Ramadan Planning

(Sorry for the mess in the post… the editing doesn’t seem to be working for me)

How do you plan for Ramadan ?

There are some really helpful free resources out there to help you plan effectively for Ramadan. With the help of these you can Inshallah enter Ramadan :

• More organized
• More prepared
• More enthusiastic
• More Focused

Inshallah

Here are some Awesome Tips & Free Resources

Deep Cleaning & De Cluttering Checklist @ The Organized Muslimah

DECLUTTERING YOUR PHYSICAL AND MENTAL SPACE BEFORE RAMADAN @ The Healthy Muslimah

 

 The Ultimate Ramadan Tool @ Productive Muslim

 

 

 

 

 

Ramadan Planner very cool @Oraganized Muslimah

 

 

 

 

See here @ Creative Morivations

Ramadan Jornal for Moms @ A Muslim Homeschool

Kids Ramadan journal @ A Muslim Homeschool

Also by A Muslim Homeschool

Ramadan Goal Planner

Ramadan Planner @eezeehomeschool

Ramadanm & Eid PLanner for 2016 @ Happy Muslim Mama

Number Sense 1

Math: Number Sense

 

Number Sense Tub # 1

Lil Muallimah spreads out the cards and then matches the foam letters with the number shape on the card. She loves getting it right and see how they match. We are still working on the order of the numbers 🙂

The beads at the bottom of the card help in counting.

Hoping to have her correspond with items at the back of the cards soon. Inshallah

Number Sense Tub # 2

This is our FAVOURITE one. Got the idea from another blog. So again Lil Muallimah spreads out the card but this time matches the corresponding “pom pom balls” on to the card. There are only the exact number of balls for each number with it’s corresponding colour so she can’t get it wrong…….very encouraging! 🙂 As you will notice I have used the small sized pom pom balls for this activity.

You can find the post and the printable here.

I did add my own touch to cards (only not to waste the index card and for future learning! :)) once I cut and pasted the numbers onto the index card I used the remaining portion to spell out the number. I don’t refer to it at all now. It’s just there. Later when we are working on sight words I will start pointing onto the number in words too. I also mean to add a match game with additional word spelling cards. later on. Beindhnillah

PLEASE READ: A dear friend (Montessori Directress) did point one thing out to me about the following activity. It is EXTREMELY important if you are dealing with younger children and/or ones who are not strong with their colors.

” If we were to look at it from the Montessori perspective, there is room for improvement. If I were to ask you a simple question as to what would you do if a child matches 3 pompoms with no.3, but he does not match the right colors? if u try to tell the child that the colors need to be matched as well , he may be offended because he might only be interested in numbers and not colors. A montessori activity concentrates only on 1 basic concept or idea. This is called isolation.

Similarly in teaching quantity and number symbols, the quantity/object should be the same, e.g. all pompoms should be the same color and size, the symbol should be the same color and size. the control of error should be in accordance with the concept. In this case it would be 6 pompoms because matching 1 quantity wrong will leave more or less pompoms in the end.”

May Allah reward her for pointing it out.

 

I really liked the learning curve this activity brought for myself….Alhumdolillah.

IMPORTANT NOTE: In our home we ended up introducing this activity after the age of 4 and the kids were confident & strong in grasping the concept… so I just continued as is. Please choose the best option based on your child’s age & maturity level. Inshallah

Here’s the current version for Lil Muallim # 3

FUN, FUN, FUN!!!

 

 

 

 

 

Montessori Inspirations

LIL MUALLIMAH’S “WORK” SHELF

Keeping the lil one engaged, busy and HAPPY while the older ones are doing their lessons is quite a challenge. We all have experienced it or soon will as the kids and our families grow Mashallah.

With constant demands of “I want to do MY work” from my Lil Muallimah I buckled myself up. So this year I am going to to try and provide fun activities to help her be happy during our lesson time. I had been doing a lot of unplanned casual play and learn activities with her. She is now ready for a more structured program (in a toddler way).

So in the next few posts I’ll be sharing teh various activities that have been in  Lil Muallimah’s shelves…

Having studied in a Montessori as a child myself, I am really amazed by the impact they still have on me. I not only loved them but MISS them even now 🙂 I got a chance to touch Montessori material again when I volunteered in one  for  a few months.

Truly inspired by Montessori methods, scouring the internet and guidance from my Montessori trained friends I came to the following conclusion.

“The next best thing to having and knowing how to use Montessori materials is trying to adopt and adapt Montessori ideas with available resources :)”

PLEASE NOTE:The following ideas are not entirely Montessori style but just an inspired effort. They do not follow the Montessori ideology to it’s core but do strive to have the essence of it.

The shelf holds bright colored tubs I bought from the $ store (3 for $ Alhumdolillah!)

How does it work?

Problem Solving: Puzzles

Math: Number Sense

Colors: recognition and matching

Arabic: Huroof Recognition

Spatial Sense: Shape recognition

Sequencing

Fine Motor Skills and Hand Eye Co-ordination

I’ll share the first one in this post:

The puzzle pieces for each of the puzzles are in separate tubs. Lil Muallimah chooses her puzzle and picks up the tub, brings it to her table and builds the puzzle..She then puts them back when she is done. I love the one concept per tub idea as it gives structure as well as control over the activity. Makes the clean up a natural thing to do Mashallah! There are always exceptions and I am willing to work with that.

 

Both the wooden puzzles are from $ store too! 🙂

And here’s Lil Muallim 2 working on the puzzle (wanted his picture going on the blog too as it is his puzzle 🙂

See other posts under the Category Montessori Inspired for more about the activities in the shelves.

Cool Crafts with Popsicle Sticks

Lil Muallimah and I have dabbled in popsicle stick crafts. After making some typical geometric shaped baskets using a glue gun, we went in popsicle craft frenzy. Infact Lil Muallimah started craving to make things on her own. So I opened pinterest for ideas and voila! Following are some of her copied and original ideas…. Mashallah!

COPY WORK

Earing Stand & Wall Decore Snowflake

ON HER OWN

Apple tree

She made up a story about these characters