"Homeschooling" Rayyan

When I was in primary school zaman tok kadok dulu we have never heard such thing as going to sekolah agama after the sekolah kebangsaan, or sekolah agama dulu and sekolah kebangsaan in the afternoon, etc.. Only few years later that the concept was beginning to be popular among the Muslims in Malaysia ni..

Ada gak family members yang pressured us to send Rayyan to sekolah agama. Rayyan already has Kumon on Mondays and Thursdays. Taekwondo on Thursdays, Drama & Speech class on Tuesdays, Piano on Fridays.. and clearly sekolah agama is definitely gonna be taxing to this little kid. Then, I looked into these family members' reasons why would someone send the kids to sekolah agama.. they gave the reason senang.. nak belajar mengaji and belajar sembahyang...

Of course sekolah agama goes beyond just ajar mengaji and sembahyang.. but these two are the most basic that one needs to take care of.

So, one alternative way I thought.. well.. baik aku ajar sendiri hehe..

Since the first day of school on January 3, 2011, maka bermulalah sesi "homeschooling" untuk mengajar sembahyang and mengaji by yours truly.. hehe.. session starts with sembahyang Maghrib together (not berjemaah, just side by side for now), then mengaji for about 30-60 mins, pastu terus sembahyang Isyak.

Bila time sembahyang, every single bacaan I'll make it loud and clear for him to follow.. and alhamdulillah, over time, I can see his articulations have improved tremendously by just listening and self-correcting..

I use the Iqra' book he used at Genius Aulad for mengaji. Masa kat Genius Aulad, the whole two years he was there, the teachers could only get him up to book 2.. few pages shy of completing book 2 for him to proceed to book 3.

With me, Rayyan now has progressed well that it only took him 3 weeks to cover all that he learned over the 2 years at Genius Aulad. Probably by tomorrow he's going to Book 3 of the 6 Iqra' books.

Of coursela.. perangai dia has to be tolerated dengan kesabaran yang mendalam... I now know why he could not progress faster than the rest of the kids in his class at Genius Aulad (some had already went up to book 5, book 6, etc...).

So, I put on the "Cikgu Singa" cap.. haha you mess with me, you're gonna get it!

Alhamdulillah, despite the growls, roars, sebatan2 manja dengan kayu lidi kat tangan dia, he is still interested to spend an hour with me every night, fully motivated to learn. And of course at the end of the sessions I get to kiss both his cheeks after dia salam my tangan (when was the last time you ever did that to your eldest kid? especially from a dad to his son? hmm....) So I'm cherishing that moment every single night.

My initial target was for him to start the Quran by next year (coz that's when I started with the Quran). But looking at the rate he's going now, insyaAllah that could be realized as early as June this year. It would be great of he could start the Quran on his 7th birthday.. :)

Saturday School

Today is the first of many Saturdays to come that Rayyan has to go to school, to replace the holidays the school is goingto give later. Today's schoolday is replacing the Monday of the week where school is going to be off for the whole week during Chinese New Year.

I remember clearly how when I was in Form 2 that I didn't go to ANY Saturday classes at all.... Hehehe ponteng memanjang.... I didn't see the purpose of going to school on Saturdays.... Kalau nak bagi cuti tu cuti jelaaa... :)

Harini ada my cousin's wedding (bertandang) pulak tengahari nanti kat Sg Buloh.... terpaksa pergi lambatla sikit sebab budak ni kena sekolah... Terlepas nak ikut convoy reramai... takpe... will trust my Google Maps punya GPS..

Since today's class will follow Monday's schedule, so for Monday nanti takyah nak repack beg sekolah Rayyan lagi... Hehe... Still can't trust Rayyan packing his own bag yet.. Dah ajar, and because of that, the trust will not be given yet..

Rayyan & 1Malaysia

Rayyan has so far made friends with the following people.. Hanin, Amira, Batrisya, Ivan, Isaac, Jewel, Kitty, Darshan, just to name a few.. and that's just within the first two weeks of school...

I think that's pretty cool.. kudos to the class teacher too, for switching the kids around to sit with different people every once in a while.

I remembered when he was at Genius Aulad.. punyalah liat dia nak berkawan... lepas seminggu baru dapat 1 kawan baru.. now alhamdulillah he makes friends easily..

There are 40 kids in his class.. 14 Malays, 13 Chinese, 10 Indians and 3 Others... pretty well-balanced distribution of races in his class.. I love it!

Rayhana pun sekolah baru jugak!

Hehe.. asyik2 cerita pasal si Rayyan, Rayhana pun actually started her class in her new school too on the first schooling day of 2011 :)

Nursery dia rented another bungalow nearby to accommodate only those who are going to be 3 years old this year. So takdela campur the babies, and also bebudak besar.. this is strictly for 3 years old jer.. ada la dalam 20 budak. I thought it was a good move on their part.. at least they are just with their peers.. although Rayhana just turned 2 like 2-3 months ago.. still one of the babies in the group..

Rayhana LOVES the new school. Takde perasaan takut langsung... not afraid of being in a new place at all.. of course a few "old" faces from the previous school do help in welcoming her on her first day when we were rushing to send both her and Rayyan to their first day of school...

Decided to send Rayhana first before me & Ja sent Rayhana and stayed in his school for the rest of the morning.. so Rayhana had to be at her new nursery as early as 7.15am.. selalunya I hantar around 9 or 10.. kengkadang nak dekat 12 pun ada.. hehe

Yang kelakarnya, the next morning, bangun je dari tido, tengah mamai2 tu dia siap kata "Nak pergi sekolah baru.. nak pergi sekolah baru..."

She really enjoys her new school probably because she has started learning serious stuff.. Mengaji starts at 8am, the rest/mandi, then lots of fun things like playing with bubbles, sand, paints, etc.. then storytellingla, solat, math, storytelling in BM, etc.. cool jugak tengok dia punya timetable..

First Friday of Primary School

Friday:

On Fridays, Rayyan has Math, PE, Art, BM, and Arabic... no English, which means his class teacher does not come to class at all on Fridays... but I did check that she actually went last Friday... probably to check on attendance, etc..

So that Friday Rayyan was already prepared for PE from home, although his PE is during 3rd period, and he wore that PE attire the whole time on Friday... takyah bawak baju uniform sekolah langsung....

Friday was kinda tight for me... kul 12.05 nak amik dia, then nak ready gi Friday prayers, lunch, then nak gi office, pastu nak kena amik Rayyan balik to send him to Yamaha for piano at 5.00pm and I have to spend half an hour together with him in his piano class...

Pastu it's natural for me to pick up Rayhana sebab Rayhana's nursery dah dekat sangat... just beberapa kangkang kera from Yamaha.. well.. takle dekat sangat pun.. kera tu pun mungkin penat kut dok mengangkang all the way to Rayhana's school... hehe but less than 5 mins away...

By today, Rayyan received lots of forms for various clubs that are open for registration at school... Taekwondo has started, then they have...

1. Speech and Drama

2. Wushu/Kung-fu (interesting but it's right after school on Fridays.. no-no..)

3. Chinese Drums & Dragon Dance (Rayyan so wanted to join but clashes with Speech & Drama.. murah je.. RM20/mth, 1.5 hrs a week.. sayang.. probably try next yearlah..)

4. Art club (nak join but it's right after school on Fridays, clashes with Kungfu.. again, no-no...)

5. Mental Arithmetic class

hmm.. probably ada lagi kot.. lupa pulak... from the list, only Art Club is run in-house by the school teachers... yang lain tu semua run by private companies...