Well. . . alhamdulillah (praise to Allah) we have finally filed with the state of California, and we are now OFFICIAL HOMESCHOOLERS! Yikes!
So, what does that mean, practically for our family?
Absolutely NOTHING! Yeah, you read it. . . nothing! We are not only officially homeschoolers now, we are officially Unschoolers (well, in my mind at least it's official)!
I have always leaned towards unschooling, and the more and more I read, the more I think that maybe, just maybe, and by the will of Allah the Most High, this unschooling thing can actually work!
The kids are learning and doing "schooly" stuff all the time. They have been interested in outer space, space exploration, and the moon for some time now. So we found this great book about the moon (Moon, by Steve Tomecek), and the kids absolutely devoured it! And there was a little science experiment at the end - I totally skipped over it assuming the kids wouldn't be interested. Well, turns out that's the key! (uschooling at work here) They found the experiment while perusing the book by themselves and begged me to do it with them!
The experiment itself involved dropping pebbles into a plate of flour to see how craters are made. They did that for a while, and then turned it into an experiment about what water does to flour in different quantities. . . ultimately a huge mess, but a lot of good educational fun!
And then, last night, while waiting for Sayf to get ready for story time and bedtime, Omar and I were sitting on the bed and he starts counting. He's never been as fast as his brother with numbers, and I'm okay with that; I'm not pushing him. So when he started counting, I thought maybe he'd get to 30 and then get distracted. Nope. . . on and on he went until he reached 100! And then (this is the best part) he turns and looks at me with his big doe-eyes and says, "Mama, now I can count to one-hundwed!" He was so proud of himself, and I couldn't have been prouder. Not really for counting, but for his taking the innitiative and doing it all on his own! Allahu Akbar!
These are the moments I couldn't miss for the world! As a friend of mine who recently started homeschooling 4 of her 5 babies put it so beautifully: "No job, no money, no outside time to myself while my children sit at a desk all day and are herded from room to room can compare with watching their 'lightbulb' moments".
I am such a lucky mommy to get to share this experience with my kids.
Alhamdulillah!
