My Homeschool Journey So Far

by Aliyah

I survived my first year of homeschooling! Alhamdulillah it has been a pretty awesome journey so far. I'm not going to lie and say it was super easy and everything worked out as planned because nothing works out as planned!

Haha I remember looking at my child's timetable when I first started homeschooling, and thinking to myself omg where do I start?! Looking at the allocated times and planning out the day, eg. 2 hours for Maths 1 1/2 hours for English, have a break and then resume other subjects and repeat, looked simple enough and straightforward to follow, but, I soon realised it doesn't exactly work that way.

You see every child is different and unique in the way that they learn so even though you think ok we're going to finish 2 pages in the next 20 minutes it may take 2 hours. Why? Because you have a toddler wanting you to open up a yoghurt pouch at the exact same time you're trying to teach your homeschooling child about math, and then you have your four year old sitting on the toilet calling out your name over and over again; and this all happens when you're trying to sit down and focus on your homeschooling child!

This is the reality of homeschooling especially if you have younger kids to tend to.

So I very quickly realised that I needed to keep my two other children busy with activities or something interesting so that I could focus on my homeschooling child. It really is full time work on top of being a mother, a teacher, a chef, a cleaner and every other duty we as mothers do!

One advice I will give you (regarding resources) is when you first start homeschooling, don't go overboard with 1000 different resources, keep it super simple, once you get into a groove, you will quickly pickup what your child needs, and then you can focus on that particular area. It is very easy to buy way too many resources that will not be used, I can vouch for that!

Ok I lied, here's another advice, and probably the most important one, self care and time out, not time out for the kids lol I mean time out for yourself, away from the kids. It's super important to have that time away and just do something for yourself, to keep you sane. Which means to have hubby on board or a relative that can have the kids for a few hours to just focus on yourself, trust me if you don't, it will become too much for you!

A lot of my friends who are not homeschooling mums ask me how long l intend to homeschool, and to be honest with you I don't have the answer, I'm content with it at the moment and I'm happy to continue next year but I don't know what the future holds, Allahu Alam.

Hats off to every homeschooling mother out there, hats off to you for giving your child that amazing one on one opportunity that they will never get anywhere else, hats of to you for giving it a go and for taking that leap, hats off to you for giving your child lifeskills and focussing on tarbiyah and ikhlaaq. All you homeschooling mums, seriously are supermums, I just started and I am in awe of those who have been home schooling for years and years and I look up to all of you.

Aliyah