It finally came to my realization today that the kids islamic books we see often nowadays (like the one I mentioned in my last post : 31 kisah nabi, kisah haiwan dalam al-quran), are not really suitable for toddlers 2-and-a-half years old. Maybe its just me, but it's difficult to get toddlers that age to focus on the story when the wordings are like, 'pagi itu angin bertiup lembut'. And the illustrations are 'too pretty', i.e. not bold enough.
A visit to MPH today with a wish to get the books for Kakak were initially met with disappointment, as I knew straight away upon browsing the kids islamic book section that the books still too early for her. (Sebab nya dah pernah beli satu and its tiring coz I have to shorten and create my own words)
Alhamdulillah among all the books, I finally met one that stands out from the rest. The wording are simple just like the ones you'd see in english toddler books. Not more than a string of 4 words in a sentence, 2 sentence per page. And the best part is, I love the wordings. Very tarbiyatul aulad! ^^
A bit pricey though, at the price of RM 50, but its a set of 6 books.
Already tried it with kakak and she likes it I can tell, I have a feeling I can use it for a long time. I can take a picture of the insides as well if anyone is interested. You'll love the content. You can browse it at MPH bookshops or if you wish to buy it online you can do so here, postage free!
I also bought Kakak her first pencilbox and some stationaries. Crayon, colour pencil, water colour semua dah beli *guilty. Kalau boleh dengan table proper tu pun nak beli (seriously tak sabar!) but will make do with meja jepun ni dulu as its easier really, for me to join her activity.
Activity book couldn't find one with cut and paste activity, and so I'll try to print on my own first.. nanti nak cari yang best-best.
Real happy manage to do 'homeschooling' with her tonight, we even did origami (Ummi bantai je). She keep saying,'Ummi beli untuk kakak sebab Ummi sayang kakak ke. Ummi main dengan kakak sebab Ummi sayang kakak?' Nampak sangat dah lama tak teman dia 'main'.
So easy to make this kid happy!
See our origami?
Not sure yet of the usage of whiteboard at her age, she just loves to draw circles
Membaca dan mewarna bought by 'Ibu', our beloved BS
I also bought a Prof Rozieta Shaari book, the english version of Membina Anak Cemerlang, as the malay version is sold out. Will share it if it's a must-have!
Guilt is a constant emotion all parents have. Especially moms, most especially working moms T_T
Every time the thought of Kakak is now at 2 years 5 months comes to mind (almost every day that is), I would feel an enormous wave of guilt. She's at the age where she's learning most rapidly, absorbing things like a sponge and all I am doing for her is leaving her at other people's house (albeit in the best company of people who loves her), watching cartoons mostly, I think. Lost in everyday routine of pergi balik kerja, at nights too tired for a good activity, and weekends of sharing her with others, I've never feel more like a failure than for this.
But with all the positive thinking I have, I remind myself that what's important is the quality of time, not the quantity.
With a proper planning, we can make the best of time, and make our presence felt even though we are not around her 24 hours a day.
After some searching around for materials, these two being the sifu for children's education (the best guides!) - so many DIY fun activities its amazing.
1. Buy activity books, which involves cut and paste, colouring, identifying alphabets. But here at http://wwwmamahomeschool.blogspot.com there's so many links to download the activity sheets and print! And compile everything in a ring file as Kakak's Activity File.
2. For storytelling, these three books
3. Kakak loves origami! I got to learn em to teach her
6. Watercolor - instead of using brush like we usually do, use potato carved into shapes and cop
Do hop over to the these two webs for amazing ideas to be shared with your lil ones. Plus your child would think you're the most brilliant fun adult ever lived! hihi.
If anything, it makes me less guilty about not being with my children 24/7.
Its amazing really how so little effort on our part can give so much pleasure to our child. As we know any games we play with them are the ones they enjoy the most :')
Note to self : Must make sure Airin gets a good sleep at BS every morning so that I can have a good one hour with her every night. No more lights off with botol susu at 8.30 pm!
1- Kekuatan ILMU: Kekuatan Ilmu pada ibu-bapa paling penting kerana ibu-bapa perlu mendidik dan membimbing dengan ilmu pengetahuan. Kesempurnaan IMAN adalah AKHLAK. Orang yang dekat dengan Rasulullah SAW di akhirat kelak adalah orang-orang yang punya AKHLAK terbaik.. Subhanallah..
2- Kekuatan latihan dan kebiasaan untuk bersifat tawadduk dan Qanaah / penguatkuasaan : Iaitu dengan membiasakan diri dengan sunnah Rasulullah SAW contohnya berwuduk sebelum tidur, solat witir sebelum tidur, solat dhuha, menggosok gigi pada setiap waktu solat ketika berwuduk dan lain-lain... Tapi hari ini dah tak macam dulu, kita biasanya membiarkan anak-anak tidur lewat kerana menonton TV dan sebagainya.
Ustazah menceritakan tentang kisah Hassan Al-Banna dalam menunjukkan contoh tauladan tentang disiplin kepada anaknya.. "Suatu hari Hassan Al-Banna berpesan kepada anaknya yang bernama Wafa' kalau saya tidak tersilap.. 'Wafa..Wafa.. Ayah nak tidur 7 minit saja, nanti selepas 7 minit tolong gerak ayah, ayah ada banyak kerja nak buat'.. Maka anaknya pun ke dapur untuk membuat air dan hanya setelah 10 minit baru dia teringat pesanan ayahnya.. Lalu cepat-cepat dia ke depan dan mendapati ayahnya sudah bangun dan meneruskan kerja-kerjanya.."... Subhanallah Moga Allah memberikan kekuatan kepada kita untuk menghayati sunnah Rasulullah SAW dan menjadi orang yang pertama mengamalkannya sebelum mengarahkan anak-anak kita untuk melakukannya...
3- Kekuatan Contoh Tauladan: Biarlah akhlak kita memberi nikmat kepada orang lain.
4- Pengawasan/ Observation kepada anak-anak: Terutamanya terhadap akhlak anak-anak, kata Ustazah bagi anak-anak yang Sombong/ tidak belas kasihan/ suka bergaya, penawarnya suruh anak itu cuci tandas, cuci longkang...
5- Kekuatan Penghargaan: Pujian buat anak bersandarkan kepada Allah SWT.. Cthnya "Alhamdulillah mak dapat anak yang soleh/solehah".
6- Tazkiyatun /Penyucian hati: Bila kita banyak membenarkan anak-anak main game, maka ketika solat/ belajar, game itu akan terbayang-bayang.
Dalam kita marah-marahkan orang kafir kita sendiri yang ambik produk (game, movie yang membuka aurat/bersifat kurafat dan syirik mereka dan rosakkan anak-anak kita..
It has been a while since I get to share here. A lot has happened, a lovely new baby to adore, still these days I feel like I am passing the days too ideally. I need this space to motivate myself.
Today I'd like to share some children videos. We've been trying to feed and 'program' kakak with the right entertainment, but it has not been that easy. Try to compare children nasyids, most of it Indonesian (good job nonetheless), with the english nursery rhymes:
..and you can see what I mean :) Starting the nasyids early and consistently though, the innocent minds of children still enjoy these plain old nasyid clips most of the time. Still, at times, as they learn to choose, its only fitrah they would request those 'cartoons' and 'iloveyou' songs. What with its bright colours and cheerful tunes. It always make me wonder when will our genius IT consultants create islamic children nasyids. I mean, with everything we have now, isn't it time?
Alhamdulillah and jazakallah to these people who came up with these Haiya Biddoa clips. Its a collection of Doa in every 1 minute clip, super cute and fun to watch! Such a sight for the sore eyes. They have it in Malay, English, even Arabic.
I love it! Kakak likes it alright. I download it at http://keepvid.com/ just by pasting the you tube link, copied it into a pendrive, stick it behind the TV's LCD, and ta-daa! I think we can get 7, 8 short clips from you tube.
Cumanya.. its actually an Apple app. To get further benefits it has to be downloaded to an iPad, which we don't have! So it's just a few You Tube clips for us for now. From the apps they actually have 40 clips altogether.
Buat masa sekarang, Aplikasi Haiya BidDoa boleh dimuat turun untuk
platform Android & Apple iOS sahaja.
===============================
Aplikasi Haiya BidDoa Apple iOS
===============================
Jika Sharifah menggunakan peranti Apple iOS iaitu iPhone 4,
iPhone 4s dan iPad, Sharifah boleh memuat turun aplikasi ini
secara terus dari Apple App Store. Aplikasi ini dibangunkan
sebagai aplikasi Universal iaitu ia boleh di muat turun ke peranti
iPhone & iPad secara terus. Jika Sharifah mempunyai lebih dari
satu peranti iaitu mempunyai iPhone & iPad, Sharifah boleh memuat
turun kedalam kedua-dua peranti dengan hanya sekali pembelian dari
Apple App Store.
My strong resolution to not have iPad and such (to avoid children addiction) is starting to waver? Naaah :)
Story Telling
Thanks to DH encouragement and request, I have taken to story telling whenever I want to 'cool' kakak down. DH says mothers should always bercerita, it stays in children memories long long after, leaving very fond memories, a bond of such. MIL is always story telling kakak, everytime she pakaikan her clothes and sikatkan her hair. I love listening to it too. It doesn't actually matter what she says, simply listening to her voice and loving tone leaves such a warm and calming feeling :) It was not easy for me, I would think I am a bit of berat mulut, if not for the times I think I'm talking to myself when I was actually talking to DH??
Anyhow, I created this Fatimah character and create stories each with moral values like sharing. She loves it and say, 'kakak macam fatimah kan, slalu share kan?' with the cutest asking smile (a very important lesson for someone with a sibling!) and always ask me to cerita fatimah. So yeah, I think its worth all the penat bercerita!
When she gets restless abi would say, 'ok, Ummi cerita kat kakak ye', and I'd be groaning inwardly, buat muka kesian and say.. 'harini dah dua kali dah cerita fatimah..' Knew better, and immediately renew my azam!
Zikir
Even though the hijriah is going on not as fast as we hope, fret not, what is important is living the islamic environment right? Much to my surprise, at the age of 2 years 4 months, I heard this from her as she plays alone..
'hasbi rabbi jallallah,
mafiqalbi 'airullah,
nur muhammad sallallah'
She can say lailaha illallah, alhamdulillah.
Doa makan (2yrs), doa bangun tidur almost (2yrs 4mnths).
She loves zikir too, everytime pasang selawat she'll say, 'macam kat rumah ibu kan, macam kat masjid kan', and sing along. Request for it too sometimes.
I've been replaying surah al-Ikhlas as she plays in front of the tv, as children picks up/absorbs a lot unconciously, she has yet to remember it except for the last 'word' at the end of each ayat.
Update : At 2 years 5 months she can read Al-Ikhlas (except for the last sentence tak lancar), and doa bangun tidur. But mesti repetition! Kalau miss repeat for 3 days pun blh lupa back to square one. Sungguhlah anak-anak ni ajar kita istiqamah!
What's important is having these penenang hati sounds around us all the time. If listening to it calms our soul, it definitely calm theirs too. Soften the heart, less rasa nak marah-marah, hopefully. InsyaAllah. Wallahualam.
Almost everyday, I would realize my lack of knowledge in so many things, which does not only cause me so many disadvantages :( but even worse, can cause irreversible damages later. Why is this so?!
As our children main source of knowledge (at least before they start schooling, and early years are vital in shaping understanding), we are suppose to equip them with the right understanding of what it means to be a muslim. Tarbiyatul aulad, this is. It no longer means knowing what is fardhu ain and what is fardhu kifayah anymore. In my current very limited understanding, the difficult yet vital part is providing the essence to every act we are ordered upon. The 'why-s' yet at the same time obeying regardless of whether we know the why-s (as some are kept secret/unknowing).
In a world so full of confusion nowadays, it will not be as easy as providing PAFA books like we had in our chilhood days. God knows how confusing it was to us even then. But yet some of us grew to be so understanding. I believe it is hugely the tarbiyatul aulad they received, even at a time where people have not heard of the term tarbiyatul aulad.Everyone grows up with their own heartaches, but having that small amount of extra understanding protects teenagers from so much of heartaches, and mistakes. And now it is our turn. To prepare and guard our beloved sweethearts from that confusion, heartache, mistakes, and pain. And as I said, its irreversible. Once they reach a certain age, some things can no longer be shaped. And it makes things so difficult.
Having children at 2, 3 years old, there's still time. This is a space for me to collect THINGS I HAVE TO KNOW by the time my children reach mumayyiz age (being able to differentiate right from wrong). Lets try our best, dear Ummi, mama, mummy.. to be that knowledge bearer. And let's not forget, it IS our responsibility. Something we will be asked about in not a too distant future.
A part of my fav song. Isteri cerdik yang solehah Dia umpama tongkat si buta Bila tiada satu kehilangan Dia ibarat simpanan ilmu Semoga kekal untuk diwariskan
:: Puasa ::
Sempena bulan Ramadhan ini, banyakkan bercerita tentang puasa, puasa yang berbeza mengikut agama, puasa nabi-nabi yang berlainan, fadhilat puasa dan ganjarannya, puasa dari segi sains, puasa dan manfaatnya pada tubuh, ibadat khusus dalam bulan puasa dan sebagainya. Niatkanlah untuk menambahkan ilmu mereka tentang puasa. Jangan kedekut ilmu pada anak sendiri. Apa yang kita tahu, kita simpan untuk diri sendiri. Untuk mereka, kita katakan puasa itu adalah waktu sahur, sahur, tahan lapar, tahan dahaga dan last sekali waktu buka.. buka puasa. Sayangnya jika tidak mengambil kesempatan ini..
ASSALAMUALAIKUM....
Alhamdulillah... syukur kepada Allah yang meminjamkan nikmatnya untuk
dinikmati sehari-hari...
Pejam celik, pejam celik dah hari ke-1...
Bismillahirrahmanirrahim.
"Nafsu itu bukan hanya bermain-main
di 'wilayah’ maksiat....
Tetapi, nafsu juga bermain dalam ibadah seorang Muslim....
Bahkan...
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