Continuing with our notebooking adventure… here is the second set of notebooking papers in the Lives of the Prophets series :) This is for the story of Prophet Idris `alayhis salaam. His story is a little short, but I’ve included different papers that you can use depending on how you want to write out the lessons.

Mars liked the font that I used in the Prophet Adam papers and wanted her notebook to have a uniform look. I like trying out different fonts. So there are two versions for you to download.

Here’s Set A, which you can download here or at Scribd.

And here’s Set B that you can download here or at Scribd.

I hope you find them useful!

I am rather enjoying making our own notebooking papers. There are several sites offering such papers for sale, but I’ve found several advantages to making my own. It is more affordable and I’ve also been able to customise them to my children’s tastes and writing.

There are several programmes that you can use like Free Serif Software, Scribus and Microsoft Publisher, but I just use good ol’ Microsoft Word. (I’ve got a plugin that converts my documents to PDF.) My lines are essentially tables – I play around with the row heights, borders styles and colours – and I add in clipart as and when necessary. Nothing fancy-schmancy :)

Below is an example of a basic notebooking template – I’ve included a cover, pages of primary-lined sheets for penmanship as well as regular-lined sheets for regular notebooking. The slideshow below from Scribd is in pdf format but you can download the MS Word format here to adapt to your own needs. You can change the title on the cover as well as the footer, type in your assignments as well as customise the number and size of lines and fonts (I LOVE fonts!).

Enjoy!

The kids are more keen about writing and researching these days, so I’ve been trying to churn out more noteboooking pages. I hope that this time, I will be more consistent about monitoring their penmanship.

Here are a few more pages for recording quick facts about the Prophets of Allah (`alayhimus salaam), and the Companions of Rasulullah sallallahu `alayhi wa sallam (radhiallahu `anhum). I hope you find them useful :)

You can download the pages at Scribd or here.

In shaa Allah I will upload a few templates in MS Word for those of you would like to give making your own notebooking papers a shot.

For Umm Maimoonah and Umm Salam :)

My rowdy ruffians have really taken to sashiko stitching. They’ve always been interested in needlework, but they have never been as diligent they have been the past few days ma shaa Allah. Perhaps it is because sashiko is, as Charlotte Mason said about how children’s work should be kept, “well within their compass”. They love the designs that are simple yet pretty and are looking forward to tackling the more detailed ones.

From the little I know about this charming Japanese craft, sashiko literally means “little stabs”. It was used to reinforce or repair fabric and employs the running stitch. Traditionally, sashiko was done with white cotton thread on dark blue or indigo cloth – I love the contrast, but have not made anything on dark fabric yet. (I’m waiting for my order of transfer papers to arrive!)

This craft is both decorative and functional – it can be used as a decorative surface for things like mats, bags, sheets and table runners and as a quilting technique to bind layered fabrics like blankets, coasters, placemats and pot holders. It is especially useful in strengthening household items that go through a lot of wear and tear. We intend to use our kids’ sashikos to decorate our walls in shaa Allah – our place could do with some prettifying! Maybe we can move on to making some dastarkhwans for our meals!

Here are some lovely sashiko creations – coasters, a runner and a pouch – that I found online:

You can see more pretty stuff here.

I don’t have all the necessary materials so I contemplated purchasing some kits, but they are a little pricey. (Also, not all the patterns come with dashed lines – i.e., you’d have to figure out the length of dashed stitches yourself and I didn’t feel comfy with this.) Since I do have a stash of embroidery flosses and calico, I felt it would be enough for us to just do an adaptation of sashiko and to focus on just the technique :) I used this tutorial and this one to get us started.

Here are some of the designs we have saved. You can download them and transfer them onto your fabrics for stitching. Not all are very clear so you’d have to tidy up the dashes when you transfer the patterns. (The stitches should be as even as possible.) I hope you enjoy them and let me know what you’ve come up with!

The kids and I have been more homebound lately due to health and transport issues. I thought that we’d have been driven mad by cabin fever and clawed each other’s eyes out by now, but it has been surprisingly wonderful. Deliberately slowing and paring down has allowed us to pursue new interests, to rekindle old ones and to have many meaningful conversations. We’ve not been harried folks rushing in and out of home for activity after activity. We’ve been able to tackle our projects with a clearer sense of purpose and been able to complete them with greater attention to detail in a way that we have not been able to before. It has been so refreshing.

Alhamdulillah for silver linings…

One of the things I’ve wanted to instil in myself and my children is stickability… persevering and seeing things through. As I’d said in an earlier post, I wanted them to do more worthwhile craftwork. We had begun stitching a couple of years ago, but I found something lacking in our sessions… there wasn’t a sense of aspiration, if you will. There wasn’t an expectation of bigger things to come.

I think one of my many mistakes was that I did not guide them enough. When they saw a pattern they liked, however difficult, they immediately wanted to leap into it and I allowed them, thinking that their enthusiasm would carry them through. However, their lack of skill and experience often caused them a great deal of exasperation and it would not be long before efforts would peter out. When a project was completed, they would be so unhappy with the results and experience that they would be daunted to try again, even though they itched to create something pretty with their hands.

I ought to have done a little more planning and introduced projects that were challenging, but not frustrating. Dexterity and skill need time to be developed. My kids tend to want to do difficult things and achieve the same results that adults do. While I need not curb their spirit, I can help them see the value of learning things gradually and celebrating small successes along the way, rather than be overwhelmed part way and be forever discouraged.

Last Sunday, we started anew :) We embarked on a wonderful new project – sashiko. At first, the girls were a little hesitant, thinking it was an overly simplistic craft, since it uses only the running (or “tack”) stitch. When they saw how pretty the results could be and how there are varying degrees of complexity, they were all for it. Since we didn’t have white transfer paper (heck, we have NO transfer paper!) or blue fabric (traditional sashiko uses white thread on indigo cloth), we made do with blue carbon paper, calicos and assorted flosses.

I was really very heartened to see the gusto with which they stitched. Both of them finished their projects in two days and immediately asked for new patterns to work on, ma shaa Allah. Below is a pic of their completed sashiko stitchery… Forgive the horrid quality of the photo – I had only my mobile phone on hand :P

Their second patterns are a little more difficult, with smaller and more stitches required. Here is Bear, working on her second pattern (it’s a pic of cute handbags!) while waiting for her sister to be done with her Arabic class.

On another note, I did some stitching too :) Bear was enamoured by Made By Joel’s vintage fabric dolls and begged me for one. We dove into my stash of fabrics and settled on a cheery green and pink print. We made several adaptations – I sewed on a calico face (which we agreed to leave featureless), embroidered a bob hairstyle (Bear used to sport this Dora-like look!) and stitched on Bear’s choice of cute buttons. (“Put star buttons at the top to show it is night, OK?”)

It is a simple project – the doll is essentially an embroidered 18-by-9-inch pillow (but don’t call it that in front of Bear… she has a name and she is Choti) and stuffed with polyfill fibre. If you have a sewing machine, you can probably complete it in a couple of hours or less. I did this completely by hand – I am still afraid of sewing machines! – so it took me a little longer. Still, I loved the whole process and when I knotted my last stitch, I was truly excited to surprise Bear with it. She had just woken up in the morning and her look of pure delight is something I’ll treasure always.

(Notice the little peg doll? We made it a couple of years ago and it is wearing a purple kimono… Bear says it is Choti’s doll. Again, pardon the awful quality of the photo – my Nokia is just rubbish, so I tried posterizing the pic but my graphics skills are even more rubbish :P)

Bear adores Choti and won’t let her out of her sight :) I guess I did SOMETHING right, alhamdulillah!

Again we know that the human hand hand is a wonderful and exquisite instrument to be used in a hundred movements exacting delicacy, direction and force; every such movement is a cause of joy as it leads to the pleasure of execution and the triumph of success. We begin to understand this and make some efforts to train the young in the deft handling of tools and the practice of handicrafts. Some day perhaps, we shall see apprenticeship to trades revived and good and beautiful work enforced. In so far, we are laying ourselves out to secure that each shall “live his life”; and that, not at his neighbor’s expense; because, so wonderful is the economy of the world that when a man really lives his life he benefits his neighbor as wll as himself; we all thrive in the well being of each.
~ Charlotte Mason, Volume 6, Philosophy of Education p. 328

I’ve just treated myself to some lovely redwork patterns … an `Eid prezzie so to speak :)

As I look at my needles and threads, I am reminded of the art lessons I had when I was in my second year of primary school, at age 8. Looking back on that time, I realise that my schooling that year had many Charlotte Mason elements! We spent a great deal of time on penmanship, reading and useful handicrafts. The crafts we learnt were not dime-a-dozen projects… rather, we made things that were very worthwhile. We did weaving, raffia stitching and even needlework.

I remember when we spent a few months working on our cross stitch samplers. The entire class had to work on this, even the boys! We were each given a piece of Aida fabric and assorted embroidery flosses. We would form a queue in front of the teacher’s desk and hand her our cloth, whereupon she would help us individually. She demonstrated how to stitch a pattern and sent us back to our seats to repeat the pattern. Once we successfully completed a row, we rejoined the queue to get a new row of patterns to work on. When we had filled the entire fabric, we got them stitched into a rectangular pencil case. (Our mums helped to sew up the zippers and hems.)

It was very painstaking work obviously, but one that gave me a lot of satisfaction. My teacher, who was NOT known for her patience, admirably curbed her temper during art and craft hour and persevered in guiding us through our projects. That was the only time I believe, that I received any useful training in art.

By the time I was in secondary school in my teens, education had changed a great deal. It was all about textbooks, exams and grades. Art lessons were reduced to only drawing and painting. We did campaign posters, still life, tiles and such and used different paints and pencils, but it was really essentially just drawing and painting. No real coaching was actually given – you either had the talent or you endured the lessons and horrid grades you received.

I would have loved it if we had art appreciation and art history woven into our lessons and learnt the techniques that the artists employed. I wish we had also been taught other forms of art and craft like knitting, crochet, collage making, stitchery among others as well. (I was terrible at drawing and sketching so I would have liked to have been given the opportunity to try other art forms and media.) I guess that would have taken too much time and been too difficult to grade for exams.

It wasn’t until I had children that I had the desire to get involved in handicrafts. Prior to that, I’d never thought that I could. After all, my grades in art were dismal, weren’t they? I loved the idea of passing on something made with love, by hand, to my children.

So, I tried overcoming my fear of failure and my tendency to overthink things and plunged into craftdom by embarking on a few simple embroidery projects. I’m not what you would call competent and I don’t have the time to be more committed, but I find joy in trying and I think that is what matters.

I want my children to have skills which would serve them well in their adult lives, skills that would bless not only their lives, but also that of others. There is a quote by Charlotte Mason that struck me:

The points to be borne in children’s handicrafts are: (a) that they should not be employed in making futilities such a pea and stick work, paper mats, and the like; (b) that they should be taught slowly and carefully what they are to do; (c) that slipshod work should not be allowed; (d) and that, therefore, the children’s work should be kept well within their compass.
~ Charlotte Mason, Volume 1, Home Education pp 315, 316.

I’ve been thinking of appropriate handicraft ideas for my children… projects that they can easily manage and which they can further develop. I’ve been so inspired by sisters like Fruitful Fusion, Kate and Umme Yusuf. In shaa Allah no more waste and creating of futilities! Here are some I’ve come up with:

• Baking and cooking – We’ve been cooking together almost everyday and as a special `Eid celebration, I’ve taught them a simple baked pasta recipe today!
• Cross stitch – Mars has done a few and can read the patterns well. Bear is working on a sampler.
• Long stitch – Bear is slowly working on a small project
• Sashiko – this would be particularly good for beginning embroiderers I think as the stitches are easily executed.
• Embroidery – there are primitive/country designs that are easy for young ones to tackle. I made a simple pattern for Bear to tack.
• Braiding and macrame – Mars has made a few friendship bracelets… things get a little messy and tangled though!
• Knitting – Mars has learnt this from her grandmothers! I’m still talking about learning how to knit :P For shame!
• Crochet
• Woodwork – I would love to bring in a carpenter to teach my kids!
• Beading
• Felt projects
• Mending, repurposing and refurbishing clothes and other things – I think as Muslims, we would do well not to waste

What handicrafts have you taught your kids?

We’ve recently received the good news that since we don’t live in Singapore anymore, Mars does NOT have to sit for the Primary School Leaving Examination (PSLE) in 2013 when she turns 12. We still have to submit annual reports to the Ministry of Education and if we do return to take up residence in Singapore before she turns 15, she will have to sit for the said examination. I’m relieved – not because I am afraid of the PSLE, but because I feel that I now have even more freedom to devote more time to other topics and subjects. I had, prior to this, been concerned about our learning days being devoted to merely preparing for the PSLE. Education in Singapore has changed a lot since I was a child. I don’t like what it has become … it is a blessing that I can now in shaa Allah spend even more time on Islamic studies, Arabic and being true to my Charlotte Mason aspirations. I feel like we can once again breathe life into our learning days alhamdulillah.

The girls and I have discussed our goals at length and we’ve decided to strive for the following:

• Diligence and fortitude without supervision, seeking reward only from Allah.
• Obedience with cheer and grace and truthfulness
• Complete attention during readings.
• Narrate clearly by dictating or writing after one listening without prompts or clues.
• Perfection is Allah’s domain, but we will strive to develop the habit of striving for excellence in execution.
• Handwriting should be neat, spelling must be correct and words must be enunciated clearly and properly.
• Memorise and understand the Qur’an. Learn stories of all the prophets, companions and scholars. Apply all these lessons to our daily life.
• Learn and recite ahadeeth and athar.
• Develop the habit of reading the Qur’an and keeping our tongues moist with the remembrance of Allah.
• Learn and recite famous speeches, poems and exerpts from great literature.
• Read whole chapter, great living books.

• Journal scientific studies and develop a thorough knowledge of the various branches.
• Keep a detailed notebook of their study of History and Geography.
• Learn meaningful and crafts and skills, including home making.
• Keep a commonplace book.

Really too tired so it’s just pics for now :) Books arrive tonight in shaa Allah!

My kids and I have a humble little library that we open up to our fellow homeschoolers and bibliophiles. When I say “humble”, I really mean HUMBLE :) Many of our books are pre-loved – we buy in bulk from the second-hand bookstores – so they have seen better days. We’ve practically run out of shelf space so many of the books are stored in boxes. Our library ceiling until recently had paint and plaster flaking off in large chunks due to leaks on the roof. It has undergone serious repairs over the last week so it now, with primer and waterproofing material pasted on to the affected bits, looks like the body of a spotted cow.

I used to feel a little awkward about inviting people and kids up to the library because compared to most of the homes I’ve seen which are neat and beautifully decorated, our library looks untidy on good days and downright chaotic on the worst! I was heartened though when Aymun, one of my friends’ kids, said with utter sincerity and disarming charm that she liked our home very much because “it has all the nice books”. Since then, I’ve felt less self-conscious about our library, which we affectionately call The Lightbulb Lab … because it’s where bright ideas are born! (*grin* Guess which book this came from?)

Anyway! We went book shopping in Singapore and are awaiting the arrival of our purchases. Isloo Lighbulb Lab friends, you can look forward to these good reads soon in shaa Allah!

I’d written a review of Marita Conlon-McKenna’s beautiful if heart wrenching series about the Great Famine in an earlier post. I found the Children of the Famine trilogy wonderful living books. We lost our old copies during our numerous moves so I decided to purchase a set for the Lightbulb Lab. We learnt a great deal about the Irish and their way of life and we came to understand more about the country’s history/politics and its hostile relationship with the English. We also learnt about the life of the migrants in America as a result of the mass exodus.

If we seem to have read a lot about the Irish famine, it is because we have! The famine of 1845 was truly a turning point in Irish history. It saw the population of Ireland drop by some twenty-five percent – one million died of starvation or disease and another million emigrated. I read elsewhere that the famine contributed to the decline in the use of Gaelic. West Ireland, where Gaelic was at its strongest, was also the hardest hit in terms of deaths and emigration.

Anyway, another book we read in Singapore was Nory Ryan’s Song. Nory is a 12-year-old girl whose father has left to go fishing in a bid to earn more money to pay back taxes. All around her, neighbours are being evicted by the hard-hearted Lord Cunningham. When the blight hits Ireland, their simple life becomes a nightmarish struggle. They literally stare death in the face as they run out of food and begin to slaughter the few livestock they have. Brave Nory risks her life to get food for her loved ones and it is heartbreaking to read of her attempts to distract her little brother from his hunger. I won’t give away the rest of the story but needless to say, the girls and I were hooked and completed it in 2 days. We are looking forward to reading the sequel, Maggie’s Door, when Nory and her friend Sean journey to America to find their families. They lose one another amidst the chaos and their stories are told separately.

My children and I fell in love with Rumer Godden’s books and decided to buy copies of our own. Many of her books are out of print (or out of stock!) and that disappointed us to no end but we did manage to order 3 of them. The Diddakoi (Winner of the Whibread Children’s Book Award) is about Kizzy, a half-Romani (or gypsy as some would say) girl. When her only caregiver, her great-great-grandmother dies, she is unwanted by her relatives. She is taken in first by Admiral Twiss (on whose land she and her great-great-grandmother had lived on) and later fostered by Ms Brooke. Made to attend school, she is marginalised and bullied. Kizzy learns to cope and still retain her identity and her peers too learn to overcome their prejudices. A disturbing story but the happy ending makes it all worth it :) BBC made a TV series entitled Kizzy in 1976 – I don’t think it is available on DVD or anything… pity!

The Mousewife is an exquisite gem. This lyrical fable tells of a mousewife who dutifully cares for her family but yearns for something more in her life. Her husband does not understand her but when a turtledove is brought by the owner of the house in a cage, she finds a kindred spirit. The dove tells the mouse about the wondrous world beyond the walls – like how “the dew it shines on the leaves and grass in the early morning for doves to drink”; how the wind blows in the cornfields and the patterns it makes in the corn and so much more that the mouse can only imagine. Moved by the tales and knowing only too well how painful captivity is, she sets the regal bird free while she continues to dream. This isn’t just a child’s story as you can tell :)

Another vintage read is Miss Happiness and Miss Flower. Eight-year-old Nona is sent to live with her relatives in England and is homesick for her home in India. When a grandaunt in America sends two Japanese dolls as gifts, she identifies with them immediately – for are they not displaced in a foreign culture and place like her? She sets about building them an authentic Japanese home, complete with screen doors, tatami mats, niches for scrolls, garden and silk quilts. Quiet Nona grows in confidence as she enlists the help of her cousins, friends and even the crotchety bookstore owner. However, she still has a jealous cousin Belinda to contend with… My girls loved this story to bits and it revived their love for their little kokeshi dolls :) There is a sequel entitled Little Plum which is also a wonderful read – however, it is out of print and existing copies are ridiculously pricey!

I do have more books to review and recommend but it has been a long and trying day so I’ll save the rest for another post.

Snails finding a meal after rain

With regard to the horror which some children show of beetle, spider, worm, that is usually a trick picked up from grown-up people.
~ Charlotte Mason, Out-Of-Door Life For The Children

Looking at the little labybug

Children should be encouraged to watch, patiently and quietly, until they learn something of the habits and history of bee, ant, wasp, spider, hairy caterpillar, dragon-fly, and whatever of larger growth comes in their way.
~ Charlotte Mason, Out-Of-Door Life For The Children

As for emulation, a very potent means of exciting and holding the attention of children, it is often objected that a desire to excel, to do better than others, implies an unloving temper, which the educator should rather repress than cultivate. Good marks of some kind are usually the rewards of those who do best, and it is urged that these good marks are often the cause of ungenerous rivalry. Now, the fact is, the children are being trained to live in the world, and in the world we all do get good marks of one kind or another, prize, or praise, or both, according as we excel others, whether in football or tennis, or in picture painting or poem-making. There are envyings and heart burnings amongst those who come in second best; so it has been from beginning, and doubtless will be to the end. If the child is go out into an emulous world, why, it may be possibly be well that he should brought up in an emulous school. But here is where the mother’s work comes in. She can teach her child to be first without vanity, and to be last without bitterness; that is, she can bring him up in such a hearty outgoing of love and sympathy that joy in his brother’s success takes the sting out of his own failure, and regret for his brother’s failure leaves no room for self glorification. Again, if a system of marks be used as a stimulus to attention and effort, the good marks should be given for conduct rather than for cleverness – that is, they should be within everybody’s reach: every child may get his mark for punctuality, order, attention, diligence, obedience, gentleness; and therefore, marks of this kind may be given without danger of leaving a rankling sense of injustice in the breast of the child who fails. Emulation becomes suicidal when it is used as the incentive to intellectual effort, because the desire for knowledge subsides in proportion as the desire to excel becomes active. As a matter of fact, marks of any sort, even for conduct, distract the attention of children from their proper work, which is in itself interesting enough to secure good behaviour as well as attention.

~ Charlotte Mason, Charlotte Mason’s Original Homeschooling Series, Vol.1

Another gem from Sister Adeela of River City Homeschoolers who has been ever so diligent and prolific, ma shaa Allah :)

She has put together a delightful six-week summer session nature study programme, suitable for all ages. It aims to encourage children to have direct contact with nature and to familiarise them with the Quranic verses and ahadeeth pertaining to Allah’s signs in nature. It is a wonderful way to bond as a family and your kids will also get some hands-on activities as well as try their hand in art and craft and journaling.

My kids just LOVE the outdoors and going on their “explorations” – they really take to heart Charlotte Mason’s words: “Never be within doors when you can rightly be without.” LOL! Anyway, I am looking forward to using Sister Adeela’s ideas.

She has kindly allowed me to share her ebook on my site, so click on the image below to save a copy for yourself.

River City Homeschoolers; Nature Study

I’ve so many books I want to write about but I’ve been really pressed for time. Here are a few gems we’ve been poring over this past month.

February Reads - Chapter Books

Dear Whiskers by Ann Whitehead Nagda is an endearing story – Bear loved it and we finished it in one sitting! Jenny’s fourth-grade class is assigned a second-grade class to write to as part of their English lessons. Each student is to assume the identity of a mouse and their second grade pen-pals are to write back to their mice friends. While all her classmates receive interesting letters, Jenny’s mouse, Whiskers, receives a disappointing one-liner (her second-grader refuses to play along) and then no further replies. Jenny discovers that her pen-pal, Sameera, is from Saudi Arabia and doesn’t speak English well. She tries to help but Sameera seems reluctant and indifferent. Jenny pushes on though and learns more about her younger friend’s religion and culture.

We had a blast with Dominic, another book we got through in one sitting. My kids love William Steig’s mad flights of fancy! This book tells about a heroic dog who travels in search of adventure. He meets with various characters with whom he forges deep bonds of friendship. It’s hilarious though that some of the names don’t really match with who/what they are. Bartholomew Badger (a pig!) is old and sickly. Dominic cares for him in his final days and he inherits the pig’s vast wealth, only to find the Doomsday Gang (oh how my kids love that wicked name!) “who robbed, ravaged, cheated, attacked innocent creatures at large and travelers especially, and did all sorts of damaging mischief.” He helps characters like Matilda Fox (a goose!!), Barney Swain (a hog who was robbed before his wedding) and eventually rallies all the oppressed creatures to rise against the Doomsday Gang. Dominic is completely likeable – heroic, philosophical, kind and generous.

Blue Willow by Doris Gates is a sweet book set in the 1930s about Janey Larkin, a ten-year-old daughter of an itinerant farmer. She longs to put down roots somewhere – so she can have a friend and attend regular school instead of makeshift camp school. Most of all, she wants a home where she can hang her most treasured possession – a blue willow plate that her mother had given her before she died. Things go well for Janey in San Joaquin Valley, California initially but then her stepmother falls ill and her father cannot work. She is then faced with losing her beloved willow plate.

My husband, who also loves History, is fascinated with many things Japanese. When I told him about The Samura’s Tale by Erik C. Haugaard, he urged me to order it. When it arrived though, Mars beat him to it and she’s been absorbed with the book. Set in 16th century feudal Japan, the story is about Murakami, whose parents are murdered by Lord Takeda’s soldiers. Kidnapped, he is then called Taro and becomes a servant in Lord Akiyama’s household. A cook named Togan befriends him but he too is murdered. Taro then decides that he will become a samurai and regain his family’s honour.

Another book by William Steig that Mars enjoyed – Abel’s Island. Abel (Abelard Hassam di Chirico Flint) is a mouse who, in trying to rescue his wife Amanda’s scarf, gets blown away during a storm. He is stranded on an island. Stripped of the comforts and leisure that his inherited wealth afforded him, Abel has to rely on his ingenuity and resourcefulness to return to his beloved wife. It takes him a year but he does rise to the challenge :)

I found The Defender by Nicholas Kalashnikoff quite compelling. Simply written, it is about Turgen, an old Lamut man who lives close to the Yakut people in Siberia. The Lamut are mountain folk while the Yakut live in the valley with their domesticated animals. Turgen is a healer and has an affinity with the mountain rams which he protects. The shaman, jealous of Turgen, spreads rumours about him, saying he consults with the devil who takes the form of the ram. Turgen’s loneliness after his wife and child’s deaths is compounded when the villagers shun him. Only Marfa, a poor widow and her two children offer him friendship. Turgen’s life slowly changes – his kindness gains him a family, returns him the good will of the village and even a heartfelt apology from the village shaman.

I’ve got loads more books to review but… in shaa Allah, another day :)

Free reads from Simply Charlotte Mason

Is there such a thing as too many freebies? Not necessarily :)

I find these freebies from Simply Charlotte Mason too good to pass, especially “Smooth and Easy Days” by Sonya Shafer. Homeschooling days can become insanely hectic, especially for those who have numerous responsibilities and little help. Charlotte Mason said, “The mother who takes pains to endow her children with good habits secures for herself smooth and easy days.” Shafer’s work talks about how “habits produce character” and how to go about habit-training gradually but surely. She also reminds parents to look into their own habits and to address their shortcomings while at the same time making it a valuable learning experience for the children. I really needed this reminder! You can download the book here.

The other book available for download is “Getting Started in Homeschooling” also by Sonya Shafer. This book tells the difference between the five main homeschool approaches and will guide parents to find the approach that will help your children flourish, to create a rich, comprehensive, and engaging education for your children, to save time by teaching all your children together and to begin homeschooling with confidence. You can download this book here.

We’ve just finished “The Watsons Go To Birmingham – 1963″ by multi-award winning author, Christopher Paul Curtis and we had a truly rip-roaring time with it. The story is about the “Weird Watsons”, a middle-class black family’s life in Flint, Michigan and their journey to the Deep South. Father Daniel loves “cutting up” and has an irrepressible sense of humour. Mother Wilona is loving but formidable enough to strike terror in her children’s hearts when laws are breached. Her Southern background is often fodder for her husband’s hillbilly jokes. Byron, the cocky (eldest) teenaged son, is on his way to being an “official delinquent”. Kenny, the narrator of the story, is an intelligent 10-year-old boy whose geekiness and lazy eye often cause him to be bullied. Joetta, the youngest, is a loyal girl who snitches on her siblings at times, but hates to see them punished.

Byron, by far the most colourful character, is the reason for the family’s journey to Birmingham, Alabama. Daddy Cool’s misdeeds include getting his lips frozen on the car’s mirror (it was cold and he was kissing his oh-so-handsome reflection), cutting school, using his parents’ credit at the store without permission, getting a conk (straightening his hair), playing with fire and assault. His parents make a desperate bid to save him from his self-destructive tendencies – they hope that a stint with Grandma Sands in Birmingham, away from the temptations and negative peers in the city will straighten him out.

The family makes preparations for the trip like refurbishing the car, getting a record player (the Ultra Glide) installed (because they want to avoid country/hillbilly music) and charting their proposed route, rest stops and expenses, all carefully and precisely noted by Mom in her notebook entitled The Watson’s Go To Birmingham – 1963. Dad however has other plans and saves money by driving practically non-stop.

In Birmingham, the family are caught up in the turbulent events of the emerging Civil Rights Movement. What begins as an interesting change of environment turns tragic when a Black church is bombed. This mirrors a true event in US history when a racially instigated bombing of a church led to 4 teenaged girls perishing – the book is in fact dedicated to these girls.

Issues like sibling rivalry, adolescent rebellion, friendship and bullying and racial prejudice are deftly handled – with a light touch that in no way dilutes them. I do have a few reservations – there are some cuss words, Byron’s unnamed trouble with a girl and references to ‘adult’ books. Since I was reading this with the kids, I censored these bits. I also skipped the part about Grandma Sands’ friendship with a Mr Robert. All in all, a good living book on history. An enjoyable read – wickedly funny but also deeply moving.

A quick one because I have no business being online when I should be cleaning and packing. :) Here are a couple of old books – now public domain – for learning/teaching Geography. I like the gentle and conversational approach.

• Home Geography by CC Long
• Elementary Geography by Charlotte Mason

Please keep us in your prayers and have a great Ramadan everyone!

My kids and I are huge fans of award-winning writer, Linda Sue Park. Her book, A Single Shard, is one of our favourites. It is a vividly told tale set in Ch’ul’po, a potter’s village, in 12th-century Korea. The protagonist is 10-year-old orphan, named for a mushroom that grows “without benefit of parent-seed”. He was raised by Crane-man (he has a shrivelled leg). These two outcasts make their home under the bridge and scavenge for food, refusing to beg or steal. When he accidentally breaks a pot belonging to Min, a master potter, he has to work off his debt and this sets off a series of change. I won’t say more except that if you like a story about loyalty, courage and love, then this is the book for you.

My friend at Tea and A Think is a fellow fan of the book :) She has compiled a wonderful list of facts on Korea and links to celadon pottery and Korean food. You can do a great unit study based on these links and her other book recommendations.

We’ve also enjoyed Linda Sue Park’s other books. I strongly believe in using living books and hers are wonderful for History and Geography. See Saw Girl tells of Jade, a girl of good social standing in 17th-century Korea who longs to see the world. Women then did not leave home (LITERALLY) till they married and then, did not ever step outside the walls of their marriage home. The Kite Fighters is about two brothers Kee-Sup and Young-Sup in 15th-century Korea. Young-Sup, the younger, often feels envious of his older brother, who seems to be favoured simply because he is the first-born. When the young king enlists their help for a kite competition, they learn to complement each other and understand each other better.

When My Name Was Keoko takes us to a more contemporary time – 1940 to the end of the second World War. Korea has been occupied by the Japanese since 1910 and their oppressive rulers are determined to erase the Korean identity and culture through propoganda and outright force. We see the struggle of the Korean people through Sun-hee (who is forced to take on the Japanese name Keoko) and her brother Tae-yul who narrate the story in turns. Each of the characters we meet show courage in their own unique way. We learn not just about role of Japan in WW2 but also what happens to Korea after it regains its independence. What makes this story even more meaningful is that the characters were inspired by true stories told by the author’s friends and family.

Korean paper doll – lots more paperdolls from all over the world available for download at Education.Com

Lives of the Prophets – Prophet Ayoub (Job), `alayhis salaam
narrated by Ms M. Kiyani

Once, there was a man named Ayoub. He was a Prophet of Allah and he was a wealthy man. He had many children and a good wife. He had every kind of wealth – he had cattle, land, a big house and a lot of money.

But one day, Allah decided to test him, which meant that all his wealth was taken from him. All his children died and even his health was taken away from him. One by one, his family began to desert him. Finally, the whole town threw him out of the city onto a rubbish heap. Some scholars say that his flesh began to fall off, leaving only muscle and bone behind.

His wife stayed with him, carrying out things he could not do. One by one, the people did not hire her as she was the wife of Ayoub. One day, she became so desperate that she went to the rich people of the town and sold her braid for good food. She brought the food to Ayoub `alayhis salaam and he asked her, “Where did you get this food?”

She gave a very vague answer, saying, “I provided service somewhere.”

The next day, again, she became desperate and she sold her other braid for good food. When she brought it to Ayoub `alayhis salaam, he refused to eat it, saying, “I will not eat this food until you tell me how you got it.” She removed her hijab/scarf and he saw that her hair had been cut. He was very angry and upset and swore that he would beat her a hundred times.

One day, Ayoub `alayhis salaam was instructed by Allah to strike the ground with his foot and from that place, there came a pool of water gushing. He was instructed to bathe in the water and while he bathed, all his sickness was washed away. After he had bathed, Allah sent to him a dress from Paradise. He was told to put this on by Allah and after that, he sat down in a corner.

When his wife came, she did not find Ayoub `alayhis salaam as she had left him and she did not recognise him. She asked the man who was sitting there, “O servant of Allah. Where is the man who was inflicted with disease when I left him? I am afraid that the dogs or wolves have carried him away and eaten him.” She kept talking.

When she stopped talking, Ayoub `alayhis salaam stood up and said, “O my wife. I am Ayoub.”

She said, “Do not mock me!”

He said, “It is me. I am Ayoub.”

Then, she finally recognised him.

All his children were returned to him and the like of them.

All his wealth was returned to him and then more.

On top of all that, Allah rained down golden locusts on top of him. He was catching them in the folds of his clothes and Allah said, “O Ayoub! Have you not enough of my blessings?”

Ayoub `alayhis salaam laughed and said, “O Allah! No one can have enough of your blessings.”

Ayoub had to beat his wife a hundred times because he had promised, remember? He did not really want to beat his wife because she had been a good lady when he was sick and had worked without complaint. He had lost control in the heat of the moment. Allah told him to tie bundle of one hundred reeds together and to tap his wife once.

I learnt from Ayoub `alayhis salaam that you should always be patient. He never complained about his sickness and he was always grateful for what Allah had given him in the past seventy years. We should also follow in his footsteps in being grateful. We should also follow his wife because she was a good woman and never complained about her husband’s disease and having to work hard.

The reward from Allah is great for one who is patient.

Mars and I have been easing into notebooking, particularly for Science. She doesn’t really enjoy writing because she finds it exhausting (you would understand why if you could see the amount of Arabic homework she has to do on a daily basis!) and also for reasons I have stated earlier. Still, she has agreed to give it her best shot and upon seeing the notebooking sheets I’ve prepared, seems really excited as well, alhamdulillah. It helps that Science is her favourite subject – there are numerous topics we can delve into, not to mention the multiple ways in which we can process, collate and present the information.

Notebooking is a useful tool for teaching students how to organise their material and thinking. In addition, they will be able improve their reading and writing skills. As a Charlotte Mason homeschooler, I ask Mars to narrate back or retell what they have learnt. In this way, I can be sure that we have covered all the bases and that she fully comprehends the lesson. Notebooking is also a form of narration – I like that it gets her to write and saves me the trouble of recording her narrations :P I have prepared her some sheets but I hope that in time, in shaa Allah, she will use her talents and creativity to personalise her notebooks.

Here’s an Astronomy Notebook I am sharing with you. Nothing fancy – I’ve kept it really basic so it’s easily adaptable. Pages have not been numbered so you can print and arrange them as you see fit. The notebook includes pages for:

• the cover
• references on the universe from the Qur’an and Sunnah
• individual planets and other celestial objects
• new words (word bank)
• a discussion on astrology and Islam’s position
• illustrations and descriptions

Download by clicking on the image below.

Imaan.Net's Astronomy Notebook

Feedback will be greatly appreciated :)