Sofiyya's First Day of School
Yesterday, Sofiyya went to school for the first time. No, we are not giving up on homeschool, she is attending a weekly madrasah which lasts only two and a half hours. She is our first purely homeschooled child and I had to admit I was worried that she will find a class intimidating.
It wasn't a good start as she fell asleep on our way there, having had to travel from our in-laws in Johor Bharu.She could barely keep her eyes open when queuing up and was holding on to my skirt for a moment.
However, she eventually managed to find her bearings and was following schooling rituals; lining up, walking in line, staying in line and was fine when I left her.
She was the first to come down that day and was smiling and leaping up to me when I got her. When asked what she did she told me that she played with Lego blocks and then it was time to get home. Only later did she fill in the blanks where they played getting to know games and sang nasyids.
When I asked her whether she needed to go to the washroom, she told me she already asked her teacher to take her and went on to open her bag and told me that she was supposed to give the papers in there to her parents.
She could only remember two of her friends' names though; Sarah and Maryam and was proud to announce to her brothers that she now knows three Maryams. We walked home to Lot One and as her teacher was walking behind us she kept looking back and making faces and questioned why she cannot join her teacher home.
I am confident, as I see it repeatedly with my own eyes in my children and other homeschoolers, that homeschooling provides a child with the confidence and ability to communicate well with people of all ages. There is a lot of 'real' interaction with people in the neighbourhood and most of all, adults interact with them in a non-condescending manner which is sometimes unavoidable in a school structure that enforces authority on them with its layers of hierarchy and the constant need to maintain the noise and chaos level.
I see them forming real relationships not based on what they can gain from a friend or being part of a group; but just being what friends are, freed from social pressures of material ownership of what is currently the 'it' thing, ranking in class and popular 'in' groups.
It is especially heartening when they bond spiritually in their love for Allah for example when they come together during Ramadhan or do their jemaah together. Spirituality is something which I think is most critical in their holistic growth because when they attend public schools they are forced to leave their spiritual being at the gate to a certain degree and over at least a dozen years you can't deny the effect of that on them as a person.
It wasn't a good start as she fell asleep on our way there, having had to travel from our in-laws in Johor Bharu.She could barely keep her eyes open when queuing up and was holding on to my skirt for a moment.
However, she eventually managed to find her bearings and was following schooling rituals; lining up, walking in line, staying in line and was fine when I left her.
She was the first to come down that day and was smiling and leaping up to me when I got her. When asked what she did she told me that she played with Lego blocks and then it was time to get home. Only later did she fill in the blanks where they played getting to know games and sang nasyids.
When I asked her whether she needed to go to the washroom, she told me she already asked her teacher to take her and went on to open her bag and told me that she was supposed to give the papers in there to her parents.
She could only remember two of her friends' names though; Sarah and Maryam and was proud to announce to her brothers that she now knows three Maryams. We walked home to Lot One and as her teacher was walking behind us she kept looking back and making faces and questioned why she cannot join her teacher home.
I am confident, as I see it repeatedly with my own eyes in my children and other homeschoolers, that homeschooling provides a child with the confidence and ability to communicate well with people of all ages. There is a lot of 'real' interaction with people in the neighbourhood and most of all, adults interact with them in a non-condescending manner which is sometimes unavoidable in a school structure that enforces authority on them with its layers of hierarchy and the constant need to maintain the noise and chaos level.
I see them forming real relationships not based on what they can gain from a friend or being part of a group; but just being what friends are, freed from social pressures of material ownership of what is currently the 'it' thing, ranking in class and popular 'in' groups.
It is especially heartening when they bond spiritually in their love for Allah for example when they come together during Ramadhan or do their jemaah together. Spirituality is something which I think is most critical in their holistic growth because when they attend public schools they are forced to leave their spiritual being at the gate to a certain degree and over at least a dozen years you can't deny the effect of that on them as a person.
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