Hajj Project

I'm currently working on a little Hajj project with Ia (and sort of also with U). I had lots of thoughts about this and kept changing my mind about what to do. First Iconsidered some kind of wall display, then a lapbook, until finally I ended up with a notebook!
I still have some copies of Islamic theme colouring sheets I got from a sister some years ago which I have used from time to time in lapbooks. I don't know exactly where they came from originally, so I can't link you in their direction.
There are quite a few sheets related to Hajj and I wanted to utilise them this year. When teaching about Hajj I'm not too concerned about the child remembering all the sequence of what happens on which day and the route the pilgrims take. I think this is a lot to remember, and it is more important at this stage that the child knows something about what is done on Hajj in general and the background to it in order to get a feel for its importance, inshAllah.
So I'm taking one colouring sheet scene at a time, talking about what is depicted, looking into whatever background I can then writing a sentence or more on thebottom or back of the sheet.
For example, when we did the sheet on the Talbiyah I found a YouTube audio for us to listen to and after that Ia wrote out its translation. When doing the sheet on the sa'y (running between the hills of Safa and Marwa) I read the story of Hajar, the wife of Ibrahim (as) from the Quran Stories for Kids book and then asked Ia to write about those events in her own words.
There are also lots of opportunities to look at pictures online of the various significant locations visited on Hajj. If I did not have these colouring sheets I would probably print off some of those pictures and use them for visuals. I might also encourage Ia to draw her own pictures, maybe using some basic notebooking pages.
We still have plenty of sheets to go through in this project, inshAllah, including,
drinking Zamzam water,
the Day of Sacrifice
throwing the stones,
standing at Arafat, and others.
I am actually trying to use them in the order in which events occur but I like the way the sheets have caused me to focus on one element at a time and have kept me away from trying to fit the whole thing around a sequence or order of events as I think it would have been less interesting for Ia that way.

How the textbook helps

Not all children are going to enjoy textbook learning, but the textbook doesn't have to be just for the children!
Recently I bought a geography textbook to use with the boys. The first topic that we are covering is a chapter on volcanoes, earthquakes and tropical storms. Part of the chapter addresses the impact of these events on human populations, how people prepare for and manage their response when events like this happen.When I heard about the supertyphoon Megi hitting the Phillipines I got the boys to go onto news websites and read the reports.
As I read the page myself I realised how the description of the Phillipino disater management effort was such a good illustration of the issues the textbook had described. As a result of looking through the textbook I was able to start a discussion with the boys and get them to understand the difference between advance preparedness in case of disaster, and emergency response at the time through the examples given in one short news report.
I have to admit that without having read that textbook through previously I would not have thought to analyse the event in this way. I would have mainly focussed on the physical geography, the phenomenon of the storm itself and the material damage it may have caused.
So, that was how the textbook helped.

More...

These are U's cinnamon cookies. Of course she needed lots of help, but she feels like she made these all by herself, maashAllah.

In response to Umm Ahmad's request for the receipe for Ia's shortbreads:

Make a batch of plain shortbread dough, and a batch of chocolate shortbread dough.

Plain:

125g butter

50g sugar

175g plain flour

3 tablespoonsmilk.

Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl then rub in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Mix in the milk and form the dough into a firm ball using your hands.

To make the chocolate dough, follow the same procedure substituting 15g cocoa powder for 15g of the flour.

Cut each dough ball into three equal pieces.

To make the spiral shapes roll out a chocolate doughball into a square, then roll out a plain dough ball to the same shape. Place one on top of the other and roll them up together into a sausage shape. Then cut the roll into slices.

To make the squares shapes make dough into cuboids, two of each colour. Lay them side by side and on top of each other to make a block. Slice.

A third shape can be made with a sausage of plain dough wrapped up with a chocolate piece, like wrapping a gift. Then slice.

Bake for 15-25mins at 350F/180C/Gas4

Anyone who doesn't like baking will have surely left this blog by now!!!

Another bake!

This time it was Ia's turn to bake and she chose to make some biscuits maashAllah. I needed to help a little here and there, but mostly she could do it herself, especially as she used a receipe from a kid's cookery book.

The plan is that U will get her turn next, inshAllah, and then it will be back to R's turn again. I'm not sheduling which days to do this on, I'm just going to fit it in wherever I can. Ia decided to bake at 7:30pm yesterday, but as I was making a pie and some bread anyway I thought she might as well, even though it did make bed time a little later than usual.

Food Groups Lapbook

We have slowed down a lot with the lapbooks! There seems to be much more to do this year and I find myself having less time to devise my own projects unfortunately. U is working on a lapbook but she makes the mini books occasionally, so I don't know when we'll complete that!
This is Ia's first lapbook of this year. A simple food groups project.


She made mini books for protein, carbohydrates and sweet and fatty foods.
I printed out a food pyramid fact sheet to stick in the middle.

To make the sections on fruit and vegetables and dairy I printed off coloring sheets, so the information is immediate and visual.

You can find colouring sheets on almost anything these days!

To consolidate this topic I hope to do a food group treasure hunt in the kitchen, inshAllah. (You know, hunt for as many protein foods as you can find and bring them to the table)!

Make or Bake II

This time it was J's turn to make or bake and he chose to make buns. When I make buns I do not follow the receipe exactly, so I needed to stay nearby to tell him what to do. He also needed help with the kneading. His kneading was a little slow, so the dough got cool and did not rise as well as it should. They tasted fine though, maashAllah. (We don't ice buns, the kids prefer them not to be sticky.)

Make or Bake

As the autumal days of rain, rain, rain are keeping us in I thought of giving the children a make and bake challenge. R went first. (I can't have everyone making or baking on the same day...we wouldn't be able to eat it all.)
The challenge is to choose a receipe from our cookery books, then make it with as little supervision from me as possible. (I did supervise the frying!)
R chose doughnuts. I've never tried to make these before so I couldn't advise much. They turned out very well, maashAllah, and tasted just right, depite their irregular shapes! You can see the texture inside was as it should be. There was jam, just not in this photo!
Actually J said he'd prefer them without jam and sugar. Maybe he'd prefer Chinese doughnuts.

These doughnuts are no more! As R commented, you do feel fat afterwards!!!!