Missed the action, again..

Apparently a meteor could be seen from our neck of the woods the night before last, but we were totally unaware. S's classmate saw it as he was out in the car. S had heard it was a once in a million years event, so guess we'll have to be satisfied with the video footage!

History, a pack of lies?

We've had a week back at school, and my own routine has gone rather strange. Hz sleeps v late and then may wake in the early hours or I can manage to pray Fajr before he wakes, then he sleeps again until late morning. So DH , on parental leave has kindly been sorting out the morning school run, and so I manage to get some extra sleep once the morning rush has finished. So I'm living in a different time zone nowadays, strange!

Boys have come back from school reporting mixed messages they are getting from teachers re the current Gaza situation. S's teacher (a self-confessed atheist) informed them that the Jews came to Israel 2000 years ago, so it is their land. Their Islamic studies lecturer advised them not to buy Coca Cola nor shop at Lidl. I am glad my kids do reveal what goes on at school so we can give both sides of the story. In a way it's good to get other people's opinions so that answers to these can be thought through, rather than to be caught unawares. However I can imagine some kids just take every one of their teachers' words as true, and don't discuss it with their parents. S had discussed his teachers comments with his classmates at break time and they had agreed on the unfair bias. Just to add, Lidl has denied supporting Israel. Please double check for yourselves, I rarely shop there anyway.
I can never remember current affairs being discussed when I was at primary school, just in 'history' that the Crusaders went to free the Holy Lands. At least this current massacre has been recorded for posterity and only those with hearts as hard as stone can try and justify it. Here is the Israeli spokesman being put in his place for once .(I remember Channel 4 news was the only mainstream News programme that doesn't have an Israeli bias).

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..

Creativity and education

Here's an interesting link to a post I've had on my desktop and have been meaning to read properly for a while, stimulated by a flyer for an 'Art Boot camp' !!.
Discussions on European vs Singapore/Asian education systems and Steiner schools (sorry EF) as well thrown in in the comments.
Overall I think it can be hard to hold back on all the structure/curriculums and general targets that the society around us has for kids. I found I had tried too early to start teaching S. to read It was like that with potty training, sometimes if you follow the child's lead a lot of time is saved as well as a lot of frustration on both sides. I still have to consciously hold back with M on pushing the academia, but sometimes he's asking for some worksheets etc so I give him what I can. Maybe my lack of time due to other commitments (e.g the 2 littlies) means he is getting his time to 'play'. However me having a mum who's tutoring 'slower' children back in the UK does remind me of the higher expectations there are in the UK at a younger age than here in Sweden. Well it all comes back to the debate of the purpose of education..........