Aasiya's Homeschool: special

Showing posts with label special. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Oh The Places You'll Go!

Dear Ibby,

Today you were supposed to do your homework. You haven't done your Canadian Curriculum in almost a week. You need to practice your writing and your math. Just as you finished your Arabic homework, we were supposed to move onto something else and you asked me if you could take a break. I said no. You then asked if you could just quickly go read your book and promised it would be only five minutes. It took a lot from me to say yes. The I-must-prove-I-can-keep-up-with-the-curriculum Mom in me started to come out but I (literally) took a deep breath, and let go. I let go of the expectations and stresses, and said yes.

You broke your promise. You were longer than five minutes. But its okay my baby, I forgave you. It's okay that you took longer than five minutes. Its okay that you took longer than ten minutes. Actually its so okay that we never even opened any other homework books today.

As a second child of three children, sometimes your accomplishments aren't as acknowledged as they should be. But this one is big. This one deserves a big recognition. You have been reading for maybe about a year now, but only a handful of words. But now, now you are really reading.

You're reading so well that you completed a whole Dr Suess book - Wacky Wednesday- yesterday. And Dr Suess isn't the easiest of books to read. You even told me how he talks really funny and doesn't always make a lot of sense.

You reading makes me happy. But first and foremost, Im proud of your determination. Your love and passion to learn. Im not always the typical mom who sits down and reviews flashcards and phonics [note: I said not always because sometimes I have those freak out moments when I frantically try to catch you up to the standards]. So because of my somewhat laid back approach, it really truly amazes me when I see the payoff. When I see the magic in your eyes when you've decided you want to learn something, put your mind to it, and get it done. Just like you have with reading.

You were so so proud when you finished the book yesterday and my heart just burst with love for you. I hope and pray you take that drive and apply it to many aspects in your life.

Ill leave it to Dr Suess to finish this letter up...

I know you'll go to great places inshaAllah,

Keep it up!

Momma is so proud of you.

Love and duas,

Always and forever,

Momma

Saturday, October 3, 2015

Eight

Dear Yusuf,

Oh Yusuf. My sweet Yusuf. My eldest, baby, big boy, Yusuf.
How I wish I could slow time down with you. Of all three of my children, you seem to grow the
fastest. If you only knew how much I try to be the best I can, for you. If you only knew how many times I go to bed at night full of guilt wishing I had done better, going over the things I did wrong.

Being the eldest isn't easy. Mothering the eldest isn't easy either. By the time your brother and sister turn three or four or five, its not as tricky because Ive already mothered someone that age before and have an idea of what to expect.

But for you and I, every age is new. Every stage is new. Every challenge is new. It's almost like practicing a foreign dance routine, every step makes you feel clumsy, and you practice and you practice and you finally get it! But theres no stage performance for motherhood, once I finally feel confident in my footing, you go ahead and reach another age.

You have no idea how many times Ive kicked myself after realizing Ive pushed you to grow up faster than you should, but once you do I feel like Ive missed out. I didn't slow down enough. I didn't savour each moment enough because I was too worried that you needed to be reaching a certain (mostly behavioural) milestone. It actually just hit me, (and hit me hard) the other week, when I realized how long I've been telling you that you're almost nine.

For the last six months, you've been 'almost nine.' According to the calendar, you still have about sixteen weeks until you're officially nine. But, being the typical mother-to-the-eldest, I've been saying your 'almost nine' for too long. Unfortunately Ive made you 'almost nine' for longer than you've actually been eight. It was only a few months after you turned eight, that I turned you into 'almost nine.'

You're not almost nine. You're eight. You've been eight for almost nine months, and still have over three months of being eight. And when you turn nine, I promise to keep you nine, not almost ten.

For you, being eight wasn't easy. And maybe thats why I made you 'almost nine,' to handle the pressures and changes and difficulties better. Maybe I subconsciously thought that if I made you older than you were, that it wouldn't be so hard.

Maybe moving countries, being homesick, missing family, having your best friend move away, seeing people constantly coming and going would have been easier if you nine instead of eight. Maybe being nine would have made you stronger so my heart wouldn't have to feel the tightness of seeing you hurt. Maybe going though this when you were eight was too hard, but being nine would have made it okay.

But the truth is that you were eight. And it was hard. And even if you were nine it still would have still been hard.

And its okay for things to be hard. Because life is hard. We cant escape the tests in life, whether were the age were currently at, or try to grow up faster than we should.

Here's to making a promise that Ill try my best not to force you to grow up any faster than you need to. And that well stay strong together through all the tests and trials of life. And if you need to cry and be sad and be angry and vent and talk about things that are hard... than thats okay, and I promise to be here for you....no matter what age you are.

All my love and duas,
Always and forever,
Momma

Monday, February 2, 2015

On the move again!

It's official. We have decided to move back to Canada. It's been an incredibly amazing time... but, it's time to go home.

We feel like it's been an extended vacation... We've made priceless memories that we will cherish for life time.... But, it's time to wrap up.

We've informed the kids this week... And there are mixed feelings, so to help them work through these feelings I asked them to write all the things they like about both Malaysia and Canada.

Inshallah we still have more than two months left. So hopefully we can focus on enjoying what we have left here and then be on our way back. <3

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Acrostic Poems.

Yusuf was learning about Acrostic Poems in his Canadian Curriculum so I asked him to make one of his own using his name. Mashallah he did well...and did it all on his own.

Those moments when the kids go and do something like this, make all the homeschooling struggles worth it. Alhamdulillah <3

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Langkawi - Mangroves

Ibby's journal entry for Mangrove trip

Naani and Pops <3

Fam Pic

Shells! They were amazing mashallah

Checkin out the monkies

Our tour guide. He was awesome. Taught us so many interesting things like:
-If you're ever lost in the jungle, do what monkeys do. What makes them sick will make us sick and what they can eat, we can eat. Follow them and drink the water they drink as well.
-Horn bill birds are monogamous. If one partner dies, the other partner will stay beside them and basically just wait there for death.
-When female eagles are looking for mates, they look for smaller males since they will be more agile and able to defend them from predators.
-The mangroves are trees that grow in the water, they have a filter system to take the salt out of the water. When you open the stem it looks like a cigarette filter and serves the same purpose. For any salt that does enter the plant, it shifts the salt to one selected leaf and then that leaf eventually falls off.
-Vipers are very venomous, however they are blind and deaf and move quite slowly.
-There were jelly fish in the water.

Cant think of anything else. But subhanallah it was really an amazing experience. We were out on the water for about three hours (with two breaks). Alhamdulilah kids were very well behaved and really enjoyed it as well.
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