Salaam! Here’s something new, our first unedited, free-speaking, unrehearsed audio recording. We’re all packed up to travel for the next few months, and we’re finding new ways to stay connected. answer a couple of homeschool questions as a follow up to our new Homeschool channel, and the Homeschool Halaqahs webinar.We share how the Kid Bloggers Club is our girls’ humble homeschool project that turned into their online business, and how they want more Kid Bloggers to join them in this “technology” lesson. They share their newest volunteer project, S-cubed = STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Math) with the Sabra Sisters.

Websites mentioned in the recording:

• Ummah Design – Our absolutely incredible website development team!
• Ohanarama – The free social media educational site for families, which we love and highly recommend all families to join us! The next Family Contest starts this Friday, October 7th; and the prize will be the much anticipated Kindle Fire!!! Talk about Hot! Hot! Hot!
• Kid Bloggers Club YouTube Channel - Please subscribe and check out our new discoveries!
• American Muslim Mom YouTube Channel – Like we share, we have dozens of mini-videos, most are of Muslim halal products. So, if you’re not subscribed yet; please hop over today to see the best Islamic products we think every Muslim home should have (they are not uploaded yet). Yes, I am Still VERY picky! We actually did not share dozens of “muslim” products or “halal” products that we’ve received over the years to review, because lying is haram and giving bad publicity is such a waste of my our time…inshaAllah, those products will die a fast and/or slow death.

To Do Tasks:

Please consider making an audio reply by trying Audio Acrobat for free, and posting an audio on your blog or website and linking back to us so we see what you have to say, share, ask, etc. Here’s an awesome new way to connect with us by commenting back with your voice!

American Muslim Mom Homeschool & Kid Bloggers Club Audio Post is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

It has been quite a while from linking out to some wonderful online acknowledgements for our work here at American Muslim Mom. So, without further ado: Jummah Mubarak! Have a Blessed Friday!

Volunteer Spot’s Support

Like, wowser! MashaAllah, God has willed, this incredibly humbling view of our 79 Ways We Support Our School Our Way post:

She is an impressive mother and advocate for her religion and goals. But take a minute and read through her 79 (!!) creative ways she has supported her school. You’ll agree. This is an amazing woman.

First it’s a fascinating story to read about how while they are fundamentally committed to homeschooling—this Muslim family made a hard decision to invest in their local school due to family issues. And in only 4 months they gave more than some give in years.

They jumped in feet first and with enthusiasm to help in many (many!) different ways. Here’s just a tiny fraction:

• Meet the principal…
• Meet every single teacher…
• Meet & help substitutes… (read why, you’ll be impressed with this thought!)
• Offer to teach a lesson plan… (WOW)
• End of year cleaning…

Seriously this is ONE amazing volunteer list! Read all of it right now!

Raising Playful Tots Interview

As I’m stressed dozens of times, hubby and my biggest complaint is our girls’ playful lifestyle…so, one doesn’t have to stop playing after tot-hood as playing has only helped my 10 and 11 year old get into community college classes, mashaAllah, God has willed.

I share our 6-foot igloo building experience during the 2011 Nor’easter as a means to learning architecture, geometry, etc. in our fun interview here. This was only about 1/3 or 1/2 of our entire interview, so inshaAllah, the follow-up interviews are published soon. I feel bad that it didn’t end with my grave appreciation for having me as a guest.

Most Awesome Muslim Blogs 2011

MashaAllah, mashaAllah, mashaAllah. What an honor to be listed, ranked, and around such great company. Kudos goes to the incredibly talented development Ummah Design Team, mashaAllah! Enjoy your Jummah by setting a good amount of your time exploring and delving into these truly Awesome Muslim blogs.

May Allah accept all of our humble words as ibadah, keep us on the straight path, forgive our sins, and grant us blessings in the dunya and akhira. Ameen.

With only 1 day left to accomplish our huge task, I kindly ask that you keep us in your du’a, inshaAllah. So, what are you up to this Jummah?

Friday Link Love and Thanks is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

Salam. We’re excited to launch American Muslim Mom’s very first channel on the American Muslim Mom Blog Network…alhumdulilah! Again, to our fabulous dedication, and awesome work Ummah Design developed the site, so conveniently linked to on the top navigation bar as “Homeschool Channel“. We have not forwarded all the past homeschooling articles, however as we will be covering birth to college topics, we will refer back often.

We’ve done major reflection over Ramadan, mashaAllah, which included taking critical analysis of what YOU want and desire most. My emailbox fills up on a near daily basis with homeschooling questions, especially knowing my young 8, 10 & 11 year old girls have a money-making business and the two older ones got into community college this fall. My girls and I are eager to launch something different with this channel too. We’re opening it up to any devout Muslim homeschool mom or dad to contribute, of course the strict rules of the Qur’an and Sunnah must prevail. Interested in guest posting, contact us today and request our Guest Blogging Instructions.

A dear sister, which for the life of me I cannot find in my ever-growing emailbox, asked and recommended that I make a List of Muslim Homeschool Blogs. [So, dear sister here it is! Please comment below and know that I keep you in my du'a.] You can apply for different size listings; as we’ll be researching in great depth (just like the Eid Gift Guide) if everything is halal, permissible, and acceptable.

Subhanallah, it was literally a HUGE surprise yesterday with Ummah Design said the site was done! Just early in the week, I merely asked, what do they think? When do you think it’d be done or even start? And, I never heard back until the site was done. Subhanallah, this perfect timing only form Allah subhanahu wa Ta’ala is great because in less than 2.5 hours I’ll be the final speaker in the Homeschool Halaqas Baby Step webinar.

Homeschool Halaqas: Taking Baby Steps Towards Homeschooling

This is my article notes to go along with my 10-15 minute talk, as I received dozens of questions, and it’s just better to reference critical steps with links to follow-up on your own time, instead of feverishly taking notes while listening to my notorious fast-talking and not leave room for your questions. I’d rather be a resource to you, than talk about my experience, mashaAllah.

There’s only 100 spots to register and pay your 1-penny to get in, so hop over now if you’re interested inshaAllah. If not, you at least have my notes!

Last, I’m so proud to share that I finally believed I finished my Creating the Most Ideal Islamic Educational System Blog Series yesterday, entry #7, which started back in 2009.  I believe yesterday’s post is a perfect ending to homeschool topics on this main blog, and transition to its own channel. Don’t you!?

Creating the Most Ideal Islamic Educational System Blog Series: Homeschooling

1. Failures of Modern Schooling – Islamic Perspective
2. Education of Muslim Children – Challenges and Opportunities (Problems with Islamic Schools)
3. We don’t need School Reform we need an Overhaul
4. What are Personalized Learning Centers?
5. Washington Post – Muslim homeschooling population growing
6. Homeschooling with Multiple Intelligences
7. Defining Intellectual Vitality and Intellectual Curiosity – coming full circle to college admissions.

Our First American Muslim Mom Channel: Homeschool! Yay! is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

Ever wondered what Ivy League and top-tier (Top 50) universities and colleges really look for? Well, Antonio Buehler of Buehler Education introduced this amazing term  to my girls and I: “Intellectual Vitality”. So, what is it? How do some kids possess this, and others do not?

Intellectual Vitality defined by Stanford University

We want to see your commitment, dedication, and genuine interest in expanding your intellectual horizons; both in what you write about yourself and in what others write on your behalf. We want to see the kind of curiosity and enthusiasm that will allow you to spark a lively discussion in a freshman seminar and continue the conversation at a dinner table. We want to see the energy and depth of commitment you will bring to your endeavors, whether that means in a research lab, while being part of a community organization, during a performance, or on an athletic field. We want to see the initiative with which you seek out opportunities that expand your perspective and that will allow you to participate in creating new knowledge.

Stanford University’s Short Essay #1

1. Stanford students possess intellectual vitality. Reflect on an idea or experience that has been important to your intellectual development.

Intellectual Curiosity

According to the IECA’s (Independent Educational Consultants Association) ’Top Ten Strengths and Experiences Colleges look for in High School Students,’ number nine is “Demonstrated intellectual curiosity through reading, school, leisure pursuits, and more.”

Tips From Ivy League & Top-Tier College Admissions Representatives

Stanford University looks for intellectual vitality with a love of learning and interaction with teachers and fellow students.  They are looking for the most compelling students, not the most competitive. 75% of the students who apply are qualified. They must look elsewhere for more information. The essay and teacher letters of recommendation are very important. Respect for others is also important.

Yale is looking for a unique student. Explain your passion and engage in your classes in high school.

Brown is looking for self-motivated, active thinkers and learners.  You need to have a passion about something. Do you have intellectual curiosity?

Harvard is looking for well-cultivated interests, specialists and focused students who are involved.

Princeton is looking for students who challenge themselves and bring a unique viewpoint to campus. The essay needs to fit with you and show your true voice.

Dartmouth wants to know what you will bring to the college. Peer recommendations are important.

University of Chicago is interested in who you are as a thinker.

Homeschoolers Have an Edge!

Back in 2000 Stanford University demonstrated that homeschoolers are “In a Class by Themselves”.

Admission officers sum it up in two words: intellectual vitality.

It’s hard to define, but they swear they know it when they see it. It’s the spark, the passion, that sets the truly exceptional student–the one driven to pursue independent research and explore difficult concepts from a very early age–apart from your typical bright kid. Stanford wants students who have it.

Looking very closely at homeschoolers is one way to get more of those special minds, the admission office has discovered. As Reider explains it: “Homeschooled students may have a potential advantage over others in this, since they have consciously chosen and pursued an independent course of study.”

Indeed, when he and his colleagues read applications last year, they gave the University’s highest internal ranking for intellectual vitality to two of the nine homeschoolers admitted. And an astounding four homeschoolers earned the highest rating for math–something reserved for the top 1 to 2 percent of the applicant pool.

“The distinguishing factor is intellectual vitality,” says Reider. “These kids have it, and everything they do is responding to it.”

Tips for College-Bound Homeschoolers

All details with amazing anecdotes are shared in this article

1. “Get at least two of their three recommendations from non-family members – such as, “tutors, mentors, community college professors, or civic leaders they volunteered with–although a parent’s letter will be considered.”
2. Don’t worry if you don’t have grades. Missing transcripts is really not a big deal. The article even jokes how homeschoolers are capable of being straight-A valedictorians of their own class of 1. Isn’t he right?
3. A detailed curriculum should be supplemented with students writing about themselves and their education. “We would like to hear about how the family chose homeschooling, how the learning was organized and what benefits (and costs, if any) they have derived,” Reider wrote.
4. Study for SATs, ACTS, SAT IIs, etc. and aim for perfect scores. “Standardized test scores also carry extra weight, although tests aren’t decisive by themselves. In addition to the mandated sat and act tests, the University urges homeschoolers to take some sat ii subject exams (formerly called achievement tests), even though these aren’t required.”
5. Don’t feel pressures to change your homeschooling curriculum to a “traditional” high school curriculum. We have an advantage with our self-teaching students and parents providing supervision, motivation, direction and the means to seek the best mentors and appropriate books.
6. Take several college courses and get As. College courses ” help with evaluation and to give students a taste of classroom learning before they arrive on the Farm.”
7. Know that our kids are more socially prepared and ready for top-tier universities. Be proud (as you should be, inshaAllah) that research suggests (even though we-homeschoolers-always knew, God bless) that homeschoolers are actually socially and emotionally healthier then the “socialized” school children–therefore are preferred by top-tier universities!

…1999 survey organized by Brian Ray, president of the National Home Education Research Institute. Ray found that the typical homeschooler takes part in at least five social activities outside the home every week–from dance classes and sports teams to scout troops and community theater. He also collected previous findings by educators and psychologists suggesting that children taught at home are actually socially and emotionally healthier than those in schools. They are more comfortable interacting with adults and less likely to pin their self-esteem to the fads and whims of teenagers, Ray says.

Striving for the Best Education is an Obligation in Islam

It’s NOT the prestige and the immense amount of opportunities afforded only to Ivy league and top-tier university students that has my girls and I excited and eager to apply to them, inshaAllah…but, it’s my husband and my firm belief that if we don’t aim for the highest and best; we’ll never reach our highest and best potential. So, reaching high is the only way to go in when we educate our girls as home.

“Are those who know equal to those who know not?” It is only men of understanding who will remember.” Qur’an 39:9

It is incumbent of all Muslim children to be knowledgeable in their deen, which includes and does NOT separate all superior, in depth understanding of ALL subjects: Math, Science, Language Arts, etc. There’ should not be any differentiation between “core” and “elective” subjects in Islam, as our Islamic history never divided the two. This is why I continue to believe Homeschooling is the Ideal Educational System for devout Muslims.

Public and private schools do not have the religious piece, and Islamic schools have not proven themselves collectively in mastering core subjects. Recent academic case studies presently being published (Ponn’s personal conversation with a Cornell-Yale researcher on this topic) suggest that the few “success stories” (children) in Islamic schools would have succeeded academically in non-Islamic schools regardless. So referring to 1-2-3…success students is not a success of that particular school or system, but merely the natural statistical effect of having an excellent student–period.

Also, in a recent college admissions book the author (who got her 2 sons both into 4 Ivies with no rejections) shared in her opening chapter, that Every Parent is a Homeschooler. More and more of the entry into Ivies are not because they are “good/excellent students” in school–it’s everything they do to supplement their education outside of the school walls. So, I’d like to add to her statement, “Therefore they should homeschool full-time”, rather than waste 8-10 hours a day at school (including before & after-school prep time, classes, extra curriculars and homework).

As my family doctor shares her favorite quote, which my girls and I have been reminding ourselves often

“If you don’t strive for perfection, you have no hope for excellence.”

Our end-point may not include Ivy League admission, but working towards and striving for them, will only grant them their greatest opportunities, individually and collectively. Alhumdulilah, this journey thus far has been absolutely invigorating…there’s SO much energy, life and amazingly-deep-profound conversations filling our home.

While I loved teaching while they were babies, and enjoyed the stumbles and achievements of teaching them to talk…alhumdulilah, this FAR exceeds any joy I ever imagined, mashaAllah. The amount of intellectual stimulation in our home on in ALL Multiple Intelligences (ie Art, Logic, Language, People, Self Skills etc.) is like having scholars to relate to on a deep level yet playful and effortless. The depth of their knowledge is motivating to one another, they encourage one another’s passions, applaud their efforts, marvel in ways to figure out how to correct a “mistake” so they strive to discover the answers together. The feed off one another, and so do I!

My role is to provide them with what they need to succeed. They’ve mastered topics FAR beyond my own comprehension, and the humility of having my girls teach me something new every single day is delightful, to say the least. However, they expect and turn to me to direct, lead, advise and “teach” them many new things each and every day.

So, yes–if anything, I am simply sleeping less…mostly because I’m preparing to at least be a 1 if not 2-steps ahead of them for the following day. However, I’m trying not to “prepare” too much, because whatever I “prepare” usually only lasts a mere minutes of lessons and we gain more by learning side-by-side, researching and building together…building our minds and alhumdulilah the memories of keeping their energy, life (vitality) of their possession of highly defined intellect (a state of being intellectual) alive and strong! I like LOVE the new role I serve in my girls’ homeschool journery…however, as they read over my shoulder, they share, “But, Mama…That (the new role) is NOT new to you!” “Awww…MashaAllah.” I am ever-so-blessed.

MashaAllah, I tweeted last night to Antonio and my dear pal: @MegFromCT (a college admissions consultant for 16 years in Greenwich, CT who successfully gets her clients into Ivies & first-tier universities as well).

MashaAllah, we have a track-record, many small successes and tons of encouragement from top-tier university employees, alum, consultants, etc. who are all encouraging our girls to reach high, mashaAllah. We’d like to share any of our tips and lessons on the way, and pray that you will too. There’s definitely a revolution going in the U.S. educational system, and it’s called “Homeschooling!”

Please share your tips, lessons and most of all Your reflections of this post below.

Subhanallah, I didn’t realized, this post is basically bringing my Creating the Most Ideal Islamic Educational System series which began back in 2008, alhumdulilah to full-circle, as home education’s end-goal is adulthood, and inshaAllah for us includes competitive, respectable universities, and graduate schools, inshaAllah.

Creating the Most Ideal Islamic Educational System

1. Failures of Modern Schooling – Islamic Perspective
2. Education of Muslim Children – Challenges and Opportunities (Problems with Islamic Schools)
3. We don’t need School Reform we need an Overhaul
4. What are Personalized Learning Centers?
5. Washington Post – Muslim homeschooling population growing
6. Homeschooling with Multiple Intelligences
7. Defining Intellectual Vitality and Intellectual Curiosity

Defining Intellectual Vitality and Intellectual Curiosity is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

Thanks to Walgreens for sponsoring my writing. Help Walgreens help others! Visit their Facebook page here to learn about their charitable partners and decide which cause Walgreens will donate to with a quick vote.”

First, charity starts at home. Beyond our family duties and responsibilities, its incumbent of all Muslims to give back to the Ummah (community)…and it should definitely NOT stop after the month of Ramadan.

Volunteer Ideas to Give Back to Your Community

• Volunteering Your Way in Your Kid’s School - Need some ideas? Here’s 79 Ways hubby, daddy and I volunteered at a local elementary school.
  
• Continue your Qur’an-a-thon Sadaqah pledges year-round, not just during Ramadan. Use the principals of studying the Qur’an, seeking pledges and making donations in your kids’ name.
  
• Have your kids decide how they want to volunteer any extra time…better yet, let them involve their skills, talents, interests and areas of expertise. Here’s what my girls are doing: S3 (S-cubed) STEM with the Sabra Sisters.  Additional ideas which we’ve done over the years include:

1. Volunteering at a horse rescue (because they’re horse riders),
2. Volunteering at public library events (because we could not homeschool without a library),
3. Volunteering to tutor other homeschoolers or school-kids in subjects the girls are strong at (ie. Arabic, Math, Science)

• Volunteer as a Muslim Family for the benefit of the local ummah. In our 99 Tips to Help Kids Fast during Ramadan, you can get *many* ideas, or at least inspirations to figure out ways to volunteer directly in your local ummah.
• Volunteering in the local homeschool community. You can search our archives for links of most of these: but I’ve done just about everything imaginable: organized a Physics Day for Homeschoolers at a local amusement park with nearly 150 homeschool family members, led Math coop, taught Invention curriculum, moderated homeschool online groups, organized homeschool gym classes, sports days, private museum classes, field trips, park days, tutor other kids…you get the idea, right?) There’s SO much to do as most homeschool-related activities are all volunteer-based. MashaAllah.

Low on time? Here’s ma couple of places to make quick donations

• Participating in Virtual Campaigns to help build a historical Islamic Center of Murfressboro, TN
• Islamic Relief – You can pick the campaigns you want to contribute your donations.

So, What Ideas and Ways Do You Give Back to Your Local Community? Have creative ways to share with us? Or, typical normal “volunteer” ideas, that even though everyone knows about how and where to do those activities, but never has enough volunteers present? We’re hear to support the mostly thank-less volunteer efforts you make…we want to acknowledge your efforts for the sake of Allah, inshaAllah. Please share.

Don’t forget to help Walgreens help others! Visit their Facebook page here to learn about their charitable partners and decide which cause Walgreens will donate to with a quick vote. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.”

What Ways Do You Give Back to Your Community? is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

As you may know, we’re definitely an unconventional homeschool family that ”schools” our girls our way, from car-schooling to airplane-schooling. One may suspect that we’d run some “school” ‘case studies’ as well, right? For example, overseas private classes, Egyptian overcrowded schoolrooms, an Islamic private academy, and yes–public school!

I was the only non-sixth grade parent acknowledged in the school’s graduation, mashaAllah (besides the multi-year-PTA president, of course). Since 5th graders were invited, my daughter was sitting in the first row. It was a touching moment for my daughter. All three 5th grade classes were honored by my daughter’s accomplishment and many teachers, parents, and students gave her the nod of approval, smiles of joy, and knew it would touch her much more than it could ever touch me…mostly because many all knew how difficult it was for her to be the oldest sister of 3 trying to be strong and supportive of a decision she’d rather not have dealt with–going to school. She loved her homeschooling lifestyle. She also knew her mama would be experiencing great physical pain in her absence, and would rather be a supportive daughter by my bedside, than in an unchallengeable environment with peers.

Hubby and I faced 3-4 months of multiple surgeries and such an intense therapy schedule that we’d rather not expose our girls full-time to the anticipated physical, mental and emotional pain and stress. So, we decided that we might as well try an educational setting as an alternative to baby sitting–after all, we do pay taxes. So, we chose to send our girls to public school. It was terribly painful for me, as I vowed never to allow them to enter public school doors..besides a little government “tour.”

As I write, tears are filling up just recalling the emotions that occurred during that phase in our life. I know my heart is also crying because it was by far one of the single best experiences of my entire family’s life…my girls learned empathy in a different sense.

While having traveled the world my girls experienced “real” poor, desperate situations; never had they experienced it day in and out and established relationships with those who “have” and “have-not”.

For example, classmates with money and luxuries, and those who didn’t have money for lunch. The academically-strong students with supportive parents, while others suffered academically because they worry about going to bed hungry with no dinner, or faced real fears who heard “shooting from his bedroom all the time.”

On top of all that, we all experienced that regardless of socioeconomic status and parental support, the majority of kids came from broken families. Even their closest friends of single-parents, we’re experiencing much emotional hardship, and questionable sadness dealing with the divorce, separation, etc. that many kids (even those not in our girls’ classes) found great refuge in my motherly attention. They even found safety, security and fun in our home and backyard, which quickly became the “neighborhood safety field.” I became a confidante for many children and their parents (often mediating for them); and my girls appreciated that their friends had a trusted resource to gain much needed insight and support, mashaAllah. [Note: These were our experiences at this moment in time; I am not generalizing children of single-parents.]

It is a sad reality of our American society that could only be faced by attending public school. It brought our family closer during our own hardships, and made us much more grateful for our many blessings, most notably: Faith & Family.

[Note: Out of 9 elementary public schools in our city, we were fortunate to attend one of the largest schools with with approximately 1/3 affluent, 1/3 middle-class, 1/3 school-lunch kids. It was the most ethnically-diverse and academically-distributed school in the district. There were 2-3 inner-city schools with the majority of school-lunch kids, and 3-4 affluent schools with some of the highest-ranked academic scores in the state!]

79 Creative Ways to Help Support Your Kid’s Public School

These are all the activities my husband and I volunteered for on a near daily basis during our 4-month experience with a public school. Of course, I wasn’t there when I was hospitalized, but hubby or Daddy/Papa was.

Please keep in mind that this list is not exclusive, and I purposefully left out typical ways parents volunteer in school. Hubby and I choose to get the most involved that would assure the highest level of professionalism in their academic environment and social atmosphere which will allow our girls excel in I also wanted to assure that my girls would not be victims to bigotry in any shape or form, for their gift and talents (as they were all promoted full years upon acceptance), or for being Muslim. Also, I am NOT recommending any parent to do all the things listed below. These are all ideas to get your creative juices flowing. The goal is not to become overwhelmed or burdened, but to be happy and energized by making necessary contributions to your school YOUR way! I was never tired by my involvement. I was honored to contribute in a meaningful way.

Subhanallah, the 4^th and final day of their assessments, one-day before their first-day of school, an African American boy yelled in line to my daughter as we sat outside the principal’s office for our class placement results, “Terrorist!” He was suspended from school the next day. The very daughter he yelled it to was supposed to be his classmate, and based on that episode the 3rd and 4^th-grade teachers and principal decided to put our daughter in another class. After much discussion, Hubby and I wanted her to remain in that class; but we agreed to the principal’s change of assignment. Alhumdulilah, my daughter eased (with newfound confidence and strength) to her first day of school, and the boy never returned to the school.

#1 – 5. Meet each with and without your kids; ideally with a scheduled appointment. By scheduling an appointment, you’re respecting their time; and if you do this often enough, you will soon be on their short-list of memorized phone numbers and welcomed for free-time just to talk.

1. Meet the principal before the school year and periodically throughout. Details throughout the tips below.

2. Meet every single teacher before the school year and weekly, if not daily.

3. Meet the gym teacher. They had a male teacher, so we had to express our gender rules, dress code, etc. As expected our youngest loved his class, so the teachers worked out that she had double-gym classes each week when her class was in music class.
 

4. Meet the art teacher, explain limitations of our faith. Volunteer often. We found kids typically couldn’t focus on the “lesson” of this “fun” class prolonging lesson plans through weeks, instead of days. With an extra helper, the art teacher was able to stay on task more easily.

5. Meet the music teacher, Explain why we don’t listen to music, yet we must learn music education. Have the kids and teacher have an understanding of please allow her to sit in, they know what’s acceptable and what’s not. If they choose to stay, please welcome them. If not, we agree to politely and quietly dismiss ourselves. Acceptable: learning about the history of music as a lesson taught.

#6-17 Recommended informal meetings made while you’re volunteering.

6. Meet the librarian. Learn what resources the library has, and offer ways to best utilize all they have. By knowing exactly what they have and where the resources are stored, my girls were often the library leaders in their classes when they had a class project. They were able to explore all their group projects in more depth compared to their classmates, so their group-mates and teacher’s appreciated their educational initiative and direction. I volunteered often for the research of my girls’ group projects, and their groupmates loved exploring the library compared to their other classmates who were resorting only to the Internet. I started to get a reputation, that all 3 homeroom teachers often assigned me group projects with other kids, so as many as possible learned how to explore the school library as a fun expedition rather than a get-out-of-class-social-hall.

7. Meet & help substitutes. Have open relationship with homeroom teacher, so they can share when substitutes will be coming in. I volunteered in class the majority of days any of my girls had a substitutes, which with 3 girls meant daily. If it’s a new substitute, they rarely had the respect to command the classroom, as I did; simply because I knew the kids names, desks, personalities, strengths, and temperaments. Oh, and I obviously knew who were the “bullies” and “class clowns.” I use quotation marks, because they never dared to exhibit these traits in front of me; so I had no need to discipline, but because they all knew I knew, I had a good handle how to talk to the kids wasting time with their unacceptable behavior or silliness.

8. Meet student teachers. One daughter had a student teacher, and I was such a loyal volunteer, that when it came time for her to make a portfolio for job applications, she was emailing me for copies of pictures.

9. Meet all classroom assistants. There was a full-time classroom assistant who was assigned different classes every day. By getting on a first-name basis, my girls and I learned much about the layout of the building, the history of teachers and staff, and who was strong with what skill. This was critical information that helped me prioritize who and what needed my volunteer hours the most. For example, one was good at English, so I helped in her science class projects. Another was good at science, so I helped in her reading class and “listened” to kids read, as well as helped edit their essays.

10. Meet social workers and school psychologist. MashaAllah, none of my girls needed the services of either, but by knowing each of them personally, they helped me understand the “culture” of each of my girls’ homerooms, figure out the school’s emotional atmosphere and environment, and have open discussions with my girls why the social workers’ and psychologist’s roles are necessary; especially because the girls’ classmates were taken in and out of classes to meet with them. Often, unsympathetic classmates, or “bullies” made fun of them in the process. My girls learned empathy and were appreciated for their concern and support, MashaAllah, one daughter was extremely outspoken for her classmates when anyone tried to bully anyone. She was well-liked/loved by even the hardest-meanest-bully; because she never backed down for the weaker classmate.

11.  Meet homeroom moms. Request where they most need help. Even though I met them, they and their teachers quickly found out that I was offering much more needed services that they never called me for help, as I was typically “on-site” already.

12.  Meet PTA officers. Offer to fill in the void. Since I couldn’t adhere to a “schedule,” I simply showed up and offered help by knowing officers on a first-name basis and just volunteering help. Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for my girls’ teachers, I was already volunteering at the events to help the individual classes rather than big events.

13.  Meet the cafe staff. Since we have our own diet, I wanted the girls to also feel comfortable buying in the cafe like their friends so I downloaded money into their accounts. When I met staff, I learned how to track their accounts, so they’re never short of cash. I also inquired what things they have available and quickly found out that ice cream was a “luxury” since they don’t get them often and never have enough. Knowing that we don’t eat other snacks, my girls were excited about their daily cold treat. The café ladies told us how and when they call out these treats, and when I saw them they’d often inform me that we’d call your girls first (all 3 had different lunch times), and many times they wouldn’t come up. Aware of the special treatment, my girls told me they opt out of getting it every day.

14.  Eat lunch with your kids. When I sat in with each of them for lunch, I quickly learned from their classmates that X/Y/Z always gets ice cream, and the “luxury” really was having the $ to get this cold snack. By hearing the cheerful feedback of their classmates, my girls and I also discussed that there’s no need to get ice cream daily, and in unison they agreed, but were already doing this on their own. However, as the year was coming to a close, the staff were kind enough to tell me (knowing we wouldn’t return next year) that we had balances in their accounts, and how to withdraw it. I followed-up with their kindness with a donation.

15.  Meet the other volunteers. I liked how all volunteers had to wear name tags. We helped each other with photocopying (every machine was different…and I was never good with hardware). We quickly learned that photo copying wasn’t my forte, but was another volunteer’s. However, assisting the teacher was a less welcomed job for her. So, when we were both there at the same time, we coordinated duties based on our interests and strengths.

16.  Meet the custodial staff. This is helpful, because when a kid throws up, etc. calling out someone politely on a first-name basis is much more appealing than, “Hey, emergency clean up!” which I witnessed the sad hysteria that on the surface looks harmless–but doing this every day of your job is–well, frustrating at this necessary and often thankless job.

17. Meet special ed teachers. As homeschoolers, my girls took 4-days of assessments to figure out their grade placement. They were assessed by the math & English school teachers. We learned after they placed, that there were the “special” teachers to help those behind…and a stigma was formed when kids are called for their time with them. So, each of my girls had a “stigma” coming in, within their first week their classmates realized that they were not placed low, but high and never gave my girls lip–however, they continued to do it for their “real” classmates. My girls were sensitive to these issues and often spoke up for those who didn’t have the confidence or will to stand up for themselves. My girls loved these 2 teachers and in turn, it opened many more opportunities, such as mashaAllah, all 3 girls were placed a full year ahead and 2 were in all gifted, highest classes.

18.  Know the entire building beyond your own children’s classrooms. Understand the floor plan inside and outdoor property. This was helpful on many occasions. Once for a field day, I was outside and one classmate needed to be run into the nurse’s office for his inhaler. Aware of this emergency, I offered to escort him via the quickest route. Many times there were new volunteer parents walking aimlessly, so I’d escort them to their destination.

19. Offer to teach a lesson plan.

20.  Field trip chaperone TIPS. An easy no-brainer. I went to every single field trip of all 3 girls, and Hubby went to one when I was in the hospital. Interestingly, 1 of the field trips was a “big deal.” Grant money was given so teachers and staff were the chaperones; not parents. But, due to my frequent volunteering, and they willfully accepted space for Hubby or I. Another field trip was the annual 5^th grade “big field trip” that they were saving money for all year. Extremely interested in not missing the only “field trip” my daughter would ever experience, I was offered a limited space.

21. (a) Field trip tricks. I got my group to make heart-shaped cookie cutters that were selling for $6-7 in the gift shop, but there, the demonstrator was making them. By asking probing interesting questions, he let our group each make their own to keep. The girls had the best story to share with the class.

22. (b) Strive to be a field trip chaperone winner. We hiked 3 miles up and down the Sleeping Giant Mountain. It was easy getting up, and we made it to the top as probably one of the Top 10 groups; but as one of the only all-girls-group, we were determined to make it down for lunch first. We huffed and puffed and motivated our way down the mountain. Since groups were assigned by teachers, this was a great motivator for 4 little girls who barely knew each other to work as a team and win!

23. (c) Make sure your spouse goes to field trips too. To this day, I’m not sure which one was a bigger eye-opener, Hubby for being on a 1-hr-one-way yellow-bus trip with 50+ 4th-graders, or my daughter and her classmate for having a cool dad around.

24.  Volunteer with grandparents too. Daddy/Papa was a huge face on campus too!

Some of the following are touched upon above, but have detailed separate tips for the attention they deserve below.

25.  Help during Reading circles. 4 circles for 16 kids during 1-hour for 1-teacher. An extra “listener” is very helpful.

26.  Help with field day. I know Daddy and I got just as much of a workout that day as the kids…not from doing the physical activities with them, but by escorting sick kids, hurt kids, tired kids, angry they-weren’t-playing-fair kids, in and out of the building and fields. I think the nurse was about to give Daddy and I much needed beds to rest by the end of the day.

27.  Help with Science Fair Projects & Science Fair Day.

28. (a) Teach the Scientific Method, Depth of the project & Have fun. During Morning Meeting, one of my daughters’ partners came in and said her highlight for her weekend was spending the day at our house making their Science Fair project. Everyone was surprised since no one ever talks about school-things; our daughter was proud and the whole class couldn’t wait to see their project later displayed during the week.

29.  (b) Invite all groupmates to your house first. Hubby and I don’t allow our girls to go to others’ homes without us. To prevent this, I jumped at inviting all groupmates to our house, which we found out that all of them weren’t planning to offer due to time, interest or skill. Hubby and I were well respected for the depth in the lessons, projects, and displays we made.

30. (C ) Organize duties & responsibilities. I learned to expect nothing. Each parent asked if I needed anything. I went through the supplies list and asked things I felt were fair and economical and worked out details.

31. (d) Make sure all groupmates parents are present for the Science Fair. If not, offer to be their “parent” to support their efforts. FYI, this was a non-judged event, which was great; since our kids learned so much.

32. Help with Social Studies Reenactments. Daddy and I did some many cool things here to help, such as

33. (a) Make costumes

34. (b) Help to creatively make props

35. (c) Organize lists of duties

36. (d) Organize roles

37. (e) Set up different displays

38. (f) Monitor the displays

39. (g) Help prepare and serve food

40. (h) Escort lost or confused spectators

41. (i) Educate confused spectators

42. (j) Help with the curriculum & research

43. (k) Take photos

44. (l) Help parent volunteers for the day by delegating the most necessary duties

45. Help with school plays. Challenging, yes, but the final production will be worth it, InshaAllah.

46. (a) Help kids learn their scripts

47. (b) Help director. Keep kids quiet, patient, while others are saying their lines and they are supposed to stay in their places on stage. This was the single hardest thing for the schools’ largest play directed by 3 homeroom teachers, whereas previous years they had a professional playwright (parent) volunteer to direct in previous years.

48. (c) Help dress the kids in costumes keep them clean, in place, etc.

49. (d) Be the off-stage director. Due to our biggest problem #40, and unaware what its like to act in front of a crowd, we had 2 performances to the school during the day and the big night show for parents. Last minute, we developed this role for me to keep the kids focused in the center of the auditorium for spacing and script issues. I had most of the lines memorized by then.

50. Take photos.

51.  Share your photos with staff.

52. Help with bulletin boards. In the classroom and in the hallways, especially for special projects worth acknowledging.

53. Help in the coat room. The younger classes want to be there, but aren’t organized, the older kids don’t want to be there, but like hanging around (not to socialize, but they’re not interested in walking into class), an extra pair of eyes and hands to direct kids with their jackets, bookbags, and getting their homework out to move along the crowds in the coat room was very much appreciated by teachers.

54. Learn each classroom’s Morning Meeting & help out. This is the informal time to get to know all the students and teachers on a different level, it was a critical bonding time that was either treasured or despised—but it was necessary to help the teacher make sure it was always treasured.

55. Be a respectful hall monitor. Not formally. I never shyed away from saying politely and firmly “Walk,” or, ”Slow down,” and sometimes, “Are you lost?” and even, “Want me to walk with you to…?” (for the little ones). Offer to help teachers as they pass the halls with large groups of kids trying hard to keep them in line literally and figuratively. Offer to help escort the middle or end of the line. I met many of the school’s teachers and students this way.

56. Help with essay editing. I’ll never forget one class’s “messiest one” according to the students, however I learned he had an attention deficient, hated his handwriting and despised writing. It took all class to build his confidence to write as freely and as fun as possible. While the teacher was trying to take care of the other 15, it was an emotional moment for both of us, but we ended the class with smiles, confidence, and my daughter and her girl-friends immediately saw the difference in his attitude for his most dreaded class.

57. Help with Social Studies projects. Bring in props for the country they’re studying, offer to help make study guides, lists of necessary websites for research.

58. Help with Passport/International day. Keep these “fun” days fun. I noticed that the “fun” events were not always fun for all students, simply because 1 teacher can’t cater to the whole’s classes’ interests and excitement. So, the shy and quiet ones get lost in the shuffle. Volunteer to be their “fun day helper.”

59.  (a) Bring in things that will make these days more special. Papa had an English tea set for the English tea party. We brought in many different Filipino things for Philippines (My mom was Filipino).

60.  (b) Make phone calls for donated snacks by local restaurants. We didn’t have anything special for Mexico, so we had to offer some kind of unique alternative.

61.  (c )  Make educational props the teachers need. I researched and made Spanish memory card games, for foods and animals, one card was a picture the other was a word.

62. Introduce new foods and teach a lesson about them.

63.  (a) Test & Tales. Papa became infamous for his gardening and Rhubarb stories, and I hosted the “Sour Patch Test” for each of our girls’ classes. We ended up having other teachers and staffs participate in our lessons.

64.  (b) Bring random healthy snacks during snack time. One teacher brought in, with her own money, nutritious snacks for her entire class time, because many kids didn’t bring them in (economic reasons). Always get the snacks approved and organize a designated time, so food is not wasted or spoiled.

65.  (c) Reward with incentive snacks. I offered Popsicles or watermelon if the students did something together “right,” either an assignment or special class activity. I worked this out with teachers, of course.

66.  (d) Cultural food. We brought in hummus, homemade pitas, zatar. Shared our 3-Tries-Then-You’re-Out Rule.

67.  (e) Natural homemade foods. We made different homemade breads every day, and we’d share the different tastes. All-natural, healthy, homemade food was a luxury that we found many children did not experience often enough.

68. (f) Religious foods. One reward was to have a BBQ for smores. I brought in halal marshmallows for my daughter and the 2 Muslim brothers who never had marshmallows because they didn’t know about halal ones. We became a “hit” because everyone was allowed a certain amount, with permission of the teacher, I was able to pass out a few more and they said “It tastes the same!” We gave the bag to the Muslim brothers, so their other 2 brothers can enjoy them too.

69. (g) Lunch. Making extras. Sharing allowance. MashaAllah, one of my daughter’s friends rarely had money for lunch and never had a bagged lunch, so I started “strategically” making extra sandwiches, bigger halves but still in one sandwich bag not to make it obvious. We found out what she liked and what she didn’t, and helped out. My daughter would often forgo the ice cream to share a snack she knew she’d eat with her.

70. End of year cleaning.

71.  Help organize the class library. Make a category listing system.

72.  Introduce your culture or religion openly with students. One teacher had my girls and I teach about Islam, and have a big eye-opening formal Q&A. The other teacher welcomed their kids to ask me questions whenever they came up while I was present. Nothing was a mystery about Islam to all my girls’ classmates, and this openness was welcomed and appreciated. The kids openly and innocently asked.

73. Assist during  Center Times. And, specifically do not help your kid’s group. Ask the teacher who needs the most work. The challenge of helping a 2-year demoted student, who they said they couldn’t hold back any longer, regardless if he’s able to write any better or not (since it was the last quarter of the year). Determined to make some head-way, I really enjoyed my time assisting his group help him gain interest in writing at least 2-sentences with correct grammar and spelling during one class period.

74. Sing During Center Times. I love teaching kids how to find rhyming words simply by singing the alphabet with the new word. It’s a funny, easy task that every kid (and parent) loves. Try it! Sing words to rhyme with “toe” with the alphabet song, Aoe, Boe, Coe, Dough!, Eoe, Foe, Go!, Ho, Io, Joe! …get it!? Now, sing it faster!

75. Support all PTA/PTO fundraisers within reason. All the fundraisers held during the 4-months we were students were all acceptable, such as the plants sale, and book sales.

76. Donate used books. They must be in good shape! Depending on the topic, I first ask the homeroom teachers if they’d like them; otherwise general all-purpose books I donated to the school library.

77. Donate odds & ends and arts & crafts supplies to the art room. The art teacher marveled at the 4 huge paper shopping bags filled with supplies. Since we weren’t doing the Art Gala that year, and it was Spring cleaning, we donated as much of our odds and ends as possible.

78. Donate new school supplies to various classrooms & departments.

79. Personalized homemade gifts from the family that will last and be shared with future classes and have a lasting impression on the school like they have for you. In addition to physical therapy and recovery process, I started art therapy. It was a creative and emotional outlet that half the process was “letting go”, and “acceptance”. So, I accepted all the good great with the not-so-bad, took my art pieces, and matched my personal feelings with my girls, as I painted quotes to match particular teachers’ philosophies and how the paintings would be a main-stay in their classrooms, offices or rooms. The greatest honor that ended with floods of tears was when I gave my 5-hour first most dramatic painting to the Art Teacher and she said, it’s too precious that she knew a perfect place she’ll hang it at home.

Muslim Parent School Tips

1. (a) Privately in writing and in-person with teachers & principals regarding Islamic issues. My formal letter to all homeroom teachers included the following:

1. Prayer time.
2. Sisters’ personal time. #1-2. They were so accommodating, that they let the girls meet together in the library for prayer at the most opportune times to each of their class schedules.
3. Pledge of allegiance.
4. Not to be alone with any adult, male or female. The girls are always in presence of 3rd person, not even 2 adults and my 1 child, their classroom buddy or I must always be a witness.
5. No birthdays and secular or religious holidays. We explained the difference between lessons taught versus celebrating the holidays.
6. No music, singing.
7. Limitations to images and pictures they draw.
8. Dress code. Their prayer pack and prayer clothes.
9. Not boy-girl partnerships or projects.
10. Gave the cell phone numbers for me and Hubby, to run at a moment’s notice. Call me for everything and anything–nothing is too small, especially disciplinary issues or concerns.
11. Personal writing journal they kept privately for me.
12. Daily notes and personal phones between teacher and I. One teacher even made a Mom-Teacher composition pad journal for our correspondences.
13. Volunteer for everything, specifically in your kids’ class but helping others:
    1. fun, creative, projects,
    2. teach a unit study,
    3. field trips,
    4. class work, photocopying,
    5. tutoring, leading reading circles,
       1. Interest in all field trips,
       2. Requesting all grading rubics for all classes, progress note schedule,
       3. I shared some of my strengths and time availabilities so they could best assign me appropriate volunteer jobs.

2. (b) Be the Muslim advocate for other Muslim students. Subhanallah, my 3 girls had 3 Muslim boys (all brothers) in each of their grades, 1 was in one of my daughter’s specific class. Whenever something came up, a questionable music event, movie, etc. the boys were allowed to hang out with me and the the girls to “educate” our differences often with humorous pride, which they greatly appreciated, mashaAllah. Or, to monitor them by taking them out of the event.

3. (c) Be a Muslim Ambassador to staff by being open, approachable, and active. I was always available to answer any question openly and on-the-spot when the staff had one. They often shared the top reasons for not asking other Muslim parents questions were because “they” don’t seem approachable, or “they” aren’t welcoming to “personal” questions, and “they” aren’t even around or active. When I explained that my faith is “personal to me,” but “learning about our faith is fact; therefore it’s not personal at all.”

Free Parent Volunteer Resources for You & $500 School Supplies Giveaway!

• The room mom survival guide, eBook:  or Sample back-to-school signup sheets.
• A HUGE $500 giveaway for school supplies on VolunteerSpot’s Facebook page.
• Since I’m the last-stop in this 6-week blog series, you can view all previous posts in the “I Support My School My Way” campaign here.
• They even just launched a brand-new Room Mom Resources:   Room Mom Ideas.

Here’s how VolunteerSpot can help you and your school or organization

I look forward to using this for my many fundraising activities across various organizations as well, inshaAllah.

Limited Time Only! Premium VolunteerSpot PTA Boost Special Discount Exclusive for American Muslim Mom

Here’s a thank you promo code for free 1-yr Premium upgrades for us all!  APPLE34.

VolunteerSpot’s FREE service is all most room moms, parents and teachers need to get organized.

However, their Premium version has helpful tools for power-users including volunteer hours tracking, extra registration fields (to collect teacher’s or child’s name, t-shirt size, etc.), and assistant organizers.

If Premium is for you,  please click here to get a free Back-to-School Upgrade. Hurry, offer expires soon! September 15, 2011.

I am SO majorly excited about this upgrade, because you may know that we volunteer and host fundraisers for local masajid, Islamic institutes, host virtual fundraisers for national Islamic organizations, host our Annual Qur’an-a-thon Sadaqah Drive, but we also help raise money for homeschool organizations, educational institutes, museums, horse rescue, friends of the public library, and international relief organizations, and much more! (Please forgive me for not linking to all the examples, but I’m short on time).

More importantly, based on this project, my girls and I devised a regular extremely fun way to volunteer at local elementary schools to promote: STEM (Science, Tech, Engineering & Math). Something we have been doing already, but we’re going to formalize things now…and this software will help us better organize our time and efforts. So, what are you going to use VolunteerSpot for?

I SUPPORT MY SCHOOL.. MY WAY! And I’m joining VolunteerSpot’s sponsored Back To School campaign to help raise visibility for parent involvement in schools.

Save time {and sanity} and get more parents involved at school with VolunteerSpot.com!

VolunteerSpot’s FREE online signup sheets make it easy to organize parents and signup to help for just about anything: classroom helpers, snack schedules, carnivals, library volunteers, parent-teacher conferences and more…. No more ‘Reply-All’ email chains or clipboard sign up sheets! Please share with your room mom, teachers and parent leaders…

Plus there’s a huge Sweepstakes on VolunteerSpot’s Facebook page!
Win $500 worth of school supplies for YOUR School! Enter here

79 Creatives Ways I Supported My Kids’ School My Way…and, Now YOU Can Too! is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

Google has been the most innovative and intelligent presence on the internet for many years now. With some of the smartest and most creative brains in the industry, the mega master has created search tools, applications, and websites that have revolutionized the way in which we use the internet and the way in which we process information. The world of academics is one area of our lives that Google’s genius has greatly influenced and expanded. With mass amounts of information at our fingertips, the internet has guided us to new and innovative ways to educate our youth and expand their experience.

These five Google tools provide inventive and exciting ways to explore the world of education from the comfort of our own homes. This list provides links to the five different Google services with creative, educational, and fun techniques for using them within our homeschool curriculum.

Top Five Google Tools Perfect for Homeschool

1. Google News: Current events are one of the most important topics young students can tackle in their early education. Google News provides a great way to take a comprehensive look at current world, national, and local news topics. Deciding what material is age appropriate for the specific age of student that you are educating may be one of the more difficult challenges when using Google News in your homeschooling curriculum. For high school aged students studying world history, use Google News to compare current events to events that have occurred in the past. This can open up a discussion on the nature of history in general. The news feature provides a tool that filters material based on various specified criteria. You can choose to see news results based on location or field of interest. In this way, you can use Google News to do a project on health and have your student/s find an article or piece within the health search filter or as a way to discuss pop culture and consumer interests using the “entertainment” filter. In this way, Google News can be used in virtually any sector of the classroom as a way to examine public opinion and interest on science, technology, politics, health, world news, business, sports, and much more.
2. Google Earth: Use Google Earth as a way to have students explore the study of geography in a more three dimensional and engaging way. Google Earth allows users to explore the world from a three dimensional view anywhere in the world. Students can use this as a way to take a virtual field trip and learn about natural landforms for in a science curriculum or as a special topic within a general studies curriculum. Students can use the Historical Imagery feature to explore the evolution of urban planning throughout history. This topic is particularly enlightening for older students in the upper high school grades. Use the Historical Imagery tool to have students examine changes in urban planning and the industrial revolution. This opens up an important discussion about changing social values throughout modern history. Google Earth can be used with a younger age group as a way to learn about cities in general, the way they are structured and how they are organized. Young students can explore different communities around the world from the safety of their home classroom.
3. Panoramio: This web device can be a fun and innovative way to explore history, world geography, art, and much more within a homeschooling curriculum. Panoramio is a web forum that allows individuals to collect photos of amazing sites, landforms, and art forms around the world. Use this tool as a way to take virtual field trips to amazing sites throughout the world. For example, students can take a trip to Rome using Panoramio and study ancient architecture at the Coliseum, discuss the structure of the Roman Republic, and explore the influence ancient Rome had on today’s society across the world and in the United States. By using pictures and maps to explore these topics, students are able to see feel the real presence of these topics. While reading history books alone can feel removed and distant from the topic at hand, accompanying that study with Google’s Panoramio helps students relate and interact with real images and current discussion of the topics at hand.
4. Google Art Project: This web tool powered by Google allows students and individuals to explore museums around the world through their computer screens from the comfort of their homes. View hundreds of world famous artworks at different angles and views and create your own collection of masterpieces. Google Art Project is another tool that may be most useful for students at a higher grade level. Use Art Project to explore a 360 degree view of the Palace of Versailles. Students can use this tool as an art history project, studying classical artwork and discovering different aesthetic influences at different points throughout history. Younger students can use this tool as a way to explore different cultures around the world and different governments. For example, younger students could use Google Art Project to learn about kings and queens by virtually excavating ancient palaces. With practically every major art museum and major art piece at your fingertips the possibilities are endless for at home and online education.
5. What do you love?: This Google feature is relatively new to the Google resume. The what do you love? search tool allows you to search the web for any topic and then gathers information on that topic in a useful and organized manner. This tool could be the launching point for major term or class projects. For example, for your Language and Literature curriculum you could have students use what do you love? (WDYL) to begin research on African American Literature. Here, Google’s WDYL provides platforms for beginning a blog on African American Literature or start a web forum group discussing African American Literature. This search tool could be a great way to incorporate modern technology and multimedia into the classroom. This tool can be used at any grade level and for any subject. Search “Butterflies” for a science project, “The Civil War” for a history project, or “folk music” for a social studies project.

These are just a few of the innovative and useful tools Google has developed. Try out the many other search capabilities they have to offer and share with us which ones you have found most useful in your classroom pursuits.

While I (Ponn) was aware of 2 of these google tools (Google News & Google Earth), Barbara introduced some fascinating  new ways to utilize them in our homeschool. The other 3 tools are just amazing, and my girls and I look forward to exploring them all in more depth. What do you think? Did you hear or know of any of these tools? Which ones? How to use them? Are you eager to explore newly introduced tools now too? Please comment below.

Author’s Bio:

Barbara Jolie writes for online classes.  She welcomes your comments at her email Id: barbara.jolie876<at>gmail.com.

Top Five Useful Google Tools Most People Don’t Know About is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

Determined to get to work on today’s homeschool project, I told my daughter to call Baba. “Baba, what’s a Gamma Camera? or a nuclear camera?” While on the road, and unable to hear, he kept yelling “What? What?” So, she continue to ask, “What are they? How are they different?” “What are What!?”

It was a funny conversation held on speakerphone for the whole family’s eager ears to listen in. “Why do you want to know?” he quickly asked, but before he could take a next breathe you can hear his pride lightening up in the conversation but in a rush while driving he searched “there’s no difference between a gamma camera and nuclear camera, they’re the same…they’re used to scan patients…to look inside, like the heart, and find bad things…but, just google them both and research more about them…you’ll find a lot, and then when I come home we’ll talk more…okay?” “Okay, Baba, thanks!”

Hubby takes pride whenever the girls express interest in learning more about anything he does…and he makes them love things (in a loving way of course) that he loves regardless, because “you need to know this” is always insists! As a biomedical engineer, the girls get graduate-level lessons in biology whenever he studies the latest equipment, finds new procedures for different ailments, etc.

Like they say “teach a fisherman to fish to feed them a lifetime, rather than giving them fish”. This is how we’ve trained the girls to conduct their own research, get into the depth of their studies, then we have an educated discussion as a family.

As expected (by all of us), they quickly found youtube videos and slideshows describing what they are, why they are used and different styles and types.

Just like the girls follow in my footsteps in writing, blogging, etc. in reality their biggest strengths are in STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering & Math, due to their parents being in science.

While, our goal isn’t necessary EVER to have them follow in our footsteps, by integrating our professions into their homeschool studies, gives them individualized, personalized and very personal education experiences that none of their peers can ever have, simply because every childs’ parents have different professions.

Dare to teach your kids your professions. Interest them to research more of your chosen field of study. Allow them the room to grow with you and have them study WITH you for your professional exams, certifications, etc. These are just a few of the ways we homeschool our daughters.

Now, we’re curious of your homeschool ways too. Please comment below!

Disclosure: This post is part of a blogger campaign organized by Bucks2Blog. Check out our review here, and Join Today to get paid to blog! If you get a gig, please let them know Ponn Sabra/American Muslim Mom referred you, thanks! We were not influenced in anyway to share only positive remarks. After all, lying is haram (prohibited). You’re welcome to read American Muslim Mom’s disclosure policy and contest disclosure.

Do You Know What a Gamma Camera Is? A Lesson from a Homeschool Parent’s Profession is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

Take a Pix Board Book Album stands up like a picture frame...cool!

We shared our excitement about working with Board Book Albums a couple of weeks ago, and we’re happy to share with you our Homeschool Themed Take Your Pix Board Book Album Design. Surprisingly, this was a 9.5 hour weekend project that started at 8pm Saturday night. We had NO idea how much fun we were going to have creating this project, after all my daughters shared all the reasons why they’re trying to get me to start digital scrapbooking just yesterday! It was quite addictive–with only 22 pages to add single pictures, we average ~30 minutes per page. And, I’m telling you–this was a rush job!

Creating the “We Love 2 Homeschool” Board Book Album

My girls were so invested emotionally, artistically, and entrepreneurial-ly (is that a word??). When they knew creating this Board Book was an opportunity to be one of three selected to make the Board Book Albums Design Team, the girls were hooked! Honestly, there is a market, so they definitely are right on the money-literally!

Undoubtedly, whenever we go scrapbook shopping, we’ve always seen the “School Themes” with school buses, and lunchboxes, “A+ Student”, “Teacher’s Pet” and other popular “School” images and phrases…but, NEVER anything Homeschool Related.

So, this was our opportunity to Creatively Design a Homeschool “Scrapbook” Board Book Photo Storyline.

Our Homeschool Design Team in Action 

The Organized Chaos of Scrapbooking

• I was the main designer, mastermind, creator.
• JuJu, our 10 yo was the steady, patient hands to punch out letters from the sheets, cuts on stickers, rub-on’s etc.
• GiGi, our 9 yo was our organizer, cleaner-upper, calm, extra third and forth hand to hold this thingy this way, this doo-dad that way, this page ever-so up or down, depending on which direction we were moving the book around.
• JoJo, our 8 yo, was the constant ooo-er, ahh-er, cheering us on, the OhMi’s!, and awwweee-some’s to keep us grounded. She was mainly in charge of color coordination, organizing the stickers, keeping our messy pile (yes, that picture of our table in action) very organized. That mess had its areas and designations, so she organized our chaos and basically knew where anything was that we needed to. So, she proudly was our tools and props passer-over-er.

Our Homeschool Design Team’s Surprise Ending

The night before; the first few pages really impressed hubby, and he appreciated that we were finally piecing together our many abandoned pictures. However…

We found out at 3:30pm that he had to leave for a business trip within hours!

We were frantically preparing him to leave, yet we secretly made it a goal to finish and sneak this awesome personalized homeschooling project-turned-story-album-book into his suitcase as a great stand-up colorful picture frame for his time alone.

It also was grounding us all; because well–can you imagine our mess…the clutter alone was an eye-soar and definitely in the way and not conducive to moving easily around in a hustle. We got a few comments of our mess and in our humble defense, we kind of said very little admitting it would be worth it…so you be the judge!

“We <3 2 Homeschool” Themed Board Book Album Design

InshaAllah, God willing, this inspires you to be create and design something special, because well, it took us over 9.5 hours to make and over 4 hours to produce this video since we never expose our faces online. Since, we were in a rush to get this book into hubby’s suitcase, so GiGi took these pictures (okay for a 10yo), my 11 yo did all the work with formatting the PowerPoint presentation, we had to upload it 3 times because of typos and wanted to decrease the content so you can read it all during the 7-seconds on each slide. Please let us know what you think!

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZL4Vgmy76Es
*It’s best to watch this in Full-Screen, so you can see the details.

As you can tell, this whole post is a homeschool project! Needless to say I blurt “Never Again!” The girls eagerly asked “Board Book or the Slideshow?…we need 2 more, for each daughter and to advance through the years.”

Now it’s Your Turn!

Board Book Albums Design Team Search

• Contest is open for entries until Monday, July 11th.
• To enter purchase a Board Book Album at a 10% discount using code: Blogger10
• When you get your album create, create, create, and design away!
• Email pictures of your finished product to laura@boardbookalbums.com by Monday, July 11th at Midnight MST
• Board Book Albums has the right to use any or all of the design photos that are submitted for consideration on their website for marketing purposes, etc.
• Top 3 winning designers will be chosen to be on the Design Team and have an opportunity to create a lucrative design business!

Please share your creations with us. We’d love to cheer all the entries on.

Disclosure: This post is part of a blog series by Board Book Albums, organized by Broadcast Bloggers–Join Today to get paid to blog! Learn more about Broadcast Bloggers here. We were not influenced in anyway to share only positive remarks. After all, lying is haram (prohibited). You’re welcome to read American Muslim Mom’s disclosure policy and contest disclosure.

Board Book Albums Design Team Search! Our “We Love To Homeschool” Design is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

We are so proud to announce the 3rd Annual Summer Islamic Reading Challenge with a few major updates: (1) We’re nice an early this year, so we can end in time for the 3rd Annual Ramadan Qur’an-a-thon Sadaqah Drive inshaAllah (God willing) without doing 2 programs at the same time. Since traditional school is in season, we pray to reach many more Muslim children, and therefore we secured a program-wide Sponsor.   (2) We have a Canadian sponsor, subhanallah (Glory be to God) so we’ve expanded to Canada this year.  (3) All Registration and Submissions will be done electronically, inshaAllah to help us expedite the publication of these reviews and inshaAllah get prizes out as early as possible, ideally during Ramadan for the extra hasanats (good deeds). So, without further ado:

• Register your child/ren from Birth – Senior Year of college/university, during the Reading Challenge period of June 1, 2011 – July 31, 2011 (details below)
• Complete the Official Islamic Book Review Form and Reading Journal. You must seek permission to edit the form for completion.
• Children read books at their reading level, or read-aloud to by an adult
• Complete one full Islamic Book Review, and list additional Islamic books read on the journal with all sections completed. A parent/guardian must sign the journal when it is completed.
• Submit the completed review form and reading journal (one per child).
• Each participant will be sent a certificate and a prize in the mail by October 15, 2011.
• Special prizes will be awarded to different age or selected groups by criteria stated for that prize.
• Deadline: Submitted by August 1, 2011
  

How to Register:

[Purpose: We need to know the first name and age of each child to purchase the correct amount and appropriateness of prizes.]

• Participant must be officially signed-up on or before July 31, 2011.
• Participants can not register until the Official Kick-Off date of June 1,2011.
• Comment below on this Official Program post with your child or children’s first name(s) and last initial(s) and age(s).
• Having problems? Contact us or Email: contact<at>americanmuslimmom.com

Children’s Design a Button Contest

1. Open the coloring page here.
2. Design a Button. Create & Enjoy!
3. Scan and email on or before 12 midnight EDT August 1, 2011 to contact<at>americanmulismmom.com
4. Email must state: (a) Child’s full name. Only the first name and last initial will be publicized. (b) Age and DOB (date of birth).

About the Host: Ponn Sabra and American Muslim Mom
Ponn Sabra is a highly-prolific public health official-turned-best-selling author, internet marketer, and columnist. She has been featured in the Associated Press, Washington Post, Fox, ABC News and other major media outlets. Sabra is also an Islamic poet, homeschool mom of three online entrepreneurs of KidBloggersClub.com and a  past administrator of an Islamic weekend school, and full-time Islamic elementary learning center and daycare.

AmericanMuslimMom.com was founded in 2009, after Ponn Sabra repositioned her mommy blog that she began in 2005. Today, AmericanMuslimMom.com [http://AmericanMuslimMom.com] is the #1 ranked online blog community for Muslim Moms in the world, and has worked with major brands such as CNN, Buick, Softsoap, Verizon, and Tropicana.

Featured topics include: marriage, homeschooling, green living, frugality, travel, social media, and making money online.

http://facebook.com/americanmuslimmom
http://twitter.com/ponnsabra
http://youtube.com/americanmuslimmom

SPONSORS:

Want to support Muslims to Read & Write? Become a Sponsor or Make a Donation?

We’ve given $100s worth of great Muslim-specific toys, games, clothes, and much more over the past 2 years for Special Awards, such as Most Books Read, Most Minutes Read, Design a Button Contest, and much more! Since we’re ending just in time for Ramadan, you can ship the gifts out during our month of fasting for extra hasanats and good will, inshaAllah.

Due to the global nature of social media, in our first day we received a UK tweet saying they’d like their kids to join our fun project! We’re trying to secure a sponsor in the UK right now as well. However, we’d love to add more countries as well. So, if you’re interested, please contact us for details.

Extra dollar counts, so if you’d like to support young Muslims as they read and write reviews of Islamic books this Summer, please kindly make a donation.

Help Promote & Your Button with Pride

Wear our button with pride. Subhanallah, in our debut year, we had approximately 25 participants and in Year 2 we nearly four-fold that number. We’d love to ten-fold that number this year. Will you kindly help, inshaAllah?

For a downloadable version of this page, click here and print.

3rd Annual Summer Islamic Reading Challenge is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

We absolutely LOVE Summer Reading Programs! Every year since 2004, we’ve been updating our  lists here of all the Summer Reading Programs nationwide for everyone to join in the educational fun with the incentive of cool prizes on top of all this great family time and content consumed! So, far only 1 program already started, with most starting this week or weekend, so bookmark this page, share it with others and come back for updates. And, of course–if you know of other great finds, please share! I have quite a bit of commentary added so enjoy!

• PBS Summer Reading Community Challenge - Begins June 6th for 6-weeks of daily prompts and opportunities for daily prizes. Scholastic and iVillage are their partners, so this should be a great program. Check out Scholatic Summer Reading site for even more prizes!
• Barnes & Noble Imaginations’ Destination. By far our favorite reading program we never meet each year! Just read 8 books, log them on their journal, and get a FREE book. All the details can be downloaded through this Parent’s Kit. May 24th – Sept. 6th.
• Borders Double-Dog-Dare Challenge. (1) I really don’t like the name of this year’s theme, as we don’t dare, let alone double-dog-dare anyone to do anything. There’s no positive incentive in using those terms. My girls just asked, “Are they at least giving about 2 books for the double-dare?” “No…but good point.” Anyways, we are happy that they choose to get away a Free book for 10 books read, like they debuted last year. Previously years they only gave 1/2 off to selected titles. However, BIG warning: we had to go to 3 different Borders just to find a decent title remaining, because it’s first-come first-served (or at least it was last year). The program starts June 1st, so we plan to go there first and not wait until the end of the summer like we typically do.
• Half Price Books Feed The Brain Summer Reading Program – Starts June 6th. If you read more than 600 pages between July 25 – August 7, you can receive $5 Back-to-School Bucks summer reading reward. Top reader prizes, and the Biggest Storytime Kick-Off on June 5th at 2pm.
• H.E. Buddy Summer Reading Program – Go to “Join the Summer Reading Club”, or just fill in the 10 books you read on this form for cool prize; at least a T-shirt!
• Bookworm Wednesday – July 6 – August 10. Another program we love, specifically because I’m against movie theatres so the only time we go is in the summer when it’s free…but, my girls are terribly disappointed at this year’s line-up, as the movies are all “old”, unlike years past.

* As Muslims, we do not use interest-bearing savings accounts, credit or incur debt, so while there’s banks use  savings account dollars as an incentive for kids to read books; which while there’s no minimum to open the account, there’s fees applied if minimums are not met, hence getting kids into interest-bearing, debt-accruing habits at any early age. We do not promote or condone these programs.

Summer Reading Programs 2011 Details Not Yet Launch

• Reading Is Fundamental always has an awesome reading program. Sign-up for their newsletter (upper, right-hand corner) to get their latest news.
• Homeschool Blogger Summer Reading Splash – a fun interactive program with scavenger hunts, weekly prizes, coloring contests and more. I’m not sure if they’ll update this  blog, because it’s a different theme as last year, so be sure to check the main blog network of The Old Schoolhouse Magazine.
• 3rd Annual Summer Islamic Reading Program. Ready to launch June 1st, inshaAllah, God willing, we’ll have everything ready May 31st. Two great updates: we’re including Canada and registration AND submission will be make electronically, online. For quicker prizes and publication of your reviews, inshaAllah!

Public Library & Statewide Summer Reading Programs

• Check out your local public library!
  
• Don’t forget your state’s Department of Education, or even your Governor’s office.
• SummerReading.org 2011 – Open now to create your avatar, create your logs, reviews, like reviews with thumbs up, Earn Badges, Special Badges and Prizes. While it’s created by NYC libraries, we’re going to try to login in and see if we can add enter, because it looks so awesome!

Summer Reading Lists  & Resources 2011

• Top 10 Summer Reading Lists For Kids and Teens: 2011

• RIF’s Reading Planet

Free Summer Programs for Kids

• Pottery Barn Summer Kids Events

Thanks to Staci for sharing these freebie lists, interestingly she had all the summer reading programs I have listed from past participation.

More Summer Freebies for Kids

• Free Summer Movie Tickets
• Free Summer Craft Classes
• Free Classes for Kids at Lowe’s

Freebies for Kids

• Free Classes for Kids
• Free Books for Kids

Free Summer Reading Programs for 2011 – Free Prizes, Reading Lists & More! is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

Alhumdulilah, Praise be to God, my girls of Kid Bloggers Club are my guests again. We received many kind remarks but more questions from their debut show with me, so I think we’ll be making this a more regular thing, inshaAllah.

To enlighten
Learning how my girls are learning about Major Sins, 70 Ways to Gain Reward from Allah, and the Hijab for Muslim Woman. Truly enlightening! We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

To educate

• Living life without a microwave.
• Cooking and Baking with olive oil. Healthy–But, Yummy! Win our favorite cookbook here.
• More tips about using the library.

To empower You to Take Action!
Get your kids blogging with you! But, kids should NOT do this alone. Make your homeschooling writing fun project for free stuff & profit–not just for homeschoolers!

Special Thanks to our Sponsor

As shared in our show commercial, visit Muslim Toys and Dolls and say you were referred by American Muslim Mom to receive a free gift value at $9.95. Check out the owner’s unique creation: the Little Ponn Muslim doll–a large, soft, adorable hijabi doll named after yours truly, subhanallah, Glory be to God! Having never seen a doll like this before (and we’ve traveled in many Muslim and non-Muslim lands), it’s a must-have in any Muslim home. She even has Velcro removable clothes. She sits conveniently by my bedside, and wears my glasses for safe keeping. My girls and I hug her as often as we can. After all, no one is ever too old to squeeze a doll…let alone a Muslim one!

Past shows:

#1 Ponn Sabra of AmericanMuslimMom.com

#2 Zohra Sawari of ZohraSawari.com

#3 Amanda Moutakki of MarocMama.com

#4 Debbie Al-Harbi of MuslimToysandDolls.com

#5 Ponn Sabra RE: Social Media and Islam

#6 JuJu, GiGi and JoJo Sabra of KidBloggersClub.com

#7 Ameera Rahim of Habeebee Homeschooling

American Muslim Mom Podcast #8 is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

I just found this old article I wrote back in 2005 when I was sharing how the library helped me start my new business. Since I’m moving once again to a new state and town, I just read it and thought it had some classic memories advise that may help us all.

1. Establish Yourself as a Local Authority. Your first goal is to establish myself as a local expert in your field. Moving to a new state 100s miles away, or even a new town means you most likely need to start from scratch. With the guidance of the reference librarian, and the media shelves (e.g., local newspapers, magazines, and free periodicals), you should research for every single news outlet, their editors and publishers. Research every business start-up so you can focus on sending press releases to local press to capitalize on free local news coverage.

2. Book availability & home-access. The Internet allows you to conduct critical searches, place book reservations, renew, and request inter-library loans all before you even show up. So, prepare at home first.
I learned that for a better chance of seeing your desired book on their shelves and assuring that you’re the first borrower, it’s best to gather some colleagues and friends (typically you can find local book clubs in email groups) to make a group requests for particular titles.

3. Subscriptions to trade and popular magazines are up-to-date and current. While you cannot borrow the most recent issue, you can borrow multiple past issues. I recommend business start-ups to search trade magazines for advertising opportunities, and ways to cross-promote or be highlighted. Many trade magazines have Q & A sections. Most of the time; your name, city and state will appear. An example may be, “As a home-based interior designer, my budget is much smaller than my competitors. Do you have any marketing ideas on a shoestring budget?”

4. Reference Librarians are Research Detectives. I have yet to have a question unanswered or an issue unsolved. Librarians are highly-skilled researchers who willfully answer questions on the spot, take calls over the phone, and will even follow-up with you even after you left. I always try to get on a first-name basis, because I see librarians as highly-trained personal business researchers, available for free.

5. Reference books and materials. There are dozens of directories, indexes for trade associations, support references, etc. which are expensive to purchase and maintain. Since these materials can’t be checked out, it is necessary to schedule time to utilize all their resources on a regular basis.

6. Computer software and internet access. In any business start-up, it’s integral to have an alternative computer and internet access to use. The library offers both for free, usually with a time limits. Nowadays, most libraries have wireless capabilities–just not at smaller branches so always be prepared.

7. Educational environment for my girls. Since libraries are family-oriented, and I’m a homeschool mama of three girls, we plan at least one trip a week, so I can tackle some of the above stated business duties. They too, get to check out new books, try new software programs, play with educational toys, games, resources  and attend incredible children activities. Check out their events schedule online to best make use of your trip.

8. Facilities and multi-media usage. I hosted a home based working moms/women entrepreneurs expo at the library once for free. We had access to a TV, VCR, DVD-player, laptop hookup with video display projector, microphone system, podium, and room set-up. The library is a perfect arena to host networking events, and speaking appearances, to showcase yourself as an industry leader and expert.

9. Hidden promotional support. Depending on your topic and advance notice, your program may be highlighted in the regular events brochure. Our library’s quarterly calendar is mailed to financial supporters of the library, their partners and distributed throughout the library. They helped with flyers, sign positioning, and even directed families the day of the event to our program too.

10. Support Beyond Your Business Start-Up! The library has been more than an educational support system; they’ve offered motivational, economical (they’re free), professional, social, and even physical support. [They eagerly help me carry box loads of books and videos to and from my car.]

My business start-up was facilitated by the library system, and now they’re assisting with my success and sustainability!

Rest assured, I’ll be completely all these in our new city…they have 18 branches and our closest one is 6 minutes away. Do you have tips to share? Would love some new hidden gems in our local public libraries! Please share below.
photo credit: nemzetikonyvtar

Top 10 Ways The Library Can Help You and Your Business is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

While my girls are homeschooled, we are frequent supporters of local school fundraisers whenever there’s something interesting and beneficial to both the project they are seeking funding for and my family’s beliefs and benefits gained by our charitable contributions. So, given the opportunity to review the school fundraising options offered from BigEventFundraising.com my interest was peaked.

Common issues when picking a fundraiser are:

• How does the fundraising organization motivate the kids to actually want to raise funds?
• Are the products offered (the ones the kids will be peddling) necessary, high-quality, purchase-able items?
• Will this be a fundraiser the kids can actually do themselves without making their parents (and every adult in their life) feel obligated to just buy, or worse share with others practically begging for their financial support? Hey, think Girl Scouts and their cookies–the products and the girls do all the work…

Big Event Offers Unique School Fundraising Programs

• Kids Prize Incentive Programs – My girl and I were just checking out the Super Prize Party and Reptile Adventure Prize Party. Yes, we’re answering the kids’ righteous question of “what’s in it for me!?” Answer, “A Super Duper, Adventure, Fun Prize Party for you and all your friends!” — Like, hello…I’m a big-kid-at-heart, I’d totally just give my monetary contributions to the kids having educational fun with their friends.

• High-Quality, Consumer-Based Product Lines – My eyes immediately went to the Cookie Dough category. Okay, truth is one of my homeschooling moms helped a local Islamic school raise over $6000 in cookie dough sales. Now, I actually bought frozen cookie dough before and well–call me partial, but my family and I preferred my own homemade cookies. But, then again; I know we’re in the minority here; in which my family and I actually have and make time to cook and bake together every day; so…well. So, the first tab I opened was Seasonal Shoppers…OhMi!

1. Spring Into Green catalog – Okay there are at least 3 things I can buy right now to prepare our family garden. And, the prices are highly-economical. No joke…I really want the…”Wait, wait…look at…
2. Kitchen and Home spring catalog – Okay, I’m sitting here listening to my 10 year old say “Mama, you’re *such* a consumer…” “Yeah, yeah. yeah…fortunately I don’t have a fundraiser right now”.

Well, looks like I’m going to have to talk to Big Event and figure out a way to do this virtually–after all, we’re hosting our virtual fundraiser for the construction of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro, TN!

Better Rewards, Bigger Results

I truly appreciate their tagline, because I’m a big rewarding mama and as a result, big things get done in our busy homeschool so, check out Big Event for your next school fundraising event.

Disclaimer: I received compensation to facilitate this post. I was not influenced in anyway as the views and opinions are my own. After all, lying is haram (prohibited). You’re welcome to read American Muslim Mom’s disclosure policy and contest disclosure.

Big Event School Fundraiser Ideas is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

Just thinking about this title is quickly making my stomach turn in such pain, actually so much so I feel my eyes swelling up that I promised myself I’ll keep this short and sweet and not type over the 20-minutes I have to run to the next family doctor appointment.

Here’s why. The Qur’an clearly states

And your Lord has decreed that you worship none but Him. And that you be dutiful to your parents. If one of them or both of them attain old age in your life, say not to them a word of disrespect, nor shout at them but address them in terms of honour.
( Surah al-Isra, The Night Journey Chapter #17, Verse #23)

So, the year I finished graduate school, embraced Islam, got married and was pregnant with our first daughter my maternal grandparents were living alone. Grandma/Lola desperately needed care, so unknown how to move forward I assisted my mother with her parents. So, much that my husband and I became the power of attorney for my grandparents, even though they had 8 children in the U.S. and Canada (9th in Philippines that has no means to help). My husband and I started with visiting companions at night, then added visiting nurses during the day, frequent seizures and emergency cases to the hospital made us to think more critically.

As a new and devout Muslim, I was adamant to taking my grandparents into our 2-bedroom condo as I was SO against nursing home. Surprisingly my mother and her siblings (the ones who actually talked to me) resisted as hubby and I were just starting our new married lives and had a daughter on the way.

So I shopped around with my mother, I did all the paperwork, granted I was a public health administrator with the know-how to really research and get to the hard questions of a nursing home…I did all the insurance papers, etc. So, happily we settled into one of the best places our entire extended family feel blessed to have in our lives. A year in comfort in the home at which time I was pregnant with our second, and we decided to travel and live overseas, I no longer was the official power of attorney to my grandparents.

Grandpa/Lolo died of old age when I was 9-months pregnant, but left Lola alone. Again, blessed with incredibly loving staff who became dear friends to my parents and I (and then when we moved back to CT 4 years ago–every single one got to know my girls intimately). Lola had a roommate, who we visited near-daily (mommy and daddy did daily).

So, while better–the tragic sudden death of my mother broke our family apart. New fights and arguments began, since mommy is no longer here why keep Lola in a home. My daddy was not taking being a widower well–but, the daily routine of going to the nursing home gave them both peace.

Good, bad or indifferent my aunt put Lola in a new home in NJ, sadly to say over a year later my immediate family has not seen Lola. Worse, she was put in the hospital for alleged nursing home beatings! Multiple times! She’s been moved back and forth and my sister and Daddy who have been able to visit are saddened even more.

So, where am I–well, the move that I was supposed to make to the MidWest is simply halted because I cannot bare to leave my Daddy in this depressed (literally and figuratively) family home…because I SO desperately want Daddy to move in with us for the rest of his living life. One great thing after mommy’s death is that Daddy became a better Daddy and Papa (Grandpa) to our girls. God blessed him with this “double-check” whenever he’ll say something like ‘JuJu, you look SO beautiful today’ and we all see him hear Mommy’s voice yelling “Pol! They’re ALL beautiful!” because Daddy will quickly rebut…”No, No…GiGi, and JoJo, you are SOOOO beautiful too!”

Daddy has incredible patience to be the best homeschool papa my girls can ever dream for, he’s a lover of knowledge and searches the library, museums, parks vibrantly like them…me…and hubby.

So, what’s holding us back? His old, stubborn way. But, all my siblings and their spouses all agree that Daddy’s health and well-being no longer needs solitude of this memory-filled home. The home my baby bro was born too. My parent’s first home they bought in 1979.

So, every time I share my ecstatic news of hubby’s surprise weekend visits, he departs as the weekend ends, and I’m torn…he’s torn…my girls are torn. I’m trying, staying…but, I miss hubby so much, my girls need Baba. But, we had a half-family meeting this weekend which killed me and bringing me to tears right now just remembering the pain…that Daddy actually is telling me to leave.

Interestingly, my extended family saw that of anyone in the world, no one can calmly baby-Daddy the way I can…so while he’s been hurtful in his actions and words, my girls and I (and hubby) have come to appreciate his old age, his physically, mentally and emotionally dying body and mind…and we always take solace that Allah commanded us not to raise our voices to him because He was the one who brought me into this world. I love my Daddy so much and I know he loves us all back…and this is why I’m equally being as stubborn as him and will not let him go.

Let it be known, that I will never, inshaAllah, God willing, allow Daddy to go into a nursing home. Companion care, visiting care, etc. InshaAllah, yes…but…I pray and pray hard that a miracle will happen very soon.

So, my Big Elder Care question is “Is it Okay to leave Daddy/Papa home alone?” According to him, “yes”. So, really it’s more like, “Can I live with his answer and leave?”

According to his doctors. Daddy can live alone too. He’s not in eminent danger, he’s driving, eating, sleeping–but, in visiting/living with him; there’s so much we know we do to help him live healthier and better…so it’s more like I want him to live comfortably, happily and peacefully for the rest of his life; rather than stressful, lonely and alone.

I remind him how fortunate he was to be by Mommy’s side when she died; and that I can’t bare to think that he’d die alone…I want to be there for him.

Ya Rabb, Oh Lord, Give us all strength. Ameen.

Talk about HARD decisions on elder care…right!?

[With 5-minutes to spare...good, just enough time to make wuduu, pray dhuthr and leave for the doctor without tear-filled eyes & stomach-aching pain...after all it's my baby's annual physical. Pull it together, Ponn! Sorry, no time for a picture.]

Disclaimer: I am participating in the “What about Mom & Dad” campaign by AvalonHCI.com and received compensation to facilitate this post. I was not influenced in anyway as the views and opinions are my own. How can I possibly make up a story like this? After all, lying is haram (prohibited). You’re welcome to read American Muslim Mom’s disclosure policy and contest disclosure.

How Do You Handle Elder Care in America as a Muslim? is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

Elephant Clock by Al-Jazari. Center piece for Home Zone.

We wrote about the 1001 Inventions – The Truth of Golden Age of Muslim Civilization last year, and we never thought it would make its way to the States–let alone in New York City for its debut! Anyways, we really tried our best to get the most out of our visit–and, although we spent 5-hours in this one-exhibit alone, if the girls totally didn’t tire out Auntie K, we would’ve stayed the extra hour…at least to take a peak of the rest of New York Hall of Science.

The Golden Ages debunks the “Dark Ages”

Researching the past gives us a better appreciation and ability to learn from our lessons and move into the future. This exhibit debunks “The Dark Ages” while all Muslims know (or should know) that it’s “The Golden Ages of Science, Math, Literature, etc.” By making this exhibit and accompanying textbook, they are forging forward worldwide. They’re bringing great attention to our past accomplishments that’s present with us today, ie phone, airplanes, universities, compasses–all invented by us, which is unknown by most.

Ibn al-Haytham "posing" for us to take his picture...SO funny!

How to Prepare for the 1001 Invention Exhibit

• Print out enough copies of both the primary level handouts, and  secondary level handouts. Make sure mommy & daddy have a copy too–It’s a science adventure that you don’t want to miss!
• Watch as many 1001 Invention videos as possible, to better familiarize yourself with the background, mission and goals of this magnificent exhibit.

Be Prepared For Pure Genius!

From this page,

The exhibition includes over 60 interactive, sensory and static exhibits. Explore the seven different zones to discover these: home, school, market, hospital, town, world and universe:

• Home: The thousand-year-old inventions that still shape everyday life
• Market: How influential ideas spread through travel and trade
• School: Learning, libraries and their links with the past
• Hospital: How ancient approaches to health have influenced today’s medicine
• Town: Why East and West share so much architectural heritage
• World: The explorers of a thousand years ago

They each have huge centerpieces with a featured inventor or innovator video in which they “talked” to us about their history, discoveries, and visions. Since ibn al-Haytham discovered how the “vision was made possible because of the refraction of light rays”, the basis for the invention of the camera, he “posed” for his listeners to “take a picture of him” to capture the moment. We watched it twice, just to “time” things right for his pose. His “crazy” story is quite unique too.

What do you think is missing in this invention?

Let the handouts guide your scientific adventures! We had so many people stop us to find out where we got our scavenger-hunt-type fill-in-the-blank handouts. Only our 7 year old used the primary-level, so we were fortunate enough to have extra copies to share with a huge group of multiple families eager to have a “guide” to make the exhibit more meaningful and intimate.

Each zone had multiple interactive activities, but the below constellations activity in the Universe Zone was definitely one of the coolest ones of all! Check it out in the video:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWGYk7y2s_E

Purchase the 1001 Inventions Textbook

Auntie K, a non-Muslim, was equally amazed! Being the director of World Languages and English as a Second Language responsible for 22 schools under the Superintendent, a past-principal, Spanish teacher, world-traveler who lived in Spain and particularly loved Southern Spain’s rich Islamic history, she definitely had a unique perspective to add in our journey. But, while she really enjoyed herself the first 1.5 hours she comfortably got two copies of 1001 Inventions Muslim Heritage in Our World, one for us and one for herself. She comfortably read 95% of the textbook in the remaining 4-hours.

It’s a fascinating, easy-read, and made much more personal, since the entire textbook is written according to the seven exhibit zones and explains everything in more depth. We compared notes in the ride home, as we discussed areas in the handouts that the girls and I wrote “read more on this…or that”.

Click Here to Purchase "1001 Inventions Muslim Heritage in Our World" Today!

Enter to Win a Free 4 General Admissions Tickets to NYSCI! (Value. $76.00)

Deadline date: Thursday, April 7, 2011 at 11:59 pm Eastern Standard Time.

Contest Rules

• You must adhere to all the rules as stated. Shall a winner be chosen who did not complete these rules, he/she will not be eligible to win.

You must visit NYSCI 1001 Inventions site and comment below letting us know which Zone you would visit first (home, school, market, hospital, town, world and universe) and why.

• To be eligible to win you must be a U.S. resident, 18 years of age or older, and able to visit the 1001 Inventions in New York City on or before April 24, 2011.

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Determining a Winner

Each comment below designates an entry number. We will use And the Winner Is… plugin to pick a random winner from the total number of comments below. The winner will be contacted by email. If no response is received in 48 hours, another winner will be chosen. Confirmed winners will be announced on our Contest Winners Page, where you may refer to at anytime.

Disclosure: We received media passes to review the 1001 Inventions . We were not influenced in anyway to share only positive remarks. After all, lying is haram (prohibited). You’re welcome to read American Muslim Mom’s disclosure policy and contest disclosure.

1001 Inventions Review & Giveaway for 4 General Admissions Tickets is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

Greenbird Islamic Books and Art prints is hosting a unique Story Book Challenge in which your children’s art work would be featured in a charity-story book to be published and marketed in time for Eid 2011. Details are below, and available for download by clicking here for the Storybook Challenge. InshaAllah, God willing you can print and email to interested parties. Everything is made convenient to online users–using technology to make our world a smaller place! All you have to do is scan to take a picture of your children’s art work and email it to Greenbird Books located in the UK, and inshaAllah, once the book is ready, we’ll market it online too.

From the page,

What’s the plan?

Create an Islamic storybook which will teach a child about charity, ready for Eid 2011. This will be illustrated by children all around the world.  The proceeds of the sales are completely for charity and all profits will go to a chosen Islamic Charities nearer the time.

How?

I want parents to send me their children’s artwork either by post or scanned, with any relevance to charity and kindness for them.  This covers a massive remit of topics and areas so no one has an excuse! If your child’s artwork is used then there name/age/country will be published in the book.  There are no age limits for the artists and short poems can accompany the artwork but no stories please.

Why?

Why not? In today’s technology driven world so much can be accomplished if we all make small efforts. This is a great way for Muslims to connect globally; it teaches our children about the importance of charity and will make a great Eid Gift with a very important message Inshallah.

How to send

Please scan all art-work, remembering to write your child’s name, age and country in the body of the email. We cannot use artwork which isn’t named so please make sure you do this! Please send your pictures to the below email

info<at>greenbirdbooks.com Please carbon copy contact<at>americanmuslimmom.com So whatever does not get featured in the storybook, I’ll glad post here as a follow-up post, inshaAllah, God willing!

Deadline

In order to have this project complete by Ramadhan we have a deadline of July 10^th 2011. We hope to complete the book to go on sale by August 10^th and all proceeds from its sale go to charity Inshallah.

If you plan to participate please comment below and share your ideas of what you’re creating or submitting with us below. And, when you email your submissions, please let them know you found out about the challenge from us!

Greenbird Story Book Challenge 2011 – Your children’s art in a charity Eid book! is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

I am so happy to share with you this unique campaign I’ve been working extremely hard on this week. I gathered some unique perspectives regarding Online Colleges, Online Education and Distance Learning. Below, are 4 homeschool mom bloggers and 4 non-homeschool mom bloggers who share their thoughts, views and even experiences with us today. InshaAllah, God willing, you will learn a thing or 2…or actually 8…opps, I mean 9 when you include humble-ol-me; mashaAllah (God has willed). I highly-recommend that you read each of their unique posts as my snippets cannot fully give light to this subject!

Homeschoolers’ Perspective

As you know; my girls

• Have been using Time4Learning for some of our core course work (preK – Grade for years now,
  
• Blog for their writing, typing, high-tech, social media, software and hardware engineering lessons, and
• Were accepted to Stanford EPGY (Educational Program for Gifted Youth) which is all online, distance learning classes, with availability of Online High School and University courses.
  

Having been asked why we’re not letting them take classes, my answer is, “I’m TOO cheap & feel WE were unprepared”! My then 9 yo, was *only* accepted into online high school and AP classes, and this was BEFORE I even started teaching high school classes. So, we I decided that I’ll teach some high school courses first, and see when she’s accepted into straight AP and university courses then I’ll consider paying the big-bucks. Also, my two little ones are great on our own, without the potentially-added pressure of taking “real” classes (even if it’s online) because it’s sitting down at designated times, doing homework, and completing assignments with deadlines, which I don’t really do with any of them now. So, I decided to homeschool  them “my” way, and IF they are all THAT gifted without me really “teaching” them, then we’re praying that with a little bit more effort; our dream of them attending first-tier universities is truly within reach.

So, yes, we do recommend online college courses. Yet, we’d love for them to take “real” classes, and get involved in  collegiate activities, because we (the whole family) are extremely active volunteers in our community now, and hubby and I were extremely active in our college and graduate lives with extra curricular activities as well. Last, I agree with all the mommies below that my girls WILL have a critical decision as what they ultimately want when the time comes; God willing, not too soon…

Split End Sucks is presently taking online high school classes and “homeschools” (my designation and assessment) her 2 young girls. She’s a big supporter of giving her girls the option to determine what their ultimate education choices they prefer; whether it is to be homeschooled or to go to regular school, and if they’d like to attend online college or not. But, as for her she shares

The next step is naturally college, right? This goes for me and my kids. I will be personally looking for an online school to earn my degree. It will just be easier to be home with my kids while going to school. As for my girls? (Please read her full post here.)

Upstate Ramblings shares a wonderful perspective of her oldest presently in her senior year of homeschooling, and how she was recently accepted to all 11 universities she applied for (Congrats!) even having homeschooled her entire life, and need to make a creative application. They share their daughter’s journey of attending a “local” community college that was 1.5 hour drive every day as well–Talk about dedication (let alone gas) they’ve invested in their home education thus far. Interestingly, they share

My daughter tried an online class last summer.  Online education is a great option for saving money and time, since there is no commute and no gas to buy.  Unfortunately it was too hard for my daughter to stay motivated without seeing the teacher in person.  This kind of education is best for a dedicated, self-motivated student, which I’m sure is why it is so popular with older adults returning to college. (Greatest advice was to keep good records during high school homeschooling years, please read her full post here.)

Spoken like a true open-minded, online-class-taking, loves-to-learn, I’ll-support-my-kids-learning-styles, homeschool mom, Stanwood PlaySchool shares

I think distance learning is great for adults as well as children – especially those that have been homeschooled and are used to working on their own.  Online programs do require a great deal of self-motivation and determination but they are certainly a favorable alternative to sitting in class and taking notes for someone like me!…Because I am so fond of online learning – I will certainly encourage them to visit that as an option. I think it depends on the person.  Some people need to go to class and hear the lecture from the teacher and some can just read the material and be good to go.  The ultimate choice will be up to the boys as far as getting a college education but I feel like an online degree will be comparable to a degree earned on a college campus. (Please read her full post here.)

Mile High VA homeschools two younger sons ages 8 and 6 years old, but has older kids: one finished college, is attending college, is attending community college, and 2 opting not to attend college. Fortunately, each college student funded their own higher education, God bless them all! However, mom took half of her college courses with online education, and loved it! She shares

Depending on what they wanted to study, I would recommend an online college because I think you educate your own self better (that is why we home school in the first place) and I think from an expense point of view, it is cheaper. You get the same education without having to go in debt to student loans for the next 30 years. (Mom’s experience taking online classes are unique, so please read her full post here.)

Non-Homeschoolers’ Perspective

Colleen of Mommie Daze shares the scary facts of how much it will literally cost in the less expensive 4-year option of a public university education (estimated total of $120,00), even though she loved her small private college experience. Colleen and her husband are still paying back their student loans, and hubby is actually presently taking more classes. So, she shares that

a less costly option like online college could mean they can graduate without a lifetime of debt to pay off.It’s a long time before my boys go to college, but with rising costs I don’t think it’s too early to start planning and considering all the options. (Colleen has a great punch line at the end, so please read her full post here.)

Jen at My Crafty Life shares an interesting view of possibly keeping her eldest, now 13 years old home by attending an online college, her amazing realization that taking classes would be a possibility having not known how far the options have progressed, and how different personalities of her son and daughter may influence his and her success in completing a full online degree. Some thoughts include

So then I started thinking (in my full on mom denial kinda way) what about online college? Anything to keep my first born in my sights right?…I was actually looking at the courses for myself! I had never even thought about it. I totally was not aware of  just how far the online courses have come since I was in college 13 years ago…I actually looked into online education for her last year when she was struggling to keep up with a very demanding course schedule (for her) and seemingly unorganized teacher. (Please read her full post here.)

Jessi of Mama’s Got Flair takes you on an emotional ride along with her as she envisions the day of bringing her first-born to college, and then her realization that there will be one-year when she would have to figure out the costs of paying for all 3 boys (which is something I am sure to do with all 3 of my girls, ugh), so in her selfish (which is acceptable) mommy ways, as she shares

With an online school, I’d save cash, my boys would be able to work with flexible hours, have resources and classroom access 24 hours per day,  and (insert evil mom grin here) they’d be right here at home. What mom could resist that package?

If only the choice was all up to me. (Sigh.) (Please read her full post here.)

{Not quite} Susie Homemaker shares

So when Ponn asked how I felt about sending Shane to an online college, my initial response was that I would totally be on board, since that’s essentially what I’m doing now! But then I thought a little more about it. I’m taking online classes for a brick-and-mortar University. My college itself is not an “online college”, it’s a University that knows this is 2011 & offers online courses because of that. And my school has a lot to offer because of that; things I wouldn’t want Shane to miss out on. (Please read ho mom shares her views on social atmosphere of attending live and online classes, and how she’ll support her sons desires whatever he choices in her full post here.)

I would love for you to share your thoughts and feedback of this post below and encourage you to do the same with all my mommy blogger pals! Enjoy the journey.

Disclaimer: I organized this unique Homeschool Mom Blogger Online College Campaign and received compensation to facilitate this post. I was not influenced in anyway as the views and opinions are my own. After all, lying is haram (prohibited). You’re welcome to read American Muslim Mom’s disclosure policy and contest disclosure.

What are your thoughts about Online Colleges? Online Education? Distance Learning? is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

Hip Homeschool Moms has a comprehensive list of Homeschool Conventions in all 50 states and Canada for 2011 here. My girls and love homeschool events, subhanallah, Glory be to God, there was a statewide convention the month we moved back to CT and met some of our dearest homeschool families, over 4 years later. And, inshaAllah, now that we’re moving to a new state sometime this month or 2, we’re excited that there’s a convention in county we’re moving too!

Finding Homeschool Bloggers

Anyways, you’ve been seeing the Hip Homeschool Mom Blog Hop buttons on my “teaching kids about computers” on “Kids blogging for fun, free stuff & profit” posts (of course, there’s TON of home education going on in bloggin), because I’ve been participating every Tuesday to share my tutorials, lessons, tips, etc. but more importantly to learn from fellow homeschool mom bloggers. Here’s last week’s sample, and you just link up every Tuesday, and visit blogs all week-long.

Homeschool Online Network of nearly 15,000 parents!

The truth about my involvement at The Homeschool Lounge is completely as a lurker, watcher, reader, implementer. With over 100 groups ranging from homeschooling gifted children, to just girls, large families, frugal ones, groups in almost every single state, etc. one can definitely get lost in just reading posts, following links out to more resources, I never have a moment to comment back. InshaAllah, God willing, if I have some more time.

Homeschoolers on Twitter

I update this list over and while I have 65 homeschool moms and organizations that support homeschoolers, I know there are 100s of homeschoolers tweeting away. Please consider following my homeschool list and if you tweet, just let me know, I’d be happy to list you too! Hip Homeschool Moms & The Homeschool Lounge our conveniently listed on my list, so no worries!

If you tweet, please share your Twitter handle below. Or, tweet me @ponnsabra

Homeschoolers on Facebook

• The Homeschool Lounge
• Hip Homeschool Moms

If your have a homeschool facebook fan page, please comment below, or become a fan & post your page!

Are You A Homeschool Blogger? Please link up!

I really want to better connect with homeschool bloggers. My girls and I are trying to connect more with homeschoolers who blog, study online, take online classes, use technology to its fullest in their homeschooling journey, such as developing software programs, designing with software, etc.–and I’m finding that connection better with those who are already online as bloggers, rather than my live homeschool families.  Here’s a bit of our homeschool lifestyle.  So, if you do blog, if your kids blog (all the better), please use separate urls for each blog and just Share the ages of your kids in your name. [Any kid bloggers, we'll list you on my The Kid Bloggers Club blogroll. ]

Ready to share your Homeschool Never Stops on Saturday post? Grab our button, link back to this post, and comment below. Have online resources to share? Please share with us!

Homeschool Convention 2011 List and Homeschoolers Online is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

Please welcome to my debut guest–my dear friend, motivational speaker, author, publisher, life and productivity coach, homeschool mom of 3, and devout Muslim and wife, Zohra Sawari, mashaAllah (God has willed). To go along with our Mission “To  enlighten, educate, empower Muslim Moms to take action”, I conducted this interview to give our audience tips, resources and motivation to move further in this dunya (life on Earth). So, by listening you will hear Zohra share

• Enlightenment – Her personal and spiritual journey away from debt to debt-freedom and her discoveries once she read the “Qur’an with Meaning”,
• Education – Tips to those contemplating homeschooling, or worse willing to give up homeschooling, and
• Empower You to Take Action – Tips in Balancing Life as a Muslim Mom happily in a marriage and working as a home Muslimpreneur for the sake of Allah.

Enjoy listening to our first guest!

Please comment below and let us know what you thought of this show. Alhumdulilah, Praise be to God, we FAR exceeded the number of listeners and downloads for our debut show; but your feedback is critical to assure we’re giving you what you need and desire most. And, if you subscribe via iTunes, please review and rate us because it’ll help give us more visibility and inshaAllah, God willing, together we can reach as many Muslim Moms as possible.

American Muslim Mom Podcast Show #2 is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

To kick of our HomeSchool never Stops on Saturday meme, I knew if I just search my documents I’d have plenty of articles to pick from to post up quickly. Anyways, I found this entire lesson plan about Teaching Kids How to Write Poetry when we entered last year’s poetry contest, since this was dated February 2010!<=This is just one more example how I have more content that I have time to even post. So, I’m curious, it’s 4:28pm right now, if I copy & paste, what time will I hit “publish”? [5:11pm]

Kids Learning Poetry

Haiku

Japanese, un-rhymed, short 3-lined 17-syllables poem with line-pattern of 5-7-5, usually about nature (plants & animals)

1st = 5
2nd = 7
3rd = 5

Most of this Project was Guided by Grade 4 Time4Learning (A program we’ve been using for years (2008). They have a 14-day free trial. Of course, if you decide to use it please don’t forget to say “Ponn Sabra” referred you. Thanks!). But, I supplemented it of course.

Haiku project, fill in the blanks:

Wild raindrops ___ ___
Making muddy ___ ___ ___
Drying __ __ ___.

We came up with:
Wild raindrops falling
Making muddy puddles form
Drying in the sun.

For the “Praised One” Poem

Describing a typical day of the Prophet, by sirah of what we know, our 6 year old came up with her first haiku:

5-Olives, watermelon,
7-Meats, Dates, Honey, Milk and Bread
5-Foods the Prophet Loved.

Her submission, “Eating foods the Prophet Loves”

Jennah together
Eating foods the Prophet loves
Milk, Bread and Honey

- 6 year old Sabra

Tanka

Japanese, unrhymed, 5-lined 31-syllable poem with line-pattern of 5-7-5-7-7 about any topic

5- I went to Japan (done)
7- I had a lot of fun there
5- Seeing all the sites
7- It was hot and beautiful
7- Can’t wait to go again soon!

After discussing this year’s theme, of a “Day with the Prophet (sallahi wa layhi wa salam-)” we shared that

1. We can not go back in time,
2. The Prophet (s) will never return to Earth for us to spend the day with him
3. The only DAY we can possibly spend with the Prophet, inshaAllah, will only be in jennah.

So, on the spot our 9 year old came up with this tanka for the contest

“In Jennah with the Prophet – A Tanka Poem”

5- When I’m in jennah
7- Insha’Allah the Prophet
5- Will be there waiting
7- For me and my family
7- To see Allah together

- 9 year old Sabra

Acrostic poem

- Uses a person’s name with the first letter in each line.

I wrote this last year, as a sample when I was teaching our class for the previous year’s “Praised One” poetry contest:

MUHAMMAD salallahu alaihi wa salam

Muhammad, salallahu alaihi wa salam, is the most beloved, and our last and final Prophet,

Unique was His life, as He was the most perfect of all humans in His manners, words & leadership,

Humble in His actions as a Prophet, unlike any human before Him or any human to follow,

Admiration consumes me, and aspiration fills my being whenever I read, hear, learn or remember Him,

Many a night, I seek peace and blessings upon Muhammad, salallahu alaihi wa salam, and his family; as Allah, Subhana wa ta ala, gave to Prophet Ibrahim, alayhi waslam, and his family,

May I always strive to achieve a fraction of the Rasul’s good deeds for He taught me that actions should follow my intentions.

Acquiring the knowledge and acting according to the Qur’an and Sunnah (His Life) despite any hardship or obstacle I face should be easy; because I will never encounter what he has in His life — May Allah forgive me when I have doubts or complain; but I am…

Destined, only by Allah’s blessing, to live as You — a true believer.  So, it’s my duty to always seek Allah’s pleasure and forgiveness for I pray that my life allows me to reach Jenna (heaven) so I can meet You and Our Creator. ~ Ameen

- Mama Sabra

Ponn = Mama Sabra & the Girls Playing

Playing
On a swingset
Never stopping, soaring high
Night time has arrived…oh no, time to say ‘Bye-Bye’!

A special place poem

Having never seen this kind poem, they shared us this poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay called “Afternoon on a Hill.”

Tips to my girls: Just answer the questions, don’t think hard, let the visions flow and write what you feel. You, too, should be able to write quickly and effortlessly.

I quickly typed up ‘My Special Place’, while I had them answer the questions alongside me, silently on their own paper and netbooks.

By the creek under the tree
A weeping willow shades me
Wild flowers not too strong, the scent always pleasing
The water lightly ripples a peaceful tune
The soft grass below my legs warm me
I’m grateful for all Allah’s blessings, subhanallah, He’s perfect and majestic.
-Mama Sabra

Our 6 year old came up with this:

Outside in the snow
Igloos and snowballs
Fresh air smells like nothing [close your eyes, picture yourself outside, what do you smell?]
I hear birds even in the Winter
[What do you touch?] I make snowballs to throw at someone, but no one is here…
Now, I’m happy, because my sister arrived and I have someone to throw the snowball too! [I had to finish up her throughts myself]

Classic sidenote: Today, February 5, 2011 (not Feb. 2011), if you haven’t been keeping up, my girls and I are going on Phase 5 of our 6-foot tall igloo. Phase 1, our middle daughter fit in, Phase 2 our youngest joined in, Phase 3 our eldest fit in comfortably, Phase 4 I can sit straight up. Phase 5, 6…will be to get 5’5″ Papa/Daddy in and end with 6’2″ Hubby/Baba, inshaAllah (God willing).

Autobiographical poem

Give facts about the poet written by him/herself.

Autobiographical Poetry Prompts

1. Think of four adjectives to describe yourself.
2. Think of three adverbs that describe the way you act sometimes.
3. Think of three people, places, or things that you love. Remember that a person, place, or thing is a noun.

Brainstorming:

Together, my 6 year old and I came up with:

1. Happy, Funny, Good sense of humor & tiny
2. Silly, fearless, dress stylish, writes neatly
3. Baba & Mama I love, I love home, I love rabbits and horses

We couldn’t finish the autobiographical poem and moved on to Couplets & Limericks and combined to two to come up with:

Couplet

Fun, simple 2-line poem that rhymes and is often funny.

Fun examples were found here. And, once we read what a Limerick was, we decided to join forces…

Limerick

Funny little poem with 5 lines and rhyming pattern AABBA

- This was more difficult to do, we (my 9 & 6 yo and I) came up with it all together.

A- Horses and rabbits are some of my favorite things,

A- My baba is so funny and I love him–he’s my king,

B- I’m tiny like my mama,

B- And, fearless like Baba,

A- Nasheeds make me happy–they’re the only songs I sing.

We’re trying to write a limerick- to end with ‘ring’

When I’m silly, happy and making jokes, nasheeds I love to sing!…

Back to the Poetry Contest Theme…

Since we (and no single person) will never spend a day with the Prophet, inshaAllah, except in Jennah, we believed that envisioning a made-up past is useless, and not acceptable. So, we spent some good quality time as a family studying directly from the Qur’an & Sunnah.

Sonnet

- 14 line poem with 3 quatrains (4-rhyming lines) and ends with 1 couplet (2-rhyming lines). rhyming scheme/pattern:
ABAB
CDCD
EFEF
GG

Beautiful and a bit too hard to make up on the spot, we found more examples to help us here.

Simple Rhyming Poems

Rhythms and rhymes commonly and easily written by kids, that basically has the last rhyming syllable–a title we totally made up, because we know they exists.
Last, a simple rhyhming poem by our 8 year old,

“A Day in Jennah with the Prophet”

I would “As-salamu alaykum” to the Prophet.
He would reply “Wa-alaykum as-salam” and then, we’d knit.
We would read Qur’an together as we sit.
We’ll also enjoy playing with my Science kits.
Then, we’d eat a vanilla banana split.

The most adorable thing about ending this Poetry lesson was our 8 year old would totally do all these things, inshaAllah. Sitting in this living room right now, her knitting set is sitting right next to her, we haven’t used all our Science kits which are in the corner of this room, we are/were reading the Qu’ran sitting on the dining room floor, and well–what kid doesn’t love vanilla banana splits!?

So, there you have it, our Lesson Plan as we creatively had an Islamic and Literacy lesson to effortlessly, painlessly, and rather quickly teach Kids to Write Poems.

Have some Kids Poetry Lessons or Tips to share!? Please comment below! Better yet, post it on your blog–or anything related to Homeschooling, and grab our HomeSchool never Stops on Saturday button & link to this post!

Disclosure: Time4Learning is an online education program that can be used as a homeschooling curriculum, an afterschool tutorial or for summer learning. As a member, I’ve been given the opportunity to share my experiences. While I was compensated, I was not influenced in anyway to share only positive remarks. After all, lying is haram (prohibited). You’re welcome to read American Muslim Mom’s disclosure policy and contest disclosure.

Teaching Kids How to Write Poetry – Fun Lesson Plan is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

If you like tests, then this is a Math program for you. Since we’re a very hands-on homeschool family,  we typically learn a new Math concept and practice until they mastered it–rather than “test” them. Therefore, unfortunately this is not a program my girls enjoyed. To be kind, my 10 year old said, “It’s kindof weird how they have so many tests”. Other positive aspects that my 7 year old shared included

• I like how you can take and re-take tests that you missed (since they give tests every day),
• How they have the calendar to see what you have done, and
• How you could see what tests or work other people  in our account (her sisters) completed.

According to their site The Factor Tree offer

A better way to learn math

Every student learns differently — shouldn’t your child be taught math in the way that works best for them? The team at The Factor Tree think so. Which is why their online supplementary math education platform adapts as your child learns, to ensure your pre-K to 6th-grader is always taught in the way that gets the best results.

What makes the Factor Tree so effective?

• Provides the practice and repetition needed for a child to truly master key math skills
• Use a skill-adaptive progression algorithm to pinpoint each child’s true skill level
• Provides parents with helpful reports, metrics and notifications to track their child’s progress
• Combines a state testing-compliant curriculum, world class educational theories and innovative technology to create a better learning tool

Subscribe for Your Free 2-Week Trial

At time of registration when it asks for the referral code, use “BzzAgent” to get a two-week trial at The Factor Tree.

Mama’s Side Notes

In brief, I believe this system is more set up for traditionally-schooled children, and did not allow my girls the opportunity to “test” up or challenge them into the math abilities they are presently working at. However, I truly believe in technology in the classroom, so this is a viable options for public and or private schools to further explore.

For example, of our girls’ Math and Science abilities, each of them were accepted to the Stanford University Education Gifted Program for Youths, and at 9 years old, our oldest tested into Gr. 11  Honors Algebra course and AP Physics Gr. 12. Our then 6 and 8 yo daughters also tested into extremely high Math and Science courses; so continue to be extremely happy with our present method of math lessons & studies.

Disclosure: As a BzzAgent, I receive free samples and products for review to share our honest opinions and experience, as well as offer you free samples such as today’s trial . We were not influenced in anyway to share only positive remarks. After all, lying is haram (prohibited). You’re welcome to read American Muslim Mom’s disclosure policy and contest disclosure.

The Factor Tree – Review & Free 2-Week Trial for All Followers is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

Hi, I’m GiGi and I would like to tell you guys about a website called FunBrain. I like FunBrain because in the Playground you can play fun games, and pick any game you want (not all are learning games).

But, in the Arcade you are playing something like a board game. So, when you play a game; you have to win or you can’t go to the next game.

This is the same in the Math Arcade, except that all the games you play are Math.

Then, there is Reading. Reading has really fun Mad Libs games.

If you really like a game, you can go to “All Games” and pick a game from ALL the games including the games in the Arcade and Math Arcade. I think the best games to play are the learning games.

So go to FunBrain.com today!

Please share what you think of this site below!

FunBrain – Educational Games is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

In CNN’s Schooling for Success edition, Erika and Nicholas Christaki share their observations and opinions of in this eye-opening article, entitled Want to get your kids into college? Let them play. For this homeschool mom, it’s not a surprise that the students in one of our country’s top universities may prove to be academically ready, yet lack basic social skills taught in a pre-school or kindergarten years. I believe this special report touches upon an even sadder state of where our country will be heading; if in fact history repeats itself, and Harvard-graduates continue to lead our country in politics, business, medicine, law, and research. While I can go on my typical long, well-researched posts right now, I’m going to leave this topic for you to discuss, and comment on this article. Is this article a “like-dah” moment, or an “OhMi!” moment. I welcome your thoughts, concerns and challenge you on this closing note,

I have yet to meet a socially-inept homeschooler in my decade of homeschooling; and yet, non-homeschoolers question “socialization” in homeschoolers. To them, I say, look up the definition of socialization, read this article again, and please reconsider the lie that a classroom setting in a public and private school provides ideal socialization skills or training for any child.

Okay, one last-note: Please stop “schooling” your children, and Play with them more! Learn together, enjoy a loving environment and thrive on gaining an education together. This is why I’ve always preferred the term “home education” over “homeschooling”; but because homeschooling is still superior setting to a school setting; I’ll allow both terms to remain synonymous.

Want To Get Into Harvard? Try Playing More! is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog

The website FreeRice is good for learning and it is good for donating rice, that is why it is called FreeRice. The home page says, “For each answer you get right, we donate 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme to help end hunger”.

On the home page you can answer vocabulary questions. If you don’t want vocabulary, you can go to “Change Subject” and click on any subject you want. Another really cool thing is if you are learning a language, if you see that language than you can have questions on that language.

And, if you want you can “sign in”, if you do it a lot you might become the “Top Player” because of how much rice you donated. Or, if you join a club you might become one of the “Top Clubs” because of how much rice your club got.

One thing that I like is that it is learning, and that you are donating to the poor.

Our homeschool friends told us about this site; and my sisters and I are on it a lot. Please share your favorite websites in the comments below!

Mama’s Little Note: This is our extremely bright Math-star (mashaAllah) who prefers not to write because she knows her sisters love it and do it well. But, with a little editing back and forth, she finally came up with this post. So, if you benefited from this post at all, please share a comment to encourage her not to stop. Thanks and Jazaka Allahu Khayrun!

FreeRice – Play Educational Games and Feed the Poor is a post from: American Muslim Mom Blog