Monday, January 25, 2010
Burnt Out
Feeling overwhelmed and burnt out. Homeschooling without any outside support is very taxing on the soul. I live in a place that has no muslim homeschool group or even muslim homeschoolers of any kind. The secular homeschool group is pretty inactive except for a trip to Christmas Tree farm which I ignored. Also the place I live is so lacking in resources for kids activities of any sort that its hard to find them things to do outside of bookwork. On top of that the kids miss their friends so much and also keep complaining about that. I think if one wants to homeschool they should do it as soon as kindergarten starts so the kids can't keep comparing it to school and be in a community with a homeschooling group and lots of activities. I can't even find nature activities for my kids barely because I live in a town surrounded by farmland hence almost all the trees have been chopped down. That in itself is killing my soul. Insha Allah I will be sending them back to school unless something amazing happens in the meantime. I've made my salatul istikharah and am feeling like this is the right step. Please comment!!!!!
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I don't know how you do it. I had thought about homeschooling my own kids, but decided that it just wasn't for me. The fact that you have gone as long as you have is amazing to me! Again, i don't know how you did this!!
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry you're feeling so burned out. You gave it a good try and inshallah everything will work out for the best. All homeschoolers intentions at first is to try it and see if it works for them. Thats what I'm doing, I haven't committed myself because I have no idea how it will work out for me. So far its easy with just a 4 year old but that can change when she gets older and I have more kids to deal with. I think you've done great with your kids so far this year mashallah! May Allah bless your family no matter where they go to school ameen.
ReplyDeleteI would encourage you not to give up homeschooling. What grades are your children in?
ReplyDeleteI take a more laid back approach and we avoid bookwork. We do more of an "unschool" method, although life is a school always so I don't use the term. I prefer Earth schooling. Where do you live, if you don't mind? Have you thought about pen pals? My son does write to other kids throughout the country and in Canada and they write back. I can't wait until Spring insha'Allah. More outdoors and just more playtime!
They are in grade 8,6,5,3 and SK. I wish I could give them what they want but I just can't. Teaching them is no problem but they need outside activities. They have Tae Kwon Do but its not enough.
ReplyDeleteOh we live in Canada.
ReplyDeleteAs salaam alaikum,
ReplyDeleteI also encourage you to find a way to continue homeschooling, insha Allah.
Try to think outside the box for activities for your children. Have you considered having them volunteer? I am sure there are places that you may not have considered yet. Do you have a local library to visit and find resources?
What about nature studies? You don't need a forest for that. It can be done anywhere even in the backyard. Animals live everywhere. Many times my children occupy themselves with building forts and other things with the materials in the backyard. Children love to just dig and explore the dirt for another example.
Where I live there aren't any Islamic homeschooling support groups either and the other Muslims who do homeschool are very busy with their own lives so we don't meet up that often either. Most of the time my children play with each other and the neighbors, masha Allah. You have plenty of children for them to have their siblings as their playmates.
I grew up in the country so I know the feeling, masha Allah, but my siblings and I found things to keep us occupied inside and outside of the house.
Making du'a for you and your family.
Hmm..my backyard doesn't even have trees so there wouldn't even be dead branches for a fort. I can't imagine my 13 and 11 yr old digging in the dirt...maybe the 5 yr old. My kids play with each other, the neighbours don't really bother with my kids (yes they've tried)and they miss city life which strangely had way more nature because of the parks and the beach which we don't have here and they miss their friends that they knew since kindergarten. I can't really substitute their new life for their old life. Kids can't legally volunteer until highschool. In fact the highschool has made it mandatory. We don't actually live in the country but a town. The country would be much better..I was in the country when I was a little kid and there was lots to do. A town is just dreary. Its an economically depressed town too so that is why everything shut down and there are no activities. Why they cut down all the trees though is a mystery to me but I heard years ago many were ravaged by disease. We have a small library but with not too many activities. In the summer they have the reading program though. One interesting thing though is that my 10 yr old daughter doesn't want to go back to school, but sometimes she says she does.
ReplyDeleteAs salaam alaikum,
ReplyDeleteSo, how do you think school would solve the issue of lack of things for them to do in the town? Or is it they want to be around other children?
Wa Alaikum Salaam
ReplyDeleteThey want to be with their old friends and their school has field trips like skiing etc and activities like track and field etc.
In some states of Malaysia, primary school students will have to go to 2 schools. Bear in mind one of it is optional, not compulsary. The compulsory one is that following the governments curriculum, the other one is Religion school (Islamic school) where students will study Feqah, Al-Quran, Seerah, akhlaq, khat and Hadith.
ReplyDeletefor students who have to attend morning school, they will attend religion school in the afternoon 2pm -5pm, for students who attend afternoon school, they will attend relogious school in the morning 8am - 11 am. The normal shool operates 5 hours a day.
You might do the same thing. Half of the day send them to normal school, another half you can teach them Islamic values such as akhlaq, seerah etc.
If you want, I can send to you the books and your husband might have to ranslate it in English.
My eldest daughter is now in secondary school. Form 1. She went to a Hafeez School which she also has to learn subjects from national curriculum. She is studying 20 subjects which includes Balaghah, Soraf, Imlaa, Nahu, bla bla bla, I can't remember. Are you interested?
If you are interested, your husband has to do extra job translating all the books.
You cannot go to school half a day here...school lasts all day -9 am to 3:15 pm. I am already teaching them from islamic books and on fridays they go to arabic/islamic class from 6 pm to 8 pm. Thanks for the offer though.
ReplyDelete