So… my set up is all ready for 2017, in shaa Allah. I have my A5 dori, my grid paper notebooks (I only write on grid paper… grid is good… heh) and my trusty fountain pens. I can’t wait to dig into journal goodness.

Here are some links that I have found very useful for starting out. They are Juz ‘Amma resources:

• Sheikh Navaid Aziz
• Sheikh Muhammad Alshareef’s Touched by An Angel
• Touched by An Angel Tafseer Workbook
• Ustadh Nouman Ali Khan

Did I tell you that I’ve converted the entire family to my notebook neurosis? Each one of my kids (yes, even 5-year-old Peep) has a dori. Theirs are well made leather covers and I bought them hoping that they will be keepsakes that last my children into adulthood.

Marz keeps a commonplace book, crochet patterns and a smash book and Bear does a lot of drawing and doodling. Peep’s is a passport size cover and it is ma shaa Allah so cute! He has a two notebooks in his tiny TN – one is a sticker notebook and the other contains his reading list. The Dad Man has one too – a larger A5 to our standard sized (11cm x 21cm) ones. He has always jotted down ideas and work-related plans in a notebook of sorts, so I thought he would make the ideal victim candidate for a leather notebook.

Bear’s dori

Peep’s – it is small and fits right in the palm of an adult’s hand but is plenty for his scribblings and studies :)

I’ve recently acquired an A5 one too to add to my dori family (don’t judge me!) and this is expressly for my Islamic studies. I already have an insert for supplications and want to organize new ones for Tafseer and Seerah.

There are alhamdulillah lots of lectures online and for those who are keen on Islamic journaling, Sister Sumayah Hassan of Recite and Reflect has initiated a lovely project called Iman Illustrated. This is an open community of sisters who journal together. It doesn’t matter how artistic or not you are… the idea is to put pen to paper and to reflect on the Quran. Check out the group’s links for more inspiration:

• Iman Illustrated Community Guidelines
• Iman Illustrated’s Facebook Page
• Iman Illustrated’s Instagram

I am keeping my journal simple. I can’t draw for toffee, so I am not even going to try… haha ;) I am just going to try and better my Arabic writing and make my notes tidy. No jazzing things up beyond different coloured inks, no embellishments, absolutely no bells and whistles. Just a simple doable and, in shaa Allah, sustainable effort. I am also slowly moving the girls into Quran journaling. For now, Marz is collecting 25 supplications to write out and memorize and Bear, 25 ahadeeth on good deeds.

So… are you Quran journaling? What resources have you found useful and what do your pages look like?

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!

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.