Pillars of Home Education

My Pillars of Islam wall activity was the very first thing I planned as a home education activity (it was a trial). As it turns out, I started planning it and planning it, and I wrote pages about the first pillar, while jotting down ideas for the others as they popped into my head... with the result that I totally over planned it and I could only go trough half of the stuff I had planned for the first of the pillars!

... My over complication of things meant that the whole reality of these 5 entities being "a whole" was kind of lost, given that the activity was abandoned for months and has only recently been "resurrected".

One of the things that I love about home educating so far is that you learn by doing. And when you realise you have made a mistake, instead of beating myself up about it or questioning decision, I find myself excited about the discovery and start thinking of how I can implement what I have learned for the benefit of my son's learning experience.

The over complicated version of this activity featured, as well as pillars to be stuck on the wall and images that represent them, a home made book, which failed to capture my son's imagination (despite the fact I thought it was simply AWESOME) and was never opened again ...

What he finds really exciting was the painting of the pillars, the sticking on the wall, the fact he can remember a few things of what I (succinctly) explain to him to go and report it to his father, ma sha' Allah.

 

(Home education means you will never throw away a cardboard box ever again!!!)

 

This was in our old house, where the pillars were put up in the kitchen, so while sitting at the table, Yusef was asked about those things up there and soon he learned their names in English and in Arabic :)

Instead of worrying about the clarity and looks of the headings, now I know it would have been far more interactive if I had printed them out in a hollow font for him to colour in  (I downloaded some of my favorite hollow fonts from the internet, but fonts deserve a separate post: I love them!!!) , or if I had letters cut out of magazines or letter stickers for him to compose the words.

 

It's a steep learning curve for both.

 

The Zakah one was very interesting for Yusef, as we got to make a sadaqah box to reinforce the concept of giving to the less fortunate: that didn't need much planning at all :)

 

I will update when we finish the pillars in sha' Allah (still 2 to go).