The Page Pals Book Club with Maimoonah!

 

       بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Introducing a Special New Project from Maimoonah!

We are delighted to finally reveal what we've been working on behind the scenes—a project that aims to solve a real need in our community. Our children deserve a safe, guided, and nurturing environment where they can enjoy reading secular books while strengthening their literacy and language skills.

We all know that our children must excel in Islamic knowledge first and foremost. But simultaneously, they will eventually face English examinations, literature studies, and a variety of books: including classics and modern texts. And yes, many of these materials can include grey areas that make us hesitant or unsure.

That’s why this initiative was born. With proper guidance, a clear lens, and a space where harmful or polluted ideas are not entertained, our children can learn, read, think, and enjoy books in a wholesome way.

So we proudly introduce… The Page Pals Book Club!

A joyful, safe, and engaging reading circle created for our budding readers. We aim to begin in March, after Ramadhaan, in shaa Allaah, and continue as an ongoing club for girls who love books and learning.

Details:

Start: March (after Ramadhaan), in shaa Allaah

Ages: Girls 8–11

Level: Participants should already be able to read comfortably, as we will begin with children’s classics

Format: Online, interactive reading club

What will we do in this 15-week course?

📚Read aloud a chapter of The Railway Children every week (kids will take turns on a rotation basis) - The digital book link will be provided. But it is nice to have the physical book (not the abdriged version)
✍🏻Reading comprehension worksheets
🖌️Writing exercises
📝Book report project
🌱Companionship to discuss and learn in a safe environment

Course Time: 7pm - 8pm KSA/Qatar Time
Course Dates: Saturdays from March 28th to the 11th of July (15 classes)
Cost: USD 45 per student for the full course ($3 per class to be paid in full)

Who is the teacher?
The course is designed and taught by Maimoonah. A young English language enthusiast, and passionate creative with three years' experience of teaching girls, who holds a BA in English Language and Literature, as well as a Diploma in Editing and Proofreading. She is currently an MA student studying Creative Writing. She loves hot cocoa and orange cats! 

The course contents are checked by Umm Maimoonah.

Why should you join the club?

 

 

Registrations Now! — and spaces are limited!

Every child who loves to read will have the opportunity to participate, share their voice, and grow in confidence. More details about how reading rotations will work will be shared upon registration.

We truly hope this initiative becomes a bridge — helping our children develop strong skills while remaining grounded, guided, and connected to their values. Your support means so much to us, and we look forward to bringing you even more beneficial projects in the future, in shaa Allaah.

Teach Your Child to Read - Online Workshop for Mums

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

THIS WORKSHOP IS NOW AVAILABLE TO BE TAKEN AS A SELF PACED WORKSHOP

If you have been following our Homeschooling journey for the last 9 years, then you may know that I did not teach Maimoonah to read using the phonics method. You will also know that she is an early reader and by the age of 5, she was a vivid reader, reading chapter books and adult books such as the translation of the Noble Qur'aan, The Sealed Nectar, The Moon Split and the seerah of the companions and so on, by the Mercy of Allaah. 

Over the years and even now many of you have been asking me as to how I taught Maimoonah to read without phonics. To make it really beneficial and productive I chose this topic for the next Mums Online Workshop. "Teach Your Child to Read".

In this 3 day workshop, we will be exploring the meaning fo reading and understanding what is really meant by reading. Having some background knowledge will definitely help us to have an idea about this noble task that we are hoping to undertake. 

We will also explore the benefits of early reading and I will be sharing with you my experience and benefits I gained in facilitating early reading for my children. 

You will be exposed to many reading methods and programs available today for teaching children to read and you will be given insights in order for you to do your own further research

We will also cover the full "Doman Method" of reading which I used with Maimoonah and currenltly using with my two-year-old Ramlah. 

I will be sharing live demonstration of this program and helping you to understand how to implement it while you see it happening. You will see real sessions of reading been done with step by step instructions. Here is a sneak peek of what to expect with regard to live demonstration.

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A post shared by Umm Maimoonah's Journal (@ummmaimoonah) on Nov 8, 2018 at 3:24am PST

It does not end there, Inshaa Allaah we will further share with you some book recommendations for different ages starting from 2 years to chapter books.  We will also have some discussions with regard to the benefits of fiction and nonfiction books and understand the different opinions of the scholars.

Sheikh Fauzaan, may Allaah preserve him, said beneficial knowledge is of two types that about the deen directly and that which supports and aides the deen. ((Statements of the Guiding Scholars of Our Age Regarding Books & their Advice to the Beginner Seeker of Knowledge: page 81, Taalib Educational Resources)

Teaching our children to read undoubtedly is beneficial knowledge as it aids them to understand their religion.

I will be sharing with you how early reading helped us to progress in the learning of the dheen throughout our homeschool by the permission of Allaah.

We will also have a Q and A session to address all your doubts and have a fruitful discussion inshaa Allaah. 

And finally, those who attend the workshop will take home in-depth digital notes of the workshop and educational reading resources that I have been collecting over the years in the form of PDF books, powerpoint presentation and more. 

This will be a live workshop with access to the recordings. So even if you miss a day or miss some parts you still have the opportunity to catch it up inshaa Allaah as the passcode to access the recordings will be sent to all participants.

If you are unable to join live you can still sign up and complete the workshop offline using the recordings on my website "Learning Zone" at your convenience and benefit. 

This workshop is suitable for mums to be and mums of babies and mums who have children from any age still learning to read. Teachers are welcome to join too. Any sisters who have an interest in learning something new with regard to teaching to read are welcome to join even if you are not a mum or a teacher yet, inshaa Allaah. 

Spaces are filling up and we have a limitation for the live workshop. So please register and reserve your space. Details below. 

Nurture Islaam Online Workshop for Mums

Join Umm Maimoonah for a Three Day Online Workshop

"Teach your child to Read"

Topics include:

Instilling the love for reading

The Doman Method

Learning to Read through Reading

How young is too young to read?

Our Reading Journey

Reading and Religion

Book Recommendations 

Q&A Session and much more

Interactive and engaging with audiovisual presentation with access to the recording!

Those who are unable to attend live can signup and complete the course at your convenience. Passcode to access the workshop will be provided with the digital materials. 

Who can Attend: Mums or Mums to be or teachers

Where: Online

When: (Tuesdays) November  20th, 27th and December 4th 2018

Time: 4pm to 5.30pm KSA/Qatar Time

Cost: QR 102 / US $ 28 / GBP 21.50 (Inclusive of digital materials and Notes)

Payments to be made online via Payoneer with Debit/Credit Visa/Master Card in USD only

Registration: Email ummmaimoonah@gmail.com or WhatsApp +974 66132058

The Hungry Reader!

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Alhamdulillaah with Maimoonah growing by the Grace and Mercy of Allaah challenges grow too! One major challenge that I am facing now is supplying enough appropriate materials to contend her hunger for reading! When she was small it was easier to satisfy her with few books here and there and it was much easier for me scan through the materials before she get them on to her hand.

As a vivid reader from an early age she can just survive only with books from the time she wakes up till she goes to sleep this without wanting to play or do anything else except salaah. I would be so satisfied if she could do that if all the books she reads would be based upon Islaam and all are beneficial.She is fine with it too as long as the books are interesting and gives engaging information. But sadly as you all know it is not that easy to find such books that would be pleasing to our eyes!!!  Few months back I became more and more concerned with what I want her to read. 

Children do love fiction, mysteries, adventures and the likes. As there are differences of opinions with regard to reading fiction books amongst the scholars as much as I would like to totally eradicate such books, I just did not want to do more harm than good by taking that stance, especially because Maimoonah is brought up without TV and exposure to other entertainments like games and etc. She does go online for reading online or do some educational activities. She has no toys except for very very few little things. Of course we take her out to play and engage her in acceptable edutainment activities. Other than all of this most of her time is spent on reading. The challenge for me is no proper library, and even if I am to buy some books they are pretty expensive plus how should I provide something that is balanced and would benefit her?

This led me to consult one of the students of knowledge and discuss my concern. Alhamdulillaah the naseehah I received:

 "Focus upon always finding them some forms of beneficial non-fiction, from historical to practical to craft (knitting crochet sewing, cooking ) etc." 

"In terms of fiction books there is some historical fiction  that seems to not have the dangers of modern books. And Allaah knows best. Because things creep in unnoticed. Here I think you just have to use your discretion and always , make sure to read/skim well before hand."

So I have been thinking on those lines and making some effort to make it beneficial for Maimoonah. We do not have a fully fledged Library here where we can choose materials and benefit and very rarely you would find some good books in the stores and even if you do find some they would cost a huge amount. But Alhamdulillaah my dear friend here in Doha who has 3 girls and are also homeschooled and faces similar challenges invests in books and readily shares everything with us. Last week Maimoonah borrowed these books and this really made me write this post in spite of all my commitments!

These books keep her occupied for hours and she learns too. When she talks about what she read we try to relate that back to the perfectness of Allaah's creation. 

Opening more than 80 odd flaps and looking through the little details makes it fun and exciting indeed.

Working on those lines here are some of ideas that have occurred to me that I hope to make it work when I am relieved of some commitments soon Inshaa Allaah. I thought I would share them here for myself first and for others out there who are in a similar situation.

Islaamic Books

Alhamdulillaah the QMuslimah Library has some nice Islaamic books. So we keep borrowing them in and off. Other than them we focus of the Golden Series of the Companion Books by Darus Salam. I think now they are having a new edition on those series that look much more attractive. These books along with the Sealed Nectar, Stories of the Prophets, Darul Kitab Books, When the Moon Split and the Noble Qur'aan are what Maimoonah reads and re reads especially when she has ran out of other books I am happy to note that she can hang on to these for some hours! 

Non Fiction Books

Look for these kinds of non fiction books that can be useful for a long time. Checkout this website for some nice books as they seem to be much cheaper than others. Science Books and Encyclopedias are doing the job too! Having some hands on experiment guidebooks and sp[lying some of those items to use and try things out would occupy them for sometime and helps them to investigate and discover while acknowledging the ability of Allaah to Create everything. 

Arts and Crafts

Girls this age I think are very creative and love to do more and more arts and crafts activities. Those days just painting would be more than enough but now I find that Maimoonah loves to explore some creativity coupled with imagination. Having some Arts and Crafts books and sewing projects would be a lovely idea with some materials to explore. Especially with the Community Project at the Tarbiyah Classes she is learning how to perfect her crafts and make use of them. So I would want to have some craft supplies and Arts and Crafts books to help her explore Inshaa Allaah. 

Sewing

This is something we need to work on again. Due to time and other commitments we have not being continuing sewing for a long time and hopefully Inshaa Allaah I want to start on easy projects with her soon. Little sewing idea books would also help in this case and would love to get her some supplies soon Inshaa Allaah! 

Fiction
To have a balance I also lookout for some old fiction books with good language and give her those books. Some of the books she has read are some of the famous five books, Sheltie, Animal Ark and few others. Almost all of these books have some thing or the other unislamic contents, so we make sure that they are explained and corrected.

Cook Books
Cooking books and projects are next online. Maimoonah is trying out her cooking skills but I need to make her more independent soon Inshaa Allaah. Reading and understanding some cooking and homemaking skills would benefit her. Need to work on those lines soon Inshaa Allaah!

Trying some healthy snack after reading a recipe! 

Those are few of the things that came to my mind. I am sure many of you are doing these already and please do share what more you do to keep you little reader occupied.

Alhamdulillaah every situation we are in is indeed a blessing and mercy of Allaah that we keep remembering His Greatness and we keep learning many things too. As children grow we need to think ways and means to emphasise more and more the purpose of our creation and make them contend with worshipping Allaah alone and inculcate the passion to do so with whatever is available. May Allaah make it easy for all of us and may He keep our children firm upon His Straight Path. Aameen!

Enhancing Reading Skills!

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

 

 Alhamdulillaah Maimoonah's reading is going on well and she is able to sit for hours reading a book until she is asked to do something else. Giving her the right reading materials has indeed become a major challenge for me and inshaa Allaah I will write about it on a separate post soon.

While seeing her read so much I was pondering over few issues about her reading skills. Does she really understand what she reads? Is she reading for pleasure or is she really learning something? Does she get the message or core information of the book? How is her comprehension? Is she able to put out what she got out of that book? Does she understand what she needs to look into and pay attention to while reading a book to get the maximum benefit?

If she is to read a book from the Ulama (scholars) or even a book on the seerah is she able to note down the benefits she has got out of the book? Most importantly when she reads the tafseer of the Qur'aan does she really able to comprehend what Allaah says and does she get the message?

She does talk to me very informally about books she read and relate to me information that she has read, but I have really not made it a point to sit and ask her about each book nor have I given that amount of time sitting and discussing a book in a very formal way. I figured she does have a good command of the language and does have the comprehension but was not too sure if I am directing her correctly with regard to all of my above questions.

This led me to talk to a sister who is a qualified English teacher and in fact uses the techniques to get the child think and make the child understand what he or she should look into a book to get the best out of it. So she was willing to start an Enhancing Reading Skills weekly class at the QMuslimah Children's Library.

We have had few classes so far. We gave each child a notebook, folder, pencil and an eraser. 

The sister started with something very interesting. She introduced "Title" "Illustration", "Author" "Narrator" all by giving the kids a task. The task was "You have done well and made your mom happy. She wants to give you a gift and she has asked you to choose a book from a store." How would you do this?"

So each child came up with different answers. To make it short she then explained the importance of a Title in the book. She displayed different titles and asked the kids what they thought about the contents of the book by just reading the title. She also gave them a title and asked them to write all what they thought about the book. she used this book and had a an interesting discussion with the kids. 

Before reading the book she asked the kids to think what the book would contain? Then she read part of the book and asked each kid questions like Who are the characters in the book, what are the personalities of each of them, what was the setting, and so on...

 

The next classes included talking about description and descriptive words, parts of a story such as setting, beginning, build up, conflict, climax, resolution, ending, characterising and mood. The sister also reads a story at each class and asks questions from them and makes them attentive listeners and stresses the importance of paying heed to details while reading. She also continued with reading part of the Story from the book "Who Knows" and stopped before the resolution and asked the kids to come up with their own resolutions. After discussing she read them the author's resolution and ended with "Only Allaah knows Everything" including the Story of Moosa alaihisslaam and Khidr. 

Now they are learning how to write a story with a message.

This is how the classes are going so far. I have not penned down every detail here but wanted to keep a record of when we started these classes and what really led me to it.

When I witnessed these classes I thought to myself I really do not give so much of time for Maimoonah on these aspects. And this was just an excellent opportunity for me to get her into thinking and most importantly learn something from another sister who I trust would do her best in sticking to the same principles I hold and connecting all what she teaches back to Allaah and His messenger.

Apart from this Maimoonah is now learning to understand how she should be in a group class. The sister is also teaching her how she should focus on what she needs to do in a class even though she may get distracted by others. All the kids in the class are nice children but all are school going children except Maimoonah, therefore she is facing some challenges but is enjoying the company Alhamdulillaah. 

As we go on I will update on the progress Inshaa Allaah. I hope to use these learnt skill and start something with Maimoonah in the near future after I settle with few issues which will be learning to write down benefits from listening to lectures of the Ulama and reading the books of the Ulama. I want to give her a notebook and make her listen to one 30 minutes lecture and ask her to write down just few benefits from the lecture she heard. This way she would slowly learn to take notes and understand the benefits Inshaa Allaah.

I have not updated our study on Usooluth Thalaathah and Important lessons for Every Muslim for sometime due to time constraints but she is learning to do the scrap booking by herself and we have done a lot even though going slow Alhamdulillaah. I presume these skills that she is learning would enhance the scrapbooking of these two books as well Inshaa Allaah.

Hope this would benefit other sisters too in some way. You are welcome to share your thoughts on this by leaving a comment and would love to hear what you think about this!

Everyday Arabic Book 1 - Colors

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

This is the review of Book 1 of the Everyday Arabic Series by Taalib Al-Ilm Educational Resources. 

According to Taalib Al-Ilm Educational Resources, here is a brief description of this book.

"This simple words book has images of children’s toys along with their colors in both English and Arabic in color coded sentences.

It also includes activity pages to test  what you have learned with black and white coloring book pages"

The cover of this book is simple and attractive and the touch of it is smooth too. Level of the book is basic still makes the kids learn important vocabulary. The sentences and words repeats through all 46 full colour pages, making it fun for kids who are learning to read arabic. And keeps the little one attentive when you are reading it aloud to them and eventually they would pick up the sentences as they keep hearing you read aloud!

And Alhamdulillaah in the new prints the fonts have been changed to one more readable font and that actually matches that used for reading the Qur’aan and books of knowledge.

It is colour coded for both Arabic and English and the older kids will quickly pick up the meaning of each word by themselves.

We have been enjoying reading this book. Maimoonah reads this book by herself and sometimes asks me to read it aloud to her. It really helps you to pick up sentences to be used in Arabic like "I see" What colours do we see? Point to them and show me, other than just learning the words for different colours. This is what is really benefitting us Alhamdulillaah! 

Kids can get into groups and ask each other questions in Arabic using some real things with different colours as the sentences rhyme and the kids usually like rhyming sentences.

The end of the book has a couple of colouring activities for the kids to do with instructions.

This book could be purchased here for a very reasonable price Inshaa Allaah

Other than the above you can use your own creativity and come up with different activities for the kids to do along with reading this book. Colours are just awesome to  do just about any activity. You can paint, simply colour, or even make colourful play dough. Older kids can do some science experiments with colours. There are plenty of activities with instruction on the net that you can do for Colours. I have listed few links below. (please avoid any unislamic materials from the sites below)

Colour Activity Links to explore

• Arabic Colour Poster
• Arabic Colours Go Fishing
• Learning for Kids Colour Activities
• Rainbow Colour Activities
• Colour mixing Experiment
• Get messy with Play dough Colours
• Suncatchers 

What other ways can you think of using this simple yet beneficial book of Colours! Share your comments below and watch out for the GIveaway post after we finish reviewing all 8 books Inshaa Allaah!

QMuslmah Children's Library is now Open!

Innalhamdalillaah, The QMuslimah Children's Library opened its door for the kids in Doha today! May Allaah bless the sister and her family who is accommodating this Library at her home,  until we find a suitable place.

The sister has also done a great job organizing all what it needs with two toddlers around and the little Library just looked nice with a very nice collection of Books in English and Arabic.

May Allaah reward all the sisters who generously contributed towards this Library and the sisters who helped with ordering and purchasing the books and checking the contents, helping with covering the books  and all those who helped in every little way to make this Project a reality. Aameen.

 

 

There is a lot more to do for this Library and we hope to gradually put things in place as we go on Inshaa Allaah.

Maashaa Allaah Maimoonah enjoyed the visit and loved the borrowing of the books. This is what we missed so much in Doha and now Allaah has blessed us with this Children's Library.

If you are in Doha and would like to be a member of this Library then please do contact us (ummmaimoonah@gmail.com) and become a member of QMuslimah and the Children's Library Forum and then you can come along and fill in the application form for the Library and register by paying the Registration and the Membership Fee on any Sunday 10 am to 12 noon to borrow books Inshaa Allaah.

Starting from next week we are also trying to organize a small story telling or reading aloud session in Arabic followed with some simple activities for the kids to encourage the study of Arabic Language Inshaa Allaah. This would be something to look forward to bi idhnillaah.

Once again we thank all of you for all your efforts and May Allaah make this a success and bless this noble project. Aameen.

QMuslimah Children's Library - Doha

Assalaamu Alaikum warahmathullaah. Here is an update of our community Project in Doha - The Children's Library.

Alhamdulillaah now we have about 800 books both in English and Arabic(400 Arabic Books and 400 English Books). Since we are careful about what we are exposing our children to, we are at the moment checking all the books word by word to the best of our ability to see that nothing includes any unislaamic issues. This has taken sometime but Alhamdulillaah we have almost finished checking all books.

Most of the Books if not all are wonderful nonfiction, realistic books that I am sure indeed very very rare to find in any other few Libraries around Doha. So it is indeed a worthwhile Project and a much needed one for everyone, especially for the homeschoolers. Inshaa Allaah this will be a start for our kids and await many more activities to come up.

I sincerely thank the very few sisters who took the trouble to email me and contribute towards the Library responding to my earlier post as well of all those lovely sisters who generously donated books for the Library. May Allaah bless you all for your kindness and generosity.  We are still in need of funds and would really appreciate if each one of you could contribute something very small towards this project as of now we are in debt but bi idhnillaah we will go on by the Grace and Mercy of Allaah. You can make an online donation. Here is how you can do this.

1. Go to this link https://load.payoneer.com/LoadToPage.aspx 
2. On the Select Card section enter this Email Address "payments@leafwriter.com" and you will see the last 4 digits of our Card Number.
3. Then mention the amount you would like to donate
4. In the "reason for Loading" space mention "Gift"
5. There is Fee charged by the payment Gateway, you can choose if you want to pay that fee or if you want that to be deducted from your donation.
6. Finally process the payment.
7. You will be sent a confirmation email after the cash gets deposited.

We hope to have a soft opening soon Inshaa Allaah. If you are in Doha and would like your kids to become members then the mothers have to be part of the QMuslimah Online Group to become members of the Children's Library. If you are not part of the group yet and want to be, please email me and we can send you an invitation to join the group Inshaa Allaah.

Baarakallaah Feekum

Kindergarten Curriculum Summary - Week 31

Islaamic Studies

• Scholars of Islaam - Ulama - We used this and learnt about the Scholars. We learnt the characteristics of the Scholars and what they do for us and also learnt about few scholars from the early generation and the current scholars who adhere to them. We wrote down some points on the Islaamic Studies book. We also spoke about Taabieen and the At baaut Taabieen.

English

• Grammar - Quantifiers. 

 

 

 

• Reading and Writing - We finished reading aloud the Treasure Island. Maimoonah was also busy reading the new set of books that we got recently. Abi bought her some notebooks and she was busy writing all by herself and all what she wants. 
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These are the few things that I found she has written. She says I am writing my journal and writes on and off. I was amazed to see her written the story of goldilocks and the bears. I have never taught her this. its starfall. She has remembered it and written in her own way with her own spelling. I only saw it after few days. : )

 

 

We also started doing this work book which turned out to be a good revision. 

 

Maths 

We continued with subtractions.

 

Science/ Social Studies

We learnt about Outer Space, Sun, Moon, Day and Night, stars, and Planets. We have covered this last year so we did some worksheets and read a lot from the books we have. Emphasised again that the earth does NOT go around the sun, rather it is the sun that goes around the earth. We learnt the hadeeth of the sun seeking permission to go down thus the day and night happens and also discussed about the fact that when Allaah does not give permission for the sun to set, that is a sign for the day of Judgement and no repentance will be accepted after that. 

 

We learnt about the Sun and the phases of the Moon.

  

We did the Scavenger hunt for the study of the Planets. Explained to her that the most planets are named after Greek so called gods and goddesses aoothubillaah, and Allaah did not name any planets and we only refer to them for studying purpose and we do not believe in those names as they are full of shirk. 

We did a home made kind of a magnifying glass: ) using cardboard, tape and drop of water!

 

Arabic

Alhamdulillaah Maimoonah's reading in Arabic is improving even though she does not like to put too much effort. This week she wanted to read the names of the Prophets in Arabic. Since this was her own initiation I was happy and she did this puzzle all by herself. she changed the names of the Prophets from English to Arabic. she brought me each Arabic Card and read it to me and then replaced it. There is no Haraqaat on it but she read, may be because she knew all the names of the Prophets but she basically read to me and when she was stuck I told her the haraqaat for some letters and she caught it. 

 

  

Alhamdulillaah we have completed our Kindergarten Curriculum for the school Year 2011/2012 by the grace and Mercy of Allaah. All praise is indeed due to Allaah that we were able to complete all according to the planned curriculum. Now looking forward to Ramadhaan and then another exciting beneficial school year Inshaa Allaah. Baarakallaah Feekum wa Jazzakumullaah Khayr for all of you who have encouraged and helped us throughout.