Diary of a Muslim homeschool: Ramadan note booking pages

Diary of a Muslim homeschool: Ramadan note booking pages: To help your child's study of Ramadan, try out these note-booking pages, with free download Alhamdulillah!!!   Download this 20 ...

Ramadhaan Plans 2013

Assalaamu Alaikum!

Alhamdulillaah another Ramadhaan round the corner and kids are growing! Maimoonah would be 6 years this Ramadhaan according to the Islaamic Calendar. This year we have not planned anything much as we are still living like travellers(and this is how we should really live : ) and do not have the resources we used to have right now. Alhamdulillaah for everything. So to make it simple I am thinking of doing a scrapbook on Ramadhaan with  some of the following included and will also touch through the rest Inshaa Allaah!

• Ramadhaan Note Booking Pages
• Revise our Ramadhaan Activity Pack
• Ramadhaan Memories
• My Fasting Chart
• Laylathul Qadr Work Book
• Good Deeds
• Salaah
• Read the Quraan from the Mushaf

Here are some other resources 

• Look out here for a New Ramadhaan Activity Book to be released soon!
• TJ Ramadhaan
• The Ramadhaan Activities we did over the years
• Ramadhaan Bulletin Boards
• Ramadhaan Planner
• Ramadhaan Activities for Babies and Toddlers
• Welcome Ramadhaan
• Ramadhaan Preschool Colouring Book
• Excellent Reminders of Ramadhaan

Hope and pray all of you would also have a wonderful Ramadhaan with your kids this year and May Allaah accept our fasts and deeds and forgive us our sins and guide us towards good in this world and the hereafter. Aameen. 

End of Another School Year

Alhamdulillaah we have reached the end of another school year. With relocations and other issues we were unable to finish all as we planned but qadarallaah maashaa Allaah, since we have been doing work a little higher than for Maimoonah's age we have still managed to cover a lot alhamdulillaah. Blessing of homeschooling bi idhnillaah.

I did not have enough time to blog about each subject. So I am just recording a summary here for all subjects inshaa Allaah.

Usooluth Thalaathah

Alhamdulillaah we have covered up to the first Principle both in Arabic and English. We used Umm Saffiyah's work book and completed it and now waiting for her to release the next book to cover the rest inshaa Allaah. So we will continue the rest next year and hopefully finish the book next Inshaa Allaah.

Qur'aan/Hifdhl

After finishing Juzz Amma, Maimoonah is memorizing Soorahs what she likes from the whole of the Qur'aan, so I am not fussing about it and letting her do what interests her. She chooses soorahs from here and there and tries to learn them. She also reads the Tafseer.

Alhamdulillaah she will start reading or reciting the Qur'aan this Ramadhaan from the Mushaf Inshaa Allaah.

Arabic

She is reading the last Iqraa book now and alhamdulillaah learnt to read Arabic. We will start reading the Qur'aan and this would the best to practice her reading inshaa Allaah.

We also completed up to lesson four in Madeenah Book 1. She knows to read so things are much easier now on Madeenah book.

 

We also used the Gateway to Arabic Book 1 and her writing has improved along with vocabulary alhamdulillaah. Few more chapters to go and we should start with book 2 next year inshaa Allaah. 

English

We finished 6 units each from both the books. Nelson Developing Fiction and Non Fiction Skills Books 1. Each book has 12 units. The rest we would finish up next year inshaa Allaah.  So we covered

• Alphabetical order
• A thesaurus
• Using a dictionary
• Suffixes
• Contractions
• Different letter patterns
• Nouns
• Proper nouns
• Verb families
• Adjectives
• Speech and speech marks
• Ending sentences
• Key words
• Simple reports
• Capital Letters
• For and against
• Instructions
• Synonyms and antonyms
• Past tense
• Commas and lists
• Settings and play scripts
• Poems on the same subjects
• Compound nouns
• Collective nouns
• Comparing words
• Silent letters
• Story beginnings and story planning 

I am pleased with these books alhamdulillaah. We avoided all magic and myths and did not do any comprehension activities on these topics. Each unit covers, grammar, comprehension, spelling, vocabulary and writing skills. So it's comprehensive in that sense and even though the ages recommended for these books are 7 and 8 Maimoonah finds them challenging and interesting. I help her with copying the sentences on to the notebook as sometimes she feels bored to write the same thing all over again. We will try to finish the books next year and get on to book 2 inshaa Allaah. 

 

She also reads chapter books now and checks for new words and their meanings in the dictionary. Alhamdulillaah only by the mercy and guidance of Allaah she is able to read and comprehend well and I think overall she has a good command of the English language for her age, alhamdulillaah. Early reading has helped her a lot I should say to achieve all this at this age with less stress alhamdulillaah.

Spelling

We have completed three quarter of the Spelling Workout Level B. few more units to complete. Inshaa Allaah we would finish it next year. This book is also very easy and interesting for the kids and good to learn spelling along with grammar and comprehension. We use a spelling notebook in which she writes when I dictate the list words after we complete each unit.

Mathematics

We have completed Nelson Maths 1A, 1B, 1C, 2A, and 2B. Book 2C we will start next year inshaa Allaah. We have also completed the MEP Maths Year 1a and in 1b we have few pages to complete. We may complete before the next year or else we will continue next year inshaa Allaah. We have covered many important concepts this year and Maimoonah is enjoying Maths alhamdulillaah. Some of them are

• Telling the time
• Symmetry
• The calendar
• Tens and Units/ place values
• Organizing data, graphing
• Halves and quarters
• Grouping
• Rounding up numbers
• Measurements
• Measuring length and mass
• Odd and even numbers
• Skip counting
• Multiplication Tables
• Adding and subtraction with two digit numbers
• Adding and subtracting 3 or more numbers
• Shapes and patterns
• Mental Maths
• More than less than equal to

  

This is a game she did on her own and wanted me to play with her  with remaining sticker paper. I was so surprised as to how she has displayed her understanding of Multiplication, Maashaa Allaah!

The Nelson Maths books are interesting and covers the concept well while MEP has been a tool for the development of critical thinking and alhamdulillaah it was a good move to continue using both the curriculums so far. 

Science

We have completed the the CGP Science book 1. Also completed as planned for this year alhamdulillaah. I did not blog in detail as I was pressed for time. We covered electricity, light, shadow, forces, sounds, floating and sinking.

     

 

Most of the topics were covered last year in more detail with hands on so this time we just stuck to the text books, work books and the encyclopedia along with the Internet activities as we did not have all the resources we needed. We ended our science lesson with the interesting project the compiling of the Star Book. 

Maimoonah also got some fun science kits as gift from another fellow homeschooling family here in Doha who are very close to us Maashaa Allaah! This was a pack of test tubes with different experiments to do.

 

 

Geography

We completed the Evan Moor Daily Geography Practice Book for Grade 1. Also we have few more chapters to do in our Maps Skills Book 1. We covered the following other than mentioned in this post.

• Intermediate Directions
• Direction connections
• The USA
• Symbols makes a map
• Natural resources
• Population
• Community helpers
• Neighborhood Plan

 

Seerah

We have  been revising our seerah study on the makkan period. And this year we used the book " When the Moon Split" this is easier than the sealed nectar for kids and Maimoonah uses this book to read aloud to me. It helps her with advanced vocabulary and helps her know the seerah of the Messenger of Allaah. We have not done any activities but will do more next year inshaa Allaah.

So I think I have covered all the subjects here. And as for my evaluation I feel even though we missed many months this school year we did well to cover up a lot. Since I am using the Cambridge Primary curriculum it does not matter in which year the child finishes which stage. It is designed in such a way that you can go according to the pace of your child and of course your situations. So alhamdulillaah I am pleased with what we have done with permission of Allaah.

As for Maimoonah she has improved in her writing both Arabic and English. Reading skills have developed. Comprehension is much more. And understands many things than before. Since motor skills are also developed alhamdulillaah she is able to do lot of independent work. And enjoys finishing the work when I am not around.

As for weaknesses and shortcomings I feel she gets distracted fast especially when she is with a group of kids. And gets bored with lessons that are too easy or too cumbersome. Also does not like when she has to do copywork and hates doing that. She reads well within herself but does not read aloud with confidence. So need to work on this. Same goes for the reciting of the Qur'aan, need to boost her confidence to recite aloud inshaa Allaah. 

Alhamdulillaah for everything and Allaah has blessed us to continue this journey and we look forward to have another exciting school year which would help us know our Lord more and make us closer to Him bi idhnillaah.

Compiling a Book Project!

Update: So Maimoonah won this contest Alhamdulillaah. And she has handed over the "Star" book to the Children's Library. Jazzakumullaah Khayr everyone for your kind words and encouragement.


The QMuslimah Children's Library organized a Book Compiling Project for kids of all ages. Alhamdulillaah we were able to use the Museum of Islamic Art Library - Doha premises and resources for this project. We sincerely thank the MIA Library Manager and the staff for accommodating us and supporting and encouraging our project.

Children of all ages participated. They had to choose a topic and do their planning and present the information in a form of a book. The most important aspect was that they had to link everything to Islaamic Sources and provide evidence from the Qur'aan and the Sunnah.

The session lasted for 4 hours and they used the MIA Library resources and the stationery materials we provided to compile their books with the help and guidance of the mothers according the age of the child.

Alhamdulillaah it was a great experience to do this with a group of kids in a different environment. Compiling a book is not new to us homeschoolers as we have done many lapbooks during these years and found them very interesting way of learning. But this experience was unique in the sense the environment was different. Though some of the kids were able to finish at the Library,  time was not enough. So they had to finish up the project at home and send the pictures for judging. The judging is not yet over. Inshaa Allaah will update the winner when it is done.

We thank all the kids and the moms for participating. Jazzakumullaah Khayr!

Maimoonah chose to do about Stars and there were many resources available at the MIA Library for this topic and we use the internet to get the Islaamic Sources. She was ready to write this time and did well with planning and presenting. Here is her book and there are some pictures of the books of the other kids too.

QMuslimah Islaamic Quiz Contest!

We were missing here for sometime and were very irregular with blogging due to the title of this post!

Alhamdulillaah we managed to set up an Islaamic Quiz Club here in Doha for kids from Ages 5 - 17. Each week questions and answers were sent to the members and they were supposed to study them.

After a couple of months we had the first Quiz Contest last weekend. Alhamdulillaah 64 kids registered and about 50 kids participated in the Quiz Contest.

The kids as well as the parents were thrilled and we all had a very healthy competition, innalhamdalillaah. It was such a pleasure to know most of the kids have in fact studied the materials provided and were thorough with the Aqeedah questions.

All participants were given a participation certificate and a gift bag. And the individual winners were given valuable Islaamic Books as prizes.

Our little Maimoonah did well too Alhamdulillaah. She answered all her questions but was too slow to raise her hands to answer the other questions and increase her points. But she was pleased that she answered her questions with confident and apart from the gift bag she received she was given a gift of this Encyclopedia by her Abi for studying and doing well.

This was a very good exposure for the kids and especially for homeschooling kids and we hope it has benefitted all and looking forward to the next contest Inshaa Allaah.

I thank all the brothers and sisters who helped with checking the questions and answers, helping with organizing this quiz contest and all the parents and the kids for participating. Baarakallaah Feekum!

At the Visual Art Centre

We happen to pass by the Visual Art Centre in Katara Cultural Village , Doha and found few Exhibitions going on there.

It was a nice experience as there was a display on Uzbekistan Culture and the Copy of the Qur'aan written at the time of Uthmaan Radhiyallaahu anhu was on display along with other calligraphy visuals and tools and ornaments. Maimoonah remembered Umm Sara and Family as they are from Uzbekistan.

There was also another exhibition going on and art work of an Omani artist were displayed. Here are some pics.

https://picasaweb.google.com/110833838060202760125/VisualArtCentre?authuser=0&feat=directlink

At the Library - Arabic Story Time

Alhamdulillaah we had a nice Arabic Story time at the QMuslimah Children's Library today.

The sister read the Arabic Book about Fruits and Colours.

 

The kids listened to the story, then answered the questions in Arabic. They were also made to identify the fruits by choosing the correct play fruit.

Then they coloured the fruits, cut and pasted them.

This was a simple activity but the kids really enjoyed and learnt to ask " ماذا لون تفاح" and so on! This is a good learning through play activity to practice vocabulary Inshaa Allaah and also to get the children experienced in group learning.

We hope to continue this Arabic Story Time Inshaa Allaah at the Library on Sundays. Those of you who are in Doha and would like to be members of this Library please do contact me and we would send you an invitation to join the QMuslimah online Library Forum Inshaa Allaah.