The Places I Want them to Go!

This is not in lieu of the impending Singapore trip. Though, it may be. Tasneem and I try to read one Dr Seuss book each day, and ever since she picked up "Oh, The Places You'll Go!" she has been asking to read it everyday.

I realise that as a Seuss Buff, I don't remember this book. Reading it again though, brought back many important lessons. Lessons I forgot on my journey until today. I'm thankful that I am reading Dr Seuss again and will remember to remind my children of the places they will go.

"Congratulations! Today is your day.

You're off to Great Places! You're off and away!

You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes.

You can steer yourself

any direction you choose.

You're on your own. And you know what you know.

And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go."

Isn't that pure simplicity at its coolest? I find there is so much more to teach the monsters about how to be intelligent and brave at the same time. How important it is not to dawdle around problems or difficult situations. I want them to know if they can do something - they must decide to and see it all the way through.

I'm not violating every covenants here. Dr Seuss talks about failure and how to rebound.

So we got all Allah-centric, and I reminded Tasneem and myself that we have to make du'a everyday for all our plans to be answered. And if the answer is "NO," we still have to see ourselves through that situation and ask for guidance to overcome our adversities.

"It's a nice story, Mama."

"YA IT'S A NICE STORY, MAMA."
Yusuff sat through one reading and for the first time kept still until we finished the book mashaallah.

"You'll look up and down streets. Look 'em over with care.

About some you will say, "I don't choose to go there."

With your head full of brains and your shoes full of feet,

You're too smart to go down any not-so-good street."

Ameen, for my children. It is always a worry that they will wander off into dark alleys and I think every parent worries about that. I have to remind myself to have another talk with them over that paragraph. It's quite hard to actually analyse literature with three inquisitive children. Reading one para takes twenty seconds, answering their endless questions, an additional 20 minutes. Twenty minutes worth of questions per paragraph. Beat that!

So I remind myself now that when I read this book again, I will remind the four of us (Idriss has joined the fray): How to always choose right from wrong and how to say no, especially when the right answer is no.

We didn't like the waiting place, so we talked about that too. Tasneem wanted to know why people were just sitting around doing nothing. That's alien talk to her. She and her brothers, including the baby who does not sleep during the day nor the night, are always doing something. There is a never a dull moment in this home of pure havoc.

And that is a du'a I will always make for them too.

For them never to be idle; for them never to lose hope in their dreams; for them never to believe they don't have anything to do. Inshaallah my little ruffians will never wander into the waiting place. Because there are so many places I want them to go and the last place would be Jannatul-Firdaus. Ameen.

All, Ball, Call, Wonderific, You're Terrific!

"How do you train your kids to speak English?"

My children blink back effortlessly at the question when other parents are suddenly caught off-guard by their fluent English.

Uhmmm, I begin. I want to tell them I just speak English. I don't train anyone, and certainly don't train my children to speak any language. I talk to them, and they talk back. But before I can even muster an answer, Tasneem swings out Green Eggs and Ham by Dr Seuss and reads three pages without hesitation.

"How do you train your children to read?" Their curiosity heightens.

I don't, I don't, I say. Thinking is sometimes a slow process for me. I just read with my children, I tell them. But it's not a good enough answer. They want to know what programme I use, which preschool curriculumn I follow and what is the fastest track to having their children reading too.

I have read about different methods. But they don't have much impact on me because I have tried out flashcards and such, but using them has just gotten a tad stressful for my liking. And not to mention, flashcards create clutter in this already cluttered house. So I just read with my kids.

I have read of other homeschoolers who have never thought their children to read. Their children just WATCH their parents read and observe their love for books. In the end, these homeschoolers do read in the end, even as "late" as the age of 9. Yep, they are the infamous "late readers," but the difference is they read because of their love for books and a strong interest in learning through reading.

Other children, even at the baby age of 3, who go through reading programmes, have to endure the stress of being labled (think: slow, late, clever, average, B+, not as good as Sara J), in reading and depending on their lable may either cherish their quiet evenings with books or resent the thought of reading all together.

So I discarded those programmes, and my endless search on the internet to keep my 3 year old en par with her preschool comrades and just enjoyed reading with her. This was over a year ago. Then one day...

"Mama, what's this word A-L-L."
"All."
"It looks like this word - W-A-L-L."
"Yep, Humpty Dumpty sat on a WALL."

She frowns and stares into the book while her brother is tearing up another book.

"This word too. It looks the same. F-A-L-L."
"What do you think that makes?"
"ALL."
"What sound does F make though?"
"Fish."
"Yep. F-"
"Fff"
"F-all."
"F-ALL, F-ALL. FALL?"
"Humpty Dumpty had a great fall."
"FALL!"

She's grinning now and doesn't notice Yusuff ripping up her art work.

"ALL the king's horses and all the king's men, can not put Humpty together again."
"ALL, FALL and WALL."

That was before we learned of Wonder Red and the Super Why clan. Since then, she has picked up on so many words just be recognising them and their sounds just out of interest, and Green Eggs and Ham has become second nature to her.

Hopefully I will learn to explain to other parents a little better now that I have written this post. I love reading and I was a really late reader. That's what my school said. "Maria's a late reader. She is slower than her peers." Tasneem just happens to be an early reader, like her Dad, who also started reading at 4. She also loves books but that could be our doing, since DH and I are slightly obsessed by books.

On that note, I would recommend books, books and more books. I would recommend parents to enjoy reading together with their children, every single day instead of worrying about pronounciation and phonics. It may work for some parents, but a phonics "programme" has not worked for me, nor Tasneem. I know one homeschooling mother who just practiced reading to her children every day. Her eldest son is 12 and she still spends 20 minutes a day reading with him. On his own, he reads English classics and him and mum have read-a-thons on unschooling days.

I would also recommend Super Why. It's awesome. Wonder Red's "All, Ball, Call," and similar jingles of rhyming words hit the right chords with my kids. Some Muslim homeschoolers may cringe at AlphaPig, but AlphaPig rocks too. He's one cool Pig. You should listen to his rendition of the Alphabet - my toddlers, including the baby, love it and I think the 6 month old is catching on letters already. Heh heh. I have no idea if my boys will read early like their dad and sister or later like me. Either way, I can't wait to find out.