Alhamdulilah, we live to see another beautiful day. I just wanted to write a bit about my family. As you know, my husband and I have only one child, who is also home-schooled. When we first began discussing the idea of homeschooling, everyone had something negative to say about how we could possibly ruin my son’s life. With our backgrounds, interest, beliefs, and abilities, we felt homeschooling was best for him. But what about the requirements, doesn’t he need to be around children his age, what on Earth will he do all day; watch television and play video games, don’t you need to have a break sometimes; this was just the beginning of the questions to come. We have only been homeschooling for a few months and everyone’s perception has changed. This is why I say, you have to do what is best for your family. Not just you, but better for the family.
Where we live, there are no local home-school support groups or even buses or cabs for that matter. I rely on the internet for majority of our resources and support. We have a statewide home-school conference, which is a 2 ½ hour drive away, scheduled for May. Our plans are to be in attendance in sha Allah. If for some reason we can’t, well, Allah knows best. There are many support groups online. I am a member of a few on Yahoo Groups. I have met many beautiful homeschooling mothers from all around the country.
I am a frugal home-school mom. I shop at Dollar Tree for many school and craft supplies, as well as informal posters. I do not spend a fortune on books. I frequent the local library, thrift store, and discount stores as much as possible. We also work with a lot of e-books. Kindle has great books that are free, especially for unit studies.(http://www.freehomeschooldeals.com/ ) is a great website that has continuous updates of free or dirt cheap books for kindle devices. I usually print some e-books (the short ones) because my son seems to work better with something physically in his hand. I print a lot! I purchased my handy-dandy hp printer from Wal-Mart for 34 bucks. It does all that I need it to do. I also get the pleasure of purchasing cheap in refills/cartilages from various sites. ($14 for black @ Wal-mart) I recycle printer paper. I use the backs of pages for reprinting and scrap paper for crafts and working out math problems. I even take out my cartilages, give them a good shake and print for a few more times afterwards. I can’t complain! I don’t have the most in the world but I appreciate what I do have.
We are also planting a small garden. We’ve purchased some seeds and some we just keep from the fruit and veggies that we consume daily. We started some container plants indoors but nothing has spouted yet. (only been 2 weeks) We’ll see how that goes, in sha Allah.
The moral of this post is that you have to do what is best for you and your family. Everyone will have their opinion about what you should and/or shouldn’t be doing. Go with your better judgment. The more you do something, the easier it becomes to you. I wish you all the best.
Leave me a comment if you have had similar experiences or encouraging words to share. Love to hear from you. Thanks in advance, MahoganyMuslimah
MahoganyMuslimah 