i often get asked what curriculum i use with the boys - there isnt any. technically they are not officially school aged kids yet, i think they usually start school at 7 (generally). Hamza is 6 and Umar just turned 4, so all they ever do everyday really is just play. lots and lots of play. indoors, outdoors you name it. we hardly have any rigid structure throughout the day, i usually go with how they're feeling in the morning. i noticed for quite sometime that their attention span are quite short, Hamza's attention span is longer than Umar's, and i think it has a lot to do with his age and just his personality. He loves books. Umar loves physical play more than sitting down. One thing they do have in common is that they are usually at their best form in the mornings. So if theres any form of constant structure everyday is just that i take the opportunity to teach them iqra' in the mornings. they know its the drill now , so we usually have breakfast, have a little play, and once i feel like they are ready for a sit down read, its iqra' time.
you see the beauty of homeschooling for me is the ability to tailor our dailys and learning according to our own childs interests and what fits with our family values. before we had children, azhar and i knew that one thing we wanted to have for our kids is a strong basic foundation in islam. we knew living overseas, away from our our families and islamic, malay culture, it was up to us to start that in our homes. reminding the kids of their roots and their deen was our responsibility first before anyone elses.
azhar's job takes him around a lot and sometimes requires him to be away for 3-6months. we made it a point to ensure that we'd follow him wherever his job takes him, and being committed to a school was something difficult to do - that would mean multiple times changing here and there, and while we get a lot of questions whether it would be an option for us to perhaps stay put and not choose to move around - i would say, the moving experience and exposing ourselves to different cultures and places has its benefits. the children so far have not complained of our moving and i believe its because their main setting of people in their lives everyday remains the same ( azhar and i and each other ), what changes would usually just be the place we're at and the people we meet.
anyway, i digress. back to our "flow", after iqra' usually as we are all already seated, the day progresses to random writings (copywork/dictation) or drawings, paintings, whichever it is they feel like doing. in our living room, i make it a point to have a visible book trolley to help them easily access to whichever activity they want to do. sometimes i purposely leave puzzle sets on our dining table, or random story books, knowing at some point during the day they'll definitely pick them up and it gets read or noticed.
we also have a time limit for watching television, everyday they get about 3hrs of screentime, and we usually let them watch it around dinner time and before bed, just to wind them down. they know it gets dark, and their bodies get tired by around this time too so its quiet time for the whole house. and then the cycle repeats itself the next day.
some days during the week id attend a home ed meet up with other home ed kids around our area. but im pretty mindful these days of joining just incase we bring any virus home, but so far its been great. lots of sanitizing and the kids also practice a good amount of social distancing (when they can remember haha).
i dont usually speak about how we do or what we do as much as i would hate to be seen as telling another parent how to parent their kids.
so this post is a post meant to be shared to those who are just curious , who wants to take the leap or considering to home educate. one thing we've learnt in our really short time of doing it with the kids is that the freedom it gives you to spend time with the kids is amazing, the amount of things for them to learn is vast, so many resources are available online and offline and its such a fun experience so far. we have a lot of slow days too, where we all just sit around each other and huddle up enjoying each others company and talking about random things like crocodiles and squirrels.
the next thing we get asked a lot about is university, college or career. whilst our kids are still so very young, from joining multiple home ed groups with senior home ed parents with kids already in college and some already working - it was enough to convince us there are many other routes to enter uni or college that doesnt require a whole 12 year schooling experience. we can opt to sit for gcse(s) privately whenever we want to, or take a diploma with a basic test entrance, it really depends on where we want the kids to end up ( or for us, where our kids want to go for themselves ) thats something azhar and i decided to help guide and provide the opportunity for them when we get there.
our goal is to have our kids be as successful as they wish to be, and that success looks different to each and every one of us. some can mean monetary success, some can perhaps measure success to living a debt free and happy life - whichever version of success they choose to be, we pray that end up being first and foremost, a devoted mu'min in whatever career they choose for themselves, that theyd be able to be useful men of the ummah, of their families and beyond
inshaAllah, may Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala make it easy for us.
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