Homeschooling experiment

So today I am going to make actual use of this platform apart from ranting and making this blog my burn book.

Since my kid who is 2 years and 4 months old is now taking interest in things so I have started to teach him English and Urdu alphabets little by little. Though it was not in my plan to start teaching him formally but in Japan they don’t teach English and we all know how important English is in other countries. So I decided to teach him myself until we go back to Pakistan.

May Allah Taala help me in upbringing.

I am not professional in homeschooling nor there is anyone to guide me. So I am taking help from websites and trying to experiment something on my kid. Afterall first child is always an experiment.

Since we both husband and wife are studying so books are very common in my house. So I bought some couple of random baby board books for Fawaaz when he was 8 months old and was learning to grab things. He mashaAllah very efficiently ate and tore the books from every angle.

I kept buying more books and he kept on eating and tearing them until he was 1.5 years and then he recognized that oh, this is something to read and not to eat. After this, I started to actually give him time and ask him to sit so that we can read books. And he used to sit on my laps and we used to read book which was more of flipping pages than reading. This is how books were introduced to him at an early age. Now he rarely tears any book (yes accidents still happen) . The flipping pages is still on but now, not too fast. He confidently points out images in the books and tells their names.

Moreover, I printed out some Islamic kids material such as Months in Islam, 5 pillars in Islam, some colourful duaas, alif baa taa, etc and put it in plastic file so that Fawaaz couldn’t eat it. I used to make him read from far because I didn’t want to ruin my halal time which I spent on it. Lol.

He takes interest in that too and mostly points on “months in Islam”. Because he knows mama will sing a song now =p *Clever kid*

We usually recite common duaas such as upon entering toilet, changing clothes, sleeping, waking up, eating, going out of home, coming back, etc in loud voice so that he can remember them and Alhamdullilah he now remembers duaas of sleeping , going to toilet, eating, etc.

When he was 2 years old, I took a colored paper and wrote “A” , drew apple and put it on wall. Fawaaz took interest. He cannot recognize letters yet but only images. So we are on “H” now. And now he can recognize all images Alhamdullilah which we colored together. Here is the picture

Now my aim is to make him understand and recognize letters so I am trying different activities with him.

Straw activity:

Just take two three straws, cut them with scissor. Take glue.

Make “A” and ask your kid to put glue on straws and stick them on paper.

This was a very effective activity. Atleast For a day, he remembered “A”.

But drawbacks: he took a piece of straw and put it inside the glue stick. This is how he ruined the whole glue stick MashaAllah =p

Making “A” through blocks:

We took blocks. I made “A” through it and then I sang my own creation song.

I am “A”. I am Fawaaz friend. Fawaaz made me. Yaayy yaay yaay “A”.

After doing these activities I realized, kids teach you a lot. From these activities Fawaaz taught me sabr and taught me how to do everything myself and then lie that Fawaaz made it (-_-)

P.s- please leave a comment below if you think that this post is effective in anyway. Would appreciate much

Allahs Love

Ten steps towards Allahs love.
1- INCREASE IN ZIKR. Jo insaan jis say ziada muhabbat kerta hai, us ka zikr bhi utna hi kerta hai.
2- TILAWAT OF QURAN- with tadabur and tafakur with some qualified teacher. ( Learning Tafseer of Quran is like diving into sea)
3- NAWAFIL– “jab jab banda nawafil parhta hai tu mujh say aur qareeb hjata hai”. Life is about extras. Koi bhi relation acha kerna hai us k liay you have to do extras.
4-ALLAH KO HER CHEZ PER FOQIYAT DENA- jab dunya or Allah ki baat a jaee tu Allah ko pick kia jae. Jab dunya ka pressure hoo tu dekhoo k Allah ko khush kerna hai ya Allah ko.
5-ALLAH KI SIFAAT P GOR KERNA– Insan ki fitrat hai k jab ussay kisi ki achiaan pata chal jaeen tu automatically woh banda acha lagnay lagjata hai
6- ALLAH TALA KI ZAHIRI OR BATNI CHEZO P GOR KERNA-
7- DIL TOTTA HAI TU ALLAH KI MUHABBAT BARHTI HAi- “May totay hoay dil k qareeb hoon”
8- KHALWAT MAY ALLAH KO YAAD KERNA- Tahajud is like a blank cheque. When you are alone, you get to know YOU
9-BREAK AWAY SHACKLES AND HURDLES– Allah ki mohabbat panay k liay beach k her chezoo ko zindgi say nikalain. We don’t have two hearts k aik dunya ko day dain or aik deen ko dai dain. Allah won’t enter a heart which is already occupied.
10-TO SPEND TIME WITH ALLAH WALAY– Suhbat is must. Yeh sirrf kitabay parhnay say nahi ati. You become what you spend time with.

What takes away our happiness…

“Look at children. Of course they may quarrel, but generally speaking they do not harbor ill feelings as much or as long as adults do. Most adults have the advantage of education over children, but what is the use of an education if they show a big smile while hiding negative feelings deep inside? Children don’t usually act in such a manner. If they feel angry with someone, they express it, and then it is finished. They can still play with that person the following day.”

― Dalai Lama XIV

Let’s take a scenario, two friends probably aged 10 fought… why? One of the friend said to the other that her dress doesn’t look good; the other friend got hurt and started crying. Now this is quite a big deal between 10 year olds, don’t you think? Yet the former friend apologized and consoled for her act because she felt bad and the fact that she made her friend cry affected her. They hugged each other and were back to what THEY WERE-“GOOD FRIENDS”

It is amazing how children will always be better than what we will EVER be. They have the greatest personalities of all, they have the decency to forgive, to let go and to makes things ever happy no matter what the situation is. As we’re growing older, our thinking has become stagnant and isolated rather than open and liberated. It’s like we are advancing with age but our minds have shrunk.

We are people who never see two sides to a story, or believe that our beliefs apply to everybody, and most of all we can’t see the world from another perspective. We have chosen ego centrism as our way of life. We have to admit that if it’s associated with ego, then it’s not for the soul. Why has materialism taken over healthy relationships? We seek individualism and selfishness over things that initially mean the world to us. We choose those things and those actions which can be better off for us.

We start producing hatred for the ones who try to make things normal. We think asking and giving clarifications or explanations will make things complicated. We think it will not resolve the problem but will aggravate it. That’s where we are wrong. We don’t realize life is too short to have grudges in heart. It is too short to fill yourself with ego. It is too short to lose the ones YOU LOVE.

It’s pretty distressing to see how people make relationships worse just because they’re too stuck up to admit their own mistakes or because they can’t get over their egoistic issues.

Darul Sukoon- The home of hope!

Out of many small wishes, one of my wish was to spend time with the orphans, old and with the disable people. Recently I got a chance to fulfill my wish and I visited Darul Sukoon as a photographer of a small event with a team of YLC who promised to spread smiles and happiness with them. There reside children and some old age people who are mentally and physically disable.

The team members played with them, danced with them, sang with them, listened to their small adorable wishes and gave gifts and goodies. All the people of Darul Sukoon were amazing, the way they care for each other and the way they protect each other was worth noticing.

When speaking to a person of management, she told me that parents of these children leave them here when they realize that they are disabled. She told that they give reasons that they don’t have enough money to bring them up but they lie to hide the truth. When I asked if these children miss their parents, she smiled and said these children are now our own children. We know them and they only know us. This is their home. They don’t know that the word “parents” exist but they know that “love” exist and they live on this hope. A tear flicked down my cheek which a four year old boy wiped it off and proved the above statement right.

I went to explore the well maintained and decorated building and saw an employee feeding the boy whose feet were tied with the bed and his eyes were frightened. I asked why he was tied when he is in a cot with rods taller than the normal height. He said, “He is very hyper. Once he climbed it and went to take a hot boiling water bath. I reached on the spot else he wouldn’t be alive today”. The boy was continuously looking at me while I was talking to the employee. I smiled at him and said “Kioo bhaee kioo gaee ap?” <Why? Why you went there?> The boy looked, smiled and started telling me whole story in his own special language. The employee told he is very choosy person and once he choose and starts talking, he doesn’t stop. You can leave whenever you want. I smiled and keep listening to him because I felt there was a need there.

Altogether there were smiling, sad, frightened and the needy faces. All of them wanted only one thing that is a hand to hold, an ear to listen to them, a mouth to cherish their beauty and a heart to love them endlessly. They all were innocent. What was moving for us was the way these children looked up at us, the way they gave us thousand dollar smile, the way they played, danced and the excitement they had in their twinkling eyes while opening the presents and showing them off to their friends. They had the manners which a normal person doesn’t have. They are taught to be hospitable and to be warming.

These children proved that though we are blessed with all the abilities yet we have made ourselves disables. We made our condition worst by ourselves. We do have the heart but of stone whereas these people have the heart of gold.

The team of YLC

I AM A LIAR!!

Ever felt what you are doing is wrong but you still persist in doing it? Ever wondered what is the force behind compelling you to do those things? Did you ever feel yourself out of your own control? Why always search for hope and hanging for what one can’t achieve? Why the hardest thing for one is to say how I feel, to explain what is hurting me, to ask for help? Why the people lie to themselves?

There are many times when you don’t understand yourself. You feel someone else inside you doing all the things. You pretend what you are not and you utter what you never mean to speak. The way you talk and do things go beyond your expectations and set limits. You are well aware of the consequences, yet you cross the limits. You astonish yourself by the act you perform. You do things that you once condemn. You lie to yourself saying there wasn’t any other way out or that’s the best option I could have chosen.

You deceive yourself and then weave web to tangle others in it. You lie to satisfy your own need. We lie about which we lie that we are not liars. We all are liars. We live in a world built on promises; constructed by liars. A person is known to be unpredictable and we prove it for ourselves too.

Remember no matter how big or small the lie is, in the end, it will remain a lie!  Stop deceiving yourself and others. Remove the veil in front of your eyes. STOP BLUFFING YOURSELF!

I admit I lied. I am a criminal. I did mistake. I am sorry. I am realizing it. I wanted a reason and now I got it. Won’t ever do this again because I won’t ever leave myself in this case. I have removed my veil and now I know IT’S OVER!