[Muslim mothers: would you mind..?]

I have a situation that I would like to discuss with mothers who are Muslim, but I would like to refrain from posting publicly about it. Would anyone mind PMing with me?

 

I will say upfront that I am not Muslim, and I am NOT trying to convert anyone. I just had a situation with a friend's child and would like to know how and if I should confront my friend about something her child said to me.

 

Thanks in advance. :001_smile:

[Best nursing bra?]

Goddess. I have the first two listed on that site and they are my staple bra.

[Nice article on US Muslim Youth and the hijaab (religious content)]

I'm late to this thread, as it seems to have faded off, but I wanted to share something.

 

Yesterday, my family spent most of the day in the company of Muslim families at a barbecue. Most were not homeschoolers, but the hosting family homeschools, and in fact, my older daughters happen to be best friends with the host families DD#3. There were many different styles of Muslim headcoverings among the women -- most with hijaab, some without, and one young woman with niqaab -- not to mention different styles of dress as there were Pakistani, Indian, Egyptian, Turkish-by-way-of-Germany, Malaysian, Black American and multiethnic/multiracial backgrounds represented. I should say that my family is Byzantine Catholic and I do not wear any type of headcovering.

 

I didn't talk to every single person, but those who I did speak with were friendly and cordial. I got a few looks, but it could have been people wondering any number of things like, "why is this lady doing crafts at a barbecue?" :) I did get some people tell me, "Oh, so you are the lady who N talks about! She is happy with the homeschool group and she speaks well of you!" My point is that, no one in my family was shunned or treated badly because we are non-Muslims. We were welcomed and had an awesome day. To an outsider, a cursory look may have led one to believe that the group was self-segregating, but a deeper look would have shown a different picture altogether.

 

Not to devalue anyone's opinion, but I just wanted to share my corny story to say that not all people of any specific religious or ethnic group -- in this case, Muslim women -- are all unfriendly and only want to be around their own.

[Two at home, one at school?]

 

Also, while some might not agree with it, we hired a part time nanny. It's just 4 hours once a week at this point but it really helps me get a break which I need to effectively teach my challenging girl.

 

If I could do this, I absolutely would. I've been wanting a mother's helper for some time now, mainly to help with the baby while I work with my older two, but my trust issues get in the way.

 

 

We have our kids in our church choir and that works great:)

 

I wish that our church had a choir. I don't even think my husband's religion has churches that have children's choirs. :(

[Two at home, one at school?]

So much good advice here, and so many decisions to make for my family!

 

My husband and I have had a series of discussions about this and he sticks by our initial decision to keep her home. I, on the other hand, keep waffling about this and it's driving me crazy. It definitely doesn't help that some cold/respiratory thing is going through our home at the moment. I'm sure that's affecting my judgment.

 

I have to admit, this is all basically based in fear. Fear that I won't do a good job, fear that my kids will resent me, fear that my kids are missing out on something. As an example, my 5 year old loves singing, so I keep thinking, "I'll find a homeschool choir for her to join!" Then I look around and see that either she's too young, the choir is too expensive or our family would likely not fit in well with the organization that runs the choir. Then fear creeps in and I think, "well, if I put her in school, she'll have plenty of singing opportunities because that's just what Kindergarteners *do*, right?" I end up feeling that I simply cannot provide her with this activity and that she's missing out somehow. I can rationalize it back to homeschooling her by saying that I play a lot of kid music in the car and I recently bought a great music curriculum that focuses on music she loves, but the self-doubt still lingers. I still feel like what I've got here isn't enough. :(

 

I know the school schedule would serve to annoy and frustrate me, but I keep having these feelings of the grass being greener.... Sigh.

[Two at home, one at school?]

Thank you for all of the advice.

 

1. First, honestly evaluate whether or not you actually are doing "a horrible job teaching her." You might be doing just great with teaching her all that a 5 year old K'er truly needs to know.

 

Some days I feel like we can get through this and we have a great, productive day. Other days, like yesterday, we have frustrating days where my daughter refuses to do simple things that would serve to help her. Then the tears start and I get angry -- it all goes downhill quickly. Whenever she tries to do things that are challenging for her ability, she shuts down and immediately thinks she cannot do the task. She's envious of her older sister and I have so much trouble dealing with that. There is also this outside pressure where it seems like every 5 year old girl out there is already reading, writing and doing advanced things, and my 5 year old doesn't have that "advanced" personality -- she prefers playing and being silly and isn't so much into reading. Sometimes, it seems as if school would be a lot more fun for her than what we've got going on here.

 

 

4. Oh, and one final thought: If you DO decide to put your K'er into ps, but keep your other two children at home with you, how will that affect their relationship with each other? Will your K'er feel rejected or cast out? Will your 6 yo hear stories from your K'er of "what we did at school today" and want to go, too? I have no idea how this works, perhaps some of the moms with kids at home/school can elaborate on this aspect of having kids split between hs/ps.

I do wonder about this because my older two are *very* close. Until recently, they rarely fought or argued and always got along quite well. My 6 year old isn't interested in school, but I know the 5 year old might really enjoy it, so I am curious how that will affect our family dynamic.

[Recovering from bad days]

You can get through this "house is a mess, math lesson went badly, kids are at each others' throats day", take a deep breath, sit down with the kids and read a good book, have dinner together, whatever you do to feel good about your family.

 

Tomorrow is a new day with no mistakes in it...yet.

:grouphug:

 

Thanks for the very nice advice. I had to chuckle, though, because the part I bolded is part of why this is a bad day. If my 5 year old and I cannot get through our good book without me going nuts, then I think I should not be homeschooling her.

 

Cannot wait until tomorrow to start over.

[Recovering from bad days]

How do you recover from bad moments or bad days in your homeschooling? I tend to go from 0 to 60 very quickly and want throw in the towel and I want to move beyond that. I want to make my decisions and stick with them!

 

Any advice for sticking it out and not feeling the need to cave every time something goes badly?

[Two at home, one at school?]

Does anyone have experience with this and care to share with a newbie?

 

My background... My DDs are ages 6, 5 & 1.5 and they've all been at home with me all along. I'm thinking of enrolling my middle daughter, the 5 year old in Kindergarten. I'm doing a horrible job with teaching her because *I* lack the patience she needs. Combined with a toddler, this is a bad mix, and I'm wondering if the school could do a better job -- at least in the patience department.

 

If she were enrolled in school, I would still like to suppliment her education at home. However, I'm worried about the scheduling of it all and how her older sister will deal with having to get up early every morning (the baby is a piece of cake since she's up early most days). I wonder also how we will deal with our HS field trips, and how to deal with pulling her out for those.

 

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Choosing a level in FLL & WWE]

Thank you all for your advice and your perspectives. I know I should not be hung up on the grade level nonsense -- this is why we HS after all! -- but after my experiences this year volunteering with what would be my daughter's peers if she attended PS, I am more aware of this whole 1st grade/2nd grade nonsense. My DD is truly all over the map.

 

We're going to start FLL this morning, and we'll see how the lessons go.

 

Another question pops up, though -- at what point should we start WWE? I'm rearranging my initial plan and thinking of starting it at the end of the summer. I know I read somewhere, either here or in a book, that WWE should be started at a certain point after beginning FLL, but I can't remember at what point! Anyone?

 

Thanks again. :001_smile:

[Choosing a level in FLL & WWE]

I'm new to the boards, but have been reading and absorbing all of the great information that is here. I figured enough time has passed and I need to actually ask one of the many questions running through my head. :)

 

I am looking to begin FLL and WWE with my 6.5 year old DD in the next week or two, but am unsure of what level to use. She reads at about a 4th or 5th grade level, and she breezed through the 1st grade Horizons Phonics & Reading books we used this past year. I thought about starting her with WWE 2, but since we are new to this way of learning, I figured she should begin at the very beginning. Would it do her a disservice to have her repeat some concepts that she knows, or would she be better off at a higher level she that she is challenged?

 

Also, has anyone skipped lessons in FLL 1 and you child still got the concepts? I will confess to wanting to be "on track" with the levels (FLL2 & WWE2 in 2nd grade, FLL3 & WWE3 in 3rd grade, and so on). I definitely want my daughter to have a firm grasp of all the grammar and writing concepts, but I don't want her to be behind her peers, if that makes any sense.

 

Thanks in advance!