The New School Year

It's been more than two weeks since we've sauntered back to homeschooling. It has been quite smooth other than Umayr literally fighting with his will which was still on holiday once in a while. He would groan that he could not do his work and he'd start fidgeting.

When we started out, I had at first had tearful outbursts, both for him and myself, then I had the lax period where I would let go at any sign of rebellion. I have learned to now balance between the two by sitting through with him what we had to do and finding out that sometimes even when he doesn't want to, he could. When I'm lucky, he could go from grumbling troll to eager beaver when he realised he could do the job.

Sofiyya had over the past week had a spontaneous learning moment; she suddenly wanted to read the books we borrowed from the library by herself and whatever she saw when we were outside.

I think it was partly motivated by her brother, Umayr's - the anti-academic- newfound interest in reading. She saw how we were pleased with Umayr's progress and being the charmer that she is, wanted to please us too which was a win- win situation for all of us and I think it's so intriguing to see what motivates the girls and the boys.

I have yet to enter into formal planning; we have been moving along what we read and continuing what we have been doing last year. I like to call it my 'unschooling'part of home education. It's like what the Waldorf followers call the breathing in and breathing out parts of their school days. We have structured and unstructured learning spread throughout the year to keep us motivated and inspired.

The new term had seen me more disciplined with my different roles so far. I'd finish my home- based writing job by around eight in the morning, prepare breakfast, have a good sit-down breakfast with the kids who are already bathed by then, do the essential housework like wiping the table and sweeping the floor and start off the laundry before kicking off school.

Insyaallah,I hope I can keep to this because I feel more balanced having taken care of my kids' food and the house, somewhat, instead of rushing to have school within a particular time. When we start late, we just stretch it to the afternoon now.