Recapping the 99 Names of Allah

Years ago, I had the grand ambition of going through each of the 99 Names of Allah together with the kids, in a very basic way, with the intention of them becoming closer to Allah by appreciating Him in different ways. I raised the idea to a group of fellow home educators so we could bounce ideas off each other for activities, games and crafts, and it was met really positively with the aim to cover one name a month.

Fast forward half a year or so and the enthusiasm from others had pretty much gone, with me feeling like I was talking to myself/forcing my ideas on the group... Life just got in the way, which is understandable, and this little project of mine wasn't a priority! At this point we were due to cover Al-Muhaymin next, and upon reading into its meaning as an adult, the depth of this name felt too overwhelming for me to explain in a way which did it justice - I had lost sight of my original goal of simply introducing the names to my children in a way they could relate to; it was never supposed to be about capturing every nuance, especially in the names which had multiple meanings or meanings which overlapped with others. But I'd forgotten that, and along with become pregnant again I decided to just put the whole thing on hold until I was ready to think about it all again properly.

Now that baby A is a little older (8 months have flown by, subhanAllah!) and I've got more time to think again, I want to restart this project with the twins and also for Z to join in where she can. The original plan was to go through them all on a basic level while the girls were young, so they would find it easier to memorise and so they could benefit sooner from a simple understanding of what they had memorised. As they grow older, inshaAllah, they'll have plenty of time to revisit the names and attributes in more detail and strengthen their knowledge. For now, it's just about introducing the concepts.

Writing this all down is a huge and much needed self-reminder!

So with this all in mind, I wanted to begin by recapping the work we'd done so far. We sang the song of the first 33 names along with the PowerPoint, looked at their folders for the booklet pages they had created and talked about what they remembered. Alhamdulillah they remembered more than I thought! At the very least, the gist of it was there and the idea of Allah having all these descriptions was there. 

Now we're ready inshaAllah to look at the next few names one by one. Ideally 1 name a week, but we'll see how organised I can be with research and planning each week InshaAllah! 

Around the house in Arabic

We started this activity off at Arabic club then finished it at home - the girls filled in a template of a house with things found in that room and a family member in each room too. When they were done, they had to describe what they'd drawn in Arabic. MashaAllah, using their knowledge from Arabic club and the Madinah book, they're now able to say sentences such as "My dad is in the bedroom. My sister and I are in the sitting room. My mum is standing in the kitchen with my sister. I am sad on my bed. Z is sitting on the toilet. My sofa is brown. The kitchen is big." etc.

(F is sad in her pic because it's showing the time Z pushed her and took F's car - I think it happened the day before? So obviously still on her mind! Which was a good eye opener for me that things might need following up on a little more for her to get over them... But alhamdulillah she's able to express herself like this and could talk about it easily with me when asked.)

Maths Update: Adding/Subtracting 2-digit numbers

After revising partitioning, we recapped how to add 2-digit numbers mentally, i.e. partition into Tens and Units, add the Tens, add the Units, add both parts together. They also had the option of adding the Tens from one number to the other, then counting up the remaining Units, e.g.

28 + 43 =

20 + 40 = 60
8 + 3 = 11

60 + 11 =

60 + 10 = 70
0 + 1 = 1

70 + 1 = 71 so 28 + 43 = 71

OR

28 + 40 = 68
68 + 3 = 71 so 28 + 43 = 71

We concentrated on the first method first, to get them used to partitioning the numbers. Then we moved onto the second method as something more efficient.

After the mental practise, I introduced the column method to them as an efficient way of writing their working out down. It's the same principle, partitioning and adding each place value one at a time, but written in a compact way, e.g.

16 + 43 = 

   16
+ 43
   59

We started with numbers which didn't carry over into the next column, then once they were comfortable with the method I explained how to write the extra Tens underneath the Tens column - and to make sure they included them in their answer! e.g.

45 + 36 =

    45
 + 36
    81
    1

We also spoke about using a quick mental method to check their answers.

We did all the above through explanation and examples on the whiteboard first, then answering questions from a photocopied worksheet using the method we were focusing on at the time.

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Next, we recapped subtraction of 2-digit numbers via partitioning and counting down, e.g.

38 - 14 =

38 - 10 = 28
28 - 4 = 24 so 38 - 14 = 24

Where the numbers stayed within the Tens, then using numbers in the Unit column which meant counting down across Tens, e.g.

52 - 26 = 

52 - 20 = 32
32 - 6 = 26 so 52 - 26 = 26

After some practise doing this mentally, I then introduced the column method to them - but for numbers which wouldn't require carrying, e.g.

88 - 43 =

    88
  - 43
    45

I decided that was enough for now, so they could get used to the method, and we would look at carrying from the Tens column at a later point inshaAllah!

The above was all done, one method at a time on separate days, first on the whiteboard and then in the context of numbers by working through practise pages from one of the workbooks we have.

Finally, I gave them some word problems to work through so they could use these skills in the context of money. They had the choice to use either a mental or a written method, whichever they found easier.

A Healthy Diet & Pie Charts

This week, we're looking at food and diet in more detail. I was surprised to find out the girls didn't know what the word diet meant! I assumed they already did from our work on herbivores, omnivores and carnivores - but looking back, I guess I didn't use it?? At least it was simple enough to explain in that context now. 😂

We talked about foods being made up of different things and how our bodies use those things for different things, e.g. carbohydrates are mainly for energy so we can move about, proteins are for growing and healing, calcium for strong bones and teeth, vitamins and minerals for keeping us healthy/not get ill, fats for storing energy and keeping warm (they remembered about calcium and fats from previous weeks 👍).

We pointed out which kinds of food we were eating at mealtimes over a couple of days and talked about whether we were being healthy or not.

We also talked about the importance of water and the things our bodies need it for, e.g. blood, urine, sweat, healthy skin - and why we should replace all the water lost by drinking more (why do you think you feel thirstier during exercise? M said because it makes the heart pump faster so your blood needs to be able to move around easier, which I thought was interesting! I linked it to maybe because your blood is moving around more it's picking up more waste so you're making more urine... Maybe, I don't know! Then I asked them what happens when they exercise, wiping my brow as a clue, and F shouted "sweat!", so I then explained how sweat cools your body down by taking heat with it when it evaporates, i.e. dries up).

We then read the relevant pages in the book "Keeping Me Healthy" and stopped on the double page spread of the food groups:

I gave the girls an A3 piece of coloured paper each and explained they were going to make their own diagram by drawing around a plate and using a ruler for the straight lines (I marked the centre of their circle with a dot to help them). This was a good task for estimation, since they were copying the segment sizes from the diagram in the book, and also fine motor skills in lining up the ruler correctly! They then labelled each segment and coloured it in (with wax crayons) before drawing examples of foods on a separate piece of white paper, cutting and sticking in the right place. I chose for them to do it this way to further practise their estimation and spatial awareness skills, making sure the drawing they did would fit into the segment!

We labelled the smallest segment as "fats" instead of "butters and spreads" and talked a bit more about how too many fatty foods aren't good for you (the sugar in sweet foods like biscuits and cakes is turned into energy like carbohydrates, but some of it is also stored in the body as fat which is why these foods also belong in this section). It's ok to eat them now and again, but compared to the other foods we eat they should be a lot less! Then I wrote the purposes of each food group on the whiteboard and they needed to copy the correct caption under the correct label - they colour coded their labels to match the segment to make their diagrams clearer. 👌

Finally, I explained to them that this kind of diagram can also be called a "pie chart" and is used for showing proportions of something. We linked this to their work on fractions and drew some simple fractions as pie charts on the whiteboard. Then I asked them to estimate what each segment of their healthy diet diagrams was as a fraction. Finally, I gave them a maths worksheet on pie charts to complete.

The Importance of Exercise

Continuing with our Science theme of the human body, I decided to move on to how and why we should keep healthy. This week we'll focus on exercise (which ties in well with our Literacy topic since we're looking at East Asia so martial arts!) as a way of both strengthening our muscles (including our hearts! And increasing stamina) and for reducing fat (why it's unhealthy to have too much fat as well as why we need some!) as well as how exercise can make us feel happier and improve our mood.

Some other home edding friends had planned a trip to Clent Hills this week, so I thought it'd be good to tag along. The drive was just over half an hour and it only took us around 20min to climb to the top - going at a steady pace (I was wearing A in the sling and pushing Z in the pram!). Once at the top the kids played around together admiring the views and we enjoyed a nice picnic. Alhamdulillah the weather was really good for a walk outdoors. The girls enjoyed themselves and said we should do the walk again with Papa next time - and Z could probably manage walking too inshaAllah. 💪

We had lots of discussions about the importance of exercise throughout the week (with examples!) then we made a simple spider diagram on the whiteboard together to summarise the ideas and left it on display for a few days - until we needed that whiteboard again.

Stories from other cultures - 4 - East Asia

My mum is ethnically Chinese, so another link to this part of the world as we continue our tour. My husband and I are also both (retired now after becoming parents it seems 😂) martial artists, so I wanted to use this opportunity to focus more on the idea and see if they were interested in learning too.

Maps, atlases, we discussed which countries we would focus on (China, Japan, South Korea)... Discussions on food (they had a go using chopsticks!), climate, clothing and beliefs... Lots of YouTube videos and library books...

I was pleased to find a book in the library on the origins of the Chinese Zodiac, beautifully illustrated in a calligraphic style with Chinese writing on some pages, so we talked a little about astrology with the reminder of what we believe in and why we don't follow star signs etc.

Another book featured a character based on origami, so we watched a couple of How To videos - but they weren't that interested so we missed the opportunity to try our own. 😁

As mentioned above, we looked at different martial arts styles from the different East Asian countries - namely karate (Japan), taekwondo (South Korea) and kung-fu (China) - talking about the differences in movement, which one was their favourite, and trying out a few techniques. F liked taekwondo because she liked the flips and M liked kung-fu because she liked it! 😂

Finally, we ordered dinner from a Chinese takeaway, including fortune cookies for the experience and also to talk some more about astrology and beliefs which are different to ours: you can respect a different opinion by being polite and friendly with the people who believe it and still believe something else.

With all the above this was quite a busy week in terms of activities so I chose not to do any formal writing with them. In the build up to Ramadaan and giving myself to prepare, I'm going to focus on word level and sentence level Literacy skills for the next few weeks inshaAllah - so just tidying up their basic grammar for a while rather than another big topic like this.

Stories from other cultures - 3 - South Asia

This week, we looked at South Asia - concentrating on India, with some mention of Pakistan and Bangladesh. My husband's family originates from India and my dad was born in Bangladesh, so the girls have some links with these countries, too. But since the theme of this topic is other cultures, I wanted to focus more on the non-Islamic regions of India so as to broaden their knowledge a bit more.

As usual, we looked at our maps and atlases and read a load of traditional stories from the library. We talked about climate, clothes and food (with actual examples!), as well as a little about Hinduism (one of the books we took out, as an example of an Indian traditional tale, was the story of Ram & Sita and why people celebrate Diwali).

For our formal Literacy task this week, I had them write a description of a meal with traditional Indian food. We eat lots of this kind of cuisine anyway so I just encouraged lots of talk at mealtimes about the food, describing it using the five senses and what they liked about it. We also watched a few videos from this YouTube channel, which follow someone from Canada trying out different street foods from around the world. I was surprised how much the girls enjoyed watching them! F especially, I think she has her father's travel bug from the way her eyes lit up at the thought of travelling to different countries, mashaAllah. 😃✨

You can download our writing prompt here.