Printable kids posters based upon usooluth thalaatha!

I designed these posters for Sunnah BookStore; to give away as a free download you can print at home bi'ithnillah!
There's no catch....just hop on over to the store's facebook page and pick up the download links in a choice of 5 colours inshaAllah (including black)!

They are designed to A4 size, so if you fiddle around with your printer settings you should be able to print them borderless.
To get the best result, please please please print onto photo paper! You don't need expensive stuff....I just buy from one of the pound-stores!
Using photo paper will give you a hugely improved print quality - you should end up with something that looks professional and shop bought inshaAllah! (really, it makes a huge difference compared to printing on regular copy paper)

Once printed, laminate or frame to put a bit of colour in the kids bedroom and help them to learn these important answers bi'ithnillah!

Here is our set up on the wall:

You can go straight to Sunnah BookStore's facebook post links by clicking on the high lighted text below, - you'll find all the links in the comments section bi'ithnillah.

{Free printable kids posters based upon Usooluth Thalaatha}

 

Printable letter tracing workbook!

Helping your child to form letters correctly by teaching where each letter starts from takes a lot of repetition and practice;so don’t expect your child to get it right away or remember a week later!

The most important thing is that your child enjoys the writing process and his / her confidence not hindered by feeling its too difficult.
 Here is a simple letter tracing workbook you can print at home; including a certificate of completion at the end!
To download, just click on the high lighted text below!

{Printable letter tracing workbook}

30 Hadeeth on Raising children!

A beneficial 6 part audio series from Moosaa Richardson, discussing 30 ahadeeth on raising children; an advise for both parents and educators.

Raising our children is something which is such a huge responsibility; and this short series provides an insight into just how important it is that we take this role.

If you find it difficult to sit and listen to the daroos of the Ulema (Scholars) or talibul-ilm (students of knowledge), then try playing such audio lessons to listen to as you cook or do your household chores.

Listening to audios as you work makes your time far more beneficial and productive, as well as making daily tasks far more enjoyable.

You can find all 6 lessons over on the Troid website. (click on the highlighted text to be taken over there)
 

The rights of children in Islam....

Quote from the publisher's introduction regarding this book (available as a free online PDF):

Although small in size, this booklet presents the reader with a valuable discussion on some of the rights and privileges of children, which parents are obligated to fulfil. Indeed, it is not only the children who will be asked concerning their behaviour towards their parents on the Day of Judgement but also the parents will be asked concerning their children and how they raised them. Therefore, we must know the rights of our children and strive to fulfil our duties towards them so that they in turn may serve as righteous deeds for us and benefit us after we die.

The ebook is available over at Abdurrahman.org, click on the link below to access it:

{Your flesh and blood. A lecture on the rights of children}

Home school class room Vs the kitchen table!

To have a home school class room, or to not have a home school class room? Which is best and does it even really matter?

Take a look on pinterest and you will find an array of beautiful homeschool classrooms....huge rooms with everything a teacher-mum and her kids would ever need....to have a dedicated room like that you really would feel like a professional home schooler right!

But is it really necessary? If you don't have a home school room, does it make you less of a home-schooler?

When we started out home educating, we "home Schooled" around the kitchen table, with kids work up on the kitchen wall.
 About 18 months later, we turned a spare bedroom into a "class room" which I loved, because it was a place to store all the "school stuff" out of the way, although it sometimes seemed a bit of an effort to go in there; being segregated from the rest of the house, and would often end up bringing work to the kitchen table so we could school and cook dinner at the same time!
Go forward another 18 months, and the classroom is being dismantled as we need the space for something else, and I am in the middle of trying to find new homes around the house for all its contents we have built up over this short time subhanAllah.

So does it make a difference having a class room? I don't think so. Sure, it is nice to have everything in one place, and if you are blessed to have an extra room then why not? But it really isn't essential. Having a classroom won't actually be the ticket to give you better educational results...no matter what pinterest may make you think!

What is important, is nurturing the innate curiosity of your children, and giving them a space where they can be comfortable, happy and have access to everything they need to learn and be inspired....whether that be a dedicated school room or a seat at the kitchen table!

This can be done in so many ways, and every family is different. If you do a different search on pinterest, you can also find an array of different home schooling families utilising spaces in different ways; the famous kitchen table, the living room floor, desks in the bedrooms, unsuspecting cupboards intended to store plates and cups instead filled with papers and books - whatever space people have is what is used Alhamdulillah....and it all works fine!

At the end of the day, the place you are "schooling" in, is your home....albeit a temporary one; as we travel through this world like a stranger, working to put forward provisions for our permanent abode in the akhira.

So what is the simple answer to our class room question? Whatever works for you and your family's needs and requirements.

Just keep in mind, that material is not what is important and is not what will give you and your children true success. But what you do and how you use what you do have, is what will.

Learning Arabic is fun!

I will no longer be posting Arabic language material on this blog - instead all new content will be posted onto a new blog site http://www.learningarabicisfun.com/ bi'ithnillah!

Learning Arabic is something which is of upmost importance to the Muslims. It is the key to unlocking the Qur'an and indeed the Sunnah!

So many of us in the West try to learn the language, but very few of us reach true success. If we really want to speak the language of the Muslims, we must realise that we have to immediately put into practice what we learn; failing to do so means that Arabic will remain just a theoretical list of words which we don't know how to use.

I've started the new blog, to help my own family's quest in learning Arabic bi'ithnillah. Through it, I hope to share beneficial learning resources I have found online as well as those I make myself.
My hope is that it will serve as a motivator to both myself and others, to keep on pushing forward; to not just learn Arabic, but implement and speak it with full understanding inshaAllah.

The blog content will be divided into 3 main categories:
1) stuff for adults;
2) stuff for kids
3) stuff for parents

 Certainly true success is only from Allah. I ask Allah to make this effort something which will benefit myself, and the Muslim community.

Printable time line with both Hijri and Gregorian calendar dates

Have you ever wondered who lived first; the Maya or the Aztecs? Do you know what was happening in England and America at the same time as the Prophet Muhammad صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم was born? What about the rights of women throughout different parts of both the Muslim and non-Muslim world 100 years ago...?

Time lines are an awesome way to compare and visualise the chronological order of historical events and people throughout the ages; making it easy to answer these questions!

If you search the internet you can find plenty of ready to print time-lines both on sale and free....however finding one which incorporates the Hijri calendar is difficult if not impossible!

As Muslims, the Hijri calendar is something which is of great importance to us - yet sadly, it is often neglected in favour of the Gregorian calendar which most of us living here in the West are more familiar with. Many of us don't have any comprehension of the Hijri dates .... if we ask ourselves what is today's Hijri date; do we know it? ....Let alone asking what was happening in the world 200 years ago according to the Hijri calendar!

Alhamdulillah, with the help of online date converters, we have produced a 31 page time line with dates from both the Gregorian and Hijri calendars, beginning at 5795BH / 5000 BCE up to 1441 AH / 2020CE - allowing you to map out the events of world history in the Muslim and non-Muslim world side by side!

The dates are marked using BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (common Era) as opposed to the Christian based designations of BC (Before Christ) and AD (standing for the Latin phrase anno domini meaning in the year of our Lord).

The pages are blank, allowing you to add information according to your own studies, be that through writing or pictures.
 It will be interesting to be able to see and analyse events and lifestyles during the same periods across the globe - specifically in comparison to Islamic events during the same eras.

If you line up the pages side by side to tape them together at the back, forming a huge long line of sheets; you can then fold it concertina style (like a fan) giving you a time-line book you can flick through, picking out specific historical periods......or.....

....open it out and spread across the floor! (if you have enough space!!!!!)

 

Add information to your time line as you study and learn new historical facts! You can write your information as well as include inanimate(*) drawings or images of relevance.

Be careful not to allow your children to draw images of people / animals but focus instead on landscapes, buildings, clothing etc. (see footnote below).

 

 

To download and print, just click onto the high lighted text below!

{Printable time line with both Hijri and Gregorian calendar dates}

 

Footnote:

* It is not permissible for the Muslim to draw pictures of animate (living) beings.

 

Narrated Muslim: We were with Masruq at the house of Yasar bin Numair. Masruq saw some images (or pictures etc) on his terrace and said, "I heard 'Abdullah saying that he heard the Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم saying: "The people who will receive the severest punishment from Allah will be the picture-makers."

Sahih Al-Bukhari #5951

 

Narrated 'Aisha: The Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم  never used to leave in the house anything carrying images or crosses but he obliterated it.

Sahih Al-Bukhari #5952

 

Narrated Abu Zur'a: I entered a house in al-Madina with Abu Hurairah, and he saw a man making pictures at the top of the house. Abu Hurairah said, "I heard Allah's Messenger صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم  saying that Allah said: "Who would be more unjust than the one who tries to create the like of My creatures? Let them create a grain; let them create a gnat"....

Sahih Al-Bukhari #5953

 

Narrated Abu Talha: Allah's Messenger صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم said: "Angels (of Mercy) do not enter a house where there are pictures."......

Sahih Al-Bukhari #5958

 

Narrated Salim's father: Once Jibril promised to visit the Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم  but he delayed and the Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم  got worried about that. At least he came out and found Jibril and complained to him of his grief (for his delay). Jibril said to him, "We do not enter a place in which there is a picture or a dog."

Sahih AL-Bukhari #5960

 

Narrated Sa'id bin Abu Al-Hasan: While I was with Ibn 'Abbas a man came and said, "O father of 'Abbas! I am a human being and my sustenance is from my manual profession and I make these pictures." Ibn 'Abbas said, "I will tell you only what I heard from Allah's Messenger صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم . I heard him saying, "Whoever makes a picture will be punished by Allah till he pits a soul (life) in it, and he will never be able to put soul (life) in it." Hearing this, that man heaved a sigh and his face turned pale. Ibn 'Abbas said to him, "What a pity! If you inist on making pictures I advise you to make pictures of trees and any other inanimated objects having no souls."

Sahih Al-Bukhari #2225

A more detailed explanation with further evidences presented from Shiekh Ibn Baz (Rahimahullah) can be found {here}

Printable arabic colour posters!

This is an old file from earlier in the year - now available for free download! A set of 10 Arabic colour posters. - If you can print onto photo paper (cheaply available at most pound-stores) and laminate, it will give you a professional shop-bought end result inshaAllah!

 

To download and print at home, simply click on  the high-lighted text below!

{Arabic colour printable posters}

Do not be illusioned with the home school blogger

When I started this blog maybe around 3 years ago, I didn't tell anyone about it - until some who knew me started stumbling across it and realised it was mine.

 I liked the anonymity I had because it allowed me to be a little more open and honest in our home school highs and lows which I hoped may help others facing similar successes and struggles. I wanted this blog to be an authentic reflection of a real home educating family, given that support and information is not always so easy to come by in the Muslim community.

However, once I was ousted, and I was no longer anonymous; it didn't feel right to share so much of our home school life and thoughts because it was never intended to be an open window into my own family's affairs.

 Therefore I took the decision shortly after, to delete anything too personal, and as time has gone by, the blog has evolved into something much more "faceless", however I do hope it will benefit Muslim parents, regardless of their own schooling choices bi'ithnillah.

The reason I mention this, is because there is something personal which I would like to share with my home school readers on this particular occasion...

 I know, it is all too easy to look at other home schooling families and "see" how easy they seem to do it all, may Allah bless them. ...Especially those home school bloggers who do make the time and effort to share snippets of what they do with the world, hoping to benefit others inshaAllah.

They paint what seems to be a perfect picture of harmony and balance....super-mums who selflessly cook, clean, raise kids, teach and make their own amazing resources, are brilliant wives and devoted servants of Allah.

Standing next to the super-mum, other ordinary mums simply can not compare!

But what I want to make clear, is these super-mums do not exist.... well, at least not in my case anyway (perhaps other home school bloggers really are...I don't know because I have never met them...but I will be brash enough to suggest that they are not!).

And this is where I will come out from behind my hidden wall just for a moment, to say that I really genuinely struggle to home educate..... I cry about it sometimes because it really does feel like its all too much at times.

Don't assume whoever is behind this blog is a home school expert or super-mum, because I am far far from it...those who really know me already know that. I am a novice trying to make my way through the thickness of the fog just like you.

 Allah knows my true condition and I ask Allah to forgive and keep hidden that which He knows about me.

People sometimes ask if I will always home school right through to the end.

In my heart of hearts, I hope so..... but no one knows what the Qadr will bring....I'll admit I have sometimes scrolled through Muslim School websites on those dark days where I feel I'm just not able to do it anymore - but I don't tell you this. Sharing these personal accounts like this is not what this blog is about.

Rather, this blog is meant to be something which I hope will benefit myself and others in a way that allows me to remain anonymous, even though a few may know my face.

To my home schooling readers, don't be illusioned by the manicured appearance of this blog - I am no expert, I am no super mum. I am certainly not the know it all expert that this blog may unintentionally portray.

To my dear home schooling reader, do not fall for the illusion of the perfection of the home school blogger, and likewise do not be disillusioned by our imperfect reality.

 I ask Allah to facilitate what ever is best for myself and my children and make clear for us an easy path which will give us all ultimate success in the Akhira.

free blank note booking pages

I began making this file a few months ago with the goal to produce a note-booking pages set to include 100 different designs; in order to sell on the blog.
But as I go along I realise I am a huge softy because I always feel bad selling things I make! Instead I decided to make a smaller file however make it available as a free download inshaAllah.

So here we have a blank note-booking page set with 23 designs, each design with 4 different layouts.
Each design pretty much has a tittle page and 3 additional sheets with space provided for both text and images.

To download the set, just click on the high-lighted text below!

{Free blank note booking pages}

 

Have fun note-booking!