Looking for books for your kids this Ramadan: Migo & Ali

This book by Zanib Mian is a treat to read! The book is so colourful with beautiful illustrations that makes it perfect for kids aged 4-12.  The language used is so child friendly that is sure to appeal  kids.

There are 15 stories of different prophets from Hazrat Adam to Hazrat Muhammad (P.B.U.H) that are the most important ones and the ones we grew up hearing them from our elders. At the end of each story, there is a very casual  question and answer between Migo(a bear) and Ali(his friend)  that actually describes the gist of each story . The stories are narrated in a beautiful, simple and a fun way  so that kids don't lose interest.

Definitely recommended for kids!

Looking for Books for your Kids this Ramadan: ''In The Light of Seerah" by Ayesha Marafani

If you have been searching for a perfect book for your kids this Ramadan," In the light of Seerah" by Ayesha Marafani is right here! Such beautiful narration of events from Islamic history  and the comparison of these events with our everyday activities just makes it easy for kids to understand those events of the past.
The pivotal message of the book is:
" Seerah has it all!"

The book has 24 short stories , each teaching kids a message. Each story ends with a message or question for you to ponder. It's an amazing book and the effort that the author has put into it can be felt as you read it. The book teaches kids about

• How to be humble 
• Working with determination 
• Spending time with siblings
• Respecting and Obeying your elders
• Belief in your self
• Winning and losing competitions
• Managing Success
• How not to be arrogant and proud
• Patience while dealing with a catastrophe
• How to be consistent in your work
• Importance of being honest whatever the case might be
• Dealing with bullies
• Qualities that help gain respect and love
• Promoting peace always 

The important events from Islamic history are perfectly described as you would like your children to know about our beautiful religion. The events are described through stories of different kids in varied circumstances.Though there are so many events covered in the book, yet the most significant ones are as follows:

• Birth of Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) and his early childhood
• Events of Mairaj 
• How Hazrat Umar accepted Islam
• Hijrat (migration) from Makkah to Madinah
• Battle of Badr, Uhud and Khandaq (Trenches )
• Hudaibiya Treaty 
• How Masjid-e-Nabwi was built 
• Story of Hajr-e-Aswad 
• How Muslims dealt with grief after death of Prophet Muhammad (P.B.U.H) 

This book is so interesting that it is surely  bound to make your kids amazed and happy to get acquainted with  such wonderful Islamic history ! 

Note:This is an unsponsored post 😊

If you want to buy this book, you can click on the link below:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1NcJ4716OqZBDQoZnCo8-fIPm53C4IbaMQyjNpOH5ZxM/viewform?edit_requested=true

Happy reading!
And
Happy Ramadan Preparations ! :)

Do you read animal storybooks to your toddlers?

I really feel animal storybooks teach a lot to children. If we talk particularly about the animal books for toddlers, the illustrations are so beautiful and catchy that you feel like buying every single book lying in the bookstore.

Whenever I read animal books to my toddler, I see a sparkle in his eyes and I love when he roars on seeing picture of a lion and giggles when I say " Goat says Ba Ba Ba".

Animals fascinate kids and they learn a lot through it . I remember how we as kids used to get fascinated by animal movies be it Jurrasic park , Jumanji or The Lion King. That's why kids love going to the zoo too!

My first memory of visiting zoo is when I was six years old and I remember how excited we ( me and my siblings )were! The three animals that fascinate every kid (may be due to their size , height or power) are elephant, giraffe and lion. I also remember how jubilant we were to see giraffe eating leaves!

Now talking about animal books, though "That's not my" series by us borne is amazing and excellent for toddlers, yet there are many other books of animals too in the market with a message for children. . Like the book "Cuddly Elephant" that I read with my kids the other day, it talks about the elephant that is feeling sad about his size as he can't play with anyone but then he discovers through his animal friends that even his big size has a purpose of giving a ride for everyone in the jungle! . The book "Leo the lion cub" is about a cub who befriends meerkats and plays with them! It also talks about how one shouldn't waste time sleeping!

 I recently bought usborne 's very first words book on animals and it's amazing!From pets and farm animals to sea animals, it tells us about all the animals we wish our toddlers to know and that too with such beautiful illustrations!! . My baby is loving reading the book and so am I!

Talking about another amazing book, "Giraffes can't dance" by Giles Andrea and Guy Parker,this book is a perfect rendition of concept of growth mindset widely taught in school these days.It's about a giraffe who can't dance in an environment where everyone around him could dance so well. The feelings of dejection that the giraffe felt are so truly depicted. Kids can relate it so well with themselves as it happens at many times in school when they are not selected and they feel useless. The feelings of happiness at achieving one's goal are so rightly shown.This book is a must have for kids. The message that is depicted more vividly is: Trying again and again with a positive attitude in the right direction is the key to success.

See how lovely and imaginative animal books are!They are so much fun! 

Miss Never Pleased: A unique book for kids aged 7-13

So recently I came across an amazingly unique kind of book for kids i.e Miss Never Pleased by Ayesha Marafani but in a very good way. Now the reason why I am saying it unique is that the story depicts emotional transformation of a child (as she grows) and her realization of the basic human feelings like empathy, care and humility that makes it even more interesting to read for kids!

As I was reading the book with my 10 year old, some incidents of the book made us smile, some made us feel pity with the protagonist i.e Habiba and some made us angry too (because she was too proud at times!). The storybook is about a super proud girl who is always hurting others with her irony inundated remarks but if you study the character deeply, she is a little silly girl who is living in her own bubble that has been created by her elders and also by herself. There is a message within it too that we, the elders sometimes in order to make our children perfect make them so idealistic that they consider every situation from their own point of view.

The beauty about this book is that it narrates how silliness transforms into arrogance and snooty behaviour.She stays the same unless she learns a lesson!

This book also tells us that bullying and belittling doesn't go a long way!

And yes another point this book has beautifully depicted is the urge for parents to always make their kids an emblem of perfection and in doing so, they deprive the children of exploring the world on their own and tasting the fruit of both success and failure and that's why when kids grow up, they blame their parents for not letting them come out off their bubble and this is what Habiba does too in the book!

World Kindness Day: Let's appreciate kindness!

13th November is celebrated as World Kindness Day all over the world! We all talk about how and in what ways we can be kind to one another but rarely we talk about how to appreciate kindness. Appreciating acts of kindness is as important as doing it. Have you noticed even birds chirp when you feed them food? It's their way of being happy and appreciate goodness.

Do you remember the top 5 moments when you were amazed by others' acts of kindness? Or acts of kindness that helped you in a  certain  situation? I started thinking and I must admit, it took me quite a while because in our always talking about being kind to others , we forget that we should also appreciate those who were  kind to us! Kindness is contagious but in a good way like if somebody was being  kind to you, it certainly would have pushed you towards  being kind and helpful to others!

I thought and compiled a list of 5 incidents where strangers' acts of  kindness helped me:

1.Lost my wallet
I remember that day we were coming back from hospital and my ultrasound report was not right as there were strong signs of miscarriage so obviously as I was very worried, while getting out of the car I dropped my wallet on the road. We ate at the restaurant and while getting out of the restaurant, we realized that my wallet is not with me.So my husband asked the guard if he had seen any wallet and thankfully, he had the wallet with him all secure. He told us that he  had decided that if nobody comes to ask for the wallet, he would go tomorrow to deliver the wallet himself as my identity card was in the wallet . We were super impressed by the guard's kindness.

2.Giving me her place
It was my daughter's parent teacher meeting and the lady ahead of me in the queue gave me her place as a lot of parents wanted to meet the concerned teacher so she asked me that as you are holding a baby so you can go before me! Her saying this made such a  nice impression on my mind that whenever I see her (while dropping off and picking my daughter from school ), the incident comes into my mind!

3. Moving us up the queue
We were travelling to Thailand and it was the first time we were going on a vacation with our 2 year old baby. We were standing in a long queue at Bangkok airport and suddenly an airport official came and asked us to follow him! Of course,  we got scared as what's the matter.The people around us also started staring at us. What the security official did was that he took us to the very start of the queue because we had a baby with us! We were indeed very pleased.

Thai people generally are very kind towards kids as this is what we found throughout our ten day vacation. There were always people around to help us whether we needed somebody to pull down the stroller from an elevation or in case our baby cried, people used to offer  candies.

4. My daughter's school card thrown out of the car's window!
It's my daughter school's policy that they don't allow to a child to go home if parent or whoever comes to pick her up hasn't got the school card. Few days back, my toddler son threw the card out of car's window and I got so tensed as I would have to get a new card made from the school office.The very next day as I asked the school guard about the card, he told me that yesterday a child saw the card on the road and returned it at the school office.  I was so relieved to having spared myself from the hassle!:)

5. Got my wedding ring back
You must be wondering now that why kindness is all about the lost and found things(lol). But these are the incidents that came into my mind instantly. I am sure there are many more! :)

We were on our flight to Malaysia when I forgot my wedding diamond ring in the washroom. And the good part is that I realized it soon that something is missing on my finger. When I told the air hostess, she told me that somebody had just given her that ring saying that it was found on the sink.

So kindness is all about being honest , nice , caring and considerate . I am so happy that it is being taught to kids now in school. My daughter's school is having kindness week and they have to write an act of kindness daily. I think that's a great idea to inculcate kindness in our future generations ! So be kind and let's appreciate kindness all around!

5 things Amelia Bedelia stories teach your kids!!

I love reading Amelia Bedelia stories because they are devoid of the actual problems of the world! They are simple, funny and so easy to read !

That's why I gifted a volume comprising of these stories to my daughter on her eighth birthday and Yes! she loved it. It feels so good to introduce literature to kids.

While I was browsing on the net, I read somewhere that you should not let your children read Amelia Bedelia's stories, it would make them dumb but I don't agree. Being simple and funny is not dumb and that too in a kids' book . What is more satisfying than kids understanding the simple stories and bursting into fits of laughter by simply reading about a simple and honest literal- minded housekeeper.

These are the five things that Amelia Bedelia
stories teach your kids:

1. Housekeeper can be a protagonist too!Yes!!Not only princes, princesses and superheroes can be a main character of a play or story but every character belonging to real life can be a protagonist.
2. Always remember to see the good side of others; sometimes only one quality of a person stands against all the weaknesses in his personality like Amelia Bedilia was too good at making pies and cupcakes and that quality stood against her habit of being too literal.
3. Loyalty is one thing that always wins hearts like Amelia Bedilia was so loyal to her employers that she did as they said; the only flaw in her was that she took things too literally. Amelia Bedilia always keeps her promises.  She is afterall one honest employee.
4. Amelia Bedelia is so hardworking! She is always trying to make her employers happy by trying to accomplish her tasks in time. 
5. Amelia Bedilia teaches us to be happy no matter what happens and never loses hope!

Do Thoughts and Habits play any part in shaping destiny??

You might think it as a weird question but keeping aside everything, it is a fact that habits do play a pivotal part in shaping character.

I remember when I was small , my father told me not to shake my legs while sitting as it is a bad habit and it really puts a bad impact of your personality on others. Then he told me a story about his childhood when his friend's mom once asked him to stop shaking legs while sitting and her words impacted my father so much that he left his habit. Of course we all know that what bad impact of nervousness this habit leaves on others.

This is one of my most favourite quotes and it is so true! Of course the quote has to be good because it is by one of the most influential figures of 19th century. This is exactly what we need to teach our kids that the very essence of a character starts from a thought and a habit.


Steven Covey's book "Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" is my favourite inspirational book to date. The quotes he has mentioned about habits and character traits of humans are amazing. He has mentioned Horace Mann's quote:
Habits are like a cable.We weave a strand of it everyday and soon it cannot be broken

During our childhood, our parents emphasize again and again about good habits, bad habits and also about friends having good habits and friends having bad habits. And now after some years, we are trying to make our kids understand this because habits do have a greater impact on success of a person like if a person is habitual of losing hope after one failure, he will never succeed because hard work is associated with hope!

Another brilliant quote by Aristotle on habits:

We are what we repeatedly do.Excellence then is not an act, but a habit

If we draw an inference on this quote, then probably it means that (for example in sports)when big players win again and again, it's because they have developed a habit of winning! But obviously this habit requires a blend of many things like hard work, determination and will power.

As Allama Iqbal, the greatest philosopher  poet of subcontinent  rightly said:

The miracle of life stem from ingenuity of thought and action,
Ingenuity of thought and action covert rough stone into precious red diamond