Homeschooling: How and Where to Start (Part 1)

السلام عليكم ورحمة الله وبركاته

Insha'Allaah, over the next few weeks, I hope that Allaah will allow me to complete a series on How and Where to Start when you have decided to homeschool. 

Allaahu a'lam but it may be that the most common topic I receive correspondence and questions about is wanting to start homeschooling but not knowing where to start.  

This is a good question....Where do you start? 

The same sentiments and concerns are often mirrored in a similar question that is asked often: How do I start?

And, like its predecessor, this is another good question...How do you start?

A third and a fourth question are so intricately related that I will merge them into one post insha'Allaah. The two questions are: 

• How do I begin to put together lesson plans?
• What curriculum should I follow and/or how do I write my own?

The answers to these questions may be best discussed over a cup of tea insha'Allaah (and in parts) because they are not short answers *smile*. Tayyib, have you got your cup?

The first thing I will tell you is that I am not an expert and what suggestions will be made are only suggestions. It is hoped they will help and if they do then alhamdulillaah. All of the good is from Allaah Alone. The second thing I will tell you is something that may not provide the same comfort that your cup of tea is providing but it is very true: Where to start and how to start varies from family to family and from child to child. I do not know that one method prevails over all others and effectively suites all families and all children. But...

....do not worry. 

Let's take one question at time and insha'Allaah, some of the suggestions listed may help you or fit the design or structure that you would like to see in your homeschool. First question:

Where do I start? 

To this question, the answer that I prefer is: not at the beginning. There is no hard and fast rule in homeschooling (or teaching) that says you must start each child at the beginning of each subject in the curriculum and then go page by page - in order - until the topic is completed. If teachers did that our students may find their learning community very boring places indeed. In classrooms across the country, teachers differentiate their instruction (you can learn more about differentiated instruction here insha'Allaah) because while children may be the same age or same gender, they are each unique individuals whose experiences and exposure to certain knowledge can vary greatly. Respecting this fact, you start where the child is at. Meet them where they are at and move them on from that point. What does that mean?

In classrooms, we assess our students to get an understanding of their existing or prior knowledge (i.e. what do they already know about a particular subject/topic). What knowledge is already with them? Rare is the student who comes to a teacher a complete blank slate. This being the case, as a parent, after Allaah, you are the most knowledgeable person regarding your child. Assess your child.

For the age group addressed on this blog, it is not necessary that a pencil and paper assessment be conducted. Although as a parent, this would be helpful for you when you get to the curriculum/lesson planning stage. So while not necessary, you may wish to consider it. But do not be alarmed, this does not mean that your 4 year old sits down dutifully at the table and is handed a pencil while a test is simultaneously placed in front of him/her. What this means is that, after locating or designing a skills/knowledge checklist (assessment) that you feel comfortable with, you observe your child and/or do activities that will answer the questions on the checklist. Does he/she hold pencils or crayons and "write" stories, "draw" pictures and colour? Does he/she try to dress him/herself in the morning without assistance? Does your child know the names of the primary colours and can he/she identify them on sight? Questions such as these will provide you with the knowledge you need to tell you "where to start" when you wish to homeschool. So perhaps the answer to the question where do I start is: Start wherever you child is at. If your child knows all of the items listed in an assessment (or the content in the preschool curriculum you may be considering) there is no need to drag them through formally learning information they already know- start with the next level. There is a thirst and love of knowledge and learning that we do not wish to dilute or extinguish altogether. Our goal is to nourish and deepen it. To guide it in the direction that pleases Allaah. Our goal is to quench that thirst with beneficial knowledge. 

*A word of caution before proceeding to the next question.*

I do not know if, as a teacher, it is easier to be impartial when the job of assessing students is at hand (many teachers love their students and like parents, they genuinely wish to see their students succeed). A teacher cannot afford to mark off that a student knows something when in reality the students knowledge, while not absent, has not developed to a level of mastery. That would be a great disservice to the child. So when teachers ask a student to please place one sticker in each box and the student for the most part does that but several boxes have several stickers in them and some have no stickers at all, the teacher does not mark down that her student has mastered one-to-one correspondence. The student certainly shows that they are on the road to mastering it, but the student has also demonstrated that he needs more exposure to this topic to help him master it insha'Allaah. With this knowledge the teacher, when designing math activities for this child, will not start at the beginning for one-to-one correspondence because the student has shown that he does have existing knowledge of it. The activities this child will receive will simply serve to help him master one-to-one correspondence. Taking this example, this child might receive an activity that involves him using a pointer and talking his way through placing stickers in the box (i.e. student uses a Popsicle stick and points to the first box and says, "Just one box, just one sticker" - moves to the next box and repeats - "just one box, just one sticker" and continues in this fashion until all boxes have one sticker only). So the teacher, no matter how much she desires to see this student perform flawlessly on the assessment, cannot cheat the student by not accurately recording the level of knowledge the student displays. As parents we must use this same objectivity and be impartial when assessing our children. If your child does not know the material....alhamdulillaah...she does not know. Not a problem insha'Allaah...teach it to her...

Insha'Allaah, the next post will address the second question: "How do I start homeschooling?" This post will, insha'Allaah, answer questions such as: 

1. What materials will I need?
2. With all of the pre-prepared information/worksheets/etc. available, how do I organize it all to start teaching my child?
3. How do I know what to teach and when to teach it?
4. How long should each lesson be?

  Comments from sisters who have homeschooled are most welcome but I will ask that any advice be limited to the current topic in each of these posts insha'Allaah. We may also have some quest posts from sisters who have been homeschooling for a while and will share the structure/curriculum that works for their family. Also, if you wish to ask questions about this first question: "Where Do I Start?" please feel free to do so by leaving a comment insha'Allaah. 

So dear sisters, when you decided you wanted to homeschool your child(ren)...Where did you start?