Learning Arabic is fun!

I will no longer be posting Arabic language material on this blog - instead all new content will be posted onto a new blog site http://www.learningarabicisfun.com/ bi'ithnillah!

Learning Arabic is something which is of upmost importance to the Muslims. It is the key to unlocking the Qur'an and indeed the Sunnah!

So many of us in the West try to learn the language, but very few of us reach true success. If we really want to speak the language of the Muslims, we must realise that we have to immediately put into practice what we learn; failing to do so means that Arabic will remain just a theoretical list of words which we don't know how to use.

I've started the new blog, to help my own family's quest in learning Arabic bi'ithnillah. Through it, I hope to share beneficial learning resources I have found online as well as those I make myself.
My hope is that it will serve as a motivator to both myself and others, to keep on pushing forward; to not just learn Arabic, but implement and speak it with full understanding inshaAllah.

The blog content will be divided into 3 main categories:
1) stuff for adults;
2) stuff for kids
3) stuff for parents

 Certainly true success is only from Allah. I ask Allah to make this effort something which will benefit myself, and the Muslim community.

Printable time line with both Hijri and Gregorian calendar dates

Have you ever wondered who lived first; the Maya or the Aztecs? Do you know what was happening in England and America at the same time as the Prophet Muhammad صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم was born? What about the rights of women throughout different parts of both the Muslim and non-Muslim world 100 years ago...?

Time lines are an awesome way to compare and visualise the chronological order of historical events and people throughout the ages; making it easy to answer these questions!

If you search the internet you can find plenty of ready to print time-lines both on sale and free....however finding one which incorporates the Hijri calendar is difficult if not impossible!

As Muslims, the Hijri calendar is something which is of great importance to us - yet sadly, it is often neglected in favour of the Gregorian calendar which most of us living here in the West are more familiar with. Many of us don't have any comprehension of the Hijri dates .... if we ask ourselves what is today's Hijri date; do we know it? ....Let alone asking what was happening in the world 200 years ago according to the Hijri calendar!

Alhamdulillah, with the help of online date converters, we have produced a 31 page time line with dates from both the Gregorian and Hijri calendars, beginning at 5795BH / 5000 BCE up to 1441 AH / 2020CE - allowing you to map out the events of world history in the Muslim and non-Muslim world side by side!

The dates are marked using BCE (Before Common Era) and CE (common Era) as opposed to the Christian based designations of BC (Before Christ) and AD (standing for the Latin phrase anno domini meaning in the year of our Lord).

The pages are blank, allowing you to add information according to your own studies, be that through writing or pictures.
 It will be interesting to be able to see and analyse events and lifestyles during the same periods across the globe - specifically in comparison to Islamic events during the same eras.

If you line up the pages side by side to tape them together at the back, forming a huge long line of sheets; you can then fold it concertina style (like a fan) giving you a time-line book you can flick through, picking out specific historical periods......or.....

....open it out and spread across the floor! (if you have enough space!!!!!)

 

Add information to your time line as you study and learn new historical facts! You can write your information as well as include inanimate(*) drawings or images of relevance.

Be careful not to allow your children to draw images of people / animals but focus instead on landscapes, buildings, clothing etc. (see footnote below).

 

 

To download and print, just click onto the high lighted text below!

{Printable time line with both Hijri and Gregorian calendar dates}

 

Footnote:

* It is not permissible for the Muslim to draw pictures of animate (living) beings.

 

Narrated Muslim: We were with Masruq at the house of Yasar bin Numair. Masruq saw some images (or pictures etc) on his terrace and said, "I heard 'Abdullah saying that he heard the Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم saying: "The people who will receive the severest punishment from Allah will be the picture-makers."

Sahih Al-Bukhari #5951

 

Narrated 'Aisha: The Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم  never used to leave in the house anything carrying images or crosses but he obliterated it.

Sahih Al-Bukhari #5952

 

Narrated Abu Zur'a: I entered a house in al-Madina with Abu Hurairah, and he saw a man making pictures at the top of the house. Abu Hurairah said, "I heard Allah's Messenger صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم  saying that Allah said: "Who would be more unjust than the one who tries to create the like of My creatures? Let them create a grain; let them create a gnat"....

Sahih Al-Bukhari #5953

 

Narrated Abu Talha: Allah's Messenger صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم said: "Angels (of Mercy) do not enter a house where there are pictures."......

Sahih Al-Bukhari #5958

 

Narrated Salim's father: Once Jibril promised to visit the Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم  but he delayed and the Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم  got worried about that. At least he came out and found Jibril and complained to him of his grief (for his delay). Jibril said to him, "We do not enter a place in which there is a picture or a dog."

Sahih AL-Bukhari #5960

 

Narrated Sa'id bin Abu Al-Hasan: While I was with Ibn 'Abbas a man came and said, "O father of 'Abbas! I am a human being and my sustenance is from my manual profession and I make these pictures." Ibn 'Abbas said, "I will tell you only what I heard from Allah's Messenger صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم . I heard him saying, "Whoever makes a picture will be punished by Allah till he pits a soul (life) in it, and he will never be able to put soul (life) in it." Hearing this, that man heaved a sigh and his face turned pale. Ibn 'Abbas said to him, "What a pity! If you inist on making pictures I advise you to make pictures of trees and any other inanimated objects having no souls."

Sahih Al-Bukhari #2225

A more detailed explanation with further evidences presented from Shiekh Ibn Baz (Rahimahullah) can be found {here}

Printable arabic colour posters!

This is an old file from earlier in the year - now available for free download! A set of 10 Arabic colour posters. - If you can print onto photo paper (cheaply available at most pound-stores) and laminate, it will give you a professional shop-bought end result inshaAllah!

 

To download and print at home, simply click on  the high-lighted text below!

{Arabic colour printable posters}

Do not be illusioned with the home school blogger

When I started this blog maybe around 3 years ago, I didn't tell anyone about it - until some who knew me started stumbling across it and realised it was mine.

 I liked the anonymity I had because it allowed me to be a little more open and honest in our home school highs and lows which I hoped may help others facing similar successes and struggles. I wanted this blog to be an authentic reflection of a real home educating family, given that support and information is not always so easy to come by in the Muslim community.

However, once I was ousted, and I was no longer anonymous; it didn't feel right to share so much of our home school life and thoughts because it was never intended to be an open window into my own family's affairs.

 Therefore I took the decision shortly after, to delete anything too personal, and as time has gone by, the blog has evolved into something much more "faceless", however I do hope it will benefit Muslim parents, regardless of their own schooling choices bi'ithnillah.

The reason I mention this, is because there is something personal which I would like to share with my home school readers on this particular occasion...

 I know, it is all too easy to look at other home schooling families and "see" how easy they seem to do it all, may Allah bless them. ...Especially those home school bloggers who do make the time and effort to share snippets of what they do with the world, hoping to benefit others inshaAllah.

They paint what seems to be a perfect picture of harmony and balance....super-mums who selflessly cook, clean, raise kids, teach and make their own amazing resources, are brilliant wives and devoted servants of Allah.

Standing next to the super-mum, other ordinary mums simply can not compare!

But what I want to make clear, is these super-mums do not exist.... well, at least not in my case anyway (perhaps other home school bloggers really are...I don't know because I have never met them...but I will be brash enough to suggest that they are not!).

And this is where I will come out from behind my hidden wall just for a moment, to say that I really genuinely struggle to home educate..... I cry about it sometimes because it really does feel like its all too much at times.

Don't assume whoever is behind this blog is a home school expert or super-mum, because I am far far from it...those who really know me already know that. I am a novice trying to make my way through the thickness of the fog just like you.

 Allah knows my true condition and I ask Allah to forgive and keep hidden that which He knows about me.

People sometimes ask if I will always home school right through to the end.

In my heart of hearts, I hope so..... but no one knows what the Qadr will bring....I'll admit I have sometimes scrolled through Muslim School websites on those dark days where I feel I'm just not able to do it anymore - but I don't tell you this. Sharing these personal accounts like this is not what this blog is about.

Rather, this blog is meant to be something which I hope will benefit myself and others in a way that allows me to remain anonymous, even though a few may know my face.

To my home schooling readers, don't be illusioned by the manicured appearance of this blog - I am no expert, I am no super mum. I am certainly not the know it all expert that this blog may unintentionally portray.

To my dear home schooling reader, do not fall for the illusion of the perfection of the home school blogger, and likewise do not be disillusioned by our imperfect reality.

 I ask Allah to facilitate what ever is best for myself and my children and make clear for us an easy path which will give us all ultimate success in the Akhira.

free blank note booking pages

I began making this file a few months ago with the goal to produce a note-booking pages set to include 100 different designs; in order to sell on the blog.
But as I go along I realise I am a huge softy because I always feel bad selling things I make! Instead I decided to make a smaller file however make it available as a free download inshaAllah.

So here we have a blank note-booking page set with 23 designs, each design with 4 different layouts.
Each design pretty much has a tittle page and 3 additional sheets with space provided for both text and images.

To download the set, just click on the high-lighted text below!

{Free blank note booking pages}

 

Have fun note-booking!

Directly "pin" onto pinterest!

Alhamdulillah with some prompting from a reader, I have added the pinterest buttons to the images - enabling you to easily pin any content over onto pinterest without any fuss bi'ithnilllah!

If you haven't already noticed, when you hover over any image with your curser, the pinterest button will appear in the top left corner inshaAllah. Just click onto it and pin away!

 

Plural Rules: Free printables for interactive note books!

We've started an interactive notebook for our grammar studies. I think of it as a cross between an on-going lapbook contained within a note-book and a self-made text book.

 The goal I have; is to produce something hands-on to understand Grammar, which can be used to reference back to throughout the year inshaAllah.

We are going right back to basics with this covering previously learnt material to ensure understanding is consolidated as new topics are introduced and taught inshaAllah.

In this post I'm sharing our work on plural nouns.
All the printables used can be downloaded at the end of the post.



The first thing we did was go over and explain singular and plural nouns using flaps which are stuck directly onto the page and lifted to show the answer.

 



We then followed by learning the general rules for making singular words plural - something which as adults we do automatically without much thought, but when you really delve into it realise there is a lot to remember and understand!

We made a lift the flap chart to stick into the note-book to help define and show the rules for differently spelt words. On the left side is the word spelling type, and on the left examples.

 

Of course, as with most (non-Islamic) rules, these rules are not true 100% of the time, so we made a small poster page to help get to grips that sometimes these rules just won't apply - and the only way of knowing this is to literally learn how to spell these plurals along with the singular counterparts.

 



The last thing I set up was a pluralised spelling test (with permission to look at the rules chart). I took small rectangular papers and wrote out singular nouns. I folded the end of the paper over so that on top, the plural ending had to be written on. To make a little easier, I did use the same colour paper for each spelling rule.

 

To download the printables used, just click on the high-lighted text below:

{Plural rules interactive note book printables}



Grab and go....frozen smoothie packs!

Green smoothies are a great way to get fresh leafy greens into you and if you mix them up with sweet fruits, you won't even know you are drinking spinach!

But it can get a little tedious preparing smoothies with all the peeling and chopping going on every time you want one.

I was introduced to the idea of frozen smoothie packs over on pinterest...but I wasn't convinced.
So, after doing a little research on freezing leafy greens and fruits it seems that yes, freezing does work!

So yesterday I made a whole bunch of packs to put in the freezer and today after completing the taste test challenge, I can report that Alhamdulillah, its great!

I took my pack out the freezer about an hour before I wanted to blitz to allow it to thaw out a little. And what I got was a refreshing cold green smoothie Alhamdulillah!

How easy will this make drinking smoothies through-out the week inshaAllah.....just grab a bag, dump it in the blender with some water and voila! No washing, chopping or juice dripping all over the work tops! An instant breakfast, snack or lunch!

It also helps to keep your fruits and leafy greens fresh....theres nothing worse than having a packet of spinach wilt away before you got to use the whole thing, or berries growing mould in the fridge! By freezing, you are able to lock in the nutriants and stop them spoiling bi'ithnillah.

All you need to do to make these are wash and prepare whatever greens and fruits you want, and distribute them between freezer bags. Press the bags down to squeeze out as much air as you can and seal before storing in the freezer.

If you have a high-speed blender such as a nutribullet you can add nuts and seeds to your smoothie to get additional good fats such as omega 3 in flaxseed, because the blades totally pulverise open the tiny seed shells Alhamdulillah! - But I personally would add these to the blender fresh when you are ready to blend rather than freezing ahead.

If you have any smoothie making tips, I'd love to hear them in the comments section below!