Thursday, September 27, 2012

Homeschooling Means....

بِسْمِ اللَّهِ الرَّحْمَـنِ الرَّحِيمِ

- Home-schooling means biting your tongue/lip to stop yourself from smiling every time someone sees your children use HUGE kitchen scissors to comfortably cut up things and exclaims with horror, "Don't use those! They are dangerous for children!"

- Home-schooling means not speaking openly about your children's earlier-than-usual milestones and abilities and letting people assume they are lagging behind their schooled counterparts.

- Home-schooling means truly putting your trust in Allah, because your children's intelligence and achievements are not judged by standardized tests and report cards that "rate" the progress and academic excellence of a child on the faulty "cookie-cutter" system. You might not have report cards and numbers to satisfy you as a parent about your child's progress, but you DO have your own maternal instinct and gut feeling that lets you know via simple observation how intelligent your children are.

- Home-schooling means always remembering the things you disliked in your own childhood, and ensuring that these things don't happen to your own children. E.g. taking permission to go to the bathroom in front of the whole class, red-faced with embarrassment to announce your nature-call to the whole classroom; using a filthy school washroom without a door-lock, wishing no one comes in while you "go"; the immense hurt and burning tears caused by being scolded harshly in front of 25 other kids and kicked out of class because you were making an artistic card for your teacher whilst she was teaching something else (which you found very boring); being forced to go to school when you are sick, when all you want to do is stay in the comfort of your home with your mother and play with your toys.

- Homeschooling means never forcing your children to study the Quran when they want to do something else. Result? They come after you, asking you to teach them the Quran (as well as other books, e.g. Science books!).

- Home-schooling means having a child with an open book/pencil standing at the kitchen counter next to you as you chop vegetables and cook at the stove, giving them directions and checking their work. Through this experience, the child simultaneously learns about cooking and your recipes. :)

- Home-schooling means feeling a rush of emotional "pride" and tears of joy well up in your eyes when, on coming out of your room, you see your children lined up, with one loudly leading a "mock" salah (with perfect recitation ماشاء الله لا قوة الا بالله), and the other following willingly (May Allah reward the people at Al-Huda for making the "Thank You Allah" cassette, in which Asma Zubair has taught the salah in a way that is fun to learn and so easy to memorize) - and secretly observing them perform this salah perfectly as a part of their "play", without anyone forcing them to.

- Home-schooling means enjoying your children's childhood and letting them enjoy it too; enjoying their company to the full, knowing that one day they will be all grown up and gone; remembering that your house will then be empty and they will insha'Allah be in their own homes, enjoying blissful matrimony with their own spouses and children (may Allah grant them every blessing of this duniya and the next, ameen).

- Home-schooling means passing by huge brick buildings and feeling grateful to Allah as a family that my little treasures are not "trapped" inside it 5 mornings a week against their will, but rather, are "free" to wake up when they want to, have a leisurely breakfast, and to know that their mother is nearby always to run crying to, and to play all they want! I can list many negatives as well, but I am thankful to Allah that for us, the positives of homeschooling by far outnumber the negatives.

- May Allah grant us protection from harm, and even more fruition and barakah in our endeavors. Ameen

-- By Sadaf Farooqi

3 comments:

  1. ماشاء الله
    Very nice expression of the Importance of Home Schooling and the visible devotion.

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  2. Thank you for all the motivation. I have lately been doing a lot of research on homeschooling The issue is I want to changeover to a conventional school system to a homeschooling method. But obviously I will do it step wise, starting from the eldest who is a third grader and moving to the youngest. But I need to know the following:

    *what sort of adjustments I need to make to my home environment.
    *How to setup a homeschooling system at home at a reasonable cost
    *What sort of activities to provide
    *what the process will be.
    *What are home schooling laws of Pakistan
    *how to go about it.
    *What preparations I need to make before delving into the homeschooling process


    These are some questions I have come up with. Please guide me through this.

    Regards

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  3. Hi Bushra!

    I know your questions would be more than a year old for me to answer, but it surely would help others with the same questions in mind before embarking on the tedious journey of homeschooling our kids.

    * Adjustments - You would have to do exactly what you want them to do. Be a role model for them to follow because you will be the one most of the times they will be dealing with. That's the kind of adjustment you would have to make.

    * Homeschooling Cost - haha,,, that's the beauty of it. It does not cost you a dime except for a few books worth buying. To start with, we got Roald Dahl's collection for reading, get numerous worksheets on maths over the internet regarding the topics we need to cover, got oxford writing and reading books for Urdu basic series.

    - Library is our best past time. Both me and my kid, we are amazed at the amount of knowledge we can get from there while having loads of fun. They have separate kid's section and Voila we read story books there and do loads of math puzzles and gather bits and pieces about dinosaurs and our world.

    - Internet is our best resource. We read numerous books on internet, do maths, watch scientific videos and ask hundreds of questions. We write about things we experience and love to share. You would find hundreds and thousands of free of cost sources on internet to help your child grow intellectually.

    * Sort of Activities: We simply go with the flow. We go out in the park, go for picnic all three of us. We stick together, we play and laugh. We call these activities, the most happy ones. We do cooking together, learn life skills, wonder how and why some things are the way they are and do loads of arts and crafts, we shop together, always make a list and learn to manage our finances and all.

    * Home schooling laws in Pakistan - The concept is quite alien here yet so unfortunately I have not encountered any of such laws despite trying but would really appreciate if someone would help me out with that.

    * How to go about - Just go to the school and tell them you don't what their services anymore, thank them for what they have done so far and take home your most treasured people and unleash the fun.

    Bushra - It is not easy as I may sound to you. It requires a lot of strength from your part but the results are unbelievable. As a homeschooler, I find myself to be in the most difficult situation. I have only one daughter, who gets freaked out being without friends. And among the rest, such a decision is quite haunting for me. Constant criticism from society sometimes puts me in doubt about my own decision as it would affect my daughter's life after all in the long run. But no, I can't stop. It is so amazing to witness every growing step of your kid from small to very major.

    I hope that has answered much of your doubts, for any further information or for those who want to chose the same path and join me can email me at narshad88@gmail.com

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