A platform supporting Muslim home educators on their journey to Jannah إن شاء الله
Author: anouchka
I am a Muslim home educating mother of four based in the UK. I created this blog to support mothers around me on their home education journey and I ask Allah to make it of benefit to as many people as possible.
Let me start this post by telling you that preschoolers honestly do not need dedicated maths lessons or activities at all. Genuinely! Social media these days is pressuring mothers from all sides and part of the reason I started this blog is to remind mothers that our children were created by Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ to learn in a natural manner إن شاء الله
Having said that, I wanted to dedicate a post to very young children just to show you what learning naturally looks like in day to day modern life. I want Muslim mamas to see the opportunities to teach their children skills without spending any money or having to dedicate huge amounts of time to preparing “activities” instead of spending that time on beneficial work إن شاء الله
The first thing that many mothers think of when they think of teaching their children maths is usually counting! While there is nothing wrong with teaching your children maths to count, it’s important to know the difference between them memorising a sequence of words and them actually understand that a number represents a quantity in real life. The best way to achieve this is to focus on counting real objects. Count the socks to you are putting away in they drawer together, count the number of eggs you are cracking into a bowl for a cake you’re baking together, count the leaves you collect on an autumn walk together… count real things in real life and make it a natural part of your day!
A special mention should be made about the number zero. It’s important to teach the child that zero means nothing! Once all the quantities from zero to ten have been practised many times over and you feel your child fully understands the concept, you can move on to showing them the numbers and teaching them how to trace them in sand or on a chalkboard. Avoid the urge to go straight for pencils with young children because they will inevitably make mistakes and having something that can easily be erased will be more pleasing to them إن شاء الله
Another useful concept to develop is the concept of patterns. This can be done by arranging sticks in order from shortest to longest when sitting outside. It can be done by arranging rocks from biggest to smallest, sorting leaves by colour, fruits by weight, paint swatches from darkest to lightest… patterns are all around us in daily life.
Finally, try to always keep whatever you are doing with your child lighthearted and fun. When they make mistakes, don’t make them feel like they have. Simply tell them the right answer. Don’t say ‘No this is not 6 apples’ but instead say ‘Can I have a turn? [count slowly while pointing at each apple] Oh this is 5 apples!’. Make learning a natural and fun part of daily life with your young children إن شاء الله ♥️
So you had a great routine going, you were feeling confident, your children were making good progress… that is until some sort of life event came along to make it all fall appart. It could be pregnancy, illness, a new baby, a family member that needs support… whatever it was, it slowly but surely ground your entire routine to a halt! So what to do now? Give up? Absolutely not! This blog will show you that home education can fit around your life, no matter what إن شاء الله
Full disclosure, my home education routine has ground to a halt many times over the years, and I have often felt like giving up entirely. I am currently suffering from terrible sleep deprivation as my fifth child is struggling to sleep at night. Sleep deprivation can often lead to low mood and low mood can make a home educating mother doubt her ability and will to continue doing ”school at home”. By Allah’s will, I have overcome these struggles and feelings several times by now, which gives me perspective and allows me to see this current struggle as only a small part of our journey as a family. Things will get better إن شاء الله
When I find myself struggling to stick to our usual rythm, I start by just re-evaluating which parts of our rythm are non-negotiable. This will very likely be different for each family but, for us, those things are:
Prayer: without a connection to my Lord, how am I meant to navigate these turbulent times?! Plus, while I pray, my children watch and learn إن شاء الله
Quran: if you aren’t able to read the Quran from the mushaf, start daily lessons even if they are just five minutes a day. Once you can read with tajweed, work on memorising some small surahs. By the time you achieve all that, your child will have watched you and picked up so much that you can start teaching them! Quran memorisation is the favourite part of my day now but, 9 years ago, I had a newborn and couldn’t even read!
Meals: in our family, if the meals aren’t cooked, the mood is going to struggle! I use the portion of my day during which I have the most energy to focus on my most important chores. In the morning, I get minimal cleaning done and cook *one* meal to last us for the rest of the day.
Read alouds: this has been my secret weapon for the past almost 9 years now! Reading good books is a source or great education in language, science, religion…there are even fun Usborne lift the flap books to teach your children maths! The more they enjoy you reading to them, the more they will be motivated to learn to read too.
That last point leads me to my next: focus on connection. Give your children as much of your time as you can. Read to them, let them sleep with you, cuddle in bed, play board games, watch beneficial content together and discuss it, pick up a craft and practice it together. Whatever helps you connect. Notice that a lot of the examples I am giving you can literally be achieved even if you are stuck on the couch or unable to leave the house!
When your children feel that they are getting lots of love and attention from you, they are also more likely to be able to play independently. Just make sure you have some open ended toys, books and crafts available. What you choose to make available to them will depend on their age but make sure they can take it out and clean it up on their own. One of the mottos that really stuck with me from learning about the Montessori approach to education is
Play is the work of the child
I feel that this really helps parents to observe their children playing and to see how much learning is taking place! Role play can teach them all about various social interactions, pretending to buy and sell can be a great source of maths, fine motor skills are refined with play doh, lego and crafts… and all this gives the parent time to deal with their current struggle or just with the daily chores! If you would like to learn more about the value of play, I recommend the book Playful Parenting by Lawrence J. Cohen.
Another way to get more time to yourself is to encourage independence in our children. Gently teach them to get dressed, go to the bathroom, make a snack and eventually cook and do their laundry. This is something that, again, really stayed with me from when I studied Montessori education. I trained in the Montessori method through Rumi Montessori to learn all about why Montessori can be a very good approach for Muslim parents and how it can be used to teach your children all their school subjects. It was a life changing experience and very affordable when done online, but if this sounds like too much for you I would highly recommend the books by Simone Davies to get you started.
Finally, I would like to end this post by reminding you of the bigger picture. Many children around the world do not even attend school until they are 6 or even 7 years old. If you look up statistics on those countries, you will see that the children there are in no way behind on their education compared to the rest of the world. In fact, they are happier and often receive a more well rounded education! If you have young children, know that there is no rush, don’t let social media convince you that your two year old is going to fail at life if they don’t know their letters yet!
Ultimately, as Muslim parents, our goal for home education should be that our child achieves success in this world only as a means to achieve ultimate success in their next life. This life is but the blink of an eye! Jannah is forever and being an astronaut or a surgeon isn’t necessarily a way to get there! Focus on their connection with Allah سُبْحَانَهُ وَتَعَالَىٰ and the rest will all fall into place إن شاء الله ♥️
I chose this topic as my first more specific post because it is the topic I feel most passionate about. Having spoken to many fellow Muslim mothers about this I have gotten the impression that many of them feel inadequate when it comes to teaching their children about the Quran. They want to hand it all over to a “proper” teacher… but this is a HUGE mistake! Let me explain…
First of all, connecting your child to the Quran should start in the womb! During your pregnancy, surround yourself with the sound of the Quran being recited, and recite it out loud yourself. The mind of an infant is something so powerful سبحان الله , it starts absorbing sound very early on and this early exposure is incredibly effective!
Once baby is born, do your best to maintain the habit of daily recitation. There is no better way to get your child to memorise the Quran than to do it yourself! Additionally, reciting the Quran daily, working to improve your pronunciation and pondering on the meaning behind it will prepare you to become a better teacher for your little one.
When you notice your child being able to recite small sections of the Quran, gently encourage them on their journey. Many children will memorise surahs that are recited frequently, like Suratul Fatiha, around the age of 3. Some slightly earlier and others slightly later. Either way, when you start hearing them recite, challenge them and play with them to encourage further memorisation.
As the child approaches the age of four, they will likely show signs of interest in the written language. This is a good time to introduce reading from the mushaf. I have personally used the Read and Rise programme by Learning Roots to encourage my young children, and have found it extremely effective. Once the child completes the Read and Rise book, the same company also offers a Juz Amma book that my children all enjoy a lot. This is also the stage at which I felt I needed a more structured approach to maintaining a strong revision system.
Finally, as we gained traction on our memorisation journey, my little one started to ask me questions about the meaning of what they were memorising. Now it is one thing knowing what it means but it is yet another to explain it to a young child! This is where the Mini Tafseer Series by Ad Duha Institute comes in. Not only did it allow me to explain the Quran to my child, I learned so much along the way, it created so many amazing discussions AND it was a great aid to memorisation!
I will leave you with two final notes:
Both Android and Apple devices allow you to access Quran apps that are great to support you in teaching your child to recite correctly. I personally recommend Sheikh Al Husary as a reciter for memorisation.
Choose teachers carefully! Not all Quran teachers are created equal. Make sure that any teacher you choose to involve is someone that will nurture love of the Quran rather than making the Quran into a source of stress for your children.
I ask الله to make this post a source of benefit for anyone that comes across it, and I ask that it facilitates your journey of growing closer to your Creator through the understanding of His message to you ♥️
This is the NUMBER 1 question we get asked by anyone considering home education! Funnily enough, there really is no easy answer. We review a book that we recommend to all aspiring home educators: The Call of the Wild and Free by Ainsley Arment.
Before we start we just want to add one disclaimer. Although it is permissible for a Muslim to seek knowledge from non Islamic sources, every bit of knowledge we gather from such sources should be examined to ensure we apply it in line with the Quran and the Sunnah. We mention this because we recommend this book in general but cannot guarantee every part of it is appropriate for a Muslim family. Take the good and leave the rest! Now on to the review…
Why do we recommend it? We have just found it to answer so many of the common questions we get asked by new joiners. Why do you home educate? How do you home educate? How much does it cost? How much time a day do you dedicate to it? Both new and experienced home educators will find so much inspiration in it!
The first section describes the why behind home education but also dives deeper into motherhood generally. Even reading this as an experienced home educator left me feeling so validated! Here is a quote from this section I loved:
You are your child’s best teacher because you can lead by example. You can show them how to pursue knowledge by doing so yourself. You can join them on this learning journey as a guide through life and education, and sometimes the other way around. You can show them how to push through hard subjects, how to navigate relationships, and how to interact with the real world every single day.
Call of the Wild and Free
The next section is all about busting the many myths that surround home education. This really helps if you have people around you that are not supportive of your decision to home educate. Even if everyone around you is, I think I am yet to come across a home educator that hasn’t had total strangers question their judgement! My favourite quote from this section is on the topic of the cost of home education:
Hear me on this. You don’t need a big-box curriculum to homeschool your kids, any more than you need a blackboard and a framed teaching certificate. If you have a good pair of walking shoes and a library card, you’ve got all you need. Everything else is icing.
The Call of the Wild and Free
The author then moves on to giving the reader an overview of the most popular home education philosophies. I love how she presents this topic as being fluid rather than giving the impression we have to fit into a specific category. In the end, our philosophy should be an Islamic one, so no one method will work perfectly for us.
The final two sections of the book take a more pragmatic turn. Here the author goes into the how of home education. I will leave you with one last quote and my take on it:
RHYTHMS ARE VITAL FOR ANY FAMILY, BUT especially for homeschoolers. No matter what personality they have, children respond better to consistency. Having healthy rhythms promotes peace in our homes, but it also speaks to our values. Our rhythm keeps us focused on what’s important. Kim John Payne, author of Simplicity Parenting, wrote, “Meaning hides in repetition: We do this every day or every week because it matters.”
The Call of the Wild and Free
My parting words here will be that our rhythm should be firmly built around prayer and other acts of worship. Nothing will put more barakah into your home education journey than to centre it around our perfect religion. Start the day with Fajr, incorporate daily adhkar, make the Quran a part of your family… and keep adding more good deeds for the sake of Allah into your day. The rest will fall into place إن شاء الله
Welcome to our little corner of the internet! We are a small community of Muslim home educators based in Scotland. Our children range from 0 to 11 years old at the moment and we are from a diverse ethnic background. Our little group grew organically from a few of us finding each other on Facebook to us meeting in person 3 times a week. As and when new members join us we have noticed that we are answering the same questions over and over again. This prompted us to create a space where we can support the wider Muslim community in their journey towards home education إن شاء الله
So, why home educate? The short answer is that we believe very strongly that there is no suitable alternative source of education in the UK for Muslim families. The longer answer is that we feel most Muslim families gravely underestimate the impact that most schools in this country will have on their children in the long term! Most Muslims these days are mildly concerned by what their children are being taught but they prefer not to dig too deep as they often believe home education is not an option for them. It is our hope that this blog will become a source of inspiration and support for Muslim parents to make that transition out of the UK school system.
What is so bad about schools you may ask. Is it just sex education you are worried about? No, that is just part of what concerns us! See, just like Islam cannot really be separated from any aspect of the life of a Muslim, equally disbelief or “liberalism” cannot be separated from any one subject. Here are just a few examples:
Manners: anyone who knows anything about child development will tell you that experiences in early childhood become ingrained in a child for the rest of their lives. In UK schools your child will be exposed to ideas and behaviours that are fundamentally contrary to our religion. Children are taught that all genders are equal and even “fluid”, they are exposed to the horrendous behaviours of the children of this country including blatant disrespect of their parents, never ending backbiting amongst the children, bullying, sexual harassment (yes even amongst very young children!), foul language, immodest clothing, free mixing,… and the list goes on!
Biology: in school, your child will be taught that the Universe was created through a random explosion that resulted in something being created out of nothing. Then, they will be taught that they evolved from a monkey! Also totally randomly… no design! Worse even is that any other theories will be presented as old fashioned, backward and void of any legitimacy. Science is the ultimate truth, not the word of God.
History: in school your children are being taught one very very specific version of “world” history. That is, the British version. This is of no benefit to a Muslim child and is extremely damaging especially to those of other ethnic backgrounds in that they are generally made to look inferior or backwards compared to the high and mighty British “empire”.
Geography: all the geographical knowledge being taught in the UK is very euro centric. Now you may think this is normal, since we are based in Europe, but it’s more than just maps. It’s to do with how foreign cultures are being represented. If you pay close attention you will see subtle differences between how western countries are portrayed, compared to how African, South American or certain Asian countries are portrayed. And let’s not even start on the issue of Palestine 🇵🇸
Languages: most Muslim families would love for their children to have a better grasp of the Arabic language but this is very difficult to achieve when the children spend all day in school and the only languages being offered there are European ones! They will most likely leave school unable to connect with the words of their Creator.
We could keep adding to this list for hours! In the end we have to ask ourselves what our answer would be if we were asked, on the day of judgement, what we did with the amanah (trust) that Allah blessed us with. Did we do all that we could to raise them into righteous Muslims? Or did we send them off to spend more time with those that deny His existence! May Allah guide us all…
We ask Allah to make this platform a source of inspiration, guidance and support when it comes to the education of your Muslim children ♥️
Straight Path Home Education 