Sr. Alif blogs
There are Muslim homeschoolers’ blogs, and there is Talibdeen Junior. I have to commend the site’s incredible accomplishment in providing wonderful resources, lesson plans, and worksheets that are well thought out and complete. The lessons have been extremely useful to many educators that I personally know, as well as millions of viewers worldwide. Sister Umm Ibrahim, the creator and mind behind this resourceful and inspirational website, integrates Islam in English, Science, and Social Studies using the United States Education Standards. Her lessons are simple and useful to parents, homeschoolers and educators. My favorite is the the TJ Ramadan blog, it provides lessons for each day of Ramadan which is just perfect for people who want to get spoon fed. Hey, admit it, sometimes we all want to!!
I had the pleasure to interview Sister Um Ibrahim herself. We ask Allah(SWT) to bless her and her family for her tireless devotion to Islamic education.
Q. Give us a brief summary of your life.
A. Well, my life definitely wouldn’t make the bestseller list. I am an American Muslim who grew up in California. Married my college sweetheart who I have known for 22 years alhamdulillah and have been blessed with 7 children (one no longer with us) and three stepchildren (belonging to my beloved co wife and best friend who passed away five years ago). I’ve moved around quite a bit due to husband being in military (non Islamic days) or for religious reasons, seeking beneficial Muslim communities to live in, and then for Hijrah.
Q. Where do you currently reside, and what are you doing there?
I live in the Middle East due to my husband’s work. We made hijrah to Egypt back in 2002, and then after living there for about a year and a half, we lived in Yemen for six years (my kids miss it dearly) and are now in the gulf region.
Q.How many children do you have, and what are their ages?
A. 6 biological children: ages 17, 15, 12, 8, 5, 2 and 3 step children in my care: 10, 8, and 6 .
Q. What is your educational background?
A. I have a B.S. in Civil Engineering (from UC Davis). I would love to be able to get a Master of Education in Curriculum Instruction some day, in sha Allah.
Q. What is one thing we do not know about you?
A. I was voted shyest person of my high school class. I tell some of my cyber friends and they cannot believe it as they say I seem so outgoing from my writing on my blog. Islam and having kids has given me a lot more confidence and a greater love for life than I ever had before Islam, alhamdulillah.
Q. We see you as a woman of many talents, but what talent in your opinion is one that you wish you had.
A. I really wish I had talent in the area of graphic design/art. I’d like to squeeze some illustration from my oldest daughter, because she has more of an eye for design and color coordination than I do, ma sha Allah.
Q. What does the name Talibiddeen Jr mean, and how did you come up with it?
A. When we were in the states, one of the states we lived in required us to register our homeschool with a name. I was flipping through this name book at the time and I saw that Talib meant student, or seeker of knowledge. I can’t remember if that entire name, Talibiddeen or just Talib was in there but I had also seen some names such as shams uddeen, etc that used deen in the name, so I thought, how fitting for young Muslims!
A. You have many websites, what is the reason for you to break them into multi sites?
Q. It is easier to maintain (usually) a lot of smaller sites, than one big one.
Q. List all your websites.
A. Right now, the functional ones are:
Talibiddeen Jr. (Full homeschool site, but only Islamic Studies resources are available at this time)
TJ Homeschool Blog
TJ Ramadan
TJ-Hajj (haven’t updated since the first year, but it is still available
Other sites I have maintained and hope to revive in the future, in sha Allah: Orderly Muslim Home and Raising Muslim Daughters
Q. How many hours do you dedicate to your websites each week or day?
A. Not a set amount. I used to have more time for them the past couple of years, but now only really maintain the blog on a regular basis. I make materials all throughout the week as needed for our homeschool and at least try to post them on the blog if I can’t update on the main site.
Q. How do you manage to work on them while you homeschool?
A. I have a lot of big kids and so they are able to do a lot of housework which gives me some “free” time. I only go out for grocery shopping really and don’t have outside commitments, so I don’t have other things to take up my time outside of homeschool and daily household maintenance.
Q. Mashallah you have a lot of computer skills that enable you to form your own materials, can you tell us what kind of computer software you are savvy with?
A. For my website, I use Expression Web .I took html and css tutorials to help me to customize my site even more. I use Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint, which I absolutely love. It is incredible what you can do with today’s PowerPoint, it’s not just for presentations, I make print materials in it as well. But honestly, all you need is just a capable word processor (I use Word for the bulk of my materials) and then I PDF the files for those who may not have word or an equal counterpart.
Q. Who has been your inspirational teachers or educators?
A. Really, Islam has been my best teacher. It has taught me how to live, and to worship my Lord, which is the reason we are here in the first place. Islam covers every aspect of our lives. Such a blessing Allah has bestowed on us, ma sha Allah, to be Muslim, the greatest gift of all.
Q. What is some advice you would like to share with other inexperienced homeschooling moms out there?
A. Know that homeschooling will ALWAYS be a challenge. I’ve been doing it for 12 years and sometimes I still feel like a novice. Although at times, you might feel inexperienced, every homeschool is unique and what works for one home schoolers may not work for yours. However, you are in charge, and you set your priorities for YOUR children. The going will get tough, but hang in there, and ask Allah’s help. If this is what you truly believe in, then focus all your energy on your family, and don’t look back.
Remember that homeschooling is not just about the teaching secular subjects, but it’s about training your children to be well rounded Muslims. Even if you have had a day with little academics, always look at what you have done Islamically. I try to make sure that if little else gets done, we remember Allah throughout our day.
All kids are different so don’t expect that one cookie cutter method or curriculum will work. Some kids will thrive in homeschool and others will appear not to. My oldest, 17, has been unschooled (not by my choice) for most of his life. He just doesn’t like to study, but ma sha Allah, he loves to read and takes the initiative to learn on his own when he wants to. Most importantly, by just listening to him speak about his religion and his love for it awes me, and makes me realize that this is the fruit of my Islamic Training with him. So, focus on your children’s strengths and interests. Some might go running to college, and others are not. But If you give them the gift of Islamic knowledge and the love of learning, you have given them a skill for a lifetime that allows them to learn on their own, in sha Allah.
Q. What in your opinion is the most important characteristic a homeschooling parent should have?
A. Love for their Lord, their religion and their children and desire to fulfill this role of educator/nurturer that Allah has bestowed upon you. Your heart has to be in it to succeed (and remember that success means different things to different people). Also having or improving your organizational skills is high up there on the list. Not being organized has really killed our endeavors or progress at times.
Q. What would you like to accomplish by your websites?
A. My hope is just to make things easier for fellow homeschoolers maybe saving time or money with the things that I make and the information that I share. When I started homeschooling there were very few Muslim homeschooling web sites with resources and lesson plans. When I saw a lot of non Muslim homeschooling sites sharing their things, I thought to myself, why not me? I started making my own worksheet and lesson plans which I uploaded it on to my website and blog.
Q. What are your future plans for your website?
A.I’d just like to grow it and be a comprehensive site for Muslim homeschoolers. I would like to islamicize non-muslim homeschool sites, and I would like to offer this to the Muslim community.
Q. Is there a special message you would like to send to your readers?
A.I truly appreciate all the kind words, duaas, and feedback that anyone has left on my site or emailed me with. I really do value it. You will never know how many times a kind word from someone who liked my site (and wrote to tell me about it) has truly brightened my day and made me feel as if I really made a difference (well, a difference for other than my family, lol).
Q. What are your favorite links and resources?
A.Ummmm, can I say mine? LOL. Well, there really are a lot of great sites out there, non Muslim and Muslim homeschooling. One of my favorite blogs is run by a dear friend of mine, http://ummabdulbasirscreativecorner.blogspot.com/. She is such a creative sister ma sha Allah and has so many neat crafty type things on her site . We have worked together on a lot of projects and her creativity and design skills blow me away. Other great sites are Yemen Links. And again, there are so many more Muslim blogs and sites today, that didn’t exist when I started homeschooling.
We want to leave you with these extremely useful links from Sr Umm Ibrahim’s website for this blessed month of Ramadan:
Worksheets and Activity pages: http:/tjramadan.talibiddeenjr.amanahwebs.com/04-edu-center-ramadan-activities.htm (links to coloring pages, worksheets)
Preparing the Kids for Ramadan
http:/tjramadan.talibiddeenjr.amanahwebs.com/01-prepare-ramadan-kids.htm
Ramadan Writing Center
http:/tjramadan.talibiddeenjr.amanahwebs.com/04-edu-center-ramadan-writing.htm
Ramadan Prompts and lesson ideas to get kids writing during Ramadan
Sr. Alif blogs
There are Muslim homeschoolers’ blogs, and there is Talibdeen Junior. I have to commend the site’s incredible accomplishment in providing wonderful resources, lesson plans, and worksheets that are well thought out and complete. The lessons have been extremely useful to many educators that I personally know, as well as millions of viewers worldwide. Sister Umm Ibrahim, the creator and mind behind this resourceful and inspirational website, integrates Islam in English, Science, and Social Studies using the United States Education Standards. Her lessons are simple and useful to parents, homeschoolers and educators. My favorite is the the TJ Ramadan blog, it provides lessons for each day of Ramadan which is just perfect for people who want to get spoon fed. Hey, admit it, sometimes we all want to!!
I had the pleasure to interview Sister Um Ibrahim herself. We ask Allah(SWT) to bless her and her family for her tireless devotion to Islamic education.
Q. Give us a brief summary of your life.
A. Well, my life definitely wouldn’t make the bestseller list. I am an American Muslim who grew up in California. Married my college sweetheart who I have known for 22 years alhamdulillah and have been blessed with 7 children (one no longer with us) and three stepchildren (belonging to my beloved co wife and best friend who passed away five years ago). I’ve moved around quite a bit due to husband being in military (non Islamic days) or for religious reasons, seeking beneficial Muslim communities to live in, and then for Hijrah.
Q. Where do you currently reside, and what are you doing there?
A. I live in the Middle East due to my husband’s work. We made hijrah to Egypt back in 2002, and then after living there for about a year and a half, we lived in Yemen for six years (my kids miss it dearly) and are now in the gulf region.
Q. How many children do you have, and what are their ages?
A. 6 biological children: ages 17, 15, 12, 8, 5, 2 and 3 step children in my care: 10, 8, and 6 .
Q. What is your educational background?
A. I have a B.S. in Civil Engineering. I would love to be able to get a Master of Education in Curriculum Instruction some day, in sha Allah.
Q. One thing we do not know about you…
A. I was voted shyest person of my high school class. I tell some of my cyber friends and they cannot believe it as they say I seem so outgoing from my writing on my blog. Islam and having kids has given me a lot more confidence and a greater love for life than I ever had before Islam, alhamdulillah.
Q. We see you as a woman of many talents, but what talent in your opinion is one that you wish you had.
A. I really wish I had talent in the area of graphic design/art. I’d like to squeeze some illustration from my oldest daughter, because she has more of an eye for design and color coordination than I do, ma sha Allah.
Q. What does the name Talibiddeen Jr mean, and how did you come up with it?
A. When we were in US, one of the states we lived in required us to register our homeschool with a name. I was flipping through a name book at the time and I saw that Talib meant student, or seeker of knowledge. I can’t remember if that entire name, Talibiddeen or just Talib was in there but I had also seen some names such as shams uddeen, etc that used deen in the name, so I thought, how fitting for young Muslims!
Q. You have many websites, what is the reason for you to break them into multi sites?
A. It is easier to maintain (usually) a lot of smaller sites, than one big one.
Q. List all your websites.
A. Right now, the functional ones are: Talibiddeen Jr. (Full homeschool site, but only Islamic Studies resources are available at this time), TJ Homeschool Blog, TJ Ramadan, TJ-Hajj (haven’t updated since the first year, but it is still available. Other sites I have maintained and hope to revive in the future, in sha Allah: Orderly Muslim Home and Raising Muslim Daughters
Q. How many hours do you dedicate to your websites each week or day?
A. Not a set amount. I used to have more time for them the past couple of years, but now only really maintain the blog on a regular basis. I make materials all throughout the week as needed for our homeschool and at least try to post them on the blog if I can’t update on the main site.
Q. How do you manage to work on them while you homeschool?
A. I have a lot of big kids and so they are able to do a lot of housework which gives me some “free” time. I only go out for grocery shopping really and don’t have outside commitments, so I don’t have other things to take up my time outside of homeschool and daily household maintenance.
Q. Mashallah you have a lot of computer skills that enable you to form your own materials, can you tell us what kind of computer software you are savvy with?
A. For my website, I use Expression Web. I took html and css tutorials to help me to customize my site. I use Microsoft Word and PowerPoint, which I absolutely love. It is incredible what you can do with today’s PowerPoint, it’s not just for presentations, I make print materials in it as well. But honestly, all you need is just a capable word processor (I use Word for the bulk of my materials) and then I PDF the files for those who may not have word or an equal counterpart.
Q. Who has been your inspirational teachers or educators?
A. Really, Islam has been my best teacher. It has taught me how to live, and to worship my Lord, which is the reason we are here in the first place. Islam covers every aspect of our lives. Such a blessing Allah has bestowed on us, ma sha Allah, to be Muslim, the greatest gift of all.
Q. What is some advice you would like to share with other inexperienced homeschooling moms out there?
A. Know that homeschooling will ALWAYS be a challenge. I’ve been doing it for 12 years and sometimes I still feel like a novice. Although at times, you might feel inexperienced, every homeschool is unique and what works for one home schoolers may not work for yours. However, you are in charge, and you set your priorities for YOUR children. The going will get tough, but hang in there, and ask Allah’s help. If this is what you truly believe in, then focus all your energy on your family, and don’t look back.
Remember that homeschooling is not just about the teaching secular subjects, but it’s about training your children to be well rounded Muslims. Even if you have had a day with little academics, always look at what you have done Islamically. I try to make sure that if little else gets done, we remember Allah throughout our day.
All kids are different so don’t expect that one cookie cutter method or curriculum will work. Some kids will thrive in homeschool and others will appear not to. My oldest, 17, has been unschooled (not by my choice) for most of his life. He just doesn’t like to study, but ma sha Allah, he loves to read and takes the initiative to learn on his own when he wants to. Most importantly, by just listening to him speak about his religion and his love for it awes me, and makes me realize that this is the fruit of my Islamic Training with him. So, focus on your children’s strengths and interests. Some might go running to college, and others are not. But If you give them the gift of Islamic knowledge and the love of learning, you have given them a skill for a lifetime that allows them to learn on their own, in sha Allah.
Q. What in your opinion is the most important characteristic a homeschooling parent should have?
A. Love for their Lord, their religion and their children and desire to fulfill this role of educator/nurturer that Allah has bestowed upon you. Your heart has to be in it to succeed (and remember that success means different things to different people). Also having or improving your organizational skills is high up there on the list. Not being organized has really killed our endeavors or progress at times.
Q. What would you like to accomplish by your websites?
A. My hope is just to make things easier for fellow homeschoolers maybe saving time or money with the things that I make and the information that I share. When I started homeschooling there were very few Muslim homeschooling web sites with resources and lesson plans. When I saw a lot of non Muslim homeschooling sites sharing their things, I thought to myself, why not me? I started making my own worksheet and lesson plans which I uploaded it on to my website and blog.
Q. What are your future plans for your website?
A. I’d just like to grow it and be a comprehensive site for Muslim homeschoolers. I would like to islamize non-muslim homeschool sites, and I would like to offer this to the Muslim community.
Q. Is there a special message you would like to send to your readers?
A. I truly appreciate all the kind words, duaas, and feedback that anyone has left on my site or emailed me with. I really do value it. You will never know how many times a kind word from someone who liked my site (and wrote to tell me about it) has truly brightened my day and made me feel as if I really made a difference (well, a difference for other than my family, lol).
Q. What are your favorite links and resources?
A. Ummmm, can I say mine? LOL. Well, there really are a lot of great sites out there, non Muslim and Muslim homeschooling. One of my favorite blogs is run by a dear friend of mine, http://ummabdulbasirscreativecorner.blogspot.com/. She is such a creative sister ma sha Allah and has so many neat crafty type things on her site . We have worked together on a lot of projects and her creativity and design skills blow me away. Other great sites are Yemen Links. And again, there are so many more Muslim blogs and sites today, that didn’t exist when I started homeschooling.
We want to leave you with these extremely useful links from Sr Umm Ibrahim’s website for this blessed month of Ramadan:
Worksheets and Activity pages- http:/tjramadan.talibiddeenjr.amanahwebs.com/04-edu-center-ramadan-activities.htm (links to coloring pages, worksheets)
Preparing the Kids for Ramadan- http:/tjramadan.talibiddeenjr.amanahwebs.com/01-prepare-ramadan-kids.htm
Ramadan Writing Center and Prompts to get kids writing during Ramadan- http:/tjramadan.talibiddeenjr.amanahwebs.com/04-edu-center-ramadan-writing.htm
