and Hifdh Program

I’m quite surprised that I don’t blog about the main subject that takes up most of our home edding days: Quran and Hifdh. Well, in time for Ramadhan, I thought I would share what we do for Quran and hifdh.

I think most Muslim home edders pay a lot of attention to teaching their children how to read Qu’ran and also memorisation of Allah’s Book. As they don’t have the constraints of school hours, there is a lot more time that can be devoted to Qu’ran alhamdulillah. And in fact, I have met quite a few home edders who have pulled their children out of school for 2 years to help their children memorise the entire book of Allah – some then continuing with home ed and others placing their children back in school.

Qu’ran plays a huge role in the Ummihomeschoolsme household. Like most new parents, we started teaching R hifdh from when she was 2.5 (shock!) and she has been memorising ever since masha’Allah. Babies, house moves, going abroad, illnesses etc have broken our dream of her memorising Qu’ran by the age of 7 (she’ll be 8 soon insha’Allah) but alhamdulillah such is life.

We sat down with R a few months ago and had a serious conversation about her hifdh. We gave her a choice – either she can memorise slowly and aim to complete her hifdh in her late teens or she can aim to consolidate it by age 10-12. My husband is a haafidh mashaAllah and so she knows and sees the commitment he still needs to give to the Qu’ran – many years after completing it so as not to forget. She knows that in order to complete her hifdh in a few years – it is going to take up A LOT of her time and she will have to make sacrifices. We left the thought with her and she came back to us deciding to go for it mashaAllah.

So, the last few months have been spent consolidating the few ajaza (I think thats the plural of juzz) that she has memorised in preparation to start her new program in Ramadhan bi’idnillah.

This is our rough plan insha’Allah:

FAJR TIME – HIFDH TIME – aim is to memorise a certain portion daily – she learns some of the meanings and tafsee to aid her in her hifdh

DURING THE DAY – MURAJAAH REVISION – I really am shocked at how many children continue memorising but don’t do any revision at all! It is impossible to complete one’s hifdh if murajaah is not present. Imagine the poor child when they move through the Qu’ran and are about to finish memorising their last portion and then when they come to be tested by someone who will pronounce them as a haafidh that that child can’t even remember juzz amma! Sisters, murajaah is needed even more than hifdh subhanaAllah. Please please balance this out. Murajaah has been left to me and so I have devised the following plan:

• Everything that she has memorised has been split up over the course of a week – the more she memorises insha’Allah – it will move to everything over 2 weeks, then to 3 weeks, and then to a month.
• She will do murajaah for 1 hour every day which will consist of: 30 mins preparation – R reading the daily set of surahs and listening with the qari, then for the remaining 30-45 minutes we will do the following:
• WEEK 1 – I will test her by listening to the entire portion of surahs on each particular day noting down any mistakes she makes
• WEEK 2 – she prepares for 30 mins as above and then I will test her by reciting any ayat on her portion of surahs for that day and she has to continue til I say stop – again, noting down any mistakes.
• WEEK 3 – same as WEEK 1.
• WEEK 4 – She will have a Juzz test where I will listen to all the ajaza that she knows spread over the course of a week. In this test, she has a chance to earn some incentives.  If she makes 3 mistakes in the entire juz, the test is over and she gets nothing. If she makes 2 mistakes, she gets £5. If she makes 1 mistake, she gets £7 and if 0 mistakes, then she gets £10. I know some people disagree with this but I know that children enjoy memorising and feel great satisfaction at completing the hifdh of a surah but really don’t like revision so this makes it more fun and appealing to her. (Jzk to the sister who gave me this idea!)

HIFDH TEST – Each night, I then test her on the hifdh she did in the morning.

END OF THE WEEK – She is tested on all her new hifdh for that week.

Other things that help:

• She also reads the next juz that she will memorise repeatedly until she begins memorising that juzz. Once she starts that juzz she will read the preceding one so as to prepare her for when she comes to memorise insha’Allah.
• I play the surah she is currently memorising and the next surah she will memorise in the car continuosly and repeatedly. I play it in the house when they are playing or doing something that doesn’t require a lot of attention.
• We talk to her about the honour and reward of memorising the Book of Allah – what she would like in jannah etc etc to try to keep her intention on the pleasure of Allah and the reward
• We encourage her to make a lot of dua for herself and istighfar.

This is what works for us. It means doing Qu’ran for about 3-4 hours per day but insha’Allah I hope that by spreading it out throughout the day that it becomes easier for her. I hope this plan has helped some of you – please do share your own plans and I ask you to please make dua for my R, that Allah grants her the tawfiq and honour of memorising His Book but most importantly that she grows into a young woman who lives by it. Ameen.

Family News!!!

I am under shock and my hands are slightly shaking as I type this.

My little 25 year old brother announced today that he has become a Muslim and is getting married in a few weeks! Am totally under shock. I can’t believe it. I always said I would shout it from the rooftops if someone in my family embraced Islam.

Well, here I am SHOUUUUUUUUUUTING it! lol

Takbeer! Allah Akbar!

We’re back…

Assalamu alaikum,

Ummihomeschoolsme has been closed for some time. I can’t go into details but I had to make it private for some time. I apologise for not replying to everyone individually who emailed to ask for access or to ask that it be reopened etc. I ask Allah (Swt) to accept this blog as a means to attain nearness to Him, to help others along this home ed journey and to protect, guide and nurture myself and my family along the way. Ameen.

We’re back! 🙂

During Ramadan, I have been planning for next year inshaAllah and we are going to be trying out some new methods, curricula and so stay tuned for more ummihomeschoolsme posts.

A request please: I hope that I will not have to make this blog private again and so I ask you all to make dua for me and my family.

JazakhaAllahu khairan,

Umm Raiyaan

SOLACE for revert sisters in difficulty – please spread the word!

 

Please support this email to your contacts – especially those that want to gain some reward from Allah and volunteer for the project. And revert sisters in difficulty who would benefit (it doesn’t matter how small or big the difficulty is).

As Salaamu Alaikum Wa Rahmatullahi Wa Barakatuhu,

May this meet you in the best of health, happiness and imaan.

Here is some really exciting news, Masha’Allah.

SOLACE, a new voluntary organisation has been set up to help revert sisters in difficulty.  www.solaceuk.org

At some point, you have most likely received a forward in your inbox or a text asking you if you know of anyone who can house a revert sister who has been thrown out of their home or asking you to donate money for a revert single mother who is unable to pay the rent and has been threatened with eviction.

How often do you think that these sisters get the help they need?  And after their immediate problem is solved, who is there to follow up with the sister on a regular basis, just to see if she is okay?

What most people forget is that many revert sisters may have been rejected by their families and don’t always receive the support they need from the Muslim community either. Sadly, we are not in a position where mosques or Muslim community centres can offer lasting assistance to these sisters and they are often left to fend for themselves.

SOLACE, with the help of Allah, aims to provide comfort, companionship and practical assistance to these revert sisters.

Here is a taster of the kinds of support SOLACE will provide, bi idhnillah;

• Listening service through the support scheme, by trained SOLACE volunteers
• Household help for revert sisters who have no family support
• Counselling by qualified counsellors and life coaches
• Parenting workshops
• Coffee mornings and day trips
• Much more, insha’Allah

By the grace of Allah, we have the support and full backing of Sheikh Haitham Al Haddad, who has given us his time and advice to help establish SOLACE.  May Allah reward him for his generosity.

However, SOLACE needs YOUR help.

Here’s what you can do…

1. First of all, please spread the word to revert sisters you know who may be facing difficulties. They may be coping alone with health problems, suffering depression, isolation or loneliness. Or suffering marital problems or physical/emotional abuse, or needing help dealing with non-Muslim relatives? They may even be considering leaving their Deen.

If so, please pass on the SOLACE website address to them: http://www.solaceuk.org

 2. SOLACE is a voluntary organisation that relies solely on fundraising and donations.  It is still in urgent need of an extra £5000 funding. 

–          If you would like to host a fundraising event in your area please contact info@solaceuk.org

–          If you would like to make a donation, then visit the website where donations can be made via Paypal or direct bank transfer, (to be safe and secure.)

–          If you know of any companies that would like to sponsor SOLACE, forward this email to them and ask them to contact donations@solaceuk.org

100% DONATION PROMISE

You can be confident that 100% of the money you donate goes towards assisting reverts in difficulty.  No money is taken from your donation for our administration costs. 

1. SOLACE needs volunteers.

Do you know of any sisters based in London who have 1-2 hours a week to spare, to listen and provide support to a revert sister in difficulty? (full training will be provided free of charge).                                                        

Do you, or anyone you know have skills that you think SOLACE could benefit from?

eg. administrative, fundraising, counselling skills etc

SOLACE needs your support to make this a beneficial service for revert sisters in difficulty.

Please make du’a for this project.

JazakAllahu Khairun

Wasalamu alaikum

SOLACE Team

www.solaceuk.org

info@solaceuk.org

(Solace is supported by MRDF: Muslim Research and Development Foundation)

At Home

 

Alhamdulillah, last night I hosted the annual eid gala event for revert2reality. All the sisters had a blast last night mashaAllah. It is for reverts and the local east london community and there were quite a few homeschooling sisters I know who attended.

It was such a great evening. It really is so nice to see sisters all done up and enjoying themselves. What a fab night. Those that were there lol – I guess you saw my…cough cough…wild side! lol

It is REAAAAAAAALY cold at the moment. The kids have been ill. I’ve been a little ill and then hubby has been ill. Just that time of the year.

These days I don’t feel like going out unless I really need to. We go to our local home ed group on a Thursday, but I’m pretty much quite happy to stay home most of the week and do stuff with the kids. I don’t really do ‘cold’ weather.

Anyway, here is some of what we’ve been up to:

Holes were made 3 cms apart all around the rim. It was then left to dry.

And she began to fill it with the paper pulp til it was about 1cm thick.

We then covered the inside of a bowl with cling film.

For Art, we have started a papier mache project. This is R making paper pulp.

Z made this fish. I drew around his hand then drew the rest of the fish and he decorated it using pens, glitter and stickers. He was so proud of it!

Learning how to be responsible. R cleaning the hamsters cage.

For science she made a kaleidoscope using card, tracing paper, transparent plasticand foil. It worked!

As part of our Quran curriculum, R made a poster about hasad. We also had quite a lengthy conversation about ayn and how to protect ourselves.

This is Lala.

Aside from this, I have really been trying to follow R’s interests. And the hamsters have proven to be a great asset in R leading her own learning. As a result of her new little friends, she took out 5 books about hamsters from the library and proceeded to read them in bits over the week. We couldn’t understand why they seem to sleep all day and then come alive at night. She was reading one of her books and screamed “Ummi! They’re nocturnal!” It was only earlier that very day that she learnt what that word meant as we read a book about night and day for our surah falaq project. She also learnt that they can be potty trained and what she needs to do daily and weekly to look after them. She also started a hamsters diary and wrote a few pages about her hamsters and their activities! All of this was self-led learning mashaAllah.

Unfortunately, hubby is not very happy with the ‘smell’ from the hamsters. He is quite particular about cleanliness and I’m afraid that despite R’s thorough cleaning, they might have to go!! We haven’t told her yet – poor thing! First we got rid of the kitten, then the rabbit, then her tortoise died and now the hamsters might have to be sold on Gumtree.com

Oh well, we’ve still got the fish! lol

Changing Education Paradigms

Assalamu Alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuhu
 
This is just absolutely brilliant. I would really recommend that everyone watches this short video about education. Its why I and many others home educate!
 
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U&feature=player_embedded#!
 
Wasalamuu alaikum
Umm Raiyaan xx

Last 6 weeks and resources.

We started formal home ed again after eid ul fitr and I really can’t believe 6 weeks have passed already! This week, we are on a much needed break. I have an assignment due on Thursday which I haven’t even started. Please make dua for me. I think I’m going to try and take a week’s break every 6 weeks or so inshaAllah. Although we are on a break, the learning doesn’t stop. I am keeping up Quran, Arabic and a few art projects for this week but everything will resume from next Monday inshaAllah.

I have received some emails and comments on the blog asking me about resources that I use so I thought I would write a post about resources we have been using for the last 6 weeks. Please note, the list below are the books we use. We use a lot of hands on resources to support what we’re currently doing in our bookwork.

QURAN

Basically, there are 30 of these for the entire Quran.

R now reads a few pages from Surah Baqarah daily, revises surahs she has already memorised and works on new hifdh. We recently bought the entire Quran in the green covered juz by juz. It is larger than the normal sized mushaf and as it is separated it into 30 juz, it is more manageable for smaller hands. The larger size has really made a difference for her reading alhamdulillah.

Another great resource which has really aided R in her memorisation and revision is the Penman Quran which was actually mine but I gave to her. She uses this when we’re in the car and its good because ayat can be repeated again and again when she is working on her hifdh.

HANDWRITING

She has also come to the end of this book. It introduces joined up handwriting. Alhamdulillah, this has given her a lot of confidence in her writing and when she does any independent writing, she joins up her letters. I have found that her handwriting is neater as a result of joining up. We only do a page of this a day (sometimes 2 pages) and subhanAllah, I have seen a huge difference in her handwriting just by doing a little every day. Once this is finished, we will be going on to some more handwriting books. I just think its all about practice practice practice.

SPELLING

We have been using this book for spelling. We do this once a week and R completes a spelling test of ten words and a dictation exercise where she has to write down sentences that I read to her.

COMPREHENSION

 R has been using this book to complete comprehension exercises.

GRAMMAR

 She is currently on lesson 61 of this grammar book. She really enjoys using this. We also use the above Jolly Phonics Grammar book for grammar as well.

CREATIVE WRITING

I try to encourage her to do as much creative writing as possible. So, she is always making cards for people, or illustrating a short story. But in terms of formal workbook, then we use:

MATH

We are using the Hungarian MEP programme which is just brilliant. R is making her way through Year 1. I’m not sure what to do as she is finding it really easy now. I think the fact that we do a little math every day has led to her finding the math at this level very easy. I was thinking that maybe I should just jump to Year 2, but not sure. Again, with math, its about doing a little every day. She does two lessons of this a day. http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm

ISLAMIC STUDIES

 R is enjoying this. We currently do this twice a week.

ARABIC

We are currently working thorugh http://www.altilmeedh.com/which has some really brilliant resources.

ART / BAKING

We use a variety of resources for art including art blogs, books at home etc.

NATURE

We are doing the outdoor hour challenges once a week from http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/p/outdoor-hour-challenges.html

We also signed up to http://www.naturedetectives.org.uk/club/ and sometimes do the weekly challenges they send to my email inbox and then R sticks a sticker on a huge poster they send you as she completes a challenge.

QURAN CURRICULUM

As you know, this incorporates science, geo, history and art and I use a variety of resources for this.

READING

I read to R every day. At the moment it is normally a chapter from a book. R also reads a chapter to me every day. I try to give her books that are slightly above her level to push her a little bit.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION / OTHER

She goes to a kickboxing class for girls held in our local masjid. She also attends Muslim Beavers once a week. And we attend our beloved Thurs Home Ed group. I try to take her to the library once a week. She uses computer programmes such as educationcity.com and other sites. And is constantly making something with arts and crafts, engages in a lot of imaginative play either on her own (lol!) or with her brother. We try to visit home ed families and alhamdulillah she regularly sees a sister’s daughter who doesn’t live too far from us who is also home educated. She either comes to us or R goes to her for the morning or afternoon. Its nice because then I have some individual time with Z. Another sister has also started home educating who has a daughter R’s age and I think we might be seeing each other more regularly too inshaAllah.

And I think that is about it!

Quran Curriculum: Surah Naas Project

For those who are not familiar with the Quran curriculum that we started this year, please read the following post: https://ummihomeschoolsme.wordpress.com/2010/07/26/planning-for-20102011-part-2/ (the part about the Quran curriculum is towards the end of the post)

Okay, so here is the Surah Naas Project:

• Recite Surah Naas
• Read the translation and tafseer and discuss the child’s thoughts about surah naas. Good child friendly explanation of the surah can be found in this book:

 

• R then completed the Ad-Duha mini tafseer book: 114 Naas
• R then read and completed the fun activities in The Story of Adam (AS):

This can be bought from http://www.learningroots.com

•  We then went back to the explanation of surah naas and talked about Shaytaan and how we can defend ourselves from his whisperings – we talked about situational duas, asking Allah for protection, eating with the right hand, morning and evening adhkar, coming into the house with our right foot and leaving with our left etc.
• R then completed this unit study on Shaytaan: understanding_shaitaan (this comes from a really great blog mashaAllah: http://homeschool4muslims.blogspot.com/)
• We then branched into Geography and discussed who ‘Naas’ is. We discussed the different nationalities of humankind and that they live in countries and that countries together form continents. Here, I would advise using a globe. R then completed the following ABC Book of Continents (instead of frawing the animals, she cut them out): ABC-BookofContinents. 
• Learning about continents and using the globe to complete that book triggered a lot of questions from R about maps and globes, so we completed a few activities from this great resource: K-2 Maps Rev 1 This resource has so many activities in it. We didn’t complete everything. We watched a lot of the video links recommended in the resource. We made an old-style treasure map, a compass rose and drew some other maps.
• We finished the project with R choosing a country that she would like to study in more detail. She chose Saudi Arabia and the following ready made lapbook can be used for any country. She actually hasn’t finished it yet. Here are some of the mini books she has completed:

These are the front covers of some of the minibooks.

Inside the mini books.

 We mainly used the internet to get information about Saudi Arabia as we couldn’t find a library book on the country. http://www.homeschoolshare.com/country_lapbook.php

• And once R finishes this lapbook, I plan to put everything into a binder and make a front page called ‘Surah Naas’ project so that she can look back at it. We will also finish off with a discussion about the surah and what she has learnt about Surah Naas.

Here are some of the blog posts which feature some of the activities we did for the surah naas project: https://ummihomeschoolsme.wordpress.com/?s=naas

Hope you find it beneficial and if you do do it with your children, do let me know how it goes inshaAllah.

Hands On (Longish post)

In a week we do tend to complete a lot of bookwork as there are lessons that need bookwork in order for the child to learn and practise such as Handwriting, Comprehension etc etc.

I really want R to have a rich and varied way of learning. So, this year I really am trying hard to let her do more hands on learning activities in conjunction with her textbook/workbook stuff. The week that has just gone saw a lot of hands on activities take place. Here is some of what we did:

MATH

For Math, R is working her way through Year 1 of the Hungarian MEP programme. She has been working on < and > (greater/less than) and adding numbers, subtracting and has had to complete quite complex sums using <,>,+,-, = sometimes all in one sum! Anyway, I found some ready made number sheets in different colours. I made a long strip of paper from sugar paper and gave her the pack and told her to complete a long sum using the above signs. She enjoyed it.

SCIENCE

We were finally able to record results for our fungi experiment. Basically, the bread that was left outside took a long time to grow fungi. I explained to R that I think thats because its getting colder and so the garden air acts like a fridge. The bread that had water added to it kind of just became a ‘puree’ but then the bacteria started to grow. The bread that was just placed in the container grew fungi very quickly. Green and just yucky! These pots were living in my kitchen and really it did make me feel sick having to cook with them there on the kitchen top. Glad we’ve got that out of the way. I think its made R a bit paranoid as now she seems to be turning over fruit, bread and cheest to make sure there is no fungi!

GEOGRAPHY

As part of our Surah Naas project, we were still working on cardinal directions. R made a compass rose. The instructions said that she had to make salt dough to make it. But she protested saying that we can’t waste flour like that when people are starving in the world. Gotta say that I was very embarassed when she said this and quickly put the plain flour back into the cupboard. So, instead she decided to use playdough (isn’t playdough from the shops made of flour too??!) The blue triangle is North. The orange are east, west and south. And the green are NE, SE, SW, and NW. We’ve almost come to the end of our Surah Naas project. So keep an eye on the blog for my post where I will be posting PDFs, instructions etc of how to do your own Surah Naas project inshaAllah. We just have one more thing to do this coming week and then we’re done and will be moving on to Surah Falaq.

ART

R keeps on asking me to teach her how to sew. I really don’t have the time at the moment. So, instead a really quick and easy sewing project was making a leaf and flower from felt. Drew a leaf shape on A4 felt folded into 2. R cut it out and sewed around it. She then drew a flower shape in purple, then one in red and a middle yellow circle. Placed a pipe cleaner between the two layers. Placed the circle on top and sewed around the circle part to keep the whole thing together. Really simple to do and she really enjoyed it.

Another bit of art was painting an Islamic Art Tile that she made when we went to the Eid Festival in Dunstable Downs in September. We discussed geometry, shapes and symmetry. She was really into this some months ago and her interest has started up again. But I don’t know where or how to direct this interest. Any ideas???

ISLAMIC STUDIES

Okay, so basically, here R put the sequence down for the prayer times, how to make wudu, the positions of the prayer and what to say at each part of the prayer. This lovely pack comes from http://www.learningroots.com

A close up of the above picture.

This is a picture of all the cards from the first picture above turned over. So, on the back of the salah times is a description of when the time begins and ends. On the back of the wudu cards are explanations of each part of wudu and how to do it. On the back of the position for prayer cards are instructions of how to make ruku, or sujood or the other actions properly. And on the back of the speech in the salah cards is the position that comes next and what to say. These are just fantastic and I think a definite must have for kids in every muslim home.

A close up of the above picture.

NATURE STUDY

I love Autumn colours.

When I was planning R’s home ed for this year, I really wanted to do more nature studies and am using the following website as a guide: http://handbookofnaturestudy.blogspot.com/2008/02/green-hour-challenge-1-lets-get-started.html

So, we went out and we observed Allah’s beautiful creation. We looked at huge trees, and the smallest leaf and nuts and berries. R want to collect quite a lot and put a lot into her bag to take home with us. This is what she picked up in a London city park!

That big green oval shape is a pine nut (I think) which actually hasn't opened yet. It's quite heavy! Can you imagine if that fell on your head as you walked under a tree!

This week, I will try and find some time to investigate two of the things that she either observed or picked up in more detail inshaAllah (this is suggested in the Outdoor Challenge #1). Really enjoyed this and I hope to keep this up. You don’t have to go far to do this. Even a walk up your own street will suffice.

So, you see, home ed doesn’t just have to be about workbooks. Learning can and in my humble opinion should be conducted in a variety of fun ways.

An Honest Day!

I saw another homeschooling blogger do this and I thought I would have a shot (more for myself so as to see how I use my time).

Basically took a piece of paper and recorded everything I did in one day! Here we go:

• Fajr and adhkar
• Made beds
• Had breakfast with kids
• Brushed kids teeth and washed up/Did my own
• Breast fed baby Y
• Washed dishes
• Cleaned the kitchen
• Put something on for kids to watch on the internet
• R worked on her treasure map which she started yesterday

As part of our work on surah naas. We have been working on 'mankind'. So, we have been learning about continents and maps. Here R drew a map which will lead to some treasure. She then ripped the edges. I made myself a cup of tea. She then dragged the used tea bag over her map. The crumpled the map into a ball and left it to dry overnight.

 

• I finalised my weekly shopping list
• Hoovered and mopped the house
• Dressed the kids
• Put Y down for his nap
• Called the garage which was fixing our car
• Called the dentist to book an appointment for R and myself
• Z was playing
• Shouted at R to leave Z alone as he was playing quietly and nicely before she interrupted his play!
• Paid a bill online
• Shouted at Z who was having a tantrum
• Brushed R’s hair
• R did her handwriting – she’s very excited that she’s working on joined up writing. I find that her handwriting hsa become a lot neater since she’s been joining up.
• I read Z 3 books
• Z went off to play
• Marked R’s handwriting
• Worked on a dawah article for non-muslim women
• Read more books to Z
• Replied to some emails
• Went around the house and put toys back in boxes and did a quick tidy up
• Y woke up
• Changed Y’s nappy and breastfed him
• Put kids shoes on and waited for husband to come home from work to take us to pick up the car
• Did R’s Quran whilst in the car
• Picked up the car from the garage
• Screamed at Z for getting out of his car seat and standing up!
• Ate lunch in the car
• Husband went back to work
• Went to do the weekly shopping
• Shouted at Z in the supermarket for a) taking his brother’s socks off and throwing them on the floor b) for pinching his brother’s feet and c) for standing up in the trolley child seat trying to reach for stuff on the shelves!
• Got home and prayed dhur
• Breastfed Y
• Put Z down for his nap
• R did her comprehension
• Changed Y’s nappy
• Put Y down for his nap
• Put the shopping away
• I read some Quran
• Worked on the dawah article I started earlier
• R did her MEP maths
• R then made a Math train

R used addition and subtraction to make this 'train'. I left her to it and then checked once she had finished. She basically had a pile of numbers and some + and - signs and just had to carry on.

• I told R the hadith of Jibraeel (AS) and she made a Pillars of the Deen poster and pyramid from learning roots.

• R read two books to herself
• Carried on with the dawah article
• Y woke up
• Breastfed Y
• Prayed Asr and adhkar
• Read a chapter from The Cat Who Wanted to go Home to R (she loves this book. We’ve read it twice now)

• R read a chapter to me from the same book
• Z woke up in a bad mood and screamed for 20 minutes
• Got dinner ready
• R drew two identical pictures
• When Z calmed down, R and Z played by running all over the house, jumping and screaming. Baby Y was laughing at them
• Continued with the dawah article – finally finished it and sent it to the brother who is running the campaign.
• Prayed Maghrib
• Husband came back from work
• We ate dinner
• Brushed kids teeth and put them in their pajamas
• Put baby Y to sleep
• Worked on some other dawah stuff
• Prepared tomorrow’s home ed
• Cleaned the table
• Kids built a tent and played
• Continued with dawah stuff
• It was 9pm when R took the treasure map she had made and her father had to find the treasure following her map (I actually wanted her to be in bed long before but then she cried as she had been excited since morning for her father to follow her map!)

R's Abi following the map

 

R made a treasure box in the morning from a recycled tissue box and she put her Abi's 'treasure': his beloved pumpkin seeds!

• I tidied up
• Checked emails and replied to text messages
• Looked over Year 1 MEP and made notes of what subjects are missing from there which I need to find resources for (this is in case R has to go back to school at one point) I want her to be up to date as per the national curriculum as well.
• Prayed esha
• Went to bed

What have I learnt? Need to seriously make dua to have more sabr with Z and really work on my anger management!