End of the week :) We've settled into a nice routine here at home, alhamdulilaah (have my non Muslim readers figured out my Arabic words yet; this one means 'all praise is due to God'=thank God). Even little Aisha isn't as crazed anymore. She's taken to sitting on the floor nearby and playing with coins, that was her favorite activity this past week. She won't put them in her mouth, so I feel safe letting her fill and empty the bucket with the coins. She also moves them from one pile to another. Once I finish up my morning chores and sit down at the table is when I feel that the kids also buckle down and start their work for real. Otherwise they might be kind here and there, but not really working. And that IS my routine.. to sit down at the table by 8:30 (ok sometimes it is 8:45) and get started for the day. We normally work til 11:45 or noon (they take a little snack break in the middle). After lunch we meet back for Science/History depending on the day, and then we do our activities (tennis, football, gymnastics, Quran class).
My goals for the begining of this venture were multi-faceted:
1. to give us all time to unprogram our brains from what we thought 'school' looked like
2. to give the kids leeway in general to adjust to our new way of life
3. to focus mostly on the 'core' of education (reading, writing, arithmatic) and not to panic if I didn't get a lot more things done, at least for the first few months. i do have science and history in the plans, and so far those are going on schedule, too
4. to not let myself get carried away compaing myself to other homeschoolers b/c there really is so much you can do out there
5. to incorporate those religious elements into their lives like i had originally dreamed of doing
So I think I've done pretty good at pacing myself. I've wondered if I were doing enough, and then sometimes if it were too much, but all in all they're getting work done, retaining it, and the best part.. regurgitating it!!! Unprompted, too! Yippeee!!! It's working :)
I had to think long and hard about one little subject though, and that was Arabic language. We don't speak it much at home since my husband and I have always spoken English as our first language. The kids do read Arabic in the Quran, but they don't know its meaning nor can they have a conversation. After much thinking I am now confident that they must learn it as best as I can teach it to them. It's their heritage and it is the language of their holy book. A lot gets lost in the translation, so it will only benefit them to know it. I settled on a program to use, and have sent the company an email asking if i can get the 'teacher discount' :) (which, by the way, Staples gave me their teacher discount card b/c i'm a homeschooler.. yay Staples!) So pray for me please.. I will be adding one more subject to our curriculum.
Ok, so that leads me to the other 'religious element' I mentioned in the goals up above. After I felt confident after a couple of weeks of homeschooling I realized I didn't really have a fixed time for Islamic Studies. Okie dokie...ruffled through many old books the older kids used back in Seattle at the Islamic School. I wasn't sure which curriculum to use (there were two good ones, at least), and I wasn't sure what levels I should start the kids at. Grrr, I didn't like this. Well, subhanAllah, when you just ask your lord for help He surely won't fail you. Somehow, one morning, I had one of those books in my hand and I was at the breakfast table. Somehow we all ended up at breakfast at the same time. Somehow I opened the book and started reading from the begining, and the story was so interesting that I found 4 pairs of eyes staring at me! (ok, well, maybe not Aisha's) The older 3 loved it, and I suddenly figured out how and when we would cover our Islamic Studies. This week's breakfast time was awesome. I would read from that textbook which has verses, hadith (sayings of prophet muhammand, peace be upon him), skits, and stories from the quran. It's had a tremendous impact on them already, as I can see their awareness of their faith grow, just from talking about it for a few short minutes in the morning. Masha'Allah, what a blessing.
I've learned that 'learning' looks different now that we are free of the schedule of public school. Reading about our religion together at breakfast is an awesome way to make it a natural part of our family instead of a boring class they have to go to on the weekend. We also do some read-alouds at night (a fiction book like currently The Adventures of Tom Sawyer), and none of this could have happened during public school time. They used to come home so ready to turn their brains off that it was like pulling teeth to get them to read, to pray, or to talk about anything learning-related. And now, suddenly, we are learning ALL the time and they are happy with it! I am so so grateful to have been shown this path and to be on this adventure. Life looks different to me in regards to my children, my future, and their future.
So we're half way through our first trimester. I'm glad things are moving along well, and I am glad I didn't stress over the extra subjects that I had wanted to cover but hadn't gotten to yet. I know it'll all work out in the end, and alhamdulilaah, so far it's been great. May Allah keep us successful and guide us to please Him. Now that we're half way done we can start the countdown to our first official family roadtrip to visit my mom in Mississippi!!! We'll be taking one month off from mid December through mid January. :)
Thanks for reading and I welcome your comments!
Love
Zein
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