Pre-Activity:
I’m rushing, trying to find something for Zulhijjah, and Hajj in terms of discussion, activities for the kids, all of them. I started with Z because I know Umm Nu’man has stuff on Hajj mashaAllah. I printed the Hajj theme pack, Hajj Story Board/Game, Hajj Game, and Hajj Addition and Subtraction Activity. While I was printing it, Z saw me and immediately had this excited look on his face and said,
“I want to do that!”
He helped me take the printed sheets out, and wanted to start right away but as I’m typing, I am still organizing and printing and cutting. He’ll just have to wait till next week inshaAllah.
I still have to figure out what to do with the older kids.
As of now what is coming to mind is:
- look up ayaat in Quran pertaining to hajj
- read translation, word analysis, listen to tafseer on them
- find out the virtue of 10 days of zulhijjah
- listen to lectures related to hajj/zulhijjah together and then discuss
Right now I can’t really brainstorm much activities so these will have to do for this year.
Post Activity:
I started the session by going over the book that we have Tell Me About Hajj. Impromtu, as usual (and no, I’m not proud of this, just stating it because that’s how things always end up because of tight schedules and stress), I just started explaining to him about the Kaaba and related rituals of Hajj based on the photos in the book. I didn’t expect him to be that captivated, but subhanallah, he was. There is just something about the kaaba that pulls you. I pointed out that the Masjidil Haram is the name of the masjid where the kaabah is in, and that its middle part doesn’t have a roof, but the sides does, and people go up on the roof to pray and it also overflows onto the streets. I know he is fascinated by this because he used to watch this:
and would repeatedly ask me,
“Why are they praying on the road?”
once I pointed that out to him. I guess it baffles him that people would spill over onto the road and not fit inside a masjid.
As we went through the book, I told him that there is a story about the zamzam but that I’ll tell him that later, and that there are stories around the Kaaba but that I would tell him later. We went through the Hajj theme pack, and I had trouble organizing myself even though I organized it last night. We started with the Hajj Step by Step, and I focused on having him recognize the main locations of the Hajj manaasik. We also did the Last Minute Hajj game with the 10 hujjaj, though I was a bit thrown off by the rhyme Umm Nu’man provided in the activity. I fumbled through it and then decided to modify the game.
What I did(based on the 5 little monkeys):
10 little hujjaj down by the haram
Making tawaaf around the kaabah
The guide soon called them all to come back
But only one hujjaj came walking back
And we worked down till there only 1 hujjaj left. He loved this and we did it again and again, didn’t object much when I asked him to do these activities:
1. I would tell him to get me hujjaj #___, and then get hujjaj #___ and put it above/below/next to hujjaj #___ (it helped with letter recognition)
2. we ordered the Arabic numerals in the correct order
3. I counted the numbers in Arabic, but we didn’t do this much because he didn’t seem to be cooperating much (but when we took the number 10, he did say “Ashara!”)
4. We’d have the hujjaj scattered around the Kaabah and I would tell him, “Get me hujjaj #__”
We also did the memory game, and we did the steps of Hajj game,
and then while I started to make his lapbook,
he played the memory game with N and then S joined. We also did the hajj graphing activity and he had fun spinning it and marking the boxes. I made sure to ask him which one he got the most of and how much did he get for __.
H refined the spinners for the Addition and Subtraction activity which we have yet to do. I asked H to help me last night and he went all out and set up the spinners on a cardboard mount and everything.
We also did the picture-word matching activity,
and the Hajj sequencing cards.
By now, he is quite familiar with the terms, and even steps of the hajj manaasik mashaAllah. We also did the map activity though he hesitated and objected at having to write the words. I had to spell it out for him, and in one instance I put the word before him so he could copy it. He insisted that I spell it out for him but I insisted he copy it and he did it pretty quickly. Again, not that he can’t do it, but it’s a matter of not wanting to do it.
He also did some coloring while I attempted to help H with his Algebra. This reminds me so much of when I juggled the 3 older kids when they were younger. It was nerve-wrecking. I still haven’t mastered it.
We did quite a number of the activities alhamdulillah and his interest level was still high, but I had to cut it short because I had to go visit one of the girls from the girls’ club. But I’m so thankful that Z loves the activities. He kept asking me to read the book again. I have to tell him the stories of Ismail and hajr (and I will use the pop up that I had made for the 3 older kids years ago inshaAllah) and Ibrahim a.s. and the slaughtering of Ismail a.s.. I wish I had a felt board ready. Oh well, we’ll just have to improvise impromptu since my days will start getting crazy tomorrow. Monday is really my only free day to work exclusively with Z. Subhanallah.
May Allah make it easy. Ameen.
While Z was writing, I noticed that he needs handwriting practice soon. I was at Staples yesterday and saw the first grade writing book but didn’t buy it. I guess I’ll have to buy that soon but I can already imagine Z making faces at me if I tell him to do it. He doesn’t like worksheets. Oh boy, I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get there.
Oct 15, 2012
S was 15, N was 14, H was 12, Z was 4
This is part of a series called ‘Been There Done That‘ where I share my old homeschooling blog posts. Each post will portray different aspects of homeschooling and show different days of homeschooling looked like for us years back. I have also evolved throughout the years with regards to my views and opinions. These old posts are as they were at the time I was penning them.
Juli Herman is a homeschooling mother of four children, two of which are now in college. While pursuing her BSc. in Computer Science, she had her first two children. By the time she completed her final year, she was 100% certain of two things; stay home with her children, and rekindle her love of learning. As a bibliophile, Juli naturally instilled the love of reading to her children from a young age. Homeschooling became an obvious choice of education for her children as she read more about it. Through living a homeschooling lifestyle where love of learning is placed on a pedestal, she witnessed her children blossom into their respective areas of strength. Now that she has been homeschooling for over 19 years, she is glad she documented the journey on her homeschooling blog, which went through its own growth. Blogging has served as a great reminder of both the blessings and challenges of homeschooling to keep her going with the youngest child. Through it all, homeschooling has taught her a lot about the true meaning of tawakkul.