Sunday, April 29, 2012

DIY: Wood Math board



A great project to do with kids at home to introduce woodwork. Its a great tool to learn Math through play. It gives children a chance to practice holding yarn and weave it around the nails, they can learn yarn tension before they actually start knitting.

AR helped me mark the wood circle and then hammered the nails in place with me. Then we made many different shapes on it using different colored yarn, I chose bright spring colors to go with our spring theme these days. Even H played with it. 


We got the idea from this video. 



Sunday, April 22, 2012

DIY: Kid's doll sling



A few months ago I made H this baby sling for her dolls, at first she didn't understand it but when I made one for AR and she saw him using it she started enjoying it a lot more. Its a super easy and fun project to do for our girls. I stitched this one with a pattern I have made myself. I also really like this easy tutorial at Progressivepioneer for a different style of a sling, maybe I'll give it a try when H is a bit older.

The whole thing cost $0! I used scraps left over from some other projects. The printed part is cotton and the black is jersey.



I have always wanted one of these baby wraps with both my babies but they were just too out of budget for us both times. Plus we got 3 of those backpack carriers, so we just used that despite the fact I did't really like them. Now that its so worn out, we might get this wrap. Simply love them! I love how the baby has such closeness to the mother/parent compared to the backpack carriers.

Has anyone used one of these baby wraps? How was your experience with them?

Friday, April 20, 2012

Product review: Arabic Alphabet Blocks

We found this a great learning-through-play tool for the kids to learn Arabic. We had been looking for a good quality wooden Arabic Haroof block set for the kids for a long time and we finally found  one, alhumdulillah. Its an awesome toy!




AR matching the shapes to form a word. Its like puzzle with endless possibilities of word formation.

H lacing the blocks.

Its comes with pictures and word that they can match, I  am not too big on this write now, right now they are just enjoying the different shapes.


Sunday, April 15, 2012

Learning through play

I still remember when I attended the homeschooling conference in Toronto, I met a sister there who said to me "Oh, your son is still too young, don't worry about anything right now, just let him play till he's about seven. After seven is when children are actually able to learn, at that point you can start academic work with him." At first, what she said came as a shock to me but as I learned and researched more, the more I started to agree with what the sister had said. 

A lot of you have asked me what do I do with the kids all day anyways?? InshaAllah I will answer that one day! However, I would like to say one thing that are many AMAZING mommies out there that inspire me every single day one way or another. Some online, some in person and some by phone. Love you all and May Allah increase you (us) all in your (our) good righteous efforts and accept them from you (us). And chose our children for His deen Ameen

Until I post about what kinda stuff we do at home, here's a great article that will inshaAllah help those with little ones enormously and also give you an idea what we do around our home most of the time. The author talks the importance of learning though play.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

What are the best cooking oils?


We often ask each other about what the best oils are for cooking as mothers/parents who want to provide the best for our families. I have put together some information from sites I trust very much when it comes to health and food information. This information has benefited me immensely when it came to choosing the best cooking oil for our family.

We pretty much use all kinds of oils we can find, for all types of things, cooking, body, hair, furniture and cleaning. When it comes to cooking we use coconut oil, sesame oil, flaxseed oil, light olive oil (for low heat cooking) and ghee (clarified butter) I have been considering making our own ghee. Extra virgin Olive oil is also one of our favorites but not when it comes to cooking, we use it as salad dressing and on top of Zatir bread and hummus.

Best cooking oil information:

  1. Here is what Food Matters's experts have to say about the best cooking oil and which ones to avoid. 
  2. Wholeliving has a very nice article about many oil options one can have for healthier cooking.
  3. LIVESTRONG has a great article on why to avoid cooking on high heat with olive oil. Also check this one. If you would like, you can read through some other very beneficial articles on which oils are best and why to use some oils and aviod others and there compositions.
  4. Great video on good and bad oils by Josh Axe


Happy cooking to all our Natural Moms!


What oils do you use for cooking?
Have you ever considered making your own Ghee?