quick one before I pick up the little ones

Nowadays there is just always something pressing that means blogging is just not happening.
The allotment is coming on, with nearly all the beds cleared and plants like spinach actually flourishing. It's become a little chilly here so holding out on planting out many of the window sill occupants, much to the rest of the family's disappointment.
On another note, the other day S handed me back a book I'd got out for him from the library, barely read, plus an article on his namesake that I'd printed out ages ago. I noticed that the printout was on the back of some old Uni maths handouts of DH, and when I inadvertantly mentioned it to S, he became engrossed. It shows that you can only give them the opportunity to experience other genres and topics, but in the end they'll find their own way.

The things they say: Biryani: 'threeth' = third

It's still the Summer holidays..

The sole surviving sunflower plant has now bloomed and below is a few days later.

and Biryani is ever willing to get cooking

and generally make good use of the kitchen table...

as did H and M who leap on my sewing machine when it comes out for carrying out a few, boring clothing repairs.
and so we made beanbags in the spare minutes while they were waiting for friends to turn up. I'd managed to aquire some free rice from the corner shop as I'd noticed it was past it's date stamp. They would have thrown it away otherwise, so that served well as filling for the beanbags.

and the chalks came out at the request of our visitor, and were enjoyed by all.

Charlie and Lola Butterflies

and what's been happening otherwise? Well the education bill went through at the end of June and has basically banned Home Education in Sweden. Here is a recent article showing how the phrase 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it' has not reached the Swedish government's ears.

We had a disappointing but not completely unsurprising experience when attempting to sort out some larger accomodation. A private landlord had a house for rent and agreed a time for us to have a look at the property. However as we drove up, gave us a quick scan and announced to us that it was already rented out, so we would not get a look in. This was possibly true that it could have been rented out within the space of 18 hours from booking the time, but I am surprised he managed to check their references and get contracts signed within that time. May aswell write on their adverts, instead of DSS, immigrants need not apply. Trying not to have a victim mentality here, just have to get on with it and hope and pray for something better, inshaAllah.

On a slightly happier note, Biryani and H began swimming classes today, although Biryani was not too happy in the water. She's been asking when her lesson is for the past few days, even waking me early this morning to ask again. She's been having to start learning the days of the week to get some idea of the time she has to wait. She's been all geared up with her new costume and shorts, beach dress and goggles- In the end it was all a bit scary and shivery I think, and I'm wondering if we'll be able to get her back in the water tommorrow at her next lesson. Otherwise she can just have a paddle in the kiddy pool, it's meant to be fun isn't it!?
Oh and Hz has now got chicken pox, so good job we didn't book any holidays away, alhamdulillah. It can seem like the holidays have to be full of excitement and fun, but having a real reason to take things easy takes off the pressure. I'm wondering if having this cloud of uncertainty drains the energy somewhat. However, of course, almost nothing is certain in this life...

Still here..

just we have all been ill (not swine flu alhamdulillah) but with coughs and colds and general dizziness.
I wake in the morning and think summer has ended and then it brightens up. I think the children are getting fed up with me insisting on wearing their jumpers to school as they get hot later, oh well better than the other way round...
Biryani(and the boys) have had a social training weekend (sorry, I am getting messages from the Home ed forum from Sweden and it has not been only me who's been refused permission for this reason). It's the first time she's really interacted fully with other girls. Normally she's happy to run around giggling with her brother's friends but it was nice to see her having some proper play time with other girls. She also said a short phrase in Swedish which she must have just picked up from them. Otherwise it was lots of giggles and over acting to compensate for the language barrier....

The UK wants to be like Sweden, now Sweden wants to be like Germany!

I've been a bit away from the politics of home ed and what's going on in the UK. My head was completely spinning after last years attempts to get permission here, and never quite recovered. I'm getting the idea that a Bad man is making lots of potential problems for families in the UK. So almost in the same few months the Swedish gov wants to make home ed virtually illegal here, here is a translated article about it.
It seems that other than having an infectious disease, or having extreme behavioural problems (which has happened with one boy in S's class, who now receives his education at home with their teacher visiting after school hours), they want to make it impossible to home educate on any philosophical or religious grounds. So if I think my children are not accessing their potential and could do this better at home it's tough luck!
I cringed to myself at S's development meeting the other day when his teacher was wearing a T-shirt saying along the lines of: 'Everyone has the right to education from a Qualified Teacher'.
So (un)educated are these Swedish bureaucrats that they will refuse to look at hard evidence that for most children, Home education either equals or surpasses that of schooling.
Please feel sorry for my keyboard it's bearing the brunt of my anger.

Thoughts, if rather incoherent at times..

Taking the car or walking? There’s not much competition in my book. Walking gets the blood circulating, saves petrol money, helps environment, you get to notice small things along the way e.g. a blackbird deciding how close it’ll let me come to it before flying off. It also gives me time to think. I was thinking about the irony of authorities wanting us to stick kids in school. If all the home educated children in the UK were suddenly turning up at their local schools to be ‘schooled’ could the authorities cope? This led me on to thinking that whether schools could be seen as being more ‘efficient’ as one teacher is teaching maybe 30 kids. If home educating that could be potentially 30 adults out of ‘gainful employment’. The recent snow has shown the reliance of parents on schools as child-care providers. But is it efficient? From my experience not at all, the amount of studies they do a day could be achieved in a fraction of the time at home.
Then I see H at nursery doing activities I might not have thought of/ had energy to do/ equipment/ resources to carry out. I think I’m happy with the situation at the moment, S still moans, and I still find it hard to believe that nearly all the boys his age or thereabouts are so poorly behaved that he doesn’t want to hang around with them, but it is true. Social skills being learnt? Well maybe more like sabr and putting up boredom at break time, and being hassled in class.
Note, since I initially scribbled the above, S has had quite a bad experience at school involving the perennial shower after P.E: problem. So I am not so happy actually.

It was bound to happen..

Yesterday S was looking for something on the internet and came across a blog that was basically anti-Islam. It was some guy who posts any relevant articles from the media on his blog, many involving the kids' school. It sounds like there's a big resentment to any state funding of anything Islamic. Then I wondered if he would have picked up on our article about home ed. Of course yes, and being an Islamophobe home education wasn't his problem , but the fact I was a stay at home mother. He wrote, why does she not work, does she not want to,? Does her husband not allow her? Does it say in the Quran women are not allowed to work? Is it because she wears a scarf she cannot get a job? sunhanAllah.

Of course by being in the media these sort of comments are bound to come up and I hope by getting involved more good than evil came about. But of course anonymous comments were not allowed on the blog, in fact one had to be a group member to post a comment (not sure what the point of this blog was then unless it was just to have a good Islam- bashing- group-session) Anyhow there were no comments on the blog at all and I shall not post the link as I don't give publicity to negative websites, and I doubt many people read it anyway.

I have come across other such blogs by mistake, one 'monitoring' fundamentalist activity in our city, and I'm sure there are such things in the UK and all over the world. The funny thing is the extent they think the Muslims are organised, from my own experience organising some children's activities or a study circle is about as far as it gets....

Curriculums or should I say Curricula?

Which reminds me, I did a couple of terms of Latin at the grammar school I went to before I moved to an area which had comprehensives. How much of it can I remember v little, except that it opened my eyes to the world of grammatical tables and maybe has helped in a small way with other languages I have studied.

I have been thinking about different attitudes to what children 'should' learn, i.e. curricula. This is highlighted in the link about Black History. I've been noticing the different attitudes according to people's own educational experiences as well as the countries they have lived in. Also the difference in how they should learn has obviously been highlighted by my experience of the LEA here in Sweden as well as different opinions from parents from Asian and Arab countries. Autonomous certainly doesn't appeal here (although my own DH can easily see many flaws in the way he was taught (parrot fashion, fear of the cane etc). Letting them learn by themselves does produce results but maybe not what those in charge of curricula making would want.

When I think back to my education, I spent so much time learning organic equations, memorising French quotes for French lit exams etc How has this helped me in life? How have I benefited from it.? At the time it felt like this was just something that had to be got through, not learning because I wanted to (which is of course the natural human instinct) but there are things which I'm glad I was taught, e.g. the maths which I do use pretty often. There are things I wish I could have been taught, touch typing, how to change a tyre, how to cut a wriggling child's hair (or a stationary one's), and these all thought to be subjects for the 'dim' kids. Academia leads to good jobs? leads to happiness?! But some of the academia of course has benefited me, I mention the maths and I think there are some subjects which I would have got a lot more out of if the teaching methods of the teachers had been somewhat more inspiring. That's probably why some parts of history I find more interesting and remember more of than others. Now I do feel I need to know more about more recent history. I gave it up at 13 uninspired at that time so my learning of history ended around the 17^th century. English classes bring me memories of fear of the sarcastic teacher I had and the boys always mucking around or dropping off having had too much cannabis. Now I have little time for literature but when I do get a chance it now is much more enthralling especially as don't have to produce a 4 page essay on characters and themes and memorising quotes. I think I'd be more suited to a 'book club' type thing where this could just be discussed.. This is where the old chestnut comes in that certain things are best learnt at a young age (languages, memorising Quran) but the child may not see any immediate benefit to it and be very reluctant to do it. That's when I find myself dressing g it up with crafts and rewards if it's not the metaphoric cane method. Otherwise I'm thinking it should be something that we just do so start young so it's the norm. When I was potty training S I was just so glad he did it in the potty I didn't move on to washing hands etc until later, and then it was a struggle to get these things done. With Biryani its part of the whole deal so she doesn't want leave the bathroom without drying her hands on the towel. (the actual potty training bit is another story, though I hope inshAllah will eventually have a happy ending).

Anyhow I'm all in a tizzle as kids are back at school and how it will be doing stuff with them, tired and grumpy, and if anything I've just written makes any sense alhamdulillah

Education in the news

The article came out in the paper yesterday about our home education application. It was quite brief, and I was sure I had not expressed so much dissatisfaction with their particular school, but the fact that here there is no choice if you want to home educate. I didn’t want to make the school look bad, but rather show the education authorities’ injustice and closed mindedness. So there have been the usual comments from the general public agreeing with the authorities that attending school is the only way its possible to be socialised, or that we should just change schools. I’m waiting for the one ‘Why don’t they go back to where they came from?!’ comment. They had chosen a picture in which we all looked suitably unhappy about the situation, although actually M was not so happy as he’d been called away from his Star wars game... Anyhow maybe the Education Chief is feeling the heat, as he’d also been contacted by the paper, and the final word of the article said we were ‘thinking about reapplying next school year’
BTW here’s a link about learning being more beneficial in a child’s mother tongue from a recent news article, with indeed reactions that this is again some impediment to integration .(funny how I’ve heard they want to shut down schools who teach in Arabic but the International (English speaking) school is said to be the best school in Sweden

We love whiteboards

I felt really demotivated to do anything today, but just lying in bed seemed to make me feel mentally worse, just thinking about negative stuff (appeal etc), feeling so big. Yesterday’s midwife check did in fact show that my size has suddenly zipped up on the graph, but like everything else is ‘normal’, which I should be grateful for. So my hunger and generally feeling like a whale out of water is not unfounded.
So anyway with Allah’s help I got up to have a cup of Roobibos and just got on with the ‘work’ I’ve started up with S and M this holiday. I’ve been procrastinating stuff like this, excuses such as waiting for permission to home ed, waiting to feel physically 100% etc have been whispered in my ear. So we’ve started going through Al Fatihah, making a mini book, which I hope we can incorporate later with something about Salat later on. I know the boys do see the prayer often as a chore, and not knowing what they are saying must contribute to this. So I’m hoping that this activity is including work on: Arabic reading, writing, tajweed, Arabic vocab, English vocab, English spelling/writing, and a bit of art/ craft. It’s certainly making me learn stuff..

H had his 6 year old friend over from daycare the other day, some socialisation (!). Well the boys learnt a new social skill from said friend, how to make a fart sound with your armpit!? The fact that it has to be slightly wet under the arm to work actually meant they were more than willing to take a shower. This is quite unusual as usually it takes a lot of persuasion to get them in, esp the hair washing bit. If I didn’t force them to take a bath I expect it wouldn’t happen until their mates started commenting on the smell.
In fact I worked out a simple way to reduce water in eyes during hair washing. Basically gravity is used by getting child to look up to the ceiling. You have to be quite quick though I think to avoid a stiff neck!

And Biryani was so pleased with herself mashaAllah at having completed all these puzzles herself

'I did it mama I did it!'

Now must go and make something to eat, just a small portion for me (I'll try)...

Just found Windows Vista lets me publish straight from a Word document

I'm finding it hard to concentrate on much at the moment as I have finally been invited for a meeting with the 'Administration boss' about the home ed application. It's scheduled for Monday, so I have a few days to gather myself and read through all my paperwork again.

Today was the last day of the school year, where they have a very short day (1 and a half hours), basically present giving and awards and singing some songs about summer. So usually we don't attend as driving there and back hardly seems worth it. However M was v keen, but poor boy missed out on being the 'student of year' in his class. I think he had his hopes up, but he took it very well anyway! It's funny what children appreciate, they get a few moments of recognition and a hand-made small certificate. Also the child picked to read off the date, weather etc for that day gets to keep the torn off piece of paper having the previous day's date on. I noticed he was still grasping it tightly in his hand as we went out of the classroom as if it was a precious artefact, aww.. I do remember one day when M agreed to go to school with less of a fuss as it was his turn to do the calendar.

Biryani is student of the year at our place I think. She was still awake as I was drifting off to sleep the other night and Iwoke to hear her trying to recite the Darud which is ion the salat cd I finally found recently. I've been having it on in the car as the boys were still not 100% on everything. Now she's also v keen to repeat surah Al fatihah after me and she's now dropped off to sleep having tried to recite some of it to herself, mashAllah.

Here is a link to a website I have to further investigate, with books for older kids who have difficulty with reading, but do need age appropriate subject matter. It was recommended to me by my Mum as I may have to use something like this with M as reading is not coming on so fast ( I think mostly due to lack of regular practice). I was surprised that he is not into reading, as he's always been one to methodically flick through books, refusing to stop until he's looked at every page (tending to be at school run times).I suppose the computer is a likely culprit....

Baby still in, apparently feeding off my brain cells

The last week or so has been a bit hectic, and to be honest, tiring as having guests from the UK. The guests are not the problem but debating with the kids as to whether they could stay home in order to be with them (or to distract me from adult conversation) was. DH still away and advised me a bit too late that this shouldn’t have been even up for debate. But in the end it was decided by me not wanting to rush around to drop the kids off and have to pick them up from school. This was because the school bus had broken down on Tuesday, and kids didn’t get back till after 5 p.m. and school was’nt sure if they’d have a bus available all this week.
The weather has continued to be such that it seems a crime not to be out in it. I am actually looking out for some clouds in the sky, can you believe it after December’s continuous grey, but the heat is not comfortable now in my condition. Gosh re-reading this it is barely making sense to me, but this is the state of my brain right now.
All I want to think about is getting this baby out safely into the world, but there seems to be other things trying to take up mind space. Home Ed application, I should be chasing them up as haven’t heard back from them re meeting, but I have not been in the best of states to attend a meeting. DH is likely to still be away till near my due date, but then I’m wondering if anything will get sorted after the birth as most things shut down for the summer here (Alhamdulillah the midwifes do keep working although I think there are only the minimum of staff). I really would have liked everything sorted by now but I did leave it a bit late in the end.
So other main stress at the mo is how to deal with being like the mum to Kevin from Harry Enfield. The negativity gets me down and it appears sometimes ,as far as I can see, as imitated behaviour in the others. But Biryani is such a contrast. I start to get my hijab on and she bounds to the shoe rack saying ‘me come too!’
I was going to write something relatively coherent on private personal tuition amd how its seen as superior to parents doing it in the light of my need for home ed application but my moment of inspiration has gone, inshaAllah maybe it’ll return.
Oh Allah make my brain work and these sharp breath-taking Braxton hicks contractions ,and these all too frequent trips to the bathrooms,ease and give me sabr amin...

Sunny out there but a bit of a cloud hanging over my head...

I haven’t been posting for a while as seem to have been so busy, at least in my mind, as received a letter in reply to my home ed application. At first I thought it was just a standard receipt type letter, but then read more closely and it was basically waffling on about the benefits of all the Swedish school system’s plans, goals and values etc and asking me for further information. For example, how do we think we will get the time to teach our kids (automatically assuming both parents work full-time). And asking for more details of exactly what we would be doing. This was the hardest question to answer (in terms of saying what they want to hear), and I got advice from someone who’s managed to get permission already and is in the know re all the rules regulations. He just said basically that this will be shown in the outcome which will they will see during the inspections. Other friends thought I needed to put more specifics in terms of a plan. However I haven’t sat down and made a detailed plan as this seems premature having not yet received permission. I hope in the end I have put something which gives an impression of knowing what I’m doing. They also want to have a meeting with me and DH *gulp* . Altogether it just feels like I’ve been doing re-takes of exams and have a final interview to contend with as well, so finding it hard to completely switch off until I get the green (or red) light for this home ed business. Then I can really feel like putting time and effort into preparations inshaAllah.

A bit of pessimism, or is it realism?

I thought I should consider the options if our home education application is turned down.
So I found myself looking up the International schools in the area. I was thinking that maybe the committee who makes the decision about the home ed might try and suggest they should attend one of these if I am concerned about their English. (International usually meaning that English is the main language of instruction.) I was thinking (and hoping) that these schools would have no places anyway so I could reject that idea, but I called the one which has no fees, and they said I can apply and it depends on our situation as to who gets the places (we are prioritized as we have come from an English-speaking country). This school is slightly nearer but will still mean a car drive every morning. The other main one is a private school (a rarity in Sweden) with fees in the region of thousands of pounds, which rules that out.
The problems with the kids’ current school are as follows: apparently lack of stimulating lessons my kids need and hence a struggle to get them to school, questionable behaviour of many of the kids. S has no firm friends in his class, made harder by the fact out of 17 only 3 other boys.
A 20 minute drive, plus they get tired of travelling home on the school bus as they have to take another boy to the other side of town home first.
Positives, they have Arabic and Islamic studies (but I am starting to wonder if this is not making their approach to Islam as positive as could be i.e. they are v reluctant to go to these lessons.)
They have halal food, and the school ‘understands’ issues relating to the religion e.g. not changing in front of others in P:E.
M’s 2 best friends are in his class (although he can see them outside school, no problems)
It has actually S who’s been more reluctant to go to school of late (although he does not need physically dragging to get him to the car) and regularly declares the boringness (must be a better word, tedium?) of attending. School has an ‘Open Day’ the weekend after this, so I can see what it’s like in the class, but to be honest, as it’s on a Saturday (many kids will not attend)and because obviously the teachers are prepared for observation by the parents, I don’t know how typical it will be. Anyhow what can I do to address this issue?. I have already explained S’s main interests to his teacher, but they have a curriculum to follow and I don’t believe I’m in a position to dictate their teaching methods. (More hands-on practical stuff would help S I think), and ideas I’vepreviously given to M’s teacher haven’t been taken on board as far as I can see.
I feel like I’m waffling a bit, but it always helps to write things down. I’m hoping and praying, that InshAllah a clear path for their education will emerge.

We do have a new computer..

alhamdulillah, but now I have a v sore back, which along with most of my pregnancy complaints, is dismissed by midwives as something one just has to bear with and is normal and there is no medication (apart from paracetemol) that is safe to take. Now I realise how much bending and picking up of child clutter is part of my life, because as it had become physically unbearable to do so, the floors were looking like some burglars had come to visit, eight times. Jigsaw pieces hither and thither, yoghurt pots cast aside, variou s items of clothing (mostly dirty) decorating the rug and sofa. So we had a big clear up with everyone enlisted the other night and some sense of floor space was restored for an hour or so. It amazes me how I'm the only one who cannot walk past an old piece of half-chewed, dried up toast and not at least think about picking it up and putting it in the bin....
So can't write much more, and can't put photos on yet (as program yet to be installed for this) as I have to go over the (hopefully) last draft of our home education application. I intend inshaAllah to get it handed in on Monday.
Then I have to do the tax forms by next Monday, and then I will be sighing inshaAllah a huge sigh of relief as Swedish bureaucracy is out of the way for a few months, and start thinking about the new addition and where on earth he/she's going to sleep etc etc

Children are a gift

I watched the programme about gifted children on Channel 4 on Thursday. It was interesting to note that 2 of the children had been home-educated, at least at some point, and it wasn't seen as particularly unusual, although one boy's parents were having a battle with a LEA. What amazes me is the lengths people go to to ensure their kids get in the 'right' school (moving house many times, forking out thousands of pounds, IQ testing of a 3 year old) when they may have the best way under their noses, for free. I'm saying this after an extended morning of a pregnant brain trying to write a home education application, in Swedish. Oh how it aches!
Besides that, my idea (which came from thinking more seriously about planning for next academic year) of sticking a piece of paper on the wall, so we can write down areas of interest when they pop up, gave me a little surprise. I was thinking more along the lines of the questions S particularly thinks of such as 'Can bees hear?', which I will forget if I don't write them down. Anyhow Suhayb came up with learning to throw the javelin, M also asked to read as well as play X box and H wants to learn to read!
So today H and I did a bit with the white board and rhyming words ending with 'at' and 'eet'. He was very good at blending the sounds which surprised me mashAllah. He also tried learning to write cursive 'a'.
Biryani did about 6 puzzles and got through reams of paper (as usual) The white board might help save the planet actually.(If only she's stop eating the pen tips).

laptop broke down

so I don't have much time to write as have to grab a slot on DH's laptop when he's not using it for work.
Had a long, helpful conversation on the phone today with a home educator here in Sweden. So have to do my 'plan' to submit asap. Without computer a bit of a struggle..
Kids came homefrom school enthusiastic about making a 'recipe' from plants from the park. I said it mighthave to be a perfume rather than something edible which they were satisfied with. So my kitchen is awash with shredded grass, leaves and lavender.
I also have to go around picking up after Biryani's newfound puzzle obsession. (Last week I realised I'd haved to try and collect together all the pieces randomly distributed about thehouse so she could actually complete one without having a distressed/ frustrated look on her face as the last 2 pieces are missing.)

Something I hope the Education Boss didn't manage to watch.

A Christian sect in Sweden, has it's own school, independent of the Swedish Education System. The children are able to attend as they are registered as being home-educated. Now they want to restrict home-education for religious/ideological grounds. From what I could understand from the clip you can watch, there are lots of ministers/ education people worried that they are unable to monitor what is being taught in this school / when children are being home-educated, and are wanting to restrict it. Much like rest of life in Sweden, the State wants to know what you're up to. Here is the link
So S is having to learn about flowers in science when he wants to be building circuits and making chemicals fizz!
I have not received the home education application forms yet which they have managed to find to send me, and it's been over a week (somehow I was not surprised as this isn't likely to be breeze.) So I rang again, the Boss even addressing me now by my first name. He said that I could pick them up from the local office. That blows my plan of them not realising I'm Muslim but they're bound to guess from the my kids names..

Bureacracy Update

Well I rang the Education boss again as unsurprisingly he hadn’t got back to me. He told me he would be ringing his boss to find out the procedure re applying to home educate and would get back to me. He used the word ‘strax’ which I thought meant ‘next, presently’ but did double check in the dictionary. I was indeed right, but haven’t heard anything as yet.. Half of me thinks even if I don’t succeed at least it’s got them thinking about the concept that Home Education is an option here in Sweden, even if you have to jump hoops to do it.
DH back to Africa today and MIL went back to Pakistan yesterday, so back to reality of 4 kids and me.
The last 2 days M was off school (due to previously mentioned school trips), which did give a taste of home ed. DH even commented something like ‘It’s not so hard to home educate when you’ve got just one at home with you.’ Well I don’t know if it makes it so much easier, depends what you’re working on I suppose. But it was hard to keep him away from the computer. They are currently into Penguin club, which at least does involve a bit of reading, and not solely mindless shoot ‘em up type games. S actually plays with his friend in the other town sometimes, as penguins, I’m not sure if it’s real ‘social interaction’ but is cheaper than him using my mobile to talk to him all the time. It seems to have been hard to meet up with him recently (in the real world!) due to people’s other commitments.
Anyhow M did some Quran, more on spelling the trickier vowels (‘oo’, ‘oa’) He initiated his own game on the white board influenced by countdown, so he learnt the difference between vowels and consonants as well. Then while I had to have a nap, he did some of his maths workbooks from school. I woke up to hearing a little voice saying something a long the lines of ‘8, 12, no start again , 8, 10’ There was one number logic sequence he was supposed to fathom out, and I just couldn’t either. Maybe I was thinking too hard, but you get worried when 7 year old maths stumps you?! There must be an answer book teachers get their hands on? Maybe I’ll type it out when he brings his book home later and see who’s a clever clogs out there!
Biryani is watching Madeline on the TV , she says a v cute ‘ooh la la’ and actually there’s more French in it than I realised before. She also counts to 5 in Spanish (Dora). It’s a shame Arabic/ English cartoons are not so readily available. There is now a Jazeera kids channel on Sky, but it’s all Arabic at a relatively high level and also seemed to be some dubbed western cartoons which did look strange. Also more music on than the English cartoons.
The Dhuhr Adhan has gone off on the clock DH brought back from Singapore. She almost always likes to say the Muhammad RasoolAllah’ part but 'AllahhuAkbar' is pronounced in a v funny way something like ‘cluckley’
As for potty training, it feels like we are beyond the point of no return, she is v good with it as long as not wearing anything on the bottom half. Attempts to get her to wear pants/ trousers resulted in many accidents, which she must be thinking are going to do the same job as nappies. It has also been a nightmare getting her to put a nappy on for naps/ bed which I ended up having to do when she’s dropped off to sleep. So it’s tempting to leave the nappies on but seems like she is almost there so maybe a shame to stop?

If they can put a man on the moon..

Surely we can find a way to combat the smallest organisms on earth?
I haven’t been up to posting recently due to cough/cold, and on my last few decongestant tablets read the ingredients (as I had carelessly left them out and Biryani had decided to try and eat one- they are so bitter she hadn’t got v far with it alhamdulillah) and the last one was – ethanol, just when I was going to reorder some from the midwife. Medicine seems to so often need to contain the above, or gelatine.
I was wanting to post earlier as I’ve had a conversation with the ‘Education Boss’ of this area re home education. I’d been spurred on by a phone call with a sister, plus M’s continued reluctance to attend school/ decline in good behaviour and increase in bad (Swedish) language being used. Then the final straw came as on the first 2 days back at school they are going again to the a ‘culture’ house i.e. music activities. It’s quite demoralising having to what seems like every other week, have to re-explain to the teacher why our children can’t participate in x, y, z .
Anyhow firstly the Boss asked if there wasn’t a local state school nearby they could attend. (I’d mentioned my dissatisfaction with their independent school) I said yes but explained a main reason being I feel we don’t have enough time to keep up with their Education in English, should we need to return to the UK at any point. He then asked if they attended the mother tongue classes, which they do, but it is only 40 minutes a week, which we have been doubting is of any value recently. They do nothing linked to any particular curriculum and most of the other kids come out the lessons chatting in Swedish. He didn’t seem to have any other excuses to dismiss my enquiry, except that he didn’t know if there was a specific application form (I’d started the conversation on the grounds of just getting a form, not if they’d actually consider letting us do it), and the lady who would know is ill. So left the conversation which I had managed to stumble through in Swedish, half satisfied that he hadn’t point blank refused, but felt fobbed off as couldn’t even get hold of the necessary paperwork, which I think is supposed to be in by the end of the month! Now it’s a bank holiday so will have to ring and pester on Tuesday inshaAllah.
I talked to another sister who’s been having problems with the school too, and she’s arranged a brother who’s teacher trained to do extra classes. So I was feeling quite positive. However when I talked to S about it, he now says he wants to stay at school, he’s concerned a they have an important national test next year, and what the other kids would think if he doesn’t go to school and maybe comes back for that (and I thought he hasn’t been so influenced by peer pressure) . I was kind of thinking it is more M I am concerned with, as S’s teachers are relatively helpful, but thought S would be annoyed if he had to go to school while M stayed at home. However it also makes a problem with my justifications of home education, so shall probably just apply for both of them and see what happens inshaAllah (if I ever get the forms!).

Thinking about the end goals..

Today I’ve been thinking more about ’classes’ ’activities’ organised by others, which at first glance appear ideal. Tawheed, Islamic adhab groups and finally the Arabic at school.
The first 2 are taught in such a way that doesn’t appeal to my kids way of learning. They need to be doing something, sitting and listening ends up with them switching off. The Arabic is at too high a level as it is aimed at the kids who have it as their mother tongue. I have requested the school to provide an easier class which will inshaAllah start soon.
You kind of think what a shame but on the other hand I feel they are learning things in their own ways. Through practical examples of people around them, critiques of certain cartoons/ stories involving aspects of shirk. S and H are v good at spotting the latter mashaAllah but I have to really explain to M so as he doesn’t just accept everything he hears. For example, a lucky penny has no power whatsoever..
The other day after Isha prayer which M and H actually joined in with (S had gone to bed) they were asking me all sorts of questions about akhirah, and I had to think hard to explain things at the right level.
There are always kids mashaAllah who will go every evening to the madrassah and learn their Quran and inshAllah become hafidh. I never sent mine to these big classes for the above reasons. A sister told me once that we must also emphasize on the hadith, stories of the companions, prophets to show how we should live the Quran. Just memorizing it is not the only goal.
I think I’ve got to the point of being fed up forcing the children to do things they really don’t want to and want it to be more child-led. We stopped tennis for a term as it was always a struggle to get them to go, although they like it mostly when they go. Also there was a cash flow problem when the bill came so that made the decision easier. Maybe inshaAllah we’ll resume it next term. The same was with the swimming, because the pool was closed down, but inshaAllah they’ll start some swimming which a brother has organised in a small pool near our house, so avoiding the fitnah of the standard classes and also means DH has to take them, not me!
So the only regular activity we have now is Scouts, and M does not often want to go.
The only exception now where child-lead activities are not happening is of course SCHOOL, but of course there are important reasons for this.
H still in nursery although I’m hoping to change this to a sister who is a childminder, and other sisters I know send their children there. H doesn’t seem to want to go, although he likes the children that go. But I suppose it is a natural reaction to change and basically he’d rather be home than anywhere else. But having to be pragmatic because of the Swedish. I wonder if the computer/ games consoles/ TV broke down, they’d be more keen to get out the house!!

On the way to nursery this morning we had tears because he splashed his trousers in a puddle and I wouldn’t return home to change them. It was only a few splashes and he had spares at nursery as far as I knew. Eventually I managed to calm him down by explaining that his legs were like the cooker boiling the water and the wind like the extractor fan (evaporation 4 year old level). He seemed quite satisfied by this and walked happily the rest of the way to nursery!