You can download a free kindle ebook from Amazon, “Homeschooling In Your Garden”. It has many fun ideas and projects to make gardening more fun and educational for you and your kids. If you do not have Kindle device, you can still use this resource. Simple download Kindle for PC and then download your free ebook to it.
Picle is a free app for iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch that works well for putting images and audio together to create digital stories or multimedia projects. Images can be imported from the camera roll. Or, pictures can be taken directly by the app with the iDevice’s built-in camera. Then by clicking a record-button you can attach audio narration or other desired sounds to the image. You can also record whatever sound is present when the picture is taken while taking a picture to capture. Each image, with attached audio, is known as a ‘picle’. Individual picles can be woven together into movies that tell a story. These movies can be uploaded and shared on Picle’s site. Or, movies can be saved to the camera roll and sent from there directly to Youtube, on your blog or emailed. Individual picles can also be shared on their own.
I particulary like to use this application in language learning and reading. Children can take pictures of different things and say a few words about them in the language they are learning. As a fun way to teach reading, they can take the picture of some text written in other languages and record themselves reading it. My children are also using it in making tajweed videos by taking pictures of different words and verses from the Quraan and explaining the tajweed rules in the voice recording. children can also take pictures of their art work and record themselves explaining it. This application presents many wonderful opportunities and since it is so easy to use, it can be used by even very young children.
Price
Free
Link for
iphone and ipad
I had tons of sites bookmarked where kids can read online stories and books. To make them more accessible and visual for my kids and for others I have created a pinterest board. Originally I had planned to put a link to my board rather than sharing all the various links here. But some of the sites can not be pinned because they do not have big pictures on their home page. So I am linking those few sites here on this blog in another post and then that post will be pinned on the board. Confusing heh?
Anyway if you are interested in sites where you can find online books for children have a look at my Pinterest board Online Books.
JCB Explore website has tons of activities (both online and offline) to do with your kids. activities include stuff like how to construct a river and a lake, how to build a car park, make a safety helmet, making chocolate boulders, making poetry blocks, growing seeds etc. You can filter the activities by age, by mood or situation. For example there are activities for when you are feeling calm, there are rainy day and sunny day activities etc.
As the month of Ramadan is almost upon us, I just want to share a few ideas and resources from around the web.
First of all, Talibideen jr (no surprise here 
Talibideen Ramadan has a whole lot of resources, lessons, planners and other goodies for Ramadan.
Islamic Bulletin Boards have many printable resources for Ramadan like wall frames, lunar calendars, Ibadah tracker etc. for the whole family.
Many great books about Ramadan can be downloaded for free from Kalamullah’s Ramadan section. My personal suggestion is “30 lessons for those who fast”.
Sister at Umamah Learning academy also has many neat ideas to make learning about fasting and Ramadan more fun and meaningful.
Have a look at Pictures and printouts for Ramadan lapbook from Raising Muslims.
Look at many wonderful activities presented by Hand made beginnings for the young learners.
And sister umm Nauman over at a muslim child is born has many treasures at her blog for young Muslims to learn about Ramadan.
That’s it! There may be many more Ramadan resources out there but these are the few that I found in my short search. If you know of any other resources, please share them via comments below. Have a radiant Ramadan and remember me and my family in your duaas.
There are so many interesting ideas and activities for preschoolers and kindergarten aged children that I find around everyday on net. I wish I had found them a few years back! Even though I don’t have a preschooler to teach, I keep collecting these delightful activities and ideas and for those of you who do have preschoolers or early years learners, I want to share them. You can find all them here. Please note that I keep on adding activities as I find them, so if you like what I like, follow my board.
Review: A Dog’s Life is a superb interactive from Scholastic. It is based on a book of the same name by Ann M. Martin. This book is an autobiography of a stray dog named Squirrel. This site is choked full of stuff to explore. Younger kids can make the dog on the screen move, make him sleep, give him a ball to play, make him eat or drink or hear the author read excerpts from the book. Older children can read an interactive story about Bone, Squirrel’s brother, in Bone travels on who also appeared in the original book. Children can make choices for Bone which will influence the story. In Create a Tale they can think up a new adventure for squirrel or any other character in the book and write a story and illustrate it. Children can also learn about how the book was created and see many drafts from the author. They can read/listen about how the author started writing, learn the differences between human and doggy senses, find fun facts about dog paws, learn more about breeds of dogs, create their own hybrid breeds and a lot more. Even if you or your child haven’t read the book, you can still benefit from this website. There is no music which is a definite plus.
Suitable for ages: 3-12
Do you think writing motivational sentences is easy? Think again! Motivational sentences can be so droll if not plain boring and quotes like “The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible.” often makes kids (and adults like me) go to sleep. So think about what will inspire you and write it down, make a bookmark with your quote with this bookmark factory and tah dah! enjoy your reading with a bookmark of your own design and words.
Review: Succeeding with science is a great resource for games, videos, and other activities for teaching and learning science. All activities are organized by age and are mostly geared to learning about energy and environment. Some of the resources are online but others require users to download Zip files (as in HouseWarming unit). Many of the resources require flash capability as well. I haven’t checked out all the games/activities so I am not sure about music in every activity. There is also a teacher’s page where you can find further activities and online magazines in PDF format.
Suitable for ages: 4-16+
Discovery Education has a wealth of worksheets at worksheets to go, made by teachers and categorized by subject and grade level. Check it out!
The month of Rajab is upon us, and the count down for Ramadan has begun. The month of Rajab was the month in which the miraculous journey of Al Israa wal Miraaj took place. As an aid in educating our young Muslim learners about this miraculous journey of Nabi Muhammad (saw) I had created a power point activity (it is not a regular slide show, it is quite interactive). If you do not want to download the file, you can still play the activity online by going over to my Muslim kids interactive blog.
Review:Switcheroo Zoo is an awesome website for young learners to learn more about animals and wildlife. This is one of the “must see” sites to visit when studying animals and their habitats. Switcheroo Zoo has fun interactive games and activities such as “Make New Animals” where you can create your own animals (without the need to draw them), “Build an Online Habitat” where you choose animals and build a correct environment with vegetation and biomes, “Switch Zoo Puzzles”, “Where do I Live” where you help return rescued animals to their homes, “Sound Match” where you match the animal song to the correct animal, “Meerkat Grab-a-Snack” where you can help feed a Meerkat by catching food, and “Catch the Moment” where students take ‘pictures’ of wildlife, all the while reading interesting facts about animals. Switcheroo Zoo also has short films, sound clips, and photographs about animals for students to watch and listen to. Young learners can become a “Switch Zoo Guide” by completing the Switch Zoo Quest for which they will play nine fun animal related games and activities to become a guide. When they finish, they will receive a Switch Zoo certificate of merit and a guide badge. There is also an educational section that includes lesson plans for art, science, creative writing, and persuasive writing. To introduce children to online research, Switcheroo Zoo has on-site data with 142 animal profiles, a US endangered species map, and stories about unusual animal feats on a Zookeeper’s blog. In short, this site is packed full of fun, useful activities, lessons, and resources! and you can always take the learning further. For example, take the “Make new animals” activity. Kids can make all sorts of weird animal species, invent silly names for those animals, write a profile for these animals, decide what kind of foods they eat, and what enemies do they possess, what kind of environment is suitable for depending on their unique bodies etc. There is no music, a definite plus but the site contains ads so adult supervision is advisable.
Suitable for ages: 4-12
Well I am totally blown over by the creativity and imagination of these people! Have a look at 32 things to make using a cardboard box and see for your selves.
Do you know today is world turtle day? Ever wonder what it would be like to be a turtle or a tortoise? Well imagination can help you here. Write a story from a turtle/tortoise’s perspective. Think about the wonders of living under a shell, or partaking a diet of jellyfish and microalgae! Learn more about turtles/tortoises from here before embarking on the journey and whip up a multimedia story with the help of this simple booklet tool. Have a look at my story below:
Details by Developer
Noah stands for networked organisms and habitats. Think of Project Noah as a tool people can use to document and learn about their natural surroundings and as a technology platform research groups can use to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere. Read on to find out how it all works.
The Project Noah application has 3 modes:
Spottings: Grab a photograph of a plant or animal that you find interesting or want to learn more about, select the appropriate category, confirm your location, add some descriptive tags, and submit it. If you need help identifying species, no prob, just select the check box and the community will suggest species IDs
Location-based Field Guide: See what kinds of plants and animals have been spotted near you and learn more about them. Search through a map view, list view, or grid view of most recent spottings all based on your location. You can filter wildlife by categories so you can explore what you’re most interested in.
Field Missions: We work with labs, environmental groups, and various organizations to help them gather important data for their research projects. Missions can range from photographing squirrels or mushrooms to tracking migrating birds or invasive species. Missions allow users to contribute to ongoing research projects, but they can also be for fun and exploration.
Links for:
Price:
Free
Review: Noah stands for networked organisms and habitats. Think of Project Noah as a tool people can use to document and learn about their natural surroundings and as a technology platform research groups can use to harness the power of citizen scientists everywhere. Once you register with Project NOAH, which is free and can be done via one of existing accounts on google, twitter, face book etc., you can start uploading pictures of animals or plants that you have spotted. It can be a butterfly in your backyard or a lion in your recent safari. For each organism you can further add its scientific name, description of the specie, any additional notes, date and place of spotting etc. You can also participate in missions, in which you are given a particular topic like birds of the world or the color red, and you have to upload pictures on that topic. The more pictures you submit, the more ‘patches’ you will earn. You can even download the Project NOAH applications for your smart phone to make the process an easier one. Want to find out the true identity of that shrub growing outside your yard? check in the growing catalog of animals and plants submitted by thousands of spotters world wide.
These kinds of approaches to science can be an exciting one for all ages, even those who are cynical about application of sciences in real world. classifying animals into sub categories can be a good starting point for young learners who will need to think about an organism’s characteristic before sorting. Children can learn all sorts of facts about animals and can learn about the kind of habitat they are found in. Have a look at our spottings.
Suitable for ages: 4-80
Review: Mount Hira “aim to create a learning website which makes it easy for people to learn and memorise important verses, which can benefit us all in our life...for protection, success...and to get closer to our Creator.”
Currently they have lessons/tutorials for Ayatul kursi, Sura Yaseen, suratul Fatihah, Suratul Qadr and from Suratul Aadiyaat to Suratun Naas. Each lesson lets the student to listen to one ayaah at a time and you can replay the same ayaah over and over again. You can also read the meaning of every ayaah. A short summary of every sura is also presented at the beginning. There are also tutorials available to memorize some duaas and the 99 exalted names of Allaah SWT. Tutorials can be downloaded for offline use as well.
Suitable for ages: 3-80
ABCTeach’s ABCTools are an excellent way to create printables of all kinds. These simple to use tools will let you create puzzles, games, handwriting practice sheets, math worksheets, scrapbooking pages and all other sorts of stuff in no time. When using worksheets flexible tools like these are a great way to make worksheets which are customized for your kids. Take some time exploring this wonderful set of tools. You can search for pre made worksheets by age/grade or simply go to the theme units for a directory of different topics to find the worksheets on the topic of your choice.
The cardboard box challenge at Tinker lab has lots of funny ideas to get the creative juices flowing. Have a look around and challenge your kid to come up with something of his/her own.
