Friday 28 October 2011

Holistic Learning

بسم الله الرحمن الرحيم

I have been working recently on developing my own "mini" curriculum that I can do with my children (age five and three) at home and after school. Why am I doing so?
  • Although My son is enrolled in one of the best schools alhamdulilah, which is an international one. They still are missing some aspects that every human being requires to be better ones
  • I am afraid that I might miss my children's strengths/weaknesses.
  • Pointing out/improving/consolidating their strengths and talents
  • improve my parenting skills (of course :))
  • I have studied in an education system that unfortunately did only focus on memory skills (memorise, MEMorise, MEMORISE), with no creativity, no encouragement of it, and it KILLED talents
So why am I sharing my thoughts here?
  • Maybe someone can tell me where I am going wrong/what can I add/modify?
  • someone might find it a good idea/sharing is caring
  • so I can arrange my thoughts
I didn't know what to call it, is it a continuum of home schooling? I just called it holistic learning. I am looking at the following aspects, and designing activities in relation to that:
  • taffakur/tadabur (I did not know how to translate it, but it means fathoming/deep thinking) which will be on Quran, Islamic literature, fathoming on how/why we were created, be independent thinkers and deeply thinking about what has been created/why and so on (I got one site which focuses on this, it is actually a school curriculum but it has some products for parents. http://www.tafakkur.com
  • emotional intelligence, I've a book that you do it together with your child in Arabic and it enhances this aspect of intelligence in a fun way 
  • Home project: crafts, baking, handmade stuff
  • an outing that is to somewhere for a purpose/objectives that will be discussed prior to the outing.
  • and a story time/reading time
What are you doing with your children, any suggestion please :)

7 comments:

aynzan said...

What a good concept!This enables to motivate their all round skills.This is 'quality' time spent with children.

Karima said...

I think some parents think their child should only learn from school - this is so wrong! I constantly monitor what my children are doing at school - unfortunately my children don't attend a muslim school so they need to do things at home so they understand their faith. I have many books and the internet is a good resource for children as long as you monitor what sites they use! Karima

MoOn said...

Aynzan,
Thank you very much for your encouraging words, That is exactly what am trying to implement, inshallah :)

MoOn said...

Karima,
thank you very much for sharing your experience, I agree with you. My child's school does very basic thing on religion as well which is not sufficient at all which concerns me and pushes me to do more at home.

Chasing Rainbow said...

Anything that benefits the children Islamically will follow them in life.
I try to incorporate Islam without making it all about "lessons", I think you know how I have been going about it.


Holistic learning really takes into account every aspect of the child's development, and no school can provide that fully.

One thing that you should be aware of is the fact that your children are individuals, so while there are things that you want to teach them, consider their learning styles, and skills (especially as they grow).

I've been homeschooling for years, and the one thing that I have seen is that it gets harder as they get older, BUT, as they age, it's essential that they become a part of their own learning, by participating in their own curriculum etc...this helps in empowering them, and making them responsible for their learning.

Anyways, let's talk about this offline.

Salam alaikum.

Chasing Rainbow said...

oh, and KUDOS sis, this is very important for our kids.

MoOn said...

dear salma,
I am so excited about receiving ideas and help from you as i've been aware of your experience on this field. inshallah soon will sort out some matters and start on this learning subject. inshallah..
thanks a lot for the advice
and inshallah you had a great eid
xx