Bismillahi rahmanir rahim
Walaikum salam warahmatullahi wabarakhatu
May the peace and blessings of Allah be upon our Prophet.
I home educate my 1st son, the other one is at an Islamic nursery but after that I hope to start with him as well I am a bit undecided but I would like to home educate all of them and use the money I would pay at the Islamic schools to go shopping etc. I know a sister who is home educating all her six children and another non muslim family with 16-17 children all the school aged children are home schooled, so it can be done. It takes a lot of patience. I thought it would be difficult to home educate my very active boys but alhamdulillah if it is time for work they will sit down and actually listen and run around like crazy when it is not. I have tried sitting both of them down when the one who goes to nursery is off and it works I just give them different things to do according to their abolity.
You do not have to follow the curriculum unless you want to or you would like to send them to school later on. You don't have to be a teacher. With home education you have the flexibility to follow your child's interest. I buy educational books in book stores or any shop I might find them and there are also websites with free resources and some paid for.
There might be some legal information you would like to read before you start because I am sure it varies from state to state or country to country, so do a search online.
I feel schooling gets in the way of education because the children are trained to think like everyone else, it is more like a training institution rather than education. When I was growing up, I remember being taught the evolution theory as fact in school even though at church we were being taught God created the heavens and the earth. If you write Allah created the heavens and earth and everything in it you will surely fail yet we know this is fact. If you write falsehood you pass and you right the truth you fail. I see it as double standards to send children to schools where they are going to be lied to and we teach them something else and force our children to accept the kuffar way of thinking. They will be in state schools more than they are at home anyway and the parents in most cases have no idew what their children are learning. I took my 3 year old to a state nursery for about 3 days and the 1st day he cried most of the time because they were playing music and we don't listen to music, he told his teachers and they took him to another room, so they said anyway. When I picked him up from nursery they told me he was fine but when he saw me burst into tears and it was when we got home that he told me he does not want to go back because they had music and muslims don't listen to music.
I took him back to the nursery the next day and I told the teacher and that is when she admitted actually he wasn't fine the day before, he was crying and she said she would take him out of the class when they had music and take him to another class where they will be doing something but they didn't do that because he told me again when I picked him up and he was very upset and told me he doesn't want to go back tomorrow. The next day I got him ready for nursery and he started crying. I thought to myself I am being hypocritical aren't I? I have been teaching them music is haram yet I am making him go where I know they will be having music and giving them musical instruments and making them sing to them, so I phoned the nursery and told them he will not be coming any more and obviously asked for the reason which I gave and they said music is good for children according to studies and helps children develop etc.... I said children in Islamic nurseries still develop without the music. Anyway that was it and now he goes to the Islamic nursery and I or hubby have to take 2 buses even in winter just for him to go 2 1/2 hours. He doesn't have to go but we like him to have the interaction with other children and we cant move because of circumstances to the area near there.
This information is for England and Wales
The legal situation in the UK with regard to home education can be summarised in the phrase:
Education is compulsory, schooling is not
http://www.education-otherwise.org/Legal/IndexToLegalBits.htm
Home education advisory services
http://www.heas.org.uk/
Some free home school resources
http://www.tlsbooks.com/
There are some home education groups as well were parents/children who home school get together once in a while to share resources or just for a chat/coffee while children play together so they do not miss out on interaction with other children and days out are also an option. Trips to the Art gallery, nature centre, and many other places. Museums, Art galleries are normally free so do not have to spend a fortune each time you go out. The nature centre I will take the boys to is free for children as well and they get to see some animals and learn about them.
This site also has some quite useful and an inspirational video called 'Animal School'
http://www.raisingsmallsouls.com/
At school/nursery they tell fairy tales which are filled with lies under the pretext of teaching children, Pinocchio whose nose grew because he kept telling lies, so why doesn't the teachers nose grow as well while they are telling all these lies. Why not just tell children lying is bad without lying.
Home education is the first choice in my opinion Islamic schools an alternative for those ones who have to send their children to school due to circumstances and state schools NEVER an option, totally my opinion.
Here is an example of some studies done about home educated children
http://www.dur.ac.uk/p.j.rothermel/Research/Researchpaper/BERAworkingpaper.htm
What you can't teach you can always find a sister who can or a tutor who can help on certain days if you can afford or just be creative and try to do it yourself. I have a sister who teaches the boys arabic and a bit of Quran, she concentrates more on Arabic as a language for conversation purposes.
There is also an option called flexi schooling. Flexi Schooling describes an arrangement between the parent and school where children are registered at the school in the usual way but attend school only part time. The rest of the time the child is home educated. Was thinking about this but not too sure.
http://www.home-education.org.uk/articles-flexi-school.htm
If I get in touch with home education groups in my area that will be a lot better I think. My son is also going to do activities like swimming and martial arts and thinking of horse riding as well to keep him in touch with children his age while having fun and being physically fit.
You could search for words/phrases like, home education, home school, home education resources or similar in your search engine and see what comes up and you can even include your area in the search terms.
I hope this helps. I am rambling on now I guess. I will have to go.
