New Space

Alhamdulillah I managed to create a special space to accommodate Abdullah's stuffs; his toys and books. This room used to be our library area where hundreds of Islamic books were here, so it took a few weeks to accomplish as we had to take all the books upstairs to the TV area (so now no more TV). I had to settle down with both before I can be happy to proceed with our homeschooling projects.

So, there are reasons on why I chose some particular ways to arrange the books and toys. I was very much inspired by the Mostessori approach and I thought they have a nice view on this part. So let see how it goes.

Before this, I used to store the toys in one huge container. And you can imagine how it would be when Abdullah is trying to find his small favorite truck or tool (or whatever it is), and the living room floor is likely to be scattered with toys! What Montessori suggests is to place toys with many pieces in appropriate containers, such as plastic boxes or small baskets. Avoid putting out too many toys and books at one time. Divide toys into three or more sets : favorites, which are kept out on the shelves continually, and two or more sets that are rotated in and out of the closet every month or so. Store them on low shelves so they are accessible to your child. Small containers are great to store toys with lots of pieces and enable your child to tidy up herself. And so far, this works great with Abdullah and he found it  easier for him to tidy up his toys from a small container rather than a huge one (he used to complaint he is so tired that he can't tidy up his scattering toys when we used the huge container). So I  love this small container idea! 

I used them to store his wooden train set, small trucks, hardware tools, fruits and his puzzles.

As for his favorite machines, I display them orderly on low shelf. It somehow make your child appreciate his toys more. Abdullah willingly put his machines (or even the small containers) back on shelf after use because it shows his sense of belonging and love of his toys. Even I became to appreciate and respect more of his stuffs. And they are also unlikely to break as they would be in the chaotic jumble of the huge container.

Last but not least; the books! I don't just arrange them this way so that they will look nice. I made the front cover of each book is visible except for thick books which Abdullah can recognize which book is it. It's nearly impossible for children to choose books when they can only see the spine. I used to stack up Abdullah's books in the living room which is the worst way to store children's books because they tend to end up in a heap on the floor more often than not as they hunt for the cover of the book they have in mind. This one works great too! It is easy to find a book and easy to put it back too. Now I spend less time to tidy up the living room alhamdulillah :)

My son is totally in love with his new space and eager to start learning alhamdulillah! And I'm a happy mom too hehe :)

Bedtime is not a 'battle' anymore..

Subhanallah.. before this bedtime has always been a struggle. I had to drag my son all along the way to his bed. He kept giving me excuses so that he can stay awake for a while. I think this is common for preschoolers.

Not until I found this link that shows how the mother put her 3 little bubs (5, 4, 2) to bed masha allah : Umm Abdul Basir's

I was thinking to do the same thing with Abdullah, but I kept delaying it (because of not enough material hehe) until I don't know how and when.. I figured out that he loves being read to sooo much. So, I tried to make a routine. Before bedtime, he must drink some milk, go to the toilet and brush his teeth. And we'll go upstairs together and have our read aloud session, and of course with our sweet little Umamah too (even if she wanders around more than sitting quietly on my lap). It's so easy masha allah. We have been doing this for 2 weeks, not just I don't have to use power struggle to make him go to bed, he even sleeps earlier!

We read one book (one story) every night. We have a book which consists of collections of stories from al-Quran. Don't be surprised if your child asks you to read the same story every night. Please bear with him. He will learn different thing each time he listens to it. Recently, we bought a book, one of Thomas and Friends series and Abdullah is completely in love with it because there are buttons that create sounds. Inshaa Allah we are trying to buy more books in the future.

Read aloud is definitely one of the prereading activities that can instill the love of reading into your child :)