As we started another Home school Year, (Year 2 and Reception) it just so happen to coincide with the Islamic New year, so it felt right to begin the story of Prophet Musa (as) (Moses) as it holds a significance for us in the first of the Islamic Months – Muharram.
Abu Hurayrah (may Allah be pleased with him) said:“The Messenger of Allah (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: ‘The best of fasting after Ramadhan is fasting Allah’s month of Muharram.’ ” Reported by Muslim, 1982
Ibn ‘Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) said: “The Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) came to Madinah and saw the Jews fasting on the day of ‘Ashura’. He said, ‘What is this?’ They said, ‘This is a righteous day, it is the day when Allah saved the Children of Israel from their enemies, so Musa fasted on this day.’ He said, ‘We have more right to Musa than you,’ so he fasted on that day and commanded [the Muslims] to fast on that day.” [Reported by al-Bukhari, 1865]
We were also so excited to be collaborating with @shade7 on the launch of their BRAND NEW book – My first book of Islamic Months – for the month of Muharram. It’s a fantastic Islamic months boardbook with lift the flaps and even pulls out to be displayed beautifully on our bookshelf! It’s a must have for your kids and a fabulous way to actually learn more about the Islamic Months! Also, you can sign up to their newsletter to receive a Free Interactive Islamic Months Calendar each month for each of the Islamic months.
The Story of Musa (as) is mentioned throughout the Quran, so I wanted to take this opportunity to dedicate a lengthy amount of time to it within our homeschool plans. I also wanted the girls and I look into the Ancient Egyptians as a unit study and found this a perfect combination. I divided the month by dedicating the first 2 weeks on the Story of prophet Musa (as) and the final 2 weeks for learning more about Ancient Egyptians as a civilization. Many of you were curious about how I would do this plan, so I decided to prepare a 16 lesson Plan + 20 pages of Resources for you all.
With my girls now aged 4 and 6, I wanted them both to be able to enjoy this unit together, so a lot of our plans included sensory play, crafts and hands on activities. To make the story come to life we took chunks of the story from the Zanib Mian’s Migo and Ali: Love for the Prophets book and focused on a certain aspect each day. This meant we were able to review what the story was about daily and then focus on what happened next. At the same time, I differentiated the planning so that my eldest had some opportunities for writing too. We included a diary entry, designing a poster, a character profile and even a newspaper report!
I think it’s so important for us to teach our children the stories from the Quran, of previous Prophets (as) and of our beloved Prophet Muhammad (pbuh). So I was glad I could use all the creativity and ideas I had collected over the summer to make this topic a memorable one for my girls.
As we continued the topic to focus on Ancient Egypt, we used our fab Usbourne pop up book See Inside Ancient Egypt to research a little more. We enjoyed finding out about papyrus paper – we even made our own and discovered hieroglyphics. To end the topic we also touched on mummies and the mummification process which is actually quite gruesome for little ones! But its a start to comparing how we bury people in Islam. All in all, it was a really enjoyable Unit Study and I highly recommend it for you to try it with your children. Don’t forget you can download our planning and resources to aid you along the way!
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