Animals

Bismillah,

My son likes to play with animal figurines, I wanted to make it more interesting and came up with an idea of making a landscape for his animals. I believe we can and should make the learning process fun for our children. Yusuf has farm animals, african animals and different kinds of fishes. I took a cardboard and simply started drawing different landscapes. Alhamdulillah for the internet, we are overloaded with lots of information nowadays. For this project I looked at different pictures of the landscapes and came up with this:

And here is the photo with his animals:

Yusuf also likes matching animals to the pictures, I got good board book with real life animals from Dimmeys for $5, it was a good bargain, alhamdulillah. It is called "My Little Animal Book" by Priddy Books.

We have these wooden animal puzzles, alhamdulillah. Yusuf puts together two or three of them and then he wants me to do the rest.

World of shapes

We all know that Montessori materials are high-quality learning tools (usually wooden made) for our children; however, they are quite costly. Many Montessori materials can be made at home. Here is my DIY (Do It Yourself) shape sorter that I made for Yusuf. I got the idea from one of the books. You can find many homemade Montessori materials and other DIY projects on the internet. 

These are some shape flashcards, Yusuf usually matches those together.

I found a mousepad at home, which was just about to go into the rubbish and I thought that I could use it for something. I ripped off the cover and was left with black thick foam-like material. I cut the basic shape forms (circle, square and triangle) and made it a puzzle. But it didn't last long, so I thought I would cut more shapes out of it. 

Below is the book that I borrowed from our local library, it's in Arabic and English. Another  shape matching activity for Yusuf. 

I got this puzzle from Chinese shop for 2 dollars, it is made from thick cardstock. It had children's faces on it, so I cut out shapes from felt and glued them onto the shapes. 

You can make so much out of cardboard, I keep the old boxes and other recyclable materials for later use. Here is another shape puzzle, you can teach the basic colors and sizes here, you can also make it from other shapes. They may not last long and they don't have to be perfect, as long as the child gets the concept.

Lots of shape worksheets can be found here:

http://www.kidslearningstation.com/preschool/teach-shapes.asp 

http://akidsheart.com/threer/lvl1/shapes.htm 

http://www.coloringsmart.com/coloring-geometric-shapes-24.htm 

http://www.havefunteaching.com/flash-cards/math/shape-flash-cards.pdf 

Islamic flashcards

I do use flashcards to teach Yusuf. Here are set of islamic flashcards that I made for my son. 

I found most of the pictures on the internet, alhamdulillah. If you want to print yours, click here

I have also printed the prayer position cards, thanks to the sister Umm Abdul Basir and other sisters/brothers. I can't quite locate other prayer pictures on the internet other than the ones sis Umm Abdul Basir made, subhanAllah. They were either from french or turkish websites.

Get your prayer position cards here, you will be redirected to Umm Abdul Basir's blog.

Montessori for toddlers

Montessori in the Home
How to Create a Montessori Prepared Environment 

" ... Rather than keeping things in large toy boxes, it is more satisfying to the child to keep them neatly on shelves, hung on hooks, sorted on trays, and separated into baskets. This also makes putting things away much more logical and enjoyable... "

" ... Don’t put out too many items at one time. A few baskets or trays holding tools or toys that are being used at the moment are sufficient. Don’t put too many items in each basket. IF a child has 100 legos, that is too many for him to manage. Start out with 10 or 15 in the basket.  This way he can learn how to completely put away the legos. As he wants more legos with which to build, more, legos can be added to the basket. He gradually learns how to manage more and more legos... "

" ... Shelves are an important component of the child’s environment. Shelves do not have to be expensive; they can be as simple as boards and bricks... "

" ... A low bed is preferred so she can easily climb in and out of it..."

"... In every waking moment of the child’s life, especially in the first three years, she is learning and becoming more and more like those people she finds around her. She will imitate the way of walking, moving, talking, the vocabulary, the handling of objects, the emotions, manners, taste, and the respect and consideration (or lack of) for others, and on and on..."

" ... When picking out a toy for a child, imagine just what she will do with it. Does it invite purposeful activity? Decision-making? Imagination? For how long will my child play with it? Will it encourage the child to explore, to spend time with it? " 

" ... The use of wood helps the child appreciate the natural world, the colors, shades and grains of wood, and the varying weight of wooden toys in a variety of sizes and densities. Quality shows a respect for the child and teaches the child respect for belongings. Beauty and durability are important at all ages for the child’s tastes are being formed at this time of life. A beautiful home or a beautiful world can only be created by those who have learned to appreciate the satisfaction of living with simple, natural beauty... "

Read more about it here, inshaAllah:
http://www.sunrisemontessori.com/montessori_in_the_home.htm#Toddlers  

The more I read about Montessori method, the more I like it. Alhamdulillah for the libraries, where you can borrow books. I got to read 2 Montessori books from the library. I am also benefitting a lot from Montessori mums' homeschooling blogs. I'm learning the ways to use Montessori style of learning at home. 

Instilling the love of Islam

I found two photo frames and wanted to utilise those straight away. They were small in size though, alhamdulillah. As I mentioned earlier, Yusuf gets excited when he sees or goes to masjid, so I thought that the first frame had to have masjid in it. I cut out masjid shaped felt and foam pieces and glued them into a paper. You can always print the masjid picture. I didn't do that, only because I don't have the color printer. (smile)  Or print the masjid black and white and color it.

I wanted Yusuf to learn the shahadah, so second photo frame has shahadah in it currently. I wanted it to be simple. I have another picture for shahadah and you can always change the wall decor pictures and/or come up with different ideas.

Masjid craft

Assalamu alaykum, 

I was planning to make masjid for Yusuf for a while, since he was showing lots of interest in masjids. I have looked on the internet for tips and experiences from other Ummies. I found a great masjid craft project alhamdulillah. You can a look at it here. The sister and kids designed a beautiful masjid mashaAllah. I used some of her ideas, may Allah swt reward the sister! 

And here is what I made for my son:

Çocuklar için Boyamalar

I glued colored paper all over the box and minaret; doors and windows are made out of foam. I did papier mache dome just like the sister did, didn't put layers for 3 days though. One layer was enough alhamdulillah, it was quite sturdy, but not as thick. The minaret roof was made out of cardboard, I shaped it into a cone, stuffed it with paper. I covered the dome and minaret roof with felt and sewed the felt pieces together. For the crescent I used felt again. Alhamdulillah masjid is simple, kid-friendly, colorful and has lots of texture. 

Alhamdulillah Yusuf likes it, he calls it Allahu akbar in his language. Masjids, 5 prayers, minaret, adhan, prayer mat, Ka'bah are all called Allahu akbar at the moment.. (smile)