Life After Home Schooling - New York Times

By: Pam Belluck

Published: November 1, 1998

They are pioneers, in a way: the first wave of the modern home-schooling movement, the first generation of children to be taught primarily by their parents.

Some 15 years after states began legalizing home schooling in earnest, these early graduates are starting to make their way in the world.

Some have found the transition challenging, especially when trying to convince colleges and employers that home school is as good as high school, or when trying to get used to working in groups and socializing with peers. Others have had easy success, building on talents nurtured in their home incubators and drawing on a sense of competence fed by their teacher-parents' undivided support.

The experiences of these young adults have paved the way for the increasing numbers of children coming after them. Following years of court battles, home schooling is now legal in every state. While there are no exact figures, estimates suggest that the number of home-schooled children has jumped to anywhere between 500,000 and 1.5 million today, from 15,000 in 1970. Many, if not most, go to college, and schools like Harvard and Yale now have policies for evaluating their work. The Internet has vastly broadened the range of home curriculums.

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State schools shunned for home education

• Polly Curtis, education editor
• The Guardian,

Parents are increasingly seeking alternative forms of education such as home schooling or Steiner schools to free their children from the state sector's regime of testing and targets, academics suggest today. Most English pupils now start formal learning at four years old, among the youngest in the world, and go on to be the most tested throughout their education, according to a series of in-depth reports which will feed into a major review of primary schooling by Cambridge University.

Many parents are now considering alternative forms of education and more are opting to home-educate their children. The government should learn from the way children are taught in alternative settings such as Steiner schools where they learn through play, the academics say.

"Both the numbers opting for home schooling and the range of motivations of those wishing to do so have expanded considerably in recent years. One substantial and growing group is comprised of those who have abandoned formal schooling because they believe it to be too constrained," according to a paper by James Conroy and colleagues at Glasgow University. An estimated 50,000 children are being educated at home. A second paper, also released today, reveals that English children are attending school earlier, and spend more days a year at school, and in increasingly large institutions.

Most children now start school at four, the second study, The Structure of Primary Education, by the National Foundation for Educational Research, finds, despite the legal age being after their fifth birthday. One factor has been rising demand for childcare as more women work full-time.

The school starting age has not changed since it was introduced in 1870 to prevent child labour abuses. The average school size in England in 2006 was 224 pupils, compared with 128 in Scotland and higher than any other country in the study. A third study, on the curriculum and assessment, led by Kathy Hall at the National University of Ireland in Cork, says that English schoolchildren are among the most tested in the world. "No other country appears to be so preoccupied with national standards," it says. The research says home-educated children perform better and that children from disadvantaged backgrounds can improve disproportionately. Home-educated pupils are less likely to watch TV or spend hours on computers.

The Cambridge review, led by Professor Robin Alexander, is the biggest independent review of primary schooling in 40 years.

Looking Back to Move Forward

Al-Azhar University - 1000 years of Scholarship

by: Foundation for Science Technology and Civilisation. Info@fstc.co.uk

Al-Azhar is today the most important religious university in the Muslim world with as many as 90,000 students studying there at any one time. It is arguably the oldest university in the world

When Jawhar the Sicilian, commander of the troops sent by the Fatimid Caliph Almuiz to conquer Egypt, founded Cairo in 358 AH / 969 AD he built Al-Azhar originally as a mosque. The mosque was completed within two years and opened for it's first prayers on 7th Ramadan 361 A.H/ June 22, 972 AD. Historians differ as to how the mosque got its name. Some hold that it is called as such because it was surrounded by flourishing mansions at the time when Cairo was founded. Others believe that it was named after "Fatima Al-Zahraa" the daughter of Prophet Mohammed (peace and blessing be upon him) to glorify her name. This last explanation sounds the most likely as the Fatimids named themselves after her.

Al-Azhar University is a natural expansion of the great mosque of Al-Azhar. It is the oldest and most celebrated of all Islamic academic institutions and Universities all over the world without exception. For over one thousand years Al-Azhar has produced thousands of eminent scholars, distinguished educationalists, preserving Islamic heritage and strengthening Islamic identity.

During the Fatimid times (972 - 1171), Al-Azhar was a miniature University whose objective was to spread the Ismaili-Shiite teachings in Egypt. Its position was thus important to the ruling Fatimid dynasty, but had little importance to the rest of the Muslim world who had its eyes focused on Baghdad as the center of Islamic knoweldge. Through the schools of Baghdad Muslims got to know scholars of the calibre of Abu Hamid al-Ghazali, Abu Ishaq al-Isfara'ini, Al-Juwaini and Abu-Bakr Al-Baqilani. For the majority of Muslims Al-Azhar was not as famous as the schools of Baghdad. In addition, the Fatimids were looked upon by the majority of Muslims as rulers belonging to a heretic sect. This view is obvious through the declaration made in Baghdad by many Muslim scholars denouncing the Fatimids. The declaration included prominent Sunni scholars like Abu Ishaq al-Isfara'ini in addition to prominent Shii scholars like al-Sharif al-Murtada. This stand regarding the Fatimids hampered Al-Azhar from taking a prominent position in the Islamic world during the time of the Fatimids.
When the Ayyubids assumed power, Al-Azhar was converted to the Sunni (mainstream) Islamic teachings. But with the establishment of the Ayyubid schools in Egypt Al-Azhar's position in the Islamic world became of little importance. It was considered just another school among the many schools in Egypt, Baghdad, Syria and Andalusia.

Read the entire article here....

Harlem to Antarctica for Science, and Pupils

A great story in the New York Times about people who are not afraid to think outside of the proverbial "box," and incorporate new methods with regard to how our young students are educated. I hope this program sets a precedence, and becomes the point of departure from the status-quo and serves to assist our ailing compulsory educational system.

The pitch: Eight weeks in Antarctica. Groundbreaking research into the climate before the Ice Age. Glaciers. Volcanoes. Adorable penguins.

The details: Camping on the sea ice in unheated tents, in 20-below-zero temperatures. Blinding whiteouts. The bathroom? A toilet seat over a hole in the ice.

Stephen F. Pekar, a geology professor from Queens College, was selling Shakira Brown, a 29-year-old Harlem middle school science teacher, on his expedition.

Her response: I’m in.

Dr. Pekar had found just the person for his Antarctica team: a talented, intrepid African-American teacher to be a role model for minority science students.

“I’m tired of having a bunch of white people running around doing science,” said Dr. Pekar, who is white...

Read the entire article in the New York Times

In Test, Few Students Are Proficient Writers

“Overall, American students’ writing skills are deteriorating,” said Will Fitzhugh, the founder of Concord Review, a journal published in Massachusetts that features history research papers written by high school students. He expressed skepticism that the national assessment accurately measured students’ overall writing skills because, he said, it only tests their ability to write very brief essays jotted out in half an hour.

“The only way to assess the kind of writing that students will have to do in college is to have them write a term paper, and then have somebody sit down and grade it — and nobody wants to do that, because it’s too costly,” he said...Read the complete article in the New York Times

The Natural World

Studying insects this year with my students was a great introduction for them into the natural world. Unfortunately this world remains hidden to most of our children. I encourage all parents to take time from there busy schedules and share the wonders of creation with their children. Time spent observing the natural world is truly therapeutic, and opens the child's mind allowing them to ponder and investigate this gift--the creation--that they have been blessed with.

I am not in the UK, but I fond this link for an exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London. The exhibition is titled "Amazing Butterflies," and is running from April 5th unit August 17. If you do attend some feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Here is a look at some of the Butterflies...

Wanted: faith in the future

Tuesday April 1, 2008
The Guardian

More than a third of British Muslims have no qualifications. Is the entire school system failing large numbers of students and what can be done?
Riazat Butt investigates

The Qur'an was revealed over a period of more than 20 years, with the prophet Muhammad receiving the first revelation in AD610 in the Cave of Hira, near Mecca. He was told: "Read in the name of your Lord who created, created man from a clot. Read, for your Lord is most generous, Who teaches by means of the pen, teaches man what he does not know."

Muslim scholars therefore see the pursuit of knowledge as a duty, with the Qur'an containing several references to the rewards of learning.

This sacredness is, however, lost on a third of British Muslims - or if they see it, they are not being empowered to achieve it. According to the Office for National Statistics, around 33% of British Muslims of working age have no qualifications - the highest proportion of any religious group in this country...Click here to continue

Many Muslims Turn to Home Schooling

Here is an article that appeared in the March 26th edition of the New York Times--Many Muslims Turn to Home Schooling

LODI, Calif. — Like dozens of other Pakistani-American girls here, Hajra Bibi stopped attending the local public school when she reached puberty, and began studying at home.

David Kadlubowski for The New York Times

Karima, right, with her sisters, Kiram, 8, and Kadhima, 14, playing with yo-yos in a study break at their Phoenix home.

Her family wanted her to clean and cook for her male relatives, and had also worried that other American children would mock both her Muslim religion and her traditional clothes.

“Some men don’t like it when you wear American clothes — they don’t think it is a good thing for girls,” said Miss Bibi, 17, now studying at the 12th-grade level in this agricultural center some 70 miles east of San Francisco. “You have to be respectable.” Continue the article...

And here is my response...

I was delighted to find a New York Times article that was emailed to me yesterday; entitled “Many Muslims Turn to Home Schooling.” As a homeschooler and a Muslim I was looking forward to the insight and depth that normally accompanies N.Y. Times articles. But unfortunately that was not the case; instead I was appalled by the blatant “spin” that was prevalent throughout the entire article.

If asked, home schoolers—be they Muslim or other--would cite educational freedoms, efficiency, and time management as some of the main reasons for home schooling. There is no denying that within the Muslim community religion does serve to influence a parent’s decision to home school. For the most part that decision is not undertaken to radicalize, isolate or render a child socially retarded, but, rather to shield them from the current trend of moral decline, erosion of societal values, increased violence, and physical/psychological abuses that have become an unfortunate reality of many of our public education systems.

Truly effective home schooling develops the minds of thinking and articulate students who are able to process facts into arguments and communicate those arguments clearly and persuasively. Therefore, for education to be effective, it must go beyond merely conveying facts. One of the goals of home schooling is to transcend the myopic approach of adhering strictly to academic issues and systematic testing that is based solely upon compulsory educational standards. Returning to the ‘primary objective’ of education is what motivates home schooling parents. And that primary objective is to provide the tools and opportunity for students to develop into complete human beings who can engage the world with intelligence, insight, integrity, virtue and compassion in a safe and wholesome environment.

It is not until the nearly the end of the article, that mention is made of any educational achievements for Muslims who have “Turned to Home Schooling.” The article identifies a Chinese Muslim immigrant family who chose to home school, and whose son is currently in the process of applying to medical school.

The article makes mention of a few of the reasons why Muslims home school, such as the parent who paid a visit to a kindergarten were each pupil had assembled a scrapbook titled “Why I like Pigs,” or the young Pakistani-American, Hajra Bibi, who as the article states, “like dozens of other Pakistani-American girls,” are forced to stop “attending the local public school when she reached puberty, and began studying at home.” And the reason for this, “Her family wanted her to clean and cook for her male relatives...” This is the same senseless rhetoric, which Maury Schaffer spewed on 60 minutes, when he labeled a beard worn by Muslim men as radical facial hair, and interpreted Muslim males wearing traditional white tunics as sign of their willingness to commit an act of martyrdom.

If the Bibi’s have chosen to home school because they are in need of a "domestic servant," then it should be clearly stated that is has no basis in Islam and is a cultural practice prevalent among rural South Asian immigrants.

Such an action contradicts the Prophetic tradition that addresses the idea of education—Prophetic traditions are the secondary source of Islamic law after the Qur'an--which encourages the pursuit of knowledge by both genders. The tradition states, “Seeking knowledge is an obligation for every Muslim (male and female).” The correlation that the author draws between Muslims home schooling and this family’s choice to remove their daughter from school and subsequent “banishment to housework and cooking" at the age puberty, is not only a gross misrepresentation, but is a dangerous stereotyping that seeks to further alienate and portray all Muslims in a an unfavorable light.

The false portrayal of Muslim home schoolers continues in the article, “Many Muslim parents contacted for this article were reluctant to talk, saying Muslim home-schoolers were often portrayed as religious extremists. That view is partly fueled by the fact that Adam Gadahn, an American-born spokesman for Al Qaeda, was home-schooled in rural California.”

Yes, Adan Gadahn was home schooled, but he did not convert to Islam until the age of 17, an age when most homeschooled students have completed their studies and are well into preparing for their college application process. So, what does a Jewish kid born in Oregon, whose Grandfather was a prominent surgeon and on the Board of Directors of the Anti-Defamation League; and whose paternal grandmother, Agnes Branch, was an editor for The Chronicle Christian Newspaper, who played Little League baseball and participated in Christian home school support groups, have to do with the reluctance of Muslims to speak about home schooling, or have any relevance, connection or correlation to this article? The answer is clear: absolutely nothing! It is also interesting that the three hyperlinks in the article—which are all related to Adam Gadahn—are irrelevant and serve no purpose addressing the topic of Muslim home schooing. The first hyperlink is for Al-Qaeda, the second is for state of California and the third the is for the F.B.I. We can understand the second link, as a Mr. Gadahn was home schooled in California and some of the families interviewed in the article reside in California. But what is the logic of adding a hyperlink for Al-Qaeda and the F.B.I. in an article that is supposed to be about Muslims turning to home schooling? Again, the answer is clear: absolutely nothing!

The article stated that, “Parents who home-school tend to be converts (to Islam),” yet throughout the entire article a single reference is made to a convert with regard to Muslim home schooling. Asking Muslims who are either under-qualified or not qualified at all to represent and convey an Islamic perspective, is tactic that has consistently been used in the media’s approach towards, “understanding Islam.”

The rhetoric builds to a climax at the end of article:

• “In some cases, home-schooling is used primarily as a way to isolate girls like Miss Bibi, the Pakistani-American here in Lodi (California).”

• “Their families want them to retain their culture and not become Americanized,”

• “As soon as they finish their schooling, the girls are married off, often to cousins brought in from their families’ old villages.”

• “Aishah Bashir, now an 18-year-old Independent School student, was sent back to Pakistan when she was 12 and stayed till she was 16. She had no education there.”

The article finishes by conjuring up an image of an oppressed, coerced and reluctant girl who is: “Asked about home schooling, she said it was the best choice. But she admitted that the choice was not hers and, asked if she would home-school her own daughter, stared mutely at the floor. Finally she said quietly: “When I have a daughter, I want her to learn more than me. I want her to be more educated.”

Anyone who knows anything about Islam understands that “staring mutely at the floor” is known as iqrar. A term in Islamic jurisprudence, which is an act--to stabilize or to accommodate something which is fluctuating between acknowledgment and denial and, it is a form of evidence in any given matter.

As a journalist it is incumbent upon one to collect and confirm unbiased information and subjectively report on the reality of the issue at hand. Sensationalism in a time of heightened polarization and a perceived “us vs. them,” is not only unhealthy, but dangerous and serves to only exacerbate the current state of misrepresentation and prejudice between cultures.

From Where Do We Get Our Culture?

While reading about the concept of a Classical Education, I came across what I feel is an extremely relevant concept with regard to culture and civilization.

The concept is, "the student learns that our Culture and Civilizations is an outgrowth of the classical, medieval and reformation world. Modern students must learn that our culture was not purchased for them by their parents at the mall."

I am a firm believer that we are products of our environment, and what we surround ourselves with has a lasting effect on who we are and how we think.

Recently, I was working with a child, and we were discussing the usage and spelling of a few words such as valley, and crane. When I asked the child "do you know the meaning of the word valley?" the child replied, with complete confidence, "of course, that is when the man comes out and parks your car for you."
The second word, crane was a bit more difficult, because it is a homonym, and can only be understood through its contextual usage. Fair play, but, when then child looks around, and without hesitation blurts out, "of course I know what a crane is, everybody knows what a crane is, look on top of all of the buildings, those are cranes!"

This exchange immediately brought to mind two books, "The Price of Privilege" and "Last Child in the Woods-Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder Syndrome."
The first book, "The Price of Privilege" addresses the concepts of parenting in the age of affluence, and the need for parents to teach children how to manage emotions and impulses, form healthy relationships, think for themselves, and become useful, well adjusted, and moral human beings.
The second book, "Last Child in the Woods" sets out to link the absence of nature in the lives of today's wired generation to some of the most disturbing childhood trends: the rise in obesity, attention disorders, and depression.

As parents we must constantly be aware of what our children are telling us, because it is nothing more than their reiterating what we are telling them. Let's constantly remind ourselves of our responsibility to our children, and never forget, "we reap what we sow!"

War Against Intelligence

“According to a 1993 national survey by the Educational Testing Service
of 26,000 adults with an average of 12.4 years of schooling, only 3.5% of the sample had the literacy skills to do traditional college level work.”-- Bruce N. Shortt, The Harsh Truth About Public Schools

Are your children bright? Most kids are. Chances are that you see their intelligence and strengths. You are aware of their interests and inclinations. You sent them off to school at a young age with the hope that the school would inform them of needed facts and knowledge as well as encourage their strengths and feed their interests. However, the public schools no longer do what parents expect, and that fact is the reason for the school wars.

Today’s schools have reduced the content of all instruction by about four grade levels, compared to fifty years ago. Teachers are now “facilitators” while the children reach “consensus” about their subjects. The CAPT test, Connecticut’s high school “exit exam,” is based on material offered only up to eighth grade. The courses, textbooks and tests have been dumbed down to that level. International testing shows that, compared to students in other advance countries, “The longer our students are in school, the lower their comparative performance,” says Gordon Ambach, former head of the Council of Chief State School Officers. He should know.

It gets worse: The schools have changed in purpose from education to political and social indoctrination, with “equality” as the goal. Schools don’t care how much children learn, they are primarily interested in what kids “are like.” The school’s goal is to transform children’s varied attitudes, values and opinions from those of traditional families to those desired by the government. The government seeks to turn a population of diverse children into a mass of predictable citizens who know the same things and believe the same things, with no one ahead or behind too far. That is why today’s public schools spend lots of our money trying to raise the bottom children up to the middle mass, but nothing to help high-achievers. In fact, they are designed to prevent the brightest kids from reaching their full potential. Now you know why “one-size-fits-all” and “dumbing down” are the major policies of public schools. The only way they can achieve “equality” of outcomes is by lowering their standards.

Today, the schools have a far different agenda for our children from the one we expect of them. They are failing to provide the children with the needed basic skills, knowledge and information, but, worse, they are interested in finding children’s weaknesses and psychological “needs” instead of their strengths and interests. The school system makes the basic assumption that all children have “disabilities” and need the school to provide “treatments” for them. The result is that school has become therapeutic and psychological even to the point of requiring many children to take mind-altering drugs such as Ritalin, in order to control their behavior.

The school system has several reasons to do this – all of which work directly against most parents’ hopes and wishes for their children. The government is seeking to mould the citizens of our country into a docile, easily controlled mass that can be employed or will become soldiers who do exactly what they are told to do, and nothing else. What does this all mean? It means that government school is no longer for the benefit of children. It is for the benefit of a government that seeks to control, instead of being controlled by, the people.

Unfortunately for America, our country needs well-educated people now, not dumbed-down people. There lies the School Wars, pitting the government school establishment against the rest of us. Government school offers Artificial Stupidity – turning bright kids into ignorant robots; our children need the exact opposite. The schools are turning intelligent children into stupid adults by the millions simply by not offering them what they need, while offering them large quantities of what they do not need, or want. I believe the situation is well described by Thomas Sowell: “In an age of artificial intelligence, too many of our schools are producing artificial stupidity.”

vertical vs. slanted handwriting

There has been an age old debate (since 1948) regarding two distinct writing styles for developing early childhood childhood hand writing. The following was taken from the end of an article comparing data (observations) pertaining to this subject.

In conclusion, after examining the available research and answering the most common questions in the ongoing debate of vertical vs. slanted handwriting instruction, educators are left with one final question: Which alphabet will I teach my students? There are two choices: The vertical alphabet which, according to research, is more developmentally appropriate, easier to read, and easier to write for young children as well as being easier for educators to integrate and teach; or the slanted alphabet, which was originally designed with the good intentions of moving children more quickly and easily into cursive but has been shown by research and experience to not only have fallen short of its original goal but also to have created many problems for young children. The alphabet teachers choose should aid the teaching and learning process, not cause unnecessary difficulty, now or later. After all, in the final analysis, there is only one true measurement of whether a skill has been mastered or not--student success.

If you would like to read more information pertaining to the study, Please click here

Al-Ghazali on Disciplining the Soul & on Breaking the Two Desires

Al-Ghazali on Childrearing
Translated by: T.J.Winter (Abdal Hakim Murad)

KNOW that the way in which young children are disciplined is one of the most important of all matters. A child is a trust in the care of his parents, for his pure heart is a precious uncut jewel devoid of any form or carving, which will accept being cut into any shape, and will be disposed according to the guidance it receives from others. If it is habituated to and instructed in goodness then this will be its practice when it grows up, and it will attain to felicity in this world and the next; its parents too, and all its teachers and preceptors, will share in its reward. Similarly, should it be habituated to evil and neglected as though it were an animal, then misery and perdition will be its lot, and the responsibility for this will be borne by its guardian and supervisor. For God (Exalted is He!) has said, Ward off from yourselves and your families a Fire. A father may strive to protect his son from fire in this world, but yet it is of far greater urgency that he protect him from the fires which exist in the Afterlife. This he should do by giving him discipline, teaching him and refining his character, and by preserving him from bad company, and by not suffering him to acquire the custom of self-indulgence, or to love finery and luxury, in the quest for which he might well squander his life when older and thus perish forever. Rather should he watch over him diligently from his earliest days, and permit none but a woman of virtue and religion to nurse and raise him; her diet should be of permitted things, for there is no blessing [baraka] in milk which originates in forbidden food, which, should a child be nourished on it, will knead his native disposition in such a way as to incline his temperament to wrongdoing.

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Provisions

As parents who are educating their children, how do we reconcile the reality that our life in this world is transitory, and that true realization will be accompanied by understanding when the veil has been lifted (i.e. when we depart from this world)?

No sensible individual would avail themselves to the dangers of travel without provisions and preparation, so why then do we (as the responsible agents of our children) repeatedly send them forth unprepared to the appointed meeting with their Creator?

Indeed, secular knowledge has its benefits; there is no disputing this point. But we must contemplate the following question: “are we preparing our children with the provisions required for the journey that is infinitely more important than their present travels”?

Every individual bares a Divinely legislated responsibility, as made clear by the following Prophetic tradition: Ibn Umar (may God be pleased with him) said that the Messenger of Allah (Allah bless him and give him peace) said: "Each of you is a guardian, and each of you will be asked about your guardian-ship. The leader is a guardian, and the man is a guardian over the people of his house, and the woman is a guardian over her husband's house and children. So each of you is a guardian, and each of you will be asked about your guardianship". (Bukhari, Muslim)

As parents we need to transcend the myopic approach of adhering strictly to academic issues and testing based solely upon compulsory educational standards. With regard to our children it is imperative that we return to the primary objective of education-- providing the tools and opportunity for students to develop into complete human beings who can engage the world with integrity, virtue and compassion, and who will be well informed and comprehend the transitory nature of this abode.

Thus, I remind myself of this timeless advice: “the knowledge which secures salvation and felicity in the Hereafter is immeasurably more significant and useful than any science whose purpose is mere immediate physical well-being”. “Knowledge, then, used appropriately becomes wisdom…wisdom is the force of penetration and discernment of the mind, the ability to place everything in its precisely appropriate location, in the precisely appropriate manner, at the precisely appropriate time. It is also the ability to put first things first, never to allow the ephemeral to obscure the path to the eternal, nor the contingent to take priority over the essential”. [1]

______________________
[1] Badawi, Mostafa, trans. [Fusul al-‘Ilmiyah wa-al-usul al hikmiyah], Knowledge and Wisdom. Chicago: The Starlatch Press, 2001

Spelling Review

When I began homeschooling our daughter this fall, I chose to commit three days per week to spelling. We have been using seven words per spelling lesson from the "Explode the Code" book series. The progression in the books has been very appropriate for our daughter, and she really enjoys the work.

An important point that should be mentioned is this: anytime you feel that a younger child--typically before the age of seven indicates (whether physically or verbally), that they are no longer interested in studying, you should respond to their feelings and end the lesson. Trying to push through it will only have negative affects, in that, disdain begins to grow in the child with regard to studying. Once this happens, it is as if a trust has been violated and then studying becomes a chore rather then an activity which they enjoy.

At the age of five, after five months our daughter is producing work like this (i.e. the above scanned page) consistently. A main point for us has been to listen to what our daughter is telling us. And most of the time we know when she has reached her limit--by observing her actions--not by her telling us.

Built upon the success that we have found pertaining to this spelling process, I have been inclined to try some short sentence dictation with her. In the next post I will--In sha Allah--scan a page of that work.

wa salam.

Dictation

I have been homeschooling my daughter (5 yrs. old) using a series in English--(spelling and writing)--named "Explode the Code". It has been fantastic! After four months of daily "spelling reviews" and short sentence writing, I wanted to try some dictation work with her. The above notebook page was her dictation for today.

Witnessing her development has been, and still is, completely therapeutic. I encourage every parent to become pro-active with regard to their child's education.

The rewards are beyond description!!! The love that is born out of this parent-child relationship is something that we are all in need of.

Information and Knowledge

The difference between information and knowledge is the application of those facts, or discerning reality from conjecture. Truly effective education develops the minds of thinking and articulate students who are able to process facts into arguments and communicate those arguments clearly and persuasively. Therefore, for education to be effective, it must go beyond merely conveying facts.