I have been through a cycle of major sleep deprivation and thus totally zombied. The culprit: ECZEMA. I was only the secondary victim. The real sufferer was Zakariyya (3).

This was my itch kit. All sorts of moisturising creams, prescription steroid creams, natural oils, bandages . . . .

The poor child was practically hurting himself by scratching. He could not sleep due to his itch. We have even had to bandage his arms and legs to stop him from scratching. After blood tests and an allergy test, Alhamdulillah, Zakariyya was not reacting to anything in his food or environment. It was just plain old dry skin condition that breaks into an inflammation. He has extremely dry skin which makes him vulnerable.

It was a very trying and frustrating time for us as parents. Many a times, nothing really helped in relieving his itch. Alhamdulillah with lots of dua and a switch to more natural herbal treatment, Zakariyya’s eczema is under control.

These are some of the things we are currently using on his skin:

1. Almond oil for general moisturising

2. A blend of natural oils specific for eczema. You can mix your own or purchase a blend from natural food stores.

3. A bath scrub made of moong bean flour, chick pea flour, a little turmeric and yoghurt/milk. This is just a traditional East Indian bath scrub. Ironically I used it on my children when they were babies, then forgot all about it!

Hajj Tracing Page

Please click on the title to download the pages.

What ingredient can begin with letter X? Honestly I could not come up with anything.

Since letter X was just a simple cross that Ilyaas (4) easily identifies, I was not overly concern. Letter X gave me an opportunity to try a type of painting I have been wanting to do with the children for a while now.

Painting with milk. This just involves mixing food coloring to milk to paint. The canvas in our case were slices of bread. We used a an X shaped cookie cutter as a stencil.

Painting letter X on bread

I then slightly toasted the bread to dry out the milk a little and to accentuate the colour.

X on toast - Enjoy!

W for watermelon seemed the most appropriate thing at the heat of summer. I purchased watermelons that had red and yellow flesh. I opted for the smaller variety as they have larger seeds in them.

We started off by examining the outer skin of the fruit. Obviously green. However Ilyaas (4) thought that the lines looked like snakes.

Then I cut open the fruit and we observed the inside. The red watermelon’s seed were sort of pale and was quite edible. However the yellow watermelon came with big black seeds which was really exciting for Ilyaas. I explained to him that the watermelon started off as seeds.

Then we used a melon baller to scoop out the flesh of the red watermelon. He was just not able to form any melon balls. Rather it was used as a sort of melon scoop. Ilyaas also observed how watery the whole fruit was. He did not like the mess.

Using a melon baller

Once we scooped all the flesh out, we ran it in the blender with some sugar and ice and made a watermelon drink.

Watermelon drink

As for the yellow watermelon, it was dignified by being sliced up and eaten as how a watermelon should be.

We also made a simple paper plate watermelon using glue painting technique. Ilyaas glued the seeds we had saved from the yellow watermelon here.

Paper plate watermelon

Here it goes for what it’s worth . . .

I set up a little tent in our backyard just before Ramadhan. The tent was grey inside out. I pitched it at the top of our retaining wall. The idea was for our children and us to climb up the walls and go to the tent. Then possible be there for a while making remembrance of Allah. This in my mind was sort of imitating what Rasululullahi Sallallaahu Alaihi Wasallam did before the first revelation came down in the month of Ramadhan.

It was summer and tents are for summer. I thought it was quite a novel idea of getting into the spirit of Ramadhan. I had only one problem, I could not convince any of my family members about this Hira Cave. They just could not see it more than just a tent! Unimaginative lot!

Through out summer it became my little place for some quite and peace.  Every time I climbed my way to it, I could only think of one special person, Khadijah Radhiallahu Anha . . . it was overwhelming.

Insha-Allah, I am posting this hoping it will benefit to those of you out there who hopefully have an imaginative, let’s get into the spirit type family. Who knows next Ramadhaan there might be many Hira Caves pitched in many backyards

My little tent 'Hira Cave' at the top of the 'mountain'

We have been enjoying the last few days of the warm weather with walks in the various parks around our city. Savouring all of the beautiful fall colours just as the breeze gently plucks away the leaves.

The Leaf Man by Lois Ehlert uses these exact blown away leaves to create characters and a storyline. I enjoy the collage work in all her books. This one though is special. It captures all the colours of fall and locks it in a book, so beautiful to see and read. The children were just so occupied looking at all the different leaf creatures.

Leaves we collected

Ilyaas' leaf man

Our leaf creation

I did scan this artwork for keepsake.

Along side the Leaf Man we also looked at this book. Again truly wonderful ideas on using leaves.

So I decided on vinegar. I know, vinegar! This time though we did something really neat with the V ingredient, and yes we did consume it as well.

These were the two types of vinegar I had on hand. We started of by comparing their colours of course. Then I poured a little into medicine cups. Before I could say boo, Ilyaas (4) and Zakariyya (2) reached out and yes, drank it! Subhanallah they had the most hilarious smirk on their faces.

It was some sensory activity for sure. Their taste buds were so heightened that they did not want to smell the vinegar, which was what they were suppose to do in the first place.

We did an activity that involved painting with vinegar that I found here. It is more relevant to science but I used it as an art activity in this case.

Materials needed for vinegar painting

I used food coloring in place of poster paint. Also I laid a water colour paper on the tray and sprinkled the baking soda on the paper.

The children were really fascinated with the foam that formed when the vinegar, dishsoap, food colouring concoction hit the baking soda. They squeezed the bottles empty in no time. Our seconday colours did not form very dark. I suspect it was because I used food coloring. So I could not talk to the children about that.

In the end it was really a fun activity. Alhamdulillah, the end result was a marble effect type painting.

Vinegar painting

Just a note of caution for those who cannot tolerate vinegar smell. The vinegar smell did linger for a long time after we completed the activity. Needless to say everyone in our home is now well acquainted with the smell of vinegar . . . and the letter V.

The other ingredient that is worth considering for letter V is vermicelli.

Rice with vermicelli

Since we did R for rice this was not an option for us. Also we have this dish so often that Ilyaas would have been disappointed.

Ibraheem and Ilyaas looking for fossils

Field scientist explaining about fossils found

A Hadrosaurus (duck-billed dino) remains. They call him Rusty!

Stegosaurus

Prosaurolophus - type of Hadrosaur

Long-Necked Plesiosaur

Triceratops

T-Rex

Can't remember this one, sorry!

Zakariyya mesmerized by the sturgeon.

Hoodoos - rock formation

Completing giant puzzle - Alberta during the dinosaur times.

This trip was wonderful for our boys who are fans of dinosaurs. They enjoyed the field trip that involved looking for fossils and seeing a real fossil in the ground – Rusty the duck billed dinosaur.

It was also an opportunity to reinforce the greatness of Allah. We explained to the children, how Allah created all of these dinosaurs and then He also made them die. Many of the dinosaurs were big and powerful, but they were still destroyed. And new life were replaced after the dinosaurs. Allah is Al-Muhyi (the Giver of Life) and Al-Mumeet (The Creator of Death).

In its death, Allah preserved their remains and has made it a lesson of His greatness for us. For Ibraheem (8) we related the story of people of Lut (Alaihissalaam). It was such a similar situation. We did tell him though that in the case of dinosaurs, they were animals and were not destroyed for any evil actions.

We were also able to witness Allah’s kudrat in how some of this prehistoric creatures have evolved and still exist today like the sturgeon fish.

Another amazing feature of the Drumheller area are the Hoodos. These are rocks carved and shaped by the forces of wind and water over thousands of years.

This was a project we did in our excitement about our visit to the Royal Tyrrell Museum.

We have many dino related books. However, this Usborne one has to be our favourite one.

I printed out a simple outline of a T-Rex (this is what Ilyaas wanted) and gave the children some pasta to glue onto the picture. We were careful about gluing along the outline of the picture.

Pasta dinosaur

I also pre-made some play dough using the recipe I found here. We rolled out the play dough and carefully pressed our pasta T-Rex onto it to create a cast. These were the fossils we created.

The children also did some dino footprints using figurines.

Dinos stuck in the mud.

Walking with the dinosaurs . . .

After some research on the internet I decided on doing Upside Down Pineapple cake. This is a dessert we normally just buy. Even though there wasn’t a strong letter association to this recipe, I thought the whole experience of making a cake and then turning it upside down will be an interesting for the children.

For this recipe we followed the recipe from here. We used a regular yellow cake mix for the batter. We also used glazed cherries instead of maraschino. Both Ilyaas (4) and Zakariyya (2) were involved in making this cake.

Dumping brown sugar into cake pan

Arranging pineapple rings and glazed cherries in pan

Pouring cake batter into pan

Then it was the waiting part. Once the cake was baked, I gathered the two children . . . . then did all the sound effect, then I carefully flipped the hot cake onto a tray. They were excited to see all the pineapple rings showing on the top of the cake.

Alhamdullilah this was our Upside down pineapple cake (there wasn’t enough pineapple rings in one can to cover the entire pan!)