The Sword of Allah

"Khaleed!"

The 'poison' gave it away. All excited they clambered onto my bed where Baby Z was stationed comfortably.

"Ooh! wait! wait! I wanna write the facts!"

I waited. They came back with notebooks each. Amazing! I didn't even tell them to write notes, but they're doing it on their own.

I waited as they comfortably seated themselves on my bed, Baby Z in the center, looking up around him at the faces of his 'sibs' (that's what they dub themselves to each other now).

I began by telling them of Khaleed's reputation as a warrior. Battle of Uhud followed naturally, and then we went on to how he became Muslim. I skimmed the battles he led and won and went straight to his death, and how he longed to be martyred.

By the end of my storytelling session, they each had a solemn look on their faces. I knew then that it was a succesful learning session, alhamdulillah!

"Look at my notes," said N, handing me her well written notes, neat, with drawings.

"Here's mine but it's not as neat as hers," offered H.

"I didn't write any. It was too fast," said S.

"Well, you know what. You don't have to take notes with writing. You can draw if you need to. As long as you understand your notes, that's enough," I said.

I had stumbled across a style of learning that allows the students to take notes with pictures. Traditional school systems require the traditional note taking, but the fact is, people learn differently, and what may seem as doodling to one person may actually be note taking to another. I saw an example. It was actually pretty ...cool.

As usual , I let them off to make their gallery entries while I tended to Baby Z who needed nursing.