Encouragement is Key!

How do I know? Because I’ve seen the effect it has had on my children, walhamdulillaah.

I used to be a little harsh with Junayd when it came to salaah - him messing around when I prayed. But one day, he took it upon himself to pray with me, and… mashaa`Allaah, he prayed the whole salaah. Okay, so he fidgeted here and there and turned to look at his sister, but he prayed the salaah all the same.

When we finished I smothered him with kisses and told him how pleased Allaah is when we pray; Junayd had the widest smile on his face, mashaa`Allaah. Thereafter he rushes to pray with me, and prays the full 3 or 4 rak’aat, tabaarakAllaah, and does so because he WANTS to. It really makes my heart melt, and I say the du’aa of Prophet Ibraheem:

“Rabbij-’alnee muqeemus-salaati wa min dhurriyyatee, rabbana wa taqabbal du’aa`.
Rabbanaghfirlee wali waalidayya, wa lil-mu`mineena, yawma yaqoomul hisaab”

O my Lord! Make me one who performs As-Salat (Iqamat-as-Salat), and (also) from my offspring, our Lord! And accept my invocation.

Our Lord! Forgive me and my parents, and (all) the believers on the Day when the reckoning will be established. (Soorah al-Ibraheem: 40-41)

May Allaah preserve the goodness that He has instilled in our children, and preserve the fitrah within them, aameen.

~ Umm Junayd.

I’m Torn…

Yes, I am indeed!

I love schooling my children, it makes me feel warm and fuzzy, and well… have more of a purpose when I think of the ‘not-so-good’ days (you know what I mean?).

But, Junayd is going to turn 5 in November inshaa`Allaah, and we are fast approaching the end of the school year. Although he could remain part-time at his montessori nursery while being homeschooled part-time until October, I’m being told that I should find him a school now!

Who said I wanted to send him to school full-time? I’m having a harder time because… well, hubby and I do not see eye-to-eye on the homeschooling thing. Let’s just say that it is not only just us mothers who get stick for not sending our children to school, fathers feel the pressure too; but we have to learn to resist pressure, don’t we?

I am more than willing to step down from some of the many projects I am involved in just to school my children, but I’ve just got this major setback that won’t let me move forward.

It’s not that my hubby doesn’t see the benefit from homeschooling, although he hasn’t said so in many words, I do believe that he is impressed by just how much Junayd has learnt, and how much his little sister is now learning. But maybe it’s fear of not conforming… you know, having to answer the dreaded question: ‘Which school does he go to?’.

**sigh**

Help?

Global warming woes?

Alhamdulillaah, we have both a front and back garden, and have, mashaa`Allaah, been blessed with two apple trees in the back garden, and a magnolia tree in the front one.

Last year, the magnolia tree began to bud in late March, and we fully flowered by April/May. But this year, it looks like we’ll not be enjoying the flowers in April, since they began budding in February and most have fully blossomed now, and it’s not even the end of March!

Here are they are on the 18th Feb:

As you can see, the poor flowers are confused - what lovely warmth, lets start peeping - it was February! As you will see from the next picture, some buds were simply not convinced it was time to show:

And… here they are on 3rd March (ignore my shadow!):

What do they look like now? Battered! The high winds we’ve been having recently has scattered most of the petals, and many flowers have started to shrivel. Quite sad… But have a look anyway:

… and they say it’s global warming…

Hates writing… LOVES reading!

As the title suggests, my son loves reading, and it’s not surprising since he has an overloaded personal library that contains nearly 150 books mashaa`Allaah. However, he simply does not like writing. He’ll ‘dictate’ words to me, and just recently began to spell his name, alhamdulillaah. He spells it, but does not write it because he says ‘he can’t’.

I find it quite frustrating, since he is progressing quite well with his reading. We use BOB books and he loves reading each book in set 1 because he can read an entire book himself, mashaa`Allaah (which is consequently the aim of BOB books).

Does anyone have tips to encourage Junayd to read? Activities, or the like?

~ Umm Junayd.