Beautiful faceless dolls...

I don't know about you, but I struggle to find appropriate toys for my children. I purchased the material and stuffing to make my own rag dolls to give my girls as an E'id gift..... 3 years on, that material and stuffing still lays sat in the cupboard collecting dust, waiting for me to find the time (and energy!) to put a couple of dolls together!

Learn the alphabet capitals with this cute as pie matching game!

I have this sweet printable alphabet set to play snap / match by pairing the letters with their capital counterpart! Each letter has its own pattern to help the child to identify matching pairs!

Through repetition, they should be able to learn casually through play both the small and capital letters inshaAllah!

 I think having something like this when I was teaching my eldest would have made learning the capitals so much easier and more fun! Alhamdulillah, my younger one can play and learn inshaAllah with help from her big sister instead!



To grab a set of the alphabet match game cards, just click onto the free download link {here}!

 

Indoor sandpit for winter-time fun!

I was speaking to a sister a couple of weeks ago about what I could try to keep my younger one busy. She suggested playing with sand!
My first reaction as I mentally processed this idea was, what about the mess! There will be sand everywhere!
But as I pondered, and she shared what a benefit sand playing could be to help improve concentration and not to mention the "quiet" as she is busy playing away, I figured she would love it!

I already had a large container box, so that weekend we got a bag of sand (which was only a couple of pounds!) and put in a few little toys.

We place a mat under the box so if sand spills it is easily picked up and thrown back in! I have to say, it keeps both girls busy for a long time! ....and that gives me plenty of time to do something without feeling guilty I'm occupied with something!

I'm trying to find more fun activities to keep the kids busy......what do you your kids do? Leave a comment below because I really need more ideas!

Keep maths real...

Why do so many children (and adults!) today, hold such a dislike for anything mathematical? Go back to your own school days in the stuffy old classroom.

Remember Mr X standing at the front of the room, going through some obscure word problem dealing with a situation that would never happen in real life to some imaginary characters called Bill, Bob and Ben!
Not only did you long to hear the ringing of the class-change bell, but so did Mr X himself!

And this is the situation for many of us.....we are taught at school that maths is a series of equations and word problems in a text book! We are not shown how maths is relevant to us in everyday life. And sadly, even as home educators, it is all too easy to follow this same ritualistic pattern! And so, instead of learning Maths, kids learn instead to simply switch off!

When something is real, when it is tangible then it has a purpose. And if something has a purpose, then it has a value. And if it has a value, then it is remembered, inshaAllah.

Instead of using a text book with cartoon images of money followed by a word problem asking how many toy cars can Billy buy with £1.55, take the kids shopping next time you need to get some milk! Let them count the money and work out the change!

Set up a small shop in your living room! Price up the goods from your kitchen cupboard, fill a little purse and a till with real coins (not pretend plastic ones!) and through play let them add up and pay!

Give what they are doing a purpose, give it value so that what they learn, stays with them inshaAllah.

 Who says you can only learn about the real world through text books and word problems? Who says its even effective? ...I know most of us as adults don't remember much beyond simple equations, because we memorised what we needed to know to pass the exam and as soon as it was over forgot everything!  

We were not shown how it was relevant to us, so we never applied it. Therefore forgot it! What we were forced to learn 20 years ago back in Mr X's classroom was not presented to us with value! And because there was no value, it was not remembered....or rather, it was not truly learnt!

The real world is just that....real! So keep it real and you may stop kids (and grown ups!) falling asleep, and instead, keep them switched on, and learning!

Shoe box marble game!

Take one ordinary shoe-box....and 15 minutes later its transformed into a marble throw game!

You can use these to make maths more fun too....adding the points together makes great addition practise without the drama!

You can make these as simple or as magnificent as you like.....whatever you do, the kids will enjoy the fun of it!

Kids often love seeing ordinary every day objects.....junk....revamped into something they can use. Its exciting! More exciting than a brand new toy from the shop...and lets face it, whether its a new toy or a transformed box the novelty will wear off after a day or so, so why spend all that money!


Use your imagination and encourage the children to use theirs! Give them a box and some craft materials and see what game they can come up with!.... Give siblings a box each so they can all design their own game then all play at the end! Trust me, they'll have fun, and you'll have a couple of hours to put your feet up with a nice cupper.....or catch up on the laundry!

Bath time fun with craft foam!

I would love to claim innovative credit for this idea, but alas the spark of genius did not come from me! I found this bath time picture game on handmade beginnings, you can see the post here 

All you need is the cheap craft foam and a pair of scissors! Cut up shapes to use in the bath - when the foam is wet it sticks to the tiles.

I made these using left over foam I had from a previous activity, so hope to buy some more at the weekend so I can make some more creative shapes inshallah!

I did draw onto the foam using permanent marker to write some words I thought K could use to make up sentences, however as soon as the foam was up on the tiles and the water started running off the foam....the pen ink came along with it- leaving not so lovely grey lines running down into the bath....quickly got the bleach out!

Maybe it was just the type of pen I used.....there must be water resistant pens around surely????