Yesterday we used our 99 names of Allah flash cards and learnt about the name Al Quddus. We learnt it meant ‘The most holy’ or the Purest, or most perfect. The card promoted us to talk about how a blanket of snow covers the earth and completely transforms into something that looks so pure and clean and beautiful. I explained this analogy to my boys and said that this is the feeling we should get when we think of this name of Allah.

My 3 year old woke me up at 7 this morning – my Fajr alarm clock MashaAllah – and as I opened my curtains lo and behold the scene outside of our window was idyllic. My 3 year old wanted to get out the door to play in the snow straight away, but I reminded him it was only 7am and it isn’t sensible to go out onto the snowy street in the dark! I suppose if we had our own garden I might of let him go with his snowsuit over his pyjamas!

Today we had fun making snowy pictures with chalk, ventured outside to make a deformed snow man (poor guy had his head knocked off 3 times thanks to my 3 year old! Lol), followed by a lovely hot cup of tea at our downstairs neighbours and finally a take away party in the evening with my friend and her son. All in all we had so much to be thankful for, it was a truly wonderful snow day and as I tucked the worn out kiddies in bed we made extra duas that we have another day as good as this one – InshaAllah!

Today we learnt about cubes. We used our speilgaben set (stay tuned for a more detailed review of this amazing resource), and talked about the features of a cube. We made a cube out of smaller cubes, we made a cube out of cuboids, we even made a cube out of tiny triangular prisms!

My 5 year relished the challenge, though the prism structure nearly defeated him! My 3 year old on the other hand created various designs using the shapes from the drawer including the construction of a rather impressive wooden tap, though showed little interest in following the lesson plan!

It is so interesting to see the difference in how their minds work. My eldest loves order and following instructions, whereas my 3 year old is constantly using his creativity to imagine alternative ways of doing things. Now I just need to decide how best inspire them to enjoy learning from their own unique perspectives. If I remain conscious of their natural dispositions throughout their education, then there will be no limit to what they can achieve InshaAllah!

Appreciating the dark nights of winter. So grateful to have a real fire as we cosy up in our home in the evening. We have also adopted the blessings hour that we do after Maghrib, that involves putting on some beautiful nasheeds and then we tidy up our home. My 3 year old often gets distracted with every new toy he attempts to tidy up, but my 5 year old keeps him on track and reiterates what I had said in my pep talk – ‘Allah loves us to keep our home clean and beautiful.’ Alhamdullilah the boys were on board, despite multiple negotiations to not tidy up various ‘important lego creations’!

As we sat and admired our hard work, we noticed that the moon was clear to see outside our window. My 5 year old spotted the sliver of white straight away, but my 3 year old took some convincing. I asked them what it looked like – ‘a banana!’ my 5 year old chimed in! Then we hunted for our moon book to find out the correct name for it and concluded it was a waxing crescent. I have been inspired to keep an eye on the moon now as it will be useful for my boys to use this to understand the concept of a month. The language of time is still much of a mystery for them

This prompt chart is a fantastic tool to instil independence in your little ones. I found myself telling my children to do the same thing a thousand times in the morning or evenings. I thought surely they must know the routine by now, we do the same thing every day! I would repeat again and again ‘put your pyjamas on’, ‘why aren’t your pyjamas on’, ‘pyjamas!’ But they would go to the bedroom get distracted and forget what they should be doing.

Now all I have to say is ‘check the chart’, and it has become a game for them. They are constantly checking the chart throughout the day to see what they should be doing. I find even for the simplest of tasks they are having to check it multiple times to remind themselves, but this is great because I am not the one moaning at them! The vibe has changed, before it was doing tasks for Mama, and now it is the boys doing tasks for themselves because it is the required time to do them. They have taken ownership and accepted the tasks need to be done so they should just get on with it.

The chart has all sorts of activities that you can add to it, so it could be used throughout the whole day. You most definitely could make your own personalised chart if you had a laminator and velcro stickers. The only thing I’ve thought of that would be nice to include is ‘Salah’ and ‘Quran’ stickers.

What this chart also does is give the children a concept of time. It acts as a timetable for the day where certain activities will be done at certain times of the day and in a certain order. It structures time in a visual way that they can understand. Prior to this they would do activities without a thought of what will come after it, very much living in the present. Now they can clearly see not just what they should be doing now, but also what they did before and what they will be doing in the future.

It is early days still, but the boys seem to be cooperating nicely so far. I have yet to see if the enthusiasm of the chart will be maintained in the long term…InshaAllah it does! 🤞🏽

I’ve had my eye on this trolley for some time, and finally someone was selling a brand new hobby craft one on facebook marketplace for half the RRP. I had to go on a wee mission across the city to get it, but it was most definitely worth it! As I had saved a bit of money, I didn’t feel bad pimping it out with all the useful accessories to turn it into the perfect arts and crafts trolley.

I can roll the whole trolley to dining table if the boys want to get creative or even if it is just a bit of colouring I can lift off the crayon pot and carry that bit by itself. I’d previously been reluctant to do too much messy play as it seemed such a lot of effort and all of our things were stored in random boxes in random cupboards. Now that everything has it’s place and it is all together, it feels much more manageable. I love purchases that help us organise the home and help us function better. Also looks quite pretty – if the boys were a bit older I’d definitely be tempted to leave it in the hallway for everyone to admire! 😂

When we talk about mental health and well being mindfulness almost always comes up. When I saw these mindfulness flash cards I was intrigued to find out whether they would be a useful tool for my children. We have used them a few times so far as part of Basket time and I think my 5 year particularly enjoys participating.

They encourage children to wind down and focus on various thing such as breathing or listening to the environmental sounds. There are also cards which help children understand their emotions and process negative feelings in a positive way. The general theme is remembrance of Allah and we know that being mindful of Allah at all times is a key aspect of our deen.

I am all for giving my children tools to self regulate their mental state. I feel that this has never been so important as it is today. There are so many assaults on our mental health in day to day life and a key aspect of this is that we have lost our connection with nature which is crucial for keeping us in a balanced state. When we are close to nature we become closer to The Creator, and so become more secure in our place in the world and our purpose.

We have also lost other things that offer us resilience such as strong communities and family ties, and although our population has increased we often find ourselves alone in a crowd. We have replaced deep meaningful relationships, with online ‘friends’ and follows from people we will never really know. And many of us do not have companions we can sit and have meaningful conversations with to share our thoughts, dreams and woes. Instead we have to make do with emoji’s and likes, though occasionally we are lucky to have an indifferent therapist who is paid to offer a listening ear.

This seems to paint a bleak picture, but the key thing is to recognise what is happening so we can actively protect our hearts and minds from being prey to the ills of our times. I too have almost been a victim of this and so now will consciously aim to build those deeper relationships with friends, spend as much time as possible outdoors and practice mindfulness and Dhikr with my children.

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I write this as we sit in the flying tin, heading back to reality and the winter chill that awaits us. The last days of our holiday were surprisingly relaxed despite the anticipation of having to get our covid tests done as well as preparing the endless amounts of paperwork required to travel these days – well I say paper work, but no actual paper was required!

As I sat with my three boys waiting for take off we reflected on our favourite parts of the holiday. My 5 year old said he loved swimming in the ocean most of all and my 3 year old said he enjoyed looking at the leaflet which advertised the aquarium that we didn’t go to! 🙈 After reminding him of the various things we actually did do, he decided that his favourite part was in fact the boat trip.

I suspect he loved everything, as my 3 year olds face is filled with wonder almost all of the time. Often as adults we lose that awe and wonder as we seem oblivious to the miracles of Allahs creation all around us. Yet as we travelled through the Island I was stunned by the striking views of oceans meeting rocky mountains, parted by trails of palm trees. Even now I am staring out of the plane window amazed by this demonstration of Allah’s Majesty – funny how this view of the clouds is more awe inspiring than what we can see from below.

I was interested to find out how this harsh terrain invited humans to settle here, so did some research on the coach to the airport. As we waited to board, I told my boys the story of the North Africans that travelled across the sea in small vessels 2500 years ago. We imagined their lives in stone houses with palm leaf roofs, eating fish, sourcing water and crafting tools. We discussed the second migration of North Africans during the Roman Empire and wondered if they were welcome guests. We know the most recent invasion of the Europeans five hundred years ago certainly wasn’t. I did skip over the details of murder and enslavement, and instead mentioned how the native population fought back but didn’t have enough weapons and so were defeated. History is often dark, but enlightening.

Day 1 of our winter sun and how liberated are my boys. For six hours they ran, swam, jumped, twirled, skipped, crawled and played. Unfortunately we didn’t stay late enough to see if the tide came in far enough to fill the moat around our sand castle. As the sun lowered we instead played bat and ball and discovered my 4 year olds hand eye coordination was fantastic, MashaAllah, as he hit ball after ball with his baseball bat. My 3 year old on the other hand enjoyed making patterns in the sand with his. He loved the ocean most of all, and even the chattering of his teeth was not enough to persuade him to leave it!

This is our first holiday since covid and I think my boys don’t even remember our last holiday which was 2.5 years ago. So for them this is their first ever holiday. In fact when I asked my 3 year old if he was enjoying his holiday so far, he said ‘is this a holiday?’ I said it was indeed, and he said with a grin, ‘Well this is the best holiday ever!’ I was also amused when I had to explain to him that our new flat is not our new permanent residence, just somewhere we would be living temporarily whilst we are on holiday!

When my husband suggested the holiday, I didn’t feel it was something we needed and seemed like a lot of effort with all of the covid requirements. However, yet again my husband was right and I was reminded that I just need to trust him. We needed to reconnect in a different environment, one away from the usual pressures of daily life. A place we are forced to slow down and soak in Allah’s love. This love is displayed in the sunshine, the beautiful surroundings and in the people we love and who love us. We are seeing each other, really seeing each other – I am counting my blessings and I am overwhelmed by Allahs love for me.