What's going on at our Homeschool?

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

Alhamdulillaah, life goes on with all the adventures written for us! It has been a very long time since I have shared anything about what is happening in our homeschool. Those of you who have been following Maimoonah from the time she was 2.5, would be surprised to know that she is 11 now, Maashaa Allaah! And little Ramlah is a 2-year-old toddler the one who completely changed our homeschool style and routine bi idhnillaah! 

With many different things happening we never had the homeschool routine we used to have before. We have not been able to complete anything in full for the last 3 years in our homeschool. Maimoonah has been independently working on some of the subjects. We started on KS3 in 2016/2017 for some of the subjects. But we were not able to continue in a structured manner until now. Relocation and having a nursing baby who does not sleep and running a small home business, all put together it was indeed so overwhelming. But with all this, we were still able to hang on and get going with this noble journey of homeschooling.

The sudden change after a well-established routine for almost 6 years in our homeschool, brought me and my family blessings and lessons to learn and go forward. 

During the last 3 years, Maimoonah may not have had completed her academics but she was able to acquire skills, explore her interests, enhance her capabilities, and most of all got a first-hand experience in reaping the fruits of being a team player. She learned to get involved with the family in running a family, she understood her responsibility in cultivating her sister, she knew to blend in when other family members are busy with trying to reach some deadlines, she got motivated to work towards entrepreneurship, she understood that it is time to get serious with the worship of Allaah, and much more. We were also blessed to have a co-op running at my dear friend's place where Maimoonah was able to do some project work together and spend time on learning. This gave us some breathing space too.

Alhamdulillaah, homeschooling is not all about school work, textbooks and worksheets, and experiments. Its all about living and learning to live a life pleasing to Allaah according to the situations that Allaah gives you. 

No doubt, not establishing a proper routine and not being able to complete school work did give me stress and I could also see the change of attitude in Maimoonah which is common when you break a routine, but by the mercy of Allaah it never gave me doubts or whispers of any negative thoughts of homeschooling, because I started homeschooling after praying Isthikhaarah and seeking guidance from Allaah and I put my full trust in Him, so what comes after that is good and nothing but good Inshaa Allaah. This comforts me, this soothes me and this motivates me. Alhamdulillaah!

The new venture I started, Online Courses and Workshop brought our homeschool a great benefit Alhamdulillaah. It was a such a blessing from Allaah that I was now able to share what we did throughout the years with Maimoonah with others. This also helped Maimoonah to become an expert in many areas. It has come to a stage where now, I am totally dependant on her for technical related IT issues as well as many other software issues. Additionally, she has emerged to be a great cook, Alhamdulillaah. She looks for recipes in books and the internet and bakes and cooks, relieving me at times too from the kitchen. 

And finally, when I sat with her to start school work, I realized some concepts that she was struggling before to complete, was pretty easy for her now even though she had a long break, especially in Mathematics. This is when I realized that children eventually learn when they are ready and capable. 

Now that Ramlah is 2 and Maimoonah has turned 11, its time to put things into some structure and spend time on focusing towards IGCSE inshaa Allaah. 

We are still continuing the same KS3 Year 7  books for English, Science, and Geography which we hope to complete soon inshaa Allaah. She is catching up on Maths doing Year 6 now. So our plan now is to complete KS3 with a help of an online homeschool program for some subjects and start working on IGCSE subject from now on. We hope to start with Islaamic Studies, Arabic as a Foreign Language and Environmental Management for IGCSE inshaa Allaah.  As we go on will share the resources we would use for this. 

Meanwhile, we have also started with little Ramlah. She loves to touch and feel and explore. Such a beautiful age, maashaa Allaah. She is able to read some words. She has reached milestones in motor skills and loves cooking with different food groups baskets Maimoonah gifted her for Eid. 

We will be planning some activities for her using our Nurture Islaam Preschool Pack. She is young to use the whole curriculum but she loves the circle time materials and the Nurture Islaam Series Books. We will be working on some of them as per her liking and capabilities. More on her adventures later inshaa Allaah!

So that is the update of our homeschool. Hope and pray all of you out there have done well with your homeschooling journies as well.