Day 1- Spring Camp: Tie-dye shirts

For spring break this year we planned a “spring camp” and invited over a few friends. The camp was for 2-hours during the weekdays with pre-planned gender neutral activities and lunch. Food arrangements were made collectively by all the moms.

The first day, the children were responsible for bringing a white shirt to tie-dye. For lunch we ordered pizza, I paid, but you can easily instead split the cost to make it lighter on the pockets. One of the moms brought a box of juice, and we served cold water for the moms.Continue reading “Day 1- Spring Camp: Tie-dye shirts”

Surah Memorization Tracker

This past summer, my three kids had two of their cousins spend the weekdays with us. With 5 kids, I quickly realized that keeping track of the ayahs and surahs each kid has memorized was difficult without some sort of written record. After some web searching, I found a design I liked. Unfortunately, the pdf available was limited to only a handful of surah and I wanted something a bit more comprehensive. I wanted to track the progress of every ayah in all of the Surahs of the last Jus as well as a couple longer Surahs that my kids were working on at the time, Surah Rahman and Surah Yaseen.  So, I did what I thought was the next best thing… I made my own. Continue reading “Surah Memorization Tracker”

Kids Routine Flip Chart Tutorial

I hate yelling at my kids, especially in the mornings. I want to be able to start my day, peacefully. The constant, “put on your shirt!”, “brush you teeth!”, “stop wasting time, Hurry!”, “where are your socks”, was starting to affect my personality, making me very agitated and affect my relationship with the kids. So I needed a solution – well, a schedule rather. I no longer wanted to be running upstairs to grab socks for a kid as they walked out the door. I also need time to make breakfast and lunch for the kids. And I want the kids, who are now old enough, to start praying. To satisfy all my needs and wants, I had to come up with a schedule that was easy enough for the kids to follow and somewhat interactive that they would want to use it. After a lot of trial and error, I stumbled upon this idea on Pinterest. My kids loved it! So, we decided to make it a permanent addition to our home. Here’s how we made it…Continue reading “Kids Routine Flip Chart Tutorial”

My Mommy Bag

As a kid, I remember watching the classic Marry Poppins and falling in love with her never ending magic bag. I loved the idea of having a fun bag and being able to pull out activities upon activities to keep the Little ones happily engaged. This was my inspiration for what I like to call my Mommy Bag. It’s my bag of kid friendly entertainment for when the hosts haven’t got one or when we want to attend an all day seminar. This is also very handy when traveling. It’s the perfect companion for the airport, plane ride and even while we sleep in at the hotel 😃.Continue reading “My Mommy Bag”

Give, Save, Spend!

A great way to instill the concepts of charity and saving is the “Give, Save, Spend” jars. The concept for the jar is quite simple, when the child gets money, whether it be birthday money, Eid gifts, allowance or hard earned money for a product or service they provided, they divide the money equally (or as close to equally as possible) three ways and put 1/3 of the portion in each jar. Simple! That’s is!

To make it easier for younger children, I like to keep a “cash drawer” which the kids can use to switch out there bills. My 6 year finds it easiest to separate the amount when she has only $1 bills. My 8 year old, on the other hand, exchanges so many bills between my cash drawer, his jars and sometimes even other kids’ jars that sometimes, I have to go back and double check to make sure he didn’t end up with extra money (or short change himself). Thankfully, he’s pretty good with math and can handle the switch quite accurately.

If the amount is unable to be equally divided, the left over money must go in to either the save or the give jar. I let the children decide which to put it in to. If the left over funds can be divided equally in to two jars, then they must put half in save and half in give.

Now, for the fun stuff. How to make these jars….

There are 2 ways to make them, both are pretty simple. The first requires a little more time and the second requires a few extra dollars

Teaching my 7 year old to make Tea/Chai

I’ve recently taught my 7 year old to make tea for us. Tea or as the south Asians call it, “Chai” is a staple in almost all south Asian homes. And learning to make tea is like a right to passage for my family.

My husband and I had been discussing the possibility of teaching our 7 year old daughter how to be more independent and involved in the kitchen. However, the thought of my young daughter around anything hot and dangerous was too frightening for me until I discovered this electric tea kettle. This would be her very first independent kitchen task. Here’s how we accomplished it…Continue reading “Teaching my 7 year old to make Tea/Chai”

Getting ready for travel season

Traveling with kids is a challenge in itself, but over the course of the next 30 days, we have not one but the 3 trips planned – a cruise, an international plane trip (without the kids) and a road trip for a wedding. Amongst all this traveling, we will also be hosting guests. And, that trip without kids is during a school week, so I not only have to pack for myself but also prepare for the kids to have a full week of school and after school activities while staying with my parents.

Luckily, we love traveling and my husband especially loves spontaneous weekend trips. I’ve pretty much gotten our packing down to a science. But, honestly, even with a lot of packing experience, the thought of the next 30 days is making my stomach turn and my head dizzy.

This week is all about getting ready for the cruise trip and packing for trip#2.

For my own sanity, my suitcases contain a few pre-labeled Ziplocs for some of the necessities: kids’ socks, underwear, adults socks, and adult HIS & HER undergarments.

I also have a pre-packed first aid kit, and a hanging toiletries’ bag complete with toothpaste, toothbrushes for all 5 of us, travel shampoo & conditioner, lotion, nail clipper, lip balm, hair brush and hair accessories for my girls, adult hair brush and small comb for the boys, scissors and my mini hair kit with various hair ties, hijab pins, safety pins, and a needle & white thread. I will post details of those in later post.

That leaves just my makeup, clothes, shoes and any additional items specific to the trip to be added in the suitcases.

The first thing I do when I start packing is to fill up those pre-labeled Ziplocs, add the toiletries’ bag and my First Aid Kit (pictured below), and finally print the checklist to help pack the remaining items. Click here for the printable checklist.

travel-checklist_page_1travel-checklist_page_2

Animal Charades

I love games that I can take with me on the go and pull out at times when I feel my kids are getting “bored”. My kids don’t own devices like the kindle, or IPad; nor are they allowed to use my phone. So, I have to get creative and sometimes I add a twist to the old fashioned games that we used to play as children. One such game is Animal charades. I love animal charades because you can have as many players as you want, it doesn’t require a lot of space and it doesn’t need much preparation. I keep a printout version in my purse and an electronic version on my phone. This is one of the few exceptions that I do use my phone for a kids’ activity.

What you will need to play: Print out the pictures, cut and laminate (optional). click here to print the Game Cards. These will be the game cards. I tie up the game cards with a rubber band and keep them in my purse (you never know when you’ll have to dig in there to entertain a group of kids). Alternatively, save the pictures onto your phone (and use that as game cards). Or, if you are like me, do both. This way, if you have the cards, you won’t have to resort to using electronic devices. But, for those rare occasions when you can actually take a clutch and not a jumbo bag, you can still have a way to keep the little ones entertained.

How to play the game: One person begins the game. You can choose one person to start the game by selecting the youngest, oldest, or a player that has previously played the game (if other players are playing for the first time). Randomly select one of the game cards, and ask the player to act out the animal pictured. The player acting out the card may NOT make ANY sounds. The other children must try to guess the name of the animal. The child who correctly identifies the animal wins the round, and is selected to act out the next card. Continue playing until all players have gotten a chance, or all game cards have been used. In my experience, its best to allow all players to at least get one turn even if it means repeating some of the cards.