Themed Summer Holidays

Hello Summer holidays! Gone are the days when playing cricket at the local park with a few friends (coming home only for essentials and returning when it was too dark to play) was the heyday of Summer. Today’s generation seem to need constant stimulation and entertainment which can quickly descend into a haze of lengthy screen time. I’m not against screen time altogether, but I do believe that everything is good in moderation. Except the great outdoors, which needs to be experienced in abundance!

As a family, we always take advantage of breaking up before most other schools and enjoy a week or two abroad at the end of June. My children have nine weeks off school. I must say I don’t know how stay at home parents cope with so many weeks of having to constantly come up with exciting and interesting things to do to entertain school age children. This year, we came up with “themed” weeks to help pass the time productively and provide a focus for our activities. The children helped brainstorm so were very much a part of the planning process.

 

Perfect Breakfast (Suhoor)

Each year, Ramadhan brings with it a unique favourite dish. This year it was the porridge and flapjacks for suhoor which went down a treat.

Creamy Porridge 

Organic oats prepared in the usual way but add honey, chopped dates and walnuts. Sprinkle some coconut power. I made the porridge the night before and chilled in the fridge. You can top with seasonal fruit before serving. We topped ours with organic raspberries from the allotment.

Flapjacks

https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1205637/flapjack

I used the recipe above and added pecan nuts, chopped dates and chopped walnuts. They were the tastiest flapjacks we ever had and brilliant to keep you going through the day.

 

 

 

Good Deed Jar

My 4 year old finally got round to completing his Ramadhan Good Deed Jar.

We upcycled an old jar and used the print-out below. My son decorated the jar with some gold ribbon and golden crescents. He did all the cutting himself (with some tidying up by Mummy!).

This was supposed to be part of a playgroup activity but it had to be cancelled so we decided to do it together at home.

We have used pompoms at the bottom of the jar and he gets one if he completes a good deed. Five pompoms will give him treat such as feeding the ducks in the park.

 

 

Click on this link to download the worksheet 30daysramadangooddeeds

 

Colouring Competition

Yesterday, the children learnt about the Hoopoe bird from the story of Sulayman (as). They have been asked to enter a competition to colour in a drawing of this exotic bird.

 

Please see the link attached to download the drawing. Alternatively, your child can can draw their own picture.

 

See you on Friday!

Ramadhan Reminder

Join us today for a 15 minute reminder from the Qur’an on the topic of “Wisdom” for sisters and a 10 minute story from the Qur’an called “Tale of a Fish” for children before iftar and maghrib at Makki Masjid.

Reminder: 8:45pm

Maghrib/Iftar: 9:21pm

 

Good Deed of the Day

Day 1: Kindness to Animals  

For each day of Ramadhan, the children have a deed of the day. Today, it was kindness to animals and Suhayla pipped the post with helping to clean the goldfish tank. “Fish” is her favourite word at the moment and she kept saying it over and over again. She was particularly happy to see the fish eating in the clean water and smiled at me saying “Hmmmmm” (delicious).

 

 

 

 

“There is reward in kindness to every living thing.”

Hadith of the Prophet Muhammad (saw).

Manchester

This is directed at my Muslim friends. I have seen many status updates recently mentioning Manchester and Syria in the same post. Please don’t compare the loss of life in Manchester to the loss of life in Syria. Give each innocent life that was lost it’s rightful mention without a political agenda. Now is not the time. Now is the time to come together for Manchester. Each and every life matters and deserves our thoughts, prayers and respect individually. Would you turn up at a relative’s funeral and begin to mourn someone else’s death? No. Give Manchester respect.

 

 

Ramadhan Iftar Prep

I tried this last year and it worked so well, I decided to do it again. I have batch cooked all the curry using fresh ingredients. The following dishes are included:

• Keema Aloo
• Keema Karela (bitter gourd)
• Kofta
• Arvi (Taro root vegetable)
• Mixed Vegetables (Courgette, Edamame Beans and Aubergine)
• Chicken Shorba
• Chicken Palak
• Chicken Cholay
• Chicken with Courgette
• Fish Masala
• Mackerel and Cholay
• Palak Paneer
• Aloo Gosht
• Gosht with Tinda (Indian squash)
• Gostht with Kaddu (pumpkin)
• Tarka Daal
• Bhindi (Okra)

I have set aside half for my Mum. We usually have curry 3 – 4 times per week in Ramadhan with fresh roti (chapatti). I will set aside the selected curry for defrosting and then heat in a pan (not microwave) before iftar and add fresh coriander, slices of ginger and a dash of lemon juice.