Stock Your Islamic Studies E Library Bookshelf—Now!

What a great time to be homeschooling!

And what a great time to be Islamic homeschooling, masha Allah!

Why? (Among Other Reasons)

(Here we go again with the nostalgia) Back when I started homeschooling……………………

There were not so many FREEEEEEEEEEEEE Ebooks online.

Well that has certainly changed, masha Allah (though perhaps not all are with posted online with permission) :0

Anyhoo,  over at TJ (which by the way, I sincerely apologize as TJ is  in bad need of repair)/updating), I have a page called IS Booklist on which I listed/linked to free Islamic texts which could be used for IS textbooks or at least as a spine for IS studies. (and yeah, that page too was in need of updating). Ok, well, I have compiled a more robust listing of texts (though by no means exhaustive)…

Fill Up/Fill in

If your Islamic Studies E bookshelf is empty, has cobwebs, check out the list below and have a download fest.  Or maybe you’ve got many/several books listed and just need a few.  Whatever the case, hope you find the listing helpful.

 

So Where Are They, Already?

Al Adab Al Mufrad	Adab/Akhlaq	Bukhari		Listing of weak ahadith in this work; http://islamworld.net/docs/HADITH/Mufrad.html
Al Fawaid (Book of Wise Sayings)		Ibn Al Qayyim
Ar Raheeq Al Makhtum	Seerah/History		PDF
	Aqeedah/Fiqh	Shaykh Abu bdir Rahmaan Yahyaa bin ‘Alee Al-Hajoree	PDF or HTML	was available at Ibaanah.com which is undergoing redevelopment and not presently available
Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud	Ahadith		CHM (help file format)
Essential Lessons for Every Muslim			DOC
Great Women of Islam	Seerah/History		PDF
Hisnul Muslim	Duaas/Thikr	E book compiled by Fatwa Online	CHM (help file format)
Ideal Muslim	Adab/Akhlaq		PDF
Ideal Muslimah	Adab/Akhlaq		PDF
Khaleed Ibn Waleed			PDF
Kitaabul Tawheed	Aqeedah	Muhammad bin Abdul-Wahhab	PDF
Major Sins	Aqeedah	Imam Shamsu ed-Deen Dhahabi	PDF
Men Around the Messenger	Seerah/History		ZIP, then CHM format after unzipping
Noble Quraan (E format)	Quraan	Compiled by Fatwa Online	CHM (help file format)
Path to Guidance		Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah
Patience and Gratitude	Adab/Akhlaq	Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah	CHM (help file format)
Prophet’s Prayer Described E book	Salaah/Wudhu	Ebook compiled by Fatwa Online	CHM (help file format)	includes several other books including The Prophet’s Wudhoo
Qawl-ul- Mufeed Fee Adillatit Tawheed (lessons adapted from book)	Aqeedah		PDF	47 Lessons o­n Tawheed From Darul Hadeeth, Dammaj
Readings in al-Qawaa’id al-Arba’ah (The Four Principles)	Aqeedah	Based upon text by Muhammad ibn ‘Abdul Wahhaab	PDF
Stories of the Prophets	Seerah/History		EXE
Usooluth Thalaathah	Aqeedah	Shaikh Muhammad bin ‘Abdul-Wahhaab	PDF	For children and new Muslims

Ideal Muslim	Adab/Akhlaq		PDF
Patience and Gratitude	Adab/Akhlaq	Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah	CHM (help file format)
Kitaabul Tawheed	Aqeedah	Muhammad bin Abdul-Wahhab	PDF
Major Sins	Aqeedah	Imam Shamsu ed-Deen Dhahabi	PDF
Ideal Muslimah	Adab/Akhlaq		PDF
Qawl-ul- Mufeed Fee Adillatit Tawheed (lessons adapted from book)	Aqeedah		PDF	47 Lessons o­n Tawheed From Darul Hadeeth, Dammaj
Usooluth Thalaathah	Aqeedah	Shaikh Muhammad bin ‘Abdul-Wahhaab	PDF	For children and new Muslims
Prophet’s Prayer Described E book	Salaah/Wudhu	Ebook compiled by Fatwa Online	CHM (help file format)	includes several other books including The Prophet’s Wudhoo
Noble Quraan (E format)	Quraan	Compiled by Fatwa Online	CHM (help file format)
Hisnul Muslim	Duaas/Thikr	E book compiled by Fatwa Online	CHM (help file format)
Readings in al-Qawaa’id al-Arba’ah (The Four Principles)	Aqeedah	Based upon text by Muhammad ibn ‘Abdul Wahhaab	PDF
	Aqeedah/Fiqh	Shaykh Abu bdir Rahmaan Yahyaa bin ‘Alee Al-Hajoree	PDF or HTML	was available at Ibaanah.com which is undergoing redevelopment and not presently available
Essential Lessons for Every Muslim			DOC
Ar Raheeq Al Makhtum	Seerah/History		PDF
Great Women of Islam	Seerah/History		PDF
Men Around the Messenger	Seerah/History		ZIP, then CHM format after unzipping
Khaleed Ibn Waleed			PDF
Stories of the Prophets	Seerah/History		EXE
Al Fawaid (Book of Wise Sayings)		Ibn Al Qayyim
Path to Guidance		Ibn Qayyim al-Jawziyyah
Al Adab Al Mufrad	Adab/Akhlaq	Bukhari		Listing of weak ahadith in this work; http://islamworld.net/docs/HADITH/Mufrad.html
Bukhari, Muslim, Abu Dawud	Ahadith		CHM (help file format)

Handwritten is the New Computer Created

Well at least for me……………………

When I first started homeschooling, everything was done by hand, lessons, worksheets, manipulatives, etc. because we didn’t have a computer.

Then of course, once we got a computer, look out!  If I didn’t make my own  stuff, I was able to download all sorts of ready made things.  Just let me find a site with free printables and my printer was given a workout!

When we lived in Yemen, I was printing like a mad woman. I could buy printer cartridge refills kits for next to nothing and get like 4 refills per kit.  I printed without hesitation.

That Was Then, This is Now

So now that I am in a new place and  haven’t found the good deals, I am being more conservative in my printing as I haven’t found great deals on cartridges and my current printer is an ink guzzler.

But I find that even not considering ink usage, it takes me so much longer to make things on the computer (or find them) than if I just sit down and make them out by hand. Ok, so I am not an artist, but you know what? Doesn’t matter. I made some kindergarten/preschool math mini bag activities for my 4 year old and he went right to them.  Didn’t matter that I just used pencil and just drew circles or triangles, he still loved them! 

So I am doing more and more things by hands these days in an effect to conserve ink as well as time.

 

*******

If you find that your time is super limited and a hand drawn effort will work just as good (or heck even almost as good), why not save yourself some time (and ink) and write it out…….so its maybe not as flashy, pretty, or colorful in some cases, but I’ve been able to knock out a great deal more of things to USE this way……………………..

Bread Boys!

I don’t know what has gotten in to my big boys lately, but I’m likin’ it!

For the past couple of weeks, my 16 year old has been bitten by the bread makin’ bug and this week, my 11 year old joined in.

Why the Interest?

I asked my oldest son what made him want to start making bread?  He is homesick for Yemen (from where we just moved) and remembers seeing the men in the makbazah baking up flat bread and roti.  When he would go buy the bread from the store downstairs, sometimes it wasn’t ready so he would eagerly watch them making it.

So, one day a couple of weeks ago, he jumped online and found a recipe for flat bread and headed to the kitchen…..to my delight, masha Allah!

Ever since then, he’s been baking up a storm!

 

Not Just One Type

A few days after his bread making began, I whipped up some dough for soft pretzels and that became his next project. He’s made pretzels two or three times since and the day before yesterday, he really “perfected” them.  Its funny (in a good way)  to hear him talk about what he learned, how to tweak the recipe to get better results.

Yesterday, he made flat bread to go along with our lentils for dinner.

And also, yesterday, my 11 year old joined in on the bread wagon…..

I had started making what has become like our breakfast for nearly everyday for the past few weeks…crescent rolls. So yesterday I was making the dough and he said that he wanted to help. As I had oodles of school stuff to attend to, I ended up letting him take over.  He rolled out the dough and cut it and folded up into the rolls. Halfway through, he got the idea to make them like cinnamon rolls so I mixed up a cinnamon sugar mixture and he buttered the doll and sprinkled the mixture on.

And today, again, I made up the dough and he’s been belting them out.

 

Learning All the Time with Homeschooling

Its really been a natural learning experience as well (had to throw that in as a HOMESCHOOLER, lol).  Both the youngest and oldest have learned how to use the stove (we had a cheapy gas stove in Yemen for so many years so this one had more bells and whistles); they learned about the properties of yeast and really, so much more (and I didn’t have to give a lecture!)

 

 

Here are the recipes we started with:

Pretzels: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/buttery-soft-pretzels/detail.aspx (read the first user comment, its packed with a mini science lesson about why baking soda is used).

Crescent Rolls: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/golden-crescent-rolls/Detail.aspx

 

Happy bread making if the bread bug hits (has hit) you too!

Hajj/Dhul Hijjah is approaching!

That’s right…..and Eid ul Adha is around the corner too!(Dhul HIjjah is around 10 days away).

Besides Hajj occurring in the month of Dhul Hijjah, there are many virtues of that month.

You may want to take a peek at my Dhul Hijjah/Eid ul Adha unit/lapbooking starter kit from last year to brush up/learn about its virtues before it arrives!

Dhul Hijjah/Eid ul Adha Learning Pack can be found here in this post.

Spelling City!

You’ve probably heard of Spelling City, but if not, stop by and you are in for a treat!

It is truly awesome, masha Allah and free!

I have just started really using it (though I have  known about it for sometime) and it is sooooooooo helpful, its like having an aide, masha Allah.  It really helps you free up time because it can virtually be a spelling teacher for  kids, because there are so many features. This is a very big help if you have lots of kids and need some to work independently while you are working with others.

You can:

1. Enter a customized list of words (or search the forum for premade lists). You have your own list management area so your lists are saved.

2. Then, you can tell your student to go to the list and it will give a spelling test.  The word is spoken, the student types it and the word is read in a sentence.

3. Then, if student needs help after the test is complete, he can choose the ”teach me option” for practice, where the word will be spelled out one letter at a time, pronounced a couple of times, and used in a sentence.

4. You can choose from games and activities that the student can play to practice the word(s). You can even print worksheets such as alphabetical worksheets or handwriting worksheets.

5. And finally, your student can print a report or certificate so that if he/she is working independently, you can see what words were missed.

Right now,  I am planning on using the testing, teaching, report features, but after that I have my own little routine that I wrote up for the kids to follow (write misspelled words 10x, record misspelled words in list, alphabetize the words, write each word from the entire list in sentences (not just the misspelled as it creates a mini grammar lesson when we review any mistakes; then I assign a grammar connection type actiity (such as making any nouns in the list plural, picking out the verbs, or whatever new concept we are studying that week, etc).

I know I sound like a commercial but if you have not tried it, its soooo worth a look!  I am also using it for spelling lists for science, etc.

Umm Ibrahim