This printable is a replica of my Arabic Numbers 1-10 Butterfly-Themed Flashcards, with traceable fonts.
Each flashcard is approximately A5-sized. You may scale them down for printing via your printer settings dialog. I suggest printing out on cardstock or thicker paper and then laminating them so they can be used with dry-erase/whiteboard markers and reused over and over again. You may want to punch a hole or two in the corners and bind the cards with those index card rings.
Download the FREE Arabic Numbers 1-10 Butterfly-Themed Tracing Cards here.
Feel free to share this printable. If you do so, please link to this blog post instead of linking directly to the file. I hope this free resource will be useful to you and your family, in sha Allah. If you have any feedback or questions, do leave a comment on this post. Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog to get updated whenever I release new printables in the future, in sha Allah!
Current Favourite Reads (Sep-Oct 2014)
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase anything through my links I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you. Your support in purchasing through these links enables me to keep blogging and creating free printables. I only recommend products that I use and love myself!
The Pigeon Needs a Bath!
The Pigeon is filthy; so filthy that it can’t remember the last time it took a bath. But as you can expect from The Pigeon, he refuses to bathe!
As big fans of The Pigeon, we own all of the books. This is the latest in our collection. Mo Willems is remarkably talented at writing stories with humour both children and adults can appreciate, paired with illustrations that just jump out of the page. We’ve read this book countless times over the past 2 weeks and practically memorised it. There’s even a free printable activity kit over at the Pigeon Presents website to accompany the book.
Goodnight Stories From the Life of Prophet Muhammad SAW
This book is part of our informal seerah studies. I read one story to H every 3 days or so. Sometimes she isn’t interested or doesn’t understand entirely, as this book is slightly out of her age range. My short-term goal is to familiarise her with the beloved Prophet Muhammad SAW and plant the message that he is someone important enough for us to know his life story. Subhan Allah, I can’t be more delighted that books like this one exist now. As a primary school-aged kid, I used to love seerah, but the seerah we learnt in madrasah was extremely brief. I’m actually learning much more through reading this book. The illustrations are wonderful too, and very appropriate. You can view sample pages on the publisher’s (Goodword Books) website. We also read Goodnight Stories from the Quran by the same writer, which has short stories on the prophets mentioned in the Qur’an.
National Geographic Little Kids
We recently bought a subscription and have been enjoying the Sep/Oct issue. This magazine combines NG’s striking pictures with content that’s easy for kids to read and understand. My only gripe with the magazine is the size – it’s too small! I know, it IS designed for a kid to hold. But kids in the target age range can read picture books twice the size with no problems. Other than this, everything else in this issue hit the spot for us. Hopefully the future issues will be just as enjoyable!
Free Printable: Arabic Alphabet Assessment Pages
Alhamdulillah, here’s another FREE printable to supplement the other Arabic alphabet resources I’ve made.
These worksheets can be used to assess your child’s recognition of Arabic alphabet. It’s very simple to use – you call out a letter and the child marks the corresponding circle using a Do-a-Dot marker or anything else he/she prefers. To add variety, I hope to include more pages to this printable in the future in sya Allah.
Download the FREE Arabic Alphabet Assessment Pages here.
Feel free to share this printable with your friends. If you do so, please link to this blog post instead of linking directly to the file. I hope this free resource will be useful to you and your family, in sya Allah. If you have any feedback or questions, I’d love to hear it!
Homeschool Supplies We Use and Love
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you purchase anything through my links I may earn a small commission, at no additional cost to you. Your support in purchasing through these links enables me to keep blogging and creating free printables. I only recommend products that I use and love myself!
Crayons
Twistable crayons are awesomesauce. They’re much more convenient than regular crayons, and more durable thanks to the plastic barrels. We love our Crayola Mini Twistable Special Effects Crayons (pictured above)! But kids love glittery and shiny things, so we also use Crayola Metallic FX Crayons regularly. These don’t come in twistable form yet, though I’m sure they will one day.
Watercolour Paints
The Faber-Castell Watercolours we use seem to last forever, so we haven’t tried other brands. The colours come out wonderfully! Watercolour cakes are also much easier for young children to use on their own compared to liquid watercolours.
Poster Paints
I can’t tell you how much I love Crayola Washable Paints. It comes off any surface or fabric easily and the soft bottles are easily squeezable. They also come in glitter and neon shades. When H was a tot, we used the equally awesome Crayola Fingerpaints. And oh, spill proof paint cups! What would I do without them? We use them to hold water (for mixing with paints).
Markers
We use our Expo Low Odor Dry Erase Pen-Style Markers on a daily basis. Many of the worksheets I give H are reusable, so I slot them into sheet protectors or her Crayola Dry Erase Activity Center. The ink erases cleanly even after it has dried out days later. We’ve also tried the Crayola dry-erase markers that came with the center, but they don’t rival Expo’s. For non-reusable worksheets, I let her use markers too, for the fun factor. (Anything to encourage a preschooler to write!) Crayola Broadline Washable Markers are great; our set has lasted us a couple of years and the ink is really washable!
Erasers
I’m pretty sure Faber-Castell Dust-Free Eraser was designed for artists and designers, but the large size and super erasibility makes it great for kids too. If this eraser existed in my childhood, it would’ve saved me a lot of frustration.
Craft Glue
Crayola No Run School Glue works for us. It dries quickly and holds strong.
Scissors
Scotch Kids Blunt Tip Scissors for the world! H’s first pair of scissors was a child-safe pair with plastic blades that didn’t cut well. Then we tried this Scotch scissors (it was included in a free craft pack) and I was pleasantly surprised when she started using it with ease instantly. Although the age recommendation is 4 and up, H started using it at 3 years old with supervision.
Other Stuff
Plain old white index cards are boring. We love using blank multi-coloured index cards to make word cards and such.
Do-A-Dot markers opened up a whole new world for us. We have the rainbow, brilliant and shimmer sets and I see them lasting for quite a long time. (I do not dare to buy the fluorescent set as it seems like the ink is not completely washable.)
As you can see, most of the supplies we use are geared towards preschoolers since we’re at that stage right now. This list will evolve to fit our needs, for sure. What do YOU use in your homeschool? Is there anything you particularly love that we don’t use? Share with me in the comments.
Free Printable: Arabic Numbers 1-10 Butterfly-Themed Flashcards (١ to ١٠)
Inspiration struck after I rediscovered a set of colourful butterfly clip art in my collection recently. I present to you another FREE printable: Arabic Numbers Butterfly-Themed Flashcards!
Each flashcard is approximately A5-sized. You may scale them down for printing via your printer settings dialog. I suggest printing out on cardstock or thicker paper and laminating them for durability.
Download the FREE Arabic Numbers 1-10 Butterfly-Themed Flashcards here.
Feel free to share this printable. If you do so, please link to this blog post instead of linking directly to the file. I hope this free resource will be useful to you and your family, in sha Allah. If you have any feedback or questions, do leave a comment on this post. Don’t forget to subscribe to my blog to get updated whenever I release new printables in the future, in sha Allah!
Free Printable: Arabic Alphabet Do-a-Dot Pages (د to ض)
Alhamdulillah, the next instalment of my Arabic Alphabet Do-a-Dot Pages is here.
These Do-a-Dot pages are designed for preschoolers who have been introduced to the Arabic alphabet and who may not be writing yet (pre-writers). By filling in the dots, they gain visual recognition of Arabic letters as well as the correct stroke order of writing them. Encourage the child to start with the dot with a star in it.
Don’t limit yourselves to only Do-A-Dot markers! You can use magnets, stickers, pom poms, or virtually any other manipulative your child enjoys.
Download the FREE Arabic Alphabet Do-a-Dot Pages (د to ض) printable here.
Feel free to share this printable with your friends. If you do so, please link to this blog post instead of linking directly to the file. I hope this free resource will be useful to you and your family, in sya Allah. If you have any feedback or questions, do leave a comment on this post!
The next printable in this series (with letters ط to ق) will be released in October, in sya Allah. Subscribe to my blog to get updated whenever I release new FREE printables!
Weekly Homeschool Schedule 2014
We don’t technically homeschool. H goes to kindergarten for 3 hours daily, Monday to Friday, where she learns English, Malay, Arabic, Math and Islamic Studies, amongst other subjects. To me, “homeschool” refers to the time we spend outside of school on activities that are somewhat academic. We homeschool 5-6 days a week, as you can see from this schedule we’ve settled on for now:
Monday | Literacy (Malay), Spielgaben |
Tuesday | Literacy (English), Math |
Wednesday | Music, Themed Study |
Thursday | Literacy (Arabic), Al Qur’an |
Friday | Yamaha Junior Course @ Yamaha Music School (1 hour) |
Saturday | Arabic Montessori @ Little Muslim Readers (1.5 hours), Art or Science |
Sunday | Catch-up day or Outings |
It’s a packed schedule, if you take into consideration my 40-hours-per-week day job. Yet somehow, with plenty of barakah, it’s been manageable, and even fun and rewarding!
The schedule is kept flexible for both our sakes, though. When either one of us is feeling unwell or unusually tired, I reschedule the planned activity for another day. This doesn’t happen often, but when it does, I pull out my Plan B – something less taxing and just as educational, like Lego or board games.
Outside of this schedule, H also does plenty of desk work on her own when she’s back from kindergarten. Occasionally, when I have the time, I prepare a Montessori activity for her to work on instead of the usual worksheets. I reckon she spends 20 minutes daily on this “homework”, which leaves her a LOT of time for free play.
We’ll be adjusting the schedule according to our needs, but this has worked for us this year! In December in sya Allah, I hope to re-plan our homeschooling direction and that will probably bring about a new schedule as well.
We’re on Pinterest!
I’m guessing I’m not the only one who has a love-hate with Pinterest. I love that it’s a treasure trove of ideas, but I hate its ability to suck me into the endless world of Pins when I’m not careful! Nevertheless, it’s a handy way for me to keep track of the things we use/will use/would like to try in our homeschool. Especially the art and science projects, which I tend to forget about after a while because it takes a bit of effort to gather materials over time. Anyway, do follow HomePlaySchool on Pinterest!
Free Printable: Arabic Alphabet Do-a-Dot Pages (ا to خ)
It’s been a while since I released a new Arabic printable. I had these Arabic Alphabet Do-a-Dot Pages done some time ago, but was trying to polish them up for public sharing. It was difficult to translate the elegant Arabic script into dots, masya Allah! They still aren’t perfect, but here you go!
These Do-a-Dot pages are designed for preschoolers who have been introduced to the Arabic alphabet and who may not be writing yet (pre-writers). By filling in the dots, they gain visual recognition of Arabic letters as well as the correct stroke order of writing them. Encourage the child to start with the dot with a star in it.
Don’t limit yourselves to only Do-A-Dot markers! You can use magnets, stickers, pom poms, or virtually any other manipulative your child enjoys.
Download the FREE Arabic Alphabet Do-a-Dot Pages (ا to خ) printable here.
Feel free to share this printable with your friends. If you do so, please link to this blog post instead of linking directly to the file. I hope this free resource will be useful to you and your family, in sya Allah. If you have any feedback or questions, do leave a comment on this post!
The next printable in this series (with letters د to ض) will be released in September. Subscribe to my blog to get updated whenever I release new FREE printables!
Free Printable: Frozen-Themed Alphabet and Number Mazes
Has the Frozen fever died off in your household yet? It’s still going strong here – almost 6 months after we first watched the movie. In fact, we’re having a Frozen theme party for H’s 5th birthday next week. To celebrate the occasion, I’m offering a free printable pack of Frozen-themed alphabet and number mazes!
This 13-page printable consists of 6 alphabet mazes and 6 number mazes of varying difficulty levels. Math concepts covered include counting from 1 to 20 and skip counting by 2, 5, and 10. To complete the mazes, you can use Do-A-Dot markers, magnets, stickers, pom poms, or virtually any other manipulative your child enjoys!
Download the FREE Frozen-Themed Alphabet and Number Mazes printable here.
I hope your little girls and boys enjoy this activity! Feel free to share this printable with your friends. If you do so, please link to this blog post instead of linking directly to the file. If you have any feedback or questions, do leave a comment.