Back to Work

Looking back I think I was unwell in the last few days, hence my attack of laziness. But back to work now!
We are getting through the glitter supplies on the Ramadan plates. The boys are rearranging the plates on the wall, planning how to get the best effect, planning where the next one will go.
Today’s quote was
“The suhoor is a meal of blessings, so do not leave it, even if one of you just takes a gulp of water, since Allah sends mercy and His angels seek forgiveness for those who take Suhoor.” (Ahmad)
The boys are fasting again today, and talking about the suhoor reminded me that on the Jewish Day of Atonement I think that the fast lasts from one sunset to another, so if we feel hungry we should think that Allah has been merciful to us in giving us the suhoor, and shortening our fast. It could have been made so much harder for us. Alhamdulillah.

For science we’ve been making use of materials from primaryresources.co.uk. Now that the printer is back working again (we found the paper feed had been jammed by a battery, keychain and a small bit of yellow plastic) I’ve been printing out some worksheets, and a very loud time was had as they filled in their skeleton measurements.

Ia has done some practical maths, adding and subtracting from collections of apples and oranges, and also jumping onto numbers less or more than. I think she needs more oral maths vocab work.

In our reading about Salah Ed Deen we have reached his early campaigns in which he accompanied his uncle, who went on to take power in Egypt. Later in the day the R found that he could replay this campaign on one of his computer games!

Pause

Today's quote for the plates was

"O you who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you as it was prescribed for those before you, that you may become Al-Muttaqoon (the pious)" 2:183

The plates are looking good on the wall now, and the boys are becoming more careful in how they decorate them! Just practice I think. We returned to the plates today after a week of going through the chapters on the Quran in the "Eemaan Made Easy" series. We've been keeping up with the usual maths and English, reading and Quran. Ia has her days of wanting to do a lot, and other days not much.
There is a bit of the "middle of Ramadan lull", going on that I usually experience each year. The first part has such excitement to it, and the last 10 days are full of rush, seeking the last of the blessings before the month is over. This stage is very calm and settled, leading to our "plodding along" style of working just now.
But lots of creativity all the same. The "things to make" books have been taken out, and now there is masses of chopped up packing carton all over the floor.

Conkers

Yesterday was warm and breezy, just right for going to a wooded hill top, and for running down a long grassy slope. (Not me- the kids - obviously). However someone unexpectedly turned up to fix the bannisters, so the plan was off. Instead we went to the library, and on our way we collected conkers. And there were so many of them. I have never seen so many conkers lying around uncollected in my life. This was on a main route, opposite a big park. Where I used to live you would only find the split or mucky ones unless you went out early. We passed a couple shovelling conkers off their driveway. They told us "There's loads, the kids are not allowed them at school for health and safety reasons, it's madness". So just because you can't take it to school, does the shiny conker lose all its appeal?

This morning it seems we are having our first autumn gale. I stayed up after fajr, to try to get some work done. After a while I thought I'd go rest. It was then I heard the ominous drip, drip, drip coming from the loft. So I've been up there, arranging containers under the drips.

Reading about Salah Ed Deen

There hasn’t been anything that bloggable. The boys do enjoy making posters, or display items, but only sometimes. Mostly they would be happy for me to just read stuff to them. And they will often readily choose to do a few written exercises over something more creative. So the last couple of days were a bit book orientated.
I also went to an Islamic talk, which is always reviving. I come away thinking “must work harder, must work harder, must sleep less”. I find that very motivating.
On the way back from the talk I popped into an Islamic bookshop which I hadn’t been to before and there we found “The Life of Saladin” (should be Salah ed-Deen?), by Beha Ed-Din, who was a contemporary of Salah ed Deen, accompanying him for some years. Obviously this is a translation of a translation of a translation, Beha Ed-Din died in 1234. But what a gem to find, the boys were excited, we had to rush straight to the cashpoint (opposite). (We had been looking for a life of Salah Ed Deen book for ages).
We have started reading. The style is a bit heavy, but I love the dialogue details, “The Sultan said this”, and “I said that”. For example today we read about a time when Salah ed-Deen was in control of Jerusalem, with the Franks and their English allies encamped nearby, soon to attack the city. The city emirs were afraid, and suggested that Salah ed Deen should go out to meet the Franks while they would stay behind to defend the city. Salah ed Deen feared that the emirs were actually planning to flee the city. He and Beha Ed Din stayed up all night worrying about what to do next. In the end Beha Ed Din advised the Sultan that all he could do would make an extra 2 rakat of prayer between the azan and iqamah of Friday prayers in the Aksa mosque, and pray a dua from hadith, whilst prostrating, which basically said that he had made all the worldly effort he could and he turned the matter over to Allah for help. The Sultan performed the extra prayers and made dua, causing tears to fall from him. Following that were several days of disorder and confusion in the camp of the Franks as the French and English disagreed on what action to take. On the Monday the Frankish army departed.
What a story of the power of faith and dua.

Aside from that, we have found this website! Ia has been using the Transport to Reading section, and the boys were even doing a MATHS game in the knowledge box bit.

Today's activity

Variety helps. Last week we were concentrating on some of the rulings concerning Ramadan, and there is still much more to do of course. But Ramadan is also the month of the Quran, so continuing the study of the pillars of Emaan, we started learning about the Quran, in the context of the third pillar, Belief in the Books.
We made posters on the "Names of the Last Book", the Quran, al-Kittab, al-Furqaan and the Thikr, and learnt about the meanings of those names.

Planting

Ramadan is a time for refreshment and revival. It's a boost for the imaan, that should, inshAllah help us through the year. The extra ibaadah we do now can strengthen us in the months ahead, reminding us of the good habits we should maintain and helping us shed the bad habits for good, inshAllah.

So today we planted bulbs; crocuses and bluebells. Like a good deed planted in Ramadan, inshAllah the effects (on us) of those deeds will still be there in the early spring when the flowers will, inshAllah, show us their colours. And the flowers themselves will be a marker for that. When we see them we can remember that we planted them in Ramadan, and be reminded of the intentions made in this month. It is reported that the companions of the Prophet Muhammed (saw) used to pray to Allah during the six months before Ramadan to extend their lives so that they can fast Ramadan, and in the six months after Ramadan they would ask Allah to accept their fasting of Ramadan.

So Ramadan should not be forgotten straight after Eid!

The photo is of a tiny hazelnut sapling that I accidentally dug up whilst digging a hole for a rhododendron that I also planted today. When it came out we could see the hazelnut that it had grown from. There are no hazelnut trees in sight, so I guess a squirrel must have buried it there. I planted it back, nearby, inshAllah it will grow. I was thinking that it would be nice to have hawthorn, holly and hazelnut in the garden, and, alhamdulillah, I have uncovered all three.

Ia was very helpful in the garden today, maashAllah, she kept working for hours. The boys dropped in for the planting bits, and the Ramadan thoughts, but they prefer the garden for cricket!

Autumnal Sunshine

Today was a truly beautiful September day, maashAllah. We went to the woods today to witness the trees in their autumn rituals, producing crab apples, beech nuts, helicopter field maple seeds, haws and sloes, all in obedience to their Creator, Allah. While the natural world around us fulfills it's life cycles in total submission, the Ramadan rituals for us humans are more a matter of choice. Not that fasting for the Muslims isn't compulsory, of course it is, but fasting is a very personal matter, if someone wishes to break their fast in secret, who can stop them? The hawthorn tree cannot choose to produce blackberries this year, but a human being can decide not to believe, not to fast. This is what makes fasting so special. Only Allah knows whether you have really done it or not, and there is unique reward for that, a drawing closer to Allah.

Abu Hurairah reported that the Prophet (saw) said that Allah said "The Fast is for Me and I will give the reward for it, as he (the one who observes the fast) leaves his sexual desire, food and drink for My Sake. Fasting is a screen (from Hell) and there are two pleasures (moments of happiness) for a fasting person, one at the time of breaking his fast and the other at the time when he will meet his Lord. And the smell of the mouth of a fasting person is better in Allah's Sight than the smell of musk."(Al-Bukhari)

The boys wanted to fast today, but I forgot to wake them up for suhoor. R was not impressed. I took the trouble to point out that they could still keep the "good conduct" part of the fast, as we learnt about in yesterday's activity. If anything keeping temper controlled, and avoiding cross words is a harder part of the fast for them than the leaving of food and drink! It certainly adds weight to be able to say, "Don't argue with your sister, you should be fasting from that type of behaviour!", and so on!

Of course I forgot to take a camera to the woods, so it's a garden picture instead. Aren't those berries a wonder though? SubhanAllah.

Plates and links

Ramadan decorative plates in progress. Today's quote was

"He who does not desist from obscene language and acting obscenely (during the period of fasting), Allah has no need that he did not eat or drink." (Bukhari and Muslim)

Ia has been doing a lot of her learning online recently. She is still working on letter and sound recognition and this website has proved very helpful. It is so straight forward to use, and responds excellently to error. She has also made lots of use of links from here, for maths and English. For now she seems to prefer dealing with these things on screen, rather than using books, cards or puzzles.

U has just informed me that she needs to go to the dentist because a bit of one finger nail has broken off.

Noticing

Being the first fast, today proceeded more leisurely than yesterday. Yesterday was rush, rush, rush, cramming the day full, but today there didn't seem to be the need. As usual Ramadan brings a different feel to the day, a peaceful mood. Even the morning air felt balmy, it was a beautiful day here, maashAllah.
The boys chose to fast today, and kept it until the end, alhamdulillah. Last year they kept 10 days, this year they are aiming at 15, inshAllah.
We got some of our usual things done, but what I really noticed today was how U is expressing herself more and more. How funny the thoughts of a 2 year old are. She thinks she is going to grow up into a brother and wear "pants", she found that she couldn't do up her own pyjama buttons, so that means "I'm not big now", she likes using the word "either", to mean also or as well, "I want banana either". Between everything else, there should always be time for conversations with U!

Ramadan Mubarak (and skeletons)

Ramadan Mubarak!

"Whoever observes (fasts) during the month of Ramadan out of sincere faith, and hoping to attain Allah's Rewards, then all his past sins will be forgiven." (Bukhari)

It has been a busy day, alhamdulillah. The girls made bracelets. Very important. The boys did bits and bobs of all sorts, including a Ramadan chapter from the Iqra textbook/workbook set "Our Faith and Worship". I use it selectively, as I'm not sure about all of what's there, but the boys like the workbook mix of puzzles, gapfills, short answers, diagrams etc. It certainly offers a good format into which to fill your own content.

And what about the skeletons? Our first science unit this academic year is on moving and growing, so I'm looking for related links, starting with human skeletons.

Try this, this, also this, and this one, finally this.

I'll make those links less clear next time, ok.

Nearly Ramadan

We have come across a couple of interesting stories from the history of Islam today. The first came up in our continued reading of the seerah of the Prophet (saw). We have reached the time of the digging of the trench around Medina. At that time there was near famine in Medina and many of the sahabah were very hungry. They used to tie stones to their bellies to reduce the hunger pains. (Lets just hold that thought for the coming month).
One day, during work on digging the trench, Jubair ibn Abdullah (ra) noticed the Prophet (saw) had two stones tied to his stomach. Thinking of how hungry he must be Jabir asked to be excused, went home to his wife and asked her what food she had. She had only a small goat and a little barley, but she set about cooking, while Jabir went back to invite the Prophet (saw). The Prophet (saw) asked Jabir about how much food he had, and said it was plenty, so he asked all the other sahabah from the dig to join the meal. Jabir was so worried that he did not have enough food for so many, but when the Prophet (saw) dished up the food there was plenty, even enough to distribute to other people outside. Allah had blessed this meal and made it plentiful.
This story was noted in the history by Ibn Hisham.
The boys loved this story, and wrote it up, (which was the day’s English exercise).
The second story they liked was linked to the ayat we studied today, as part of our Ramadan preparation, “And eat and drink, until the white thread of dawn appear to you distinct from its black thread…”2:187 When this was first revealed, “of dawn” was not revealed, and some people were confused and tied to their legs or placed under their pillow, two threads, one white and one black, and went on eating until they could differentiate between the two. There is also a hadith about someone asking the Prophet (saw) about this, and so it was explained, and “at dawn” was revealed as well.
We read about this in the Tafseer of Ibn Kathir.
Those were our Islamic studies for the day. They have also been sitting in the garden, reading about dinosaurs. If I ask them to choose their own topic it is usually castles or dinosaurs.

Preparations

I suppose there are two ways to get ready for Ramadan, the personal preparations, and the home ed ones. But the two overlap, and insh Allah we all learn more. Last week I was reading "Fasting in Ramadan" by Dr Abdul Karim Awad. This was good revision for me and helped me organise my HE Ramadan plans. I have plans, but won't be sharing them in advance in case of falling short! Instead I will record whatever materialises out of them as I go along, inshAllah.
Today I started making use of that very useful looking TJRamadan site. We read the introduction to the book mentioned above, then looked at the lunar cycle links on TJRamadan.
I thought that this year we will make paper plate decorations, highlighting quotes from Quran and hadith about Ramadan. Why paper plates? Because we usually have food on plates, but we are fasting, so we have knowledge about fasting instead.
Today we studied "So whoever of you sights (the crescent on the first night of) the month (of Ramadan) he must observe Saum (fasts) that month...." 2:185

So those are the plates, as I mentioned before we are not artists, but we have fun!

I've been...

Alhamdulillah. Now I'm back and its time for me to get ready for Ramadan!