Book: أَيْنَ سبوط؟ (Where's Spot?)

Books are such a rich learning resource... But they can be expensive - especially if you want them as translations of well-loved classics in Arabic!

One day, after feeling dismayed at not only the cost of one book in Arabic but also at how difficult to find they were, I asked my husband why couldn't we just translate a book ourselves? We have some well-loved books in English already, so reading a book they're familiar in would be a bonus... Plus - and this was the biggest point - we could type it with all the vowel sounds included! Because for some reason even books aimed at young children usually didn't have them... meaning I wasn't able to just take an Arabic children's book out of the library (and I've seen quite a few here in Birmingham!) because I wouldn't be able to read it, even if the content was extremely simple!

My husband has been studying the Arabic language for a good few years, and along with some friends he knows through classes, we managed to translate 'Where's Spot?' by Eric Hill.

This is obviously an unofficial just-for-fun project, as I think this may already exist in Arabic if you look online... But you're welcome to download our Word file here, if you like.

After typing up our translation, it was just a case of printing it out, cutting and sticking each line into the book we already had and ta dah! We now have a dual language English/Arabic book, exactly how we want it at minimal extra cost. Just our time and effort, but it was a beneficial learning experience in itself anyway. 😊

Fard & sunnah prayers

MashaAllah, the twins have been aware of the 5 daily prayers for a while (see this blog entry for a simple song/poster) but I wanted to do something for each pillar as we cover them this topic... So decided to introduce them to the idea of sunnah prayers. Naturally, to do that they needed to learn what "fard" meant too!

Fard = compulsory, they HAVE to be done - these are the prayers of the pillar of salah.

Sunnah = you don't have to do them but you can if you want to gain extra reward. These are extra prayers the Prophet Muhammad (SAW) used to do.

Everything is very simple at this point! The twins are only just turned 4 1/2 after all!

Next I took out their maths multilink cubes, though you could do the same thing with Lego, wooden blocks, etc. Anything which has different colours and can stack.

We chose red and orange to represent fard. One cube was equal to one rakat. Red meant it was read aloud; orange meant it was read silently. Cue a quick quiz to find out how many rakaat each prayer has and asked the twins to "build" each prayer:

Fajr: 2 red (2)
Dhuhr: 4 orange (4)
'Asr: 4 orange (4)
Maghrib: 2 red, 1 orange (3)
'Isha: 2 red, 2 orange (4)

Lined them up together so they could compare the sizes of the towers they made - numeracy link in counting the cubes and checking the total: 17 rakaat. They pointed out Fajr was the smallest while Dhuhr, 'Asr and 'Isha were the same size. An important observation to keep in mind for later!

Next I asked them to explain to me what sunnah prayers were, i.e. repeat back to me what I'd just told them earlier to check their understanding. 😊

We chose green cubes to represent each rakat of sunnah prayer. Then I told them how many rakaat are typically associated with each prayer so they could add to their towers. The objective wasn't for them to be able to recall exactly how many go where, but the exercise was more in gaining that initial awareness for building on in future years, inshaAllah.

I also told them whether the sunnah prayers came before or after the fard prayers, so their towers ended up like this:

Fajr: 2 green, 2 red (4)
Dhuhr: 4 green, 4 red, 4 green (12)
'Asr: 4 red (4)
Maghrib: 2 red, 1 orange, 2 green (5)
'Isha: 2 red, 2 orange, 2 green (6)

Finally, I explained there was a very special white cube which needed to go at the end of one of the prayers... This white cube was called 'witr' and was special because it wasn't really fard but it was part of the prayer you really shouldn't miss... And it goes at the end of 'Isha. 😁

So the final towers lined up together looked like:

Fajr: 2 green, 2 red (4)
Dhuhr: 4 green, 4 red, 4 green (12)
'Asr: 4 red (4)
Maghrib: 2 red, 1 orange, 2 green (5)
'Isha: 2 red, 2 orange, 2 green, 1 white (7)

They compared and discussed them again: Fajr wasn't the smallest anymore! It was the same size as 'Asr! And Maghrib was only 1 bigger than them! They really found it funny how our Dhuhr tower kept falling over, it was that tall! But insha'Allah that means the fact Dhuhr is the longest when you add in all the sunnah prayers will stay in their mind. And they both liked the one white cube of witr because it was so special. 😂

We finished by counting and adding together the total number of rakaat: 32! A lot more than 17! And emphasised the sunnah prayers were a choice, to gain extra reward, but the red/orange fard cubes were prayers they definitely couldn't miss - once they were at the age to do them... A good few years from now insha'Allah! 💕

MAR Book 1, Lesson 1: "This is a..."

Our first formal lessons in learning Arabic... Decided to use the Madinah Arabic Reader series as I've already gone through the first few chapters myself in the past - just bought the Reader version as it's a bit more accessible for children (in that the layout is nicer to look at and there are colour pictures; the content is exactly the same).

I'm using the book as a guideline - we'll go through it in order but we'll be doing the work mainly verbally as opposed to written and I'll adapt the lessons into activities for the kids... We'll cover most of the vocabulary but as the book is aimed at older ages we'll only briefly go over the words which aren't really relevant/difficult for home educating 4 year olds to understand (e.g. "university", "student", "headteacher", etc.!)

So the first lesson begins with هَذَا (this is) and introduces some common nouns, most of which are easily found around the house. Before even showing the book to the girls, I decided to run through this vocab with them by taking them round the house and saying the sentences on the first page for them to repeat. After a few rounds of repetition we continued to the next concept on page 2, turning the phrases into questions: مَا هَذَا؟ (what is this?) and أَهَذَا ... ؟ (is this ... ?). So I would point at e.g. the door and ask either, "What is this?" or "Is this a door?" and have the girls reply in sentences, e.g. "Yes, this is a door." or "No, this is a pen." This took a maximum of 10 minutes to do and I wasn't fussed if they made mistakes - it was all very playful, in silly voices, moving around - if they made a mistake, I'd just say what it was supposed to be for them to repeat. No pressure. And they enjoyed the questioning part since the questions were so ridiculous (really, Mama, you're asking if a pen is a door?? 😂) and I kept the timing short on purpose so it wouldn't get boring or tedious.

I then wrote the 9 words on page 1 onto our whiteboard by drawing a picture in one colour and writing the transliterated Arabic underneath in another. In hindsight, next time I'd include the actual Arabic too even if they can't read it just for exposure. We revisited the board over the next couple of days then read through up to the top of page 7 together, translating as we went along. For the exercise on page 7 we didn't do any writing; I just said the sentence in either English or Arabic and the girls needed to translate it into the other language. The next day, we did some simple flashcard activities where I held up a picture for them to translate or I pointed at one from a selection and they needed to ask a question. Since then, we just substituted the Arabic words into our everyday life wherever we could, regardless of whether the grammar made sense or not - it was more for vocab practice. e.g. "Can you open the baabun for me?" (Don't worry about the grammar as this is easily corrected as you progress through the lessons!)


The mini flashcards I made for Chapters 1-4 can be downloaded here. Black and white, for the option for the kids to colour them themselves while revising vocab. I printed then laminated mine and colour coded the borders: red = m. nouns, pink = f. nouns, blue = adjectives, yellow = prepositions, green = other. Verbs haven't been introduced in the book yet.

99 Names of Allah - 01 - Allah (SWT)

"Allah has 99 names and whoever preserves them will enter Paradise." [Sahih Muslim]

Most of us are familiar with this hadith and many of us will encourage our children to memorise these names while they're young and their minds absorb easily like sponges... But I wanted to take the opportunity to give my children a deeper connection with Allah at the same time. I wanted to go through each name in turn and provide a child-friendly explanation and memorable activity. Even if they come out of it at the end unable to say exactly what each name meant, at the time of the lesson we would have at least discussed its meaning ready as a foundation to build upon when they're older insha'Allah, and be able to have a better understanding of each meaning. After searching online for something free and accessible for 4-5 year old children and not finding anything exactly suitable, I decided to go ahead and research and write my own lesson plan and resources for each name.

The overall plan is to familiarise my children with all 99 names through a simple song (by putting the names to a simple tune; something I picked up while teaching at an Islamic school) and giving each name a suitable action in order to aid memory of its meaning. The song would be sung at the beginning of every session, increasing the names in the song at the rate at which my children could learn them. Each lesson would follow the same format: song, story to introduce the concept of the name, explanation of the name & discussion, a craft activity wherein they create a page for a book/folder which will eventually insha'Allah contain all 99 names, discussion on how they can apply the name to their lives, a small recap and a reward sticker for a chart. Each lesson should last approximately 1hr. Any other related activities could then be done over the following days/weeks, so each name would become a mini topic in itself - not just learnt briefly and then move on.

This is very much a work in progress and I plan to share anything I come up with as I go along. At the moment we're progressing slowly at a rate of one name a month (as I need to find time to create everything in between our other homeschooling topics!) but insha'Allah the pace should increase as my children get older. At the time we started they were 4 1/2, so my plans will always be tailored to my own children first and foremost.

Bismillah. So here we go with the first plan, to introduce the idea that Allah has 99 names!

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[01] اَللّهُ (Allah): God - The Greatest Name

[Download resources here]

Sing 99 Names (10min)

Allah is the name of God, our creator, the one we worship and thank for everything. But Allah is only one name for God – and we are going to learn what 99 of His names/descriptions are and what they mean! There is a hadith that says, “Allah has 99 names and whoever preserves [learns] them will enter paradise.” (Sahih Muslim 2677)

Each name we learn will help us become closer to Allah and become better at worshipping Him, insha’Allah.

Show children their sticker chart, with all 99 names and a space beside each one for a sticker once they've learnt it. Sing through and encourage the children to join in if they want to. (You can find a variety of charts online/in Islamic bookstores or you can make one yourself. We have a wall dedicated to this project and will stick up one card at a time from this series to create a display. The list of names I sang to them from this book.) Then introduce the PowerPoint to the children and sing through once or twice, explaining it only has the first 33 names for now, inviting them to join in if they would like to.

Story relating to today's name (10min)

Read a storybook or two of how Allah made everything, e.g. "Life Begins", "Allah Made Them All", "Allah Gave Me Two Eyes To See", etc.

What does this make you feel about Allah? We are grateful to Allah for creating us and for blessing us with so many wonderful things.

Discuss meaning, apply to children's lives (10min)

Allah has many names mentioned in the Quran but the name “Allah” is the greatest of all.

Write the name Allah in the centre of a piece of paper. Help children to write words around the paper of how Allah makes them feel or who Allah is, etc. They can write things they like about Allah or things they’re happy Allah created, things they’re grateful for, etc. They can draw pictures of things Allah has made. When they're finished, put this poster on display as a reminder for them.

Craft activity (15min)

Complete the front cover for their folder/book. (We're using an A5 ringbinder each and a piece of A4 card cut in half to make it A5 and holepunched for the pages)

Colour in the title with special gel pens and decorate with stickers. Explain we cannot draw pictures of Allah and we cannot even imagine what He looks like. Nothing in this world can compare to Him.

When to use this name (10min)

Can you think of any times in the day you say the name Allah? Maybe when praying or inside other words or when doing certain things? Help the children think of examples and explain the meaning of the words to them.

e.g.

Allahu akbar = Allah is the greatest, e.g. when praying

Alhamdulillah = All thanks is to Allah, e.g. after sneezing, when we’re happy about something

Bismillah = In the name of Allah, e.g. before doing anything

InshaAllah = If Allah wills, e.g. when talking about something in the future

SubhanAllah = Allah is perfect/Praise to Allah, e.g. when something bad happens, when we see something amazing

Astaghfirullah =I seek forgiveness from Allah, e.g. when we make a mistake or see someone else do something bad

MashaAllah = Allah has willed, e.g. when someone does something well or something looks beautiful

The book The Way to Jannah illustrates this beautifully.

Sticker chart (5min)

Print out/hang up a sticker chart with space for the 99 names on it/show children where their display wall will be for all 99 names insha'Allah.

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Other activities:

- Read other storybooks about Allah’s creations or things he has blessed us with.

- Make a mini display using Post-it notes of the words we often say with Allah’s name in.

Song: The Five Pillars

I wrote a simple song (nasheed, if you prefer?) to help my girls not only learn but understand the very basics of the five pillars of Islam: testimony of faith (shahadah), prayer (salah), charity (zakat), fasting (sawm) and pilgrimage (hajj).

Sung to the tune of "The Wheels On The Bus". 🚌

(CHORUS)

In Islam, there are five pillars,

Five pillars,

Five pillars.

In Islam, there are five pillars,

Which Muslims all believe in.

The shahadah says that Allah is One:

Laa ‘ilaaha

‘illa-llah,

And Muhammad is His messenger:

Wa Muhammadur-rasoolu-llah.

(CHORUS)

Salah we pray five times a day:

Fajr, Dhuhr,

And ‘Asr,

Maghrib, ‘Isha, five salah.

The prayers we offer daily.

(CHORUS)

Zakat we give to charity,

To help the poor

And the needy.

Zakat, it makes our wealth all clean,

And stops us being greedy.

(CHORUS)

Sawm, we fast in Ramadhaan,

Don’t eat or drink

Til the sun goes down.

Be patient, kind and helpful.

Fasting makes us grateful.

(CHORUS)

Hajj is the holy pilgrimage,

To where Prophet

Ibrahim used to live.

Just once in our life when we have the means,

We should make this journey.

(CHORUS)

I then made it into a small poster (two A4 sheets trimmed down, stuck together and laminated), which you can download a copy of here. 😊

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It was a little difficult to think of another, useful, separate activity to do with the shahadah... We've made it a habit for the girls to recite it in Arabic every night before sleeping, so they were pleasantly surprised to discover they already knew it! As for the English meaning, it's covered in this song... So there wasn't really much else to do lol. That level of detail is fine with us for now. 👍

Song: The Five Daily Prayers

We've always made it a point to include salah as a normal part of our lifestyle, by praying in front of the kids and inviting them to join in if they want (though there's no compulsion, they're still young, and if they want to just continue playing that's fine as long as they're reasonably quiet). Winter time is especially good as they're awake for Maghrib, usually Fajr and sometimes 'Isha too - so they can hear the prayers being recited aloud. 😊 So the girls have been aware of salah for as long as they can remember.

I decided to make them a poster just to highlight when the different prayers take place (by hand, so no download link today, I'm afraid! I like to have a mix of typed/handwritten things on display) and made up a simple song to go with it:

Fajr in the morning,
Dhuhr at midday,
'Asr in the afternooooon!
Maghrib at sunset,
'Isha in the nighttime...
That's the five daily prayers!

...I told you it was simple. Lol.

The tune is one I made up, one of those kind of random/slightly out-of-tune yet catchy melodies you hum around the house while doing chores... Not something I'm willing to record myself singing but I'm sure you could make up a simple tune yourself, if you wanted. 😜

The main points I wanted to include in the poster were:

- pictures of the sun/sky at each point in the day
- the name of each prayer
- pictures to show which prayers are loud/quiet (open/closed mouth smiley faces)
- the rough time each prayer takes place

Target Criterion sheets

[EDIT: FOR AN UPDATED VERSION OF THE YEAR 1 TARGETS, SEE THIS POST]

As mentioned in the blog info, I'm loosely following the National Curriculum - just for my own peace of mind that we're on the right track and we've covered similar (if not the same) content as their peers in school.

A quick Google search is all you need to find the latest version of the NC, but I find it more useful to have each target spaced out individually with room to comment on progress for each child... So I basically did just that by copying into an Excel spreadsheet. There are 2 columns as I have twins, but you can quite easily edit it as you please. I use the triangle system of assessing progress: one side of the triangle shows a basic awareness, two sides for some understanding and a complete triangle for solid understanding. I like having a record of dates so I can revisit topics in a sensible order; I'm not going down the lists in order but picking and choosing depending on what overall topic the girls are interested in at the time.

I've included Year 1 targets along with Reception so I could get an idea of future expectations in Literacy and Numeracy.

Targets for Science don't exist at Reception level, so I decided to jump in at Year 1 and cover what we can. The beauty of home education is in the flexibility - I imagine this is one subject we might stay a year "ahead" in for a while...

The Islamic Studies targets I made up as a minimum of what I want to cover this year - there's so much to choose from this will just help to keep us a little focused insha'Allah!

The Arabic targets were inspired by the NC Literacy targets (as I want to encourage their English/Arabic reading/writing to progress at a similar rate) and also by the Madinah Reader Book 1, since that's the textbook we're working from. In terms of vocabulary, they've already picked up other things from e.g. YouTube and an Arabic club we attend, so once again it's more a guideline than anything else.

As always, feel free to use and edit as you please. I hope the sheets are beneficial to someone aside from myself!

Download a copy of each subject here:
Literacy & Numeracy (Reception & Yr 1)
Science (Year 1)
Arabic (Reception)
Islamic Studies (Reception)