Batu Seremban

I savor and relish this traditional childhood game I used to enjoy in elementary school, way back. I have a feeling that almost every culture has its own version of this game. Jacks is probably the American version of Batu Seremban.

There are many versions of this game in Malaysia too. The one that I'm used to is the one using 5 buah (direct translation : fruit, but in context, it refers to one beanie bag). I have made it for the kids couple of years ago, but since they couldn't master the skills needed for the game, it didn't stay long in our household. Recently, I made it again, this time, one set for each child. S made some of her own too. We used uncooked lentils for the filling.

It can also be played with pebbles, but I prefer the soft version. They look real cute too. When I played it, if the one you're not picking even slightly moved, you're out. With this soft type, it's even more difficult than the pebbles, since sometimes, they would lie on top of one another, and even if you pick the top one, the one under it would move too, even if it's just the fabric that moved.

The kids still haven't yet mastered the skills needed to play the game, but they're still working on it. In fact, even Baby Z tried a hand at playing it, much to our surprise. We had just finished our salat, and were sitting down doing zikr. As usual, Baby Z roamed about the room, weaving between us, smoothing out our prayer rugs, messing it up again, and climbing on hubby's stretched legs.

When he saw his sibs tossing the buah in the air and catching them, he took one buah in his chubby hand, grasped it tight, and started to shake that hand left to right, as if shaking a rattle. I suppose he was trying to toss it into the air like his sisters and brother. As he observed the buahs being tossed about, he suddenly opened that hand, releasing his grip on the buah, and tilted his hand so the buah fell to the floor.

All of us broke into laughter. It was really amusing to see Baby Z trying to imitate his sibs playing Batu Seremban. After a while though, the game no longer fascinated him, and he moved on to trying to close and open the bedroom door, eating the buah, much to our collective gasps, and trying to pull out my pendrive from the tower.

Crochet Princess

We had bought a load of yarn online from Jo Ann some time back. When we received the package, I was a tad disappointed because the type of yarn was not necessarily for babies. But then again, I had intended the yarn to be used by the kids to make tiny creations for their soft toys and dolls.

Back in 2005, I had made for both S and N ragdolls, as a consolation for not getting two china porcelain dolls that were offered to them by some Malaysian brothers who had bought them by mistake. We told the girls that those dolls looked too alive, and as a consolation, I told them I would make them a doll each.

Happy with the alternative, they acquisced, and I set to work making these two rag dolls after looking on the internet for ideas and basic instructions.



The dolls were really customized, as I had asked them how tall they wanted their dolls, what color hair they wanted, what face shape they wanted, and what kind of smiles they preferred on their dolls.

S's Anisah, wearing the newly crocheted dress S made.

After the dolls were done, they named them, S's Anisah, and N's Farashah. I didn't make clothes for the dolls except for one or two. I have trouble finding enough time to make dresses and abaya for the girls, I wasn't about to spend time I don't have making clothes for their dolls. Finding decent clothes that are not belly button friendly is pretty frustrating in this country.

The girls had lamented over the lack of clothes their dolls are faced with, so I told them to try and make them themselves, since both girls had taken free sewing classes at our recreation center.

N's Farashah (she had chosen that to be the hair color)

I permitted them the use of my threads and needles. It was not without problems though, as I had found pins on the carpet more than a few times, but I hope those were 'learning from mistakes' moments they would heed.
I started to introduce to them the art of crocheting back in 2006. I had crocheted when I was about S's age, because my stepmother was into it and so did everybody else in our neighborhood, but I didn't really remember how to crochet, so as is usually the case, we checked out crochet books from the library!

I hate reading crochet recipes/instructions with all the short forms. I practically forced myself to go through them until we could do a very simple stitch. The first time I taught them to crochet, they couldn't really do it, especially N and H. S managed to crochet a pretty decent chain, but she was still relatively struggling, to the point of not even wanting to do it. So we dropped it, that is until, I stumbled across Mahar Dry Goods. That started the crochet craze.

However, that activity soon dwindled for a bit, and picked up again when we joined the Sew Giving Blanket Drive. And while I'm still struggling trying to make blankets, S is exploring on her own, reading the crochet recipes on her own, and coming up the cutest expanding wardrobe for the dolls and their soft toys. To my pleasant surprise, one after another, she crocheted a vest, a shorts, a dress, and a tutu in progress. Mashaallah! (I guess this is probably another result of applying the unschooling concept, of course without me realizing it)

I was trying to make sense of a crochet short form one time, and in frustration, I called S.

"S, what does this mean?" I asked her.

She actually explained to me what it meant, much to my surprise, and like a good student, I followed her instructions and had my 'ohh' and 'aha!' moments.


So here you go S, this post is dedicated to our Crochet Princess: S. May Allah bless you with skills that are blessed by Him. Ameen.

The Sadaqah Jar & Worthwhile Projects

Recipe for Financial Success: Save, Sadaqah and Spend.

The Triple S

1. Divide it in half
2. Dump one half of it into the Savings Jar
3. Divide the other one half into thirds
4. Place one third in the SpendingJar/Wallet/Purse
5. Place the remaining two thirds in the Sadaqah Jar.
6. Update ledger

A friend expressed utter surprise when I told her that the kids do have money saved up. It's a cultural and generational difference, I suppose, because where she grew up, the only money she ever saved were those for buying special treats at the store. When I was growing up, I did have some money saved up for emergencies (If my father were suddenly struck with utter poverty, I could come to the rescue and save the family with my savings of 50 Malaysian Ringgit). My husband was also a saver, a very frugal saver at that, as is apparent now.

I have long thought of training the kids to wisely handle their finances. Seeing how hubby is the economics guy, I asked him to handle the matter. Unfortunately, he said that it all comes to him by instinct, and that he doesn't know how to 'teach' it to the kids. In other words, he has no organization whatsoever in his method of saving money.

So it was up to me to yet again do some reading and searching and researching as to a doable method of training your children to manage their finances. K and Rq had mentioned what Muhammad Alshareef taught in Rizq Management about not putting all your eggs in one basket. I had heard about that before, and one day I came across the 3 'basket' method (at least that's what I call it).

So I adapted it for the kids, and assigned each of them three jars. We had some glass spaghetti sauce jars that I had decorated, and in which they had lept their money before. So it wasn't that hard to do what I planned for them to do. Basically, each of them will have:

1. Savings Jar
2. Sadaqah Jar
3. Spending Jar

Each time they are to receive money and make a deposit, they are to follow the Triple S recipe. After a while, dividing up 1 dollar bills into halves and thirds just got tiresome, and we agreed that for small amounts of money, they can divide it as they wish and allocate it as they wish, but that for amounts of $10 or more, they would have to follow the Triple S recipe.

So, for a while, we have had the Sadaqah Jar, which has increasingly been getting full, tabarakallah. Other than donating the money at Jumuah prayer, we thought of sponsoring an orphan as a family, having the kids contribute their Sadaqah money to it. Though we had filled out the forms, it hasn't really taken off yet.

And one day, out of the blue, while I was bloghopping, I stumbled upon the most amazing blog owned by sister Farhana, called Sketched Soul. I have always wanted to do projects like these with the kids, but in light of my full plate, I never got to even hashing out the idea. Alhamdulillah for like-minded sisters that actually takes the time to hash out these ideas and make them a realistic occurence, Allahu Akbar!

All the projects are mashaallah, really great ideas, but two caught my fancy; The Muslimah Doll Project, and the Sew Giving Blanket Drive. More so because these are projects I can directly involve the kids in. Bubbling over with enthusiasm, to which the kids are now very much accustomed to whenever I am struck with an idea for homeschooling, baking, gifts, or arts and crafts projects, I told them of my find. Responding with the same amount of enthusiasm, they eagerly nodded their way to agreeing in contributing in the projects. The only damper is, H is pretty much left out, as he doesn't know how to crochet, and even though he wanted to make the doll in the beginning, he later opted out.

As of now, we have yet to pay a visit to Jo Ann to buy yarn and muslin for the doll's body, and Farhana had said that that project is put on hold for now, but that we can still make the dolls and it will be used for another project inshallah.

S had already started her baby blanket, but we're running out of yarn, so maybe after this weekend, we can make that trip to Jo Ann, inshaallah.