Grandpa Amu

I have a weakness. I like to watch YouTube videos of old men and women living in mountains, villages, wilderness. Living simple lives. Making simple things. Cooking simple food. I have watched a lot of these. From a granny in a SriLankan village, to grandpa Amu somewhere in far east, to people in Russian mountains. …

From Sirius to Woolly Mammoths

Living with my kids is like living within an encyclopaedia. At any given time you can be fired with information, on anything from prehistoric civilizations to modern gizmos and everything in between, at dizzying speed. Every day I am served a glorious cocktail of history, politics, sciences, philosophy, tech, languages and more, with an assortment …

🔔 Changes to ShiftClick – my side project

I started blogging about the educational resources in 2009 at Homeschool4Muslims. I had found so many cool tools and resources during homeschooling my kids and I wanted to share them with others. I blogged for almost eight years. But as my homeschooling methodology changed (leaning more and more towards unschooling), I felt a need to …

Open your eyes to alFatiha

AlFatiha is the door to Quran. Quran starts with it.But it also has the power to open your eyes, open your heart and open your mind. It can give you a different sight for this world.AlFatiha is a summary of the Quran. Everything you will read in Quran first occurs in alFatiha, in a concise …

Resources for Young Unschoolers and Their Parents

When it comes to helping your child to learn, there are a lot of resources available on the web in varying degrees of quality. So, living in this age and time we can’t complain about not having enough resources to nurture our kids' interests. On the contrary sometimes the sheer number of choices available may …

Learning Co-ordinates Geometry

A.K.A. Umar's recipe on how to be a treasure seeking sailor: Step 1. Make a rectangle with masking tape on floor. Step 2. Make marks along the tape at every 10 cm. Step 3. Join the marks with more tape, eventually making a grid. Step 4. Number your grid. Step 5: Search on the web …

An unschooler’s guide to reading and writing

So how do children learn to read and write without being taught? The answer is ........ by example!! Create an environment in your home where reading and writing is a big part of every day. Read and write a lot with your kids. Have books and other reading and writing material in ready reach of …

Taqwah – The Root of Success

Surah alMaidah and surah anNisaa are complementary surahs. Where Surah alMaidah is the surah of society as a whole, Surah anNisaa on the other hand is the surah of individuals. Allah discusses personal reform in Surah anNisaa and then He discusses social reform in alMaidah.

Documenting Unschooling

I previously wrote about the two kinds of reactions I get when people learn that our kids don't go to school or do any school like work at home. Turns out there is a third kind of people too. People who are genuinely interested in learning how unschooling works. And how does an unschooling day …

What Counts As A Mercy Of Allah?

So the youngsters take refuge in the cave and ask Allah to have mercy on them, and straighten their affair for them (they were on the run from the polytheist king). إِذْ أَوَى الْفِتْيَةُ إِلَى الْكَهْفِ فَقَالُوا رَبَّنَا آتِنَا مِن لَّدُنكَ رَحْمَةً وَهَيِّئْ لَنَا مِنْ أَمْرِنَا رَشَدًا [Mention] when the youths retreated to the cave …