The benefits of homeschooling for Muslims

"The best gift from a father to his child is the gift of education and upbringing"
Hadith of At-Tirmidhi on the authority of Sa'id Ibn Al-'as.

        

I have just started homeschooling my eldest child who has just turned 5 years old. I NEVER thought I would homeschool. It had never even occurred to me that homeschooling might be best for my kids. I grew up a Catholic and went to Catholic schools. I became Muslim when I was 19 years old, Alhamdulillah, and gave birth to my first child at the age of 22, but still I didn't think about homeschooling. I had a few friends who were considering it but I never really bothered to ask them their thoughts on the subject. I always thought I would send my children to school.

But a change of circumstances forced me to think about homeschooling and I haven't looked back since. Click on the link below to read my guest post about 'the benefits of homeschooling for Muslims' over on Muslim Mummies blog.

http://www.muslimmummies.com/2015/04/the-benefits-of-homeschooling-for-muslims/

Can you think of any other benefits?

         

Egg hunt in the garden

        

Yesterday, we spent the day at my parent's house. All my siblings were there and before the family meal the children did another egg hunt, this time in the garden. My parent's have a lovely big garden which is great for the children to run around in. 

We had some hollow eggs that split in half so you can put things inside. We put some small chocolate eggs inside. My siblings had hidden the eggs before we arrived, so the children went to look for them straight away.


        

Some were hidden by the playhouse.

        

        

R spotted one that was hidden in the guinea pig run!

        

R reaches inside to retrieve it.

        

He is eager to open it!

        

What's inside?

        

D shows us her chocolate eggs!

        

There was an egg hidden in the vegetable patch.

                 

                 

R happily shows off his egg.

                 

D shows off her egg too.

        

The children were so happy with all their eggs.

These eggs are fabulous for a variety of games. I will write about some ideas on how to use them in the near future.

Easter egg hunt at Dyrham Park

        

Yesterday we visited the National Trust property Dyrham Park to take part in the annual Easter egg hunt. It is a place I have visited many times and it is such a lovely place to go for a walk. There is a stunning house to visit as well as extensive gardens and fields to explore. There are lots of deer roaming around but we don't often see them. Yesterday, however, we managed to spot a huge herd of them as you can see above!

Despite being April, the weather was not great. However, we braved the weather, dressed up warm and headed out over the fields to follow the trail to the eggs.

                           

There were questions along the way we had to answer to work out the secret phrase to claim our eggs. Luckily, the questions were easy enough for young children to answer so the children had fun with these.

                           

There were also big wooden eggs hanging up in the trees and we had to write down the colours of all the eggs we saw.

                           

When we arrived at the end of the trail, there were still more eggs to hunt for. This time, they were smaller and hidden around a smaller area. D had great fun trying out a hiking stick for the first time!

        

Here is R looking happy with his prize; a Cadbury's chocolate egg!

        

After the egg hunt was over, the children explored the outdoor play things. Here is R riding a tractor with help from his uncle.

                            

R spent a long time riding the tractor. It was a firm favourite.

        

There was a croquet set left out for people to play.

        

There was a lovely play area made from wood and tyres.

        

This was another area the children had fun running around in.

        

Here is D pretending to drive a huge tractor. Luckily, it didn't move!

        

Once the fun was over, we headed back to the car.

        

We spotted a pond on the way back and stopped for a while as the children had fun throwing stones into it. Despite the cold weather it was a fun and enjoyable day out.


                                                       

Easter biscuit recipe

        

Ok so we don't celebrate Easter but my parents are Catholic and they do. I could eat Easter biscuits all year round but, when I was growing up, my Mum would only allow us to make them at Easter time. The recipe I use is one my Mum has had for many years. These biscuits taste absolutely delicious so we normally double or triple the recipe so we have plenty to eat when all the family come to visit. As usual, we headed over to my parent's house to make these biscuits.

        

Here it is, the secret recipe! We normally use recipe 1 as I like to mix the currants into the mixture and, also, I don't want to wait 2 hours before baking! Cassia oil is a must for this recipe. It's what gives the biscuits their distinctive flavour and makes them simply irresistible!

        

We added the flour, sugar and butter together and mixed well. The children always enjoy getting their hand in, as long as the mixture is not too wet and sticky and this one is not. Then, we added the egg yolks and currants and the mixture formed a dough.

        

Then, the children had fun rolling out the dough. They love to use the rolling pin!

                   

D has a go at rolling.

        

Next comes the best bit; cutting out the biscuits using biscuit cutters.

        

We placed the biscuits on a buttered baking tray and baked for the stated time.

        

Remove the biscuits from the oven once cooked and leave to cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!

Learning about the senses - Smell

        

The final installment of our learning about the senses posts! This time I will be telling you all about how we learnt about the sense of smell. This was an interesting one to think up activities for. I don't think I have ever done a smell-based activity with the children before but these activities were great fun. 

        

I soon spotted this post which was all about spice painting and thought it would be a great way for the children to explore different smells. To make spice paint you simply dilute some PVA glue with a bit of water and then mix in the different spices. The children loved helping me prepare the paint. We used herbs as well as spices for some extra sensory fun!

        

Here are the paints all ready to be used. I love the earthy colours.

               

The children got stuck in painting pictures with their homemade paints. We talked about the different smells as they painted.

        

R looks like he's enjoying it!

        

D was practicing her writing. She just loves to write at the moment, Though she's not so interested in reading yet.

        

Here is some more writing.

                   

D also painted a picture of a girl. She likes to draw and paint people.

        

This is what R painted. I think the spices worked better for these paints as they were ground up very finely so mixed well with the glue. The herbs, because they weren't ground up, did not work so well.

        

Next, D surprised me by coming up with another sensory idea I had never thought of before. She found a little scented pouch of lavender she had made and brought it over to the table along with some double sided tape.

                     

Then, she set to work sticking tape on a piece of paper and sprinkling the lavender on top. I was very impressed with her spontaneity and imagination. I love it when children use their imagination to create something special. Sometimes we can learn a lot from our children.

Check out these posts to find out how we learnt about the sense of taste, touch, sight and hearing.