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!

More notebooking papers! You know the drill… download here or at Scribd :)

Feedback will be greatly appreciated :)

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.

I’m not one for busywork, but I would like the kids to write a little more. I’ve asked Mars to keep a special journal for the presentations she has done at the homeschoolers’ club meetings. After a break, she has gone back to copywork again and this time, we’ve set more stringent standards as she herself has expressed a desire to have better handwriting.

Bear has been composing poems – some sound like cute little haikus and all have a touch of drama to them! I’ll have to ask her permission before I reproduce them here. She is quite a shy little girl still and sometimes objects to having attention drawn to her. (I’ve tried to respect her need for privacy and this is why I don’t blog about her as much.)

We’ve been revising the Stories of the Prophets. We’ve studied them before and loved them to bits. It seems that every time we read, we learn something new and find nuggets of wisdom that we can apply to our daily lives. We are thus revisiting these stories, but in greater depth this time.

I’ve made some notebooking papers for documenting our learning points. Of course, any regular notebook or paper will do for journalling, but we have a boatload of paper from the Dad Man’s office that he no longer has use for – they are used on one side, so we are printing on the other. A bit of green living and an excuse to pretty up our papers :)

Here are some notebooking sheets for The Story of Prophet Adam `alayhis salaam. You can download them at Scribd if you have an account or you can just download them here. I’ve kept them pretty simple – not a lot of clipart or anything of the sort. I thought that the kids could draw their own pictures if they wanted. There are extra sheets for fillers and also a few for younger writers, with primary lines.

Please let me know if you have any issues with the document… I hope you like it!

*Edit: I’ve corrected a couple of mistakes and amended the primary lines, so please download the latest version!

Mars adores reading and walks around with her nose buried in her book. I mean this literally. Her father’s come close to a coronary watching her – “The stairs! The stairs! Put the book aside before you crash down the stairs and break something!” I’m pleased that she loves reading because there was a time when I was worried about her seeming lack of progress. My fears were completely groundless of course – but then you do develop some measure of paranoia when everyone asks you why your daughter isn’t reading at such-and-such age. (She read independently at 6 in case you are wondering.)

Anyway, she is so much like me that it is uncanny. She reads constantly, loves learning new words, has a strong inclination for the humanities and enjoys Science, especially natural history. She’s been trying her hand at writing stories and poetry as well and this has been a great source of pride for me. She is a novice for sure but I’m so glad that she has put her thoughts and feelings down on paper. She had never dared to before – she had never thought that she could or should, always harbouring this notion that she was never good enough.

So like her mama, Mars is doing well on the language front. Unfortunately, like her mama, she is less inclined towards Math. OK, let’s just come right out and say it… she hates Math with a vengeance and would do anything to get away from it.

I’ve tried to inject a bit of fun into her lessons and alhamdulillah there’s been a positive change. I prepared her a Math notebook – the cover has cowboy and horse clipart (she is horse mad!) and and old western style font. I’ve uploaded some of her notebooking sheets here if you want to download them. (Just click on the image below.)

MathNotebooking

Math Notebooking

Some 'fun math' books we've used

I’ve used some fun Math books like the following:

• Arithmetricks: 50 Easy Ways to Add, Subtract, Multiply, and Divide Without a Calculator by Edward H. Julius
• Brown Paper School book: I Hate Mathematics! by Marilyn Burns
• Brown Paper School book: Math for Smarty Pants by Marilyn Burns
• Funny & Fabulous Fraction Stories (Grades 3-6) by Dan Greenberg and Jared Lee
• Fraction Action by Loreen Leedy
• Spaghetti And Meatballs For All! by Marilyn Burns
• Amanda Bean’s Amazing Dream by Marilyn Burns
• Family Math (Equals Series) by Jean Kerr Stenmark, Virginia Thompson & Ruth Cossey

Do any of you have Math phobic kids? If so, what have you done to help them along? What resources have you found useful?

Need to shake the cobwebs off this blog! *cough*

A lot’s been happening right here in Isloo but I have not been able to churn out a post on our goings on. Horrid case of the spirit being willing and the flesh being weak, I’m afraid. I am not posting any links today but I thought I would for once offer a freebie of my own. *grin*

We’ve made up some bookmarks using some catchy quotes we’ve heard or been told :) So click on the image down there and download and print away.

(I used more black and white graphics for easier printing. Use colour paper for a nicer effect!)

You can access the bookmarks here or at Scribd.

We hope you enjoy them :)

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 :)

Two years ago, in Shawwal, my friend Raihanah organised a Ramadan Outing for the homeschoolers’ group in Singapore. She delivered a short talk on Islam and fasting to the non-Muslim homeschooling families. They then moved on to various stations set up by the Muslim homeschoolers where they sampled different types of dates, learnt how to make a paper fanoos (lantern), tried their hand at weaving paper ketupat (Malay rice cakes cooked in woven leaves) and experimented with mosaic art. Two dads conducted a tour of Sultan Mosque as well. The day ended off with lunch at a Middle Eastern restaurant.

My kids had lots of fun that day – they are always so excited to meet with other homeschoolers. They loved that they were able to talk about their deen. The day was all the more meaningful because their dad was able to join in – he travels a lot and isn’t always able to participate in any homeschool events.

We made a few printables that day and I thought I’d share one with you… It is a petal book in PDF format about “A Day In Ramadan”. Nothing too fancy – just a summary of what one does in a typical day in Ramadan. I hope you like it. *S*

DOWNLOAD “A DAY IN RAMADAN” PETAL BOOK

Here is a little something for fans of lapbooks, notebooks, mini-books and what not *S*

It is a fan book about “Why Ramadan Is Special”. There are blank fan templates provided for those who want to add in more information or who want to encourage their children to write their own reflections. It is in PDF format so if you don’t have Adobe Acrobat, GO GET IT! I’m not putting this up in MS WORD because you would lose the nifty fonts *S*

OK so without further ado, here is the file!

DOWNLOAD “WHY RAMADAN IS SPECIAL” FAN BOOK

* I said to print on coloured paper but only because lapbooks look more attractive that way. You can of course use white paper – the book itself has clipart which are in colour. If you do use coloured paper, use light pastels.