Time flies!

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

SubhaanAllaah this week ends soon! I feel like time flies subhaanAllaah! For this week I didn`t plan a lot for kids, because I wanted to prepare myself too for Ramadan. I`ve already started to read my planned resources for Ramadan, for example Ibn Hisham`s book Sirat Rasul Allah. I`ve tried to turn my mind more for religious things. Also my parents game to visit us alhamdulillaah! They were in our home from Saturday to Sunday and kids enjoyed that time! They doesn`t live in Helsinki, so they could not visit us often.

Still we did with kids some things I wanted to add here too.

We tried to make some decorations for Ramadan cakes and desserts with kids. At first from marcipan. It feels little like play doh and some people can do really beautiful ornaments from it. S and Z tried it first time, so we did only really simple ones.

 

This is clitter planned for cake ornaments, but it`s not recommendable to eat, so it should remove before eating. I`ve getting it with one baking magazine, I maybe would not buy like that by myself. Kids wanted to try it for our marcipan moon and star :).

 

After that we made chokolade letter decorations by this cilicon model which is from Tiger store. I simply smelted baking chokolade and filled the model with it. Then putted to freezer for a while, removed gently and putted to refrigerator to wait for use.

 

 

 

*Edit after* Here is our cake fating for iftaar. A sacher cake is one of our kids`favorite one and now decorated with their own ornaments :). It would be nicer, if we had write by letters for example "Ramadan mubarak", but since there was only one A etc. in my modell it would have taken too much time to make all the letters. In this time I didn`t want to use too much time for it. But alhamdulillaah Z liked when he saw a place named for him by a letter Z :).

 

 

 

With same model we made ice cubes too! In the picture can`t see letters well, but kids liked to check, which ones they had in their drinks :).

 

 

Z got his 4. Teddy bear`s pre school packet this week. Alhamdulillaah it game just when I didn`t have lots of plans for him :). This time the subjects are for example good self-esteem and feelings.

 

 

 

Z made for example this exercise. For a while he added the clothes for the kids, we learnt too which of the hands and legs are right ones and which of them are left ones etc. (I don`t know why Z wanted to color the boy pink :)?)

 

 

We didn`t have glue any more, so I made stickers from the clothes. I used plastic book cover. When I was child, we made for us stickers in that way. We cutted pictures for example from magazines.

 

 

 

 

I found idea for this craft from here. We used stickers which I found from Tiimari -70% :).

There is one easy decoration proposal for iftaar table (which I used when my parents visited us.). I like these simple napkin flowers for dinner table! These are really easy to make and S likes to make them too! At first fold a napkin like an envelope.

 

 

 

Then turn it and fold again like an envelope.

 

Then simply lift edges from underside. Keep your finger in the middle of flower, so that it doens`t open.

 

It can be used for example under the glass or

under the dessert bowl.

 

I found from Tiger store a nice small earth ball for kids only for 1€. Baby I loves it and with older kids we`ve already checked many countries.

 

We haven`t forgot our wooden letters either :).

 

S went to Suomenlinna with my parents and her dad. K didn`t want to go because he has been there so many times and he wanted to help me with some Ramadan preparations. Then Z too wanted to stay with K :).  S went there by a small ferry and she took for me some pictures by her phone.

 

 

 

 

Suomenlinna is an old fortress on the small island. These dark tunnels can be quite scary :).

 

 S visited a submarine.

 

 

And saw old cannons

 

 

and beautiful nature.

 

They found from there an old tree`s stub and tried to calculate how old it is by annual rings, but it was a really difficult task! So it`s really old!

 

In Suomenlinna I advice to supervise kids really carefully - there are some high places where kids can fall!

 

 

 

 

 

Today we made a simple date palm with Z and S.

 

 

 

We made a frame from pudding pots. I nearly throw them away, but just when I stacked them to clean them away from the table I got an idea for a date palm. I like to use recycled materials for crafts when possible!

 

 

Our simply Ramadan calendar and good deeds mosque are waiting for starting of Ramadan. Especially S waits already, when she can open her first bottle.

 

 

 

 

I hope blessed Ramadan for all of you and for us inshaaAllaah!

 

 

 

Our wooden letters arrived alhamdulillaah!

Assalamu alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatuh.

We had really nice meeting with Ummu Abdillaahi, A & M yesterday alhamdulillaah!

In that week our plan is also about like that:

On the morning:
1. morming circle
2. small lesson, for example work sheets, pre school book, new Arabic words or reading about our theme of the week
3. Z plays educational games by himself.

On the afternoon some activities which doesn`t need so much concentration, like
play doh
story books
playing together
etc.

And some small works at home (like helping in the kitchen etc.) and outside activities every day too.

I don`t put any times for the activities, because it depents a lot about my another tasks of the day and also activity of Z. So sometimes we can have many lessons on the day and in some another day less, sometimes they are longer and sometimes shorter etc. But this kind of plan seems to work for us!

Yesterday I got also wooden letters I ordered for Z from Näpsäkkä from here . I took those of  4cm and 0,25€. There are also letters made from felt!! Now I think, why I didn`t order also them, because they are not really expensive and it would have save a lots of time to have letters as ready! And felt is so nice material!

Our letters are not really strong even if they are made from wood, but I think that for our purpose they are good enough! In Montessory pedagogy the vocals and konsonants are colored with different colors and now I think should I paint our letters also. I think that the point is wise - when kids play often with the letters, it`s after easy for them to remember which of the letters are vocals and which of them are konsonants - only by remembering the color symbols!

Today we made some activities with Z with our new letters. I took some simple pictures and wrote the name of the picture. A good place for Finnis flash cards can be found from here (from "selaa kuvia" can find many themes!). Then Z tried to write it by his wooden letters. In that way:

 

Now I gave for him the letters he needed, and he choosed the right places for the letters, but when he learns the idea, it would be better to put letters to a box like that:

 

 

(The picture is from the cover of the book called "Auta minua tekemään itse, Montessori-menetelmän sovelluksia".)

 

We also tried, how it feels, when "write" a letter on the wooden letter with finger.

 

I have nearly finished the book ("Auta minua tekemään itse" means "Help me to do by myself") and I have to say that there are many interesting ideas!

 

 

The books for these week:

 

 

 

The Arabic ones I found from library alhamdulillaah and the theme seemed to be interesting for Z. I ask the daddy to read them for the kids! (I`m also beginner in Arabic!). The Finnish one is our own. It`s Mikko Mallikas (Burhaan in Arabic) and the book tells about friendship. Also an important thema!