On Our Own

I miss these times, I really do. Whenever I look at Arabic books, or Islamic books, ideas for lesson plans start to roam and float about in my head. They seem unstoppable, like when you get this mad rush of innovative ideas you are just itching to put into motion.

Alhamdulillah though, we've had our share of fun learning; making lapbooks, creating PowerPoint slides, creating pop up creations, and decorating our staircase. The one very good outcome that has resulted in us not having enough time to do our own stuff due to OHVA's requirements, is that Seerah and Islamic Studies have become rather precious to the kids, because they don't get it often, and when they do, it's always fun. I also noticed that what they do get from our fun learning, they retain longer, as opposed to what they 'have to learn because a prepared curriculum tells them to'.

I really can't wait till we are done with OHVA for this year. When I went to the Texas Dawah Conference last year, I met a homeschooling mom who is waiting to switch to OHVA-style of homeschooling from the more traditional method of homeschooling. She said that she can't wait to switch because it will give her more time to prepare the Islamic studies lessons rather than spend a lot of time preparing for the secular lessons. I had never thought of it that way, but it did make me think.

When we do make the switch, will I be thrown back into the hectic bout of preparing materials and lesson plans I was stuck in when I first started homeschooling? I do honestly feel somewhat anxious about that, but with the kids at these ages, it will most probably be a different experience because we would be learning together rather than me preparing a lot of stuff (or at least I hope so).

Nonetheless, I do look forward to us having school on our own terms, though we'd still have to abide by the state's regulations on homeschooling.