Home School Shopping...The "new home schooler trap!"

After months of research, months "discussing" with my husband how amazing it would be to home school our children, months romanticising how fun it would be if only he would agree....finally I hear these words with a serious look "Khadeeja is not going back to school!".

.....Ooops!!

My heart jumped out of my throat! Really? We are going to home school? You're kidding... right!?

I remember questioning every home schooling mum I met, asking "how do you do school?". I'd find myself trailing blog after blog, buying book after book desperately trying to reach someone who could tell me what we were meant to do now.

Enjoy the ease that follows mastery

Have you ever noticed so many of us, both parents and teachers alike, tend to focus on only seeing educational value when there is a challenge or difficulty in learning?

We don't seem to value quite so much or appreciate the joy in having mastered something and being able to do it easily.

Have you ever noticed that?

When we see our kids sat at the table, struggling over something new, we see growth, we see development, we see that as progress. But once that same child "gets it", we quickly move onto something new and start back at the beginning again.

I want to hear from you

In my early years home educating, I was quite a regular blogger. I found blogging a great way to really help my home schooling endeavours with my own children.
However, as the years went by, I found myself dedicating less and less time to it, as the demands of every day life threw themselves my way.

I really miss the motivation it used to give me, and so I would love to get back into it bi'ithnillah.

And so, here I am, calling out to my readers, whether you are a home schooler or not (if you are a parent....you are always an educator!) to ask what do you want?

What is it that you want from a blog?
Do you want printable resources?
Do you want lesson plans?
Do you want ideas?
Do you want how tos?
Do you want home school support or coaching?
Do you want to be able to connect with more Muslim parents or home educators?

Whatever it is you feel you would benefit from, I would absolutely love to hear from you, so please don't be shy!

Let me know in the comments below and I will add it to my list of possibilities for my future planning inshaAllah.

Growing up

I shared an important lesson with my eleven year old daughter earlier this week. It wasn't a "school" lesson, but a life lesson.
For E'id, my husband and I gifted her a large handbag to take her books to classes, or just to carry her purse inside when we go out.
It is an elegant bag, navy blue: simple so it isn't a form of beautification or adornment.
From the minute she saw it, she loved it. We both knew she would. It was made for her, Allahumma baarik laha.

A few days ago, she was getting ready for another class, and I asked if she was putting her books in the bag ready. She hesitated, so I asked whats wrong. She told me in class a couple of days earlier, the girls had told her the bag is too grown up.

In that second, my heart sank. And I knew in this moment, this event, although pales such insignificance, would actualy have lasting effects for the rest of her life if not dealt with properly.

I told her,
My dear, I will share something with you which has taken me 35 years to learn myself. And if I knew this lesson when I was your age, things may have been very different now.