Laaa dah tahun baru

I like to update the kids progress ideally every September (or before January the following year) like I did in the past years. Mainly because their school year begins in September. So it's easy to make planning and envisage what to achieve for the whole year. But this time, I was a bit lax because so many things happened in between September and now.

Looking back what I started last year which was mainly my other blog. Even though there were not many notes in there, but I tried my best to be consistent. It is just that, I started off with children's type of language, but in the later notes, I became lazy and just wrote the notes down in adults form of language. But the main point is there.

The blog had helped me to keep discipline in having notes. And it did help me to think properly and force me to be sure of facts (as much as I am able to). I sincerely hope it has help some of you as much as it did me.

Anyway after a year, I have identified the major challenges in teaching my children.

WEEKEND TIME

First of all, I can only do it in the weekend. The problem about weekend is I have to share it with other activities like people inviting us for makan-makan, outdoor activities especially in the winter (which is now) and other classes. It is hard to steal time sometime to have a good sit down with the children.

And because of that, sometimes I get stressed up. Because I am like that. I am crazy over datelines. And I am worse with datelines that I created myself.

And stress is not good because than I would rush to finish what I have prepared.

So I want to try to be relax about this. And try to make up some activities that we can do on the go relating to the subject. This one I am not so creative at. I am a very academic person and most of the time needs a book to assist me. But I do like to think about this, for the next coming year. May Allah give me good ilham.

FINISH QUICKLY

The next challenge is, because I want to finish the "syllabus" quickly, I made the children very tired. Especially Batrisyia.

I made an attempt to do some workbook on two subjects which are tafseer and hadith (only for Haziq at the moment). This one takes me alot of days, even weeks to complete. Even for a short surah like Al kawthar.

Out of my eagerness to complete a "syllabus" in one go, I forced them to finish them all, sometime a 13 pages workbook. And some of the questions require "deep" thinking of description.

For example

What should you do to ensure that you will get the drink from the pond of Al Kawthar

I have forgotten about the fun of learning. Even though the workbook looks like fun (err ya ka?), but the pressure tires them.

So this time round, I want to take it easy, Insya Allah. Plenty of breaks. And if we cannot finish it today, we'll do it next week.

I really have to learn to calm myself and reassure myself, that I am not failing myself just because we cannot complete it on the very same day. We are not rushing for anything because there is no big exam to catch. (except for my increasing age and if I die who would do this for them? <---this is the reason why I am panicking all the time).

So next resolution, is to take it easy.

Other than that, I think the kids do enjoy it. Jack is sitting longer than usual or if he goes away, it would not be because he wants to play with the PS2. :P And sometime he would quote what I said which I don't even remember saying it. Sya too would point out things she knows.

And sometimes there are some fruits from the seeds I tried to sow. In my explanation of the second hadith of nawawi (the famous Hadith jibreel). Read it HERE. haziq learned to ask questions. Not that he was afraid to ask, but many times he asks unnecessary questions which in my opinion is irritating.

He asked a newbie in school what is pi to the power of two just because he knew the answer. I told him about Ibn Abbas who was one of the great scholars among the sahabahs, when asked how he obtained all his knowledge, he replied, with an inquisitive tongue and a contemplating heart.

I am not sure whether he understood it, but Insya Allah, whenever he poses good questions, i would praise him. I hope he understands that questions are important, but a question posed must have benefit to you and the one who is around and also the one asked. Not to create argument or to embarrass anyone or to boast your knowledge.

I ask Allah to guide me, for I don't even know whether I am doing enough or what I am doing is right. May Allah bring them good knowledge and make them leaders of the muttaqun.

Their memorisation are getting better. And I do see improvements in Batrisyia. It was hard asking her to memorise. *Tarik rambut* But she is improving. And this matters most to me. She can go one ayah a day for short ayah like in Surah At Tin or a quarter ayah in long ayah like in Al Mulk.

Zachary is as usual imitating everyone. And I think that makes it easier for the youngest one if their elder one are doing memorisation. Because he imitates so much, he has subconsciously memorised Al Kawthar. I am happy.

Masya Allah. may Allah make Quran as spring in their heart.

Haziq is seemingly doing well in his secondary school. With stiffer competition. They are now dividing the kids according to levels. And Haziq takes competition seriously. He loves maths and for now Chemistry and english. He is so so in subject french. But I never tell him to take less important subjects lightly (even though that was what I did). He also likes his pertukangan class even though he has no flair in it.

Sya sticks to the same friends as usual. So perempuan. I need to pay attention to her science and highlight to her the important key words. And understand the concept.

Zachary enjoys everything. And he takes competition seriously. And also leadership seriously. he is very proud when he was selected as the leader and would tell me how important he was when he became the leader of the girls. hahahhaha. Lu sukalah mat.

He is also thinking of ways to make sure that he get the star of the week cert next year.

I am thankful that Allah has given me the chance to work with my children. I ask Allah to shower me with ilham, bring me good knowledge and make me easy to be understood.

This post may sound sterile, but be rest assured I am enjoying myself. When I first started, I wondered how will I keep up with the content. Would I run out of ideas? But truly the more I get into it, the more I need to know. The challenge is not to make it boring to the kids. This is the problem with reading adults abook. To downtone it for children! May Allah make it easy for me.

They may not memorise everything, for I never gave them a formal test (maybe I should), but I pray they get the essence of it all, which is fear Allah and follow His Messenger s.a.w.