Working Winter

When school winter vacation comes around, they is bustling with winter classes and workshops for all children to chose from, and as always, homeschooling famlies make the most of these opportunities. This winter the Piranis participated in the following workshops:

CREATIVE WRITING
Offered by Hibakidz at their office, this workshop was conducted by the enthusiastic and fun loving sister Umm Zakariyya. She is one of the sub editors of HibaKidz as well as Reading and Creative Writing coach at Fajr Academy. The workshop was available to children aged 8 to 12. The workshop walked the participants through the stages of writing to publishing and ended with the children putting together a short story as a book.

QBAP (12 yrs) was a at first reluctant participant, who returned home and admitted it was a lot of fun, the very first day Masha'Allah. He also realized that though he had studied these steps earlier at school this was the first time he had a teacher that made it fun and we found he now enjoyed writing rather than complaining about what a chore it was.


CALLIGRAPHY

Another workshop offered by Hibakidz. Sister Rubina Khilji who conducted the workshop has been teaching adults calligraphy for many years now and this was her first workshop for children. She is passionate about her work and hopes her students will continue practicing on their own and revive the glory of this form of Islamic penmanship Insha'Allah.

IBAP (10 yrs) and QBAP (12 yrs) both attended this workshop. They were given several sheets with boldfaced prints of the letters of the Arabic alphabet and then taught how to hold and move a thick marker to trace the letters. They were provided with a thick marker specially cut for the work as well as a thinner calligraphy marker (made in Japan). They were shown how a reed pen is made and explained about the importance of literacy in Islam. In the end they werre taught how to write their names and write a Dua asking Allah SWT to increase their knowledge, which was framed for the children courtesy of Hiba Magazine.

Both boys appreciated the art and are keen to practice and develop this skill, Insha'Allah.


ARABIC
Abbati also decided to make the most of the classes offered during this winter and attended a 10 day Arabic class conducted by Ibrahim Abidali. Brother Ibrahim teaches Arabic at Generations School and also conducts a twice a week session at the children's Quran class. Some of the children had attended his children's summer course last summer.

Abbi was accompanied by ABAP (14 yrs) and later QBAP as well. It was a starters course, but br Ibhrahim's informal and warm style had his students soon conversing in simple sentences by the end of the class and lloking oforward to the next class he plans to conduct after a months time Insha'Allah.

Marium Appa’s Quran Class as narrated by SBAP (3yrs) & HBAP (6yrs)

I sit next to Isa and play next to Isa and then I did something good! I jumped up with my pencil and then all the teacher came back,. Then they came back to listen to our Quran.

All people come back from their home to read the Quran.

- SBAP

I take off my shoes and put them on the rack, then I sit in the first gali near the garden because all the rooms are filled and are hot so my teacher makes us sit in the gali.

My teacher’s name is Sumairah Aunty, she makes us read and she makes letters on the board and we read it. We also have a test and we also play games and we also read from the Quaida, para. And Sir Ibrahim comes and makes us do Arabic. And Aunty gives us stars and chocolate if we read nice, and I got 5 stars for finding a big letter.

- HBAP

Arabic Classes

Alhumdulilllah QBAP, IBAP and MBAP have joined a summer Arabic Class (began 1st June ends 8th July). It objectives are : Arabic communication and writing skills, and rules to help Quranic comprehension. So the three boys attend this class every morning.

The instructor, Brother Ibrahim Ali,  has studied at Madinah University (he and his younger brother led Taraweeh at Zia bhai's house some years ago).

The children's afternoon Quran Class has arranged to have him teach Arabic three days a week (conducting their regular Nazra class twice a week) during this summer as well. This allows the boys to revise and reinforce what they learn in the morning and HBAP is able to learn here too.  The morning course the boys attend is more intensive though.

Masha'Allah, the children are enjoying the classes and have begun making simple Arabic sentences (and even teasing each other in Arabic too!). The boys even enjoy identifying the meaning of some of the words in the Quran when revising their lesson for class Alhumdulillah.