Arabic Class With Fellow Openschoolers

Last June 12, my mother and my Auntie attended a seminar for Integrated Madrasa Administrators in the University of the Philippines - Institute of Islamic Studies. My sister and I on the other hand, came along for the weekly Arabic Class to teach in our father's stead for fellow Openschoolers who live in UP Village. Since the seminar was at 9 am, we had to set course from our house an hour before.

We arrived at the Campus just in time for some drop-off at our Auntie Sol's house then a drive back to the Institute. And Alhamdulillah, my mother and auntie were not late, at least not for few minutes. There were others who came a little later.

My sister and I were surprised to find that our 2 students had just awoken! The eldest among the 4 siblings, Alifdin told us that his 2 younger siblings stayed up playing in the computer till midnight. My sister and I noticed that too for they were still a little bit sleepy when we were about to start the class.

The elder one among the 2, Zul-nun had overcome his sleepiness out of his excitement for seeing us. He started running, rolling, shouting and jumping around their house. The youngest among them all, Al-Ameen remained shy and timid. He just kept smiling at us then hid his face with anything he could.

We had our class after the 2 of them had breakfast. Our father already gave us instructions on what to teach. He told us to give the younger 2, Zul-nun and Al-Ameen, a review on their previous lesson about the arabic vowels and teach them about the sukun. He also told us to just let the elder 2, Alifdin and Meemo, to read their arabic languge books.

The class started at exactly 8:59 am. I was the teacher, while my sister assisted me. We had one hyper-active student and another shy one. Little Al-Ameen was still feeling kind of sleepy. He was covering his face for the whole class. Their cat, Mau-Mau seemed to be interested too! He stayed with us for the first 15 minutes of our class.

Zul-nun and Mau

We've always thought of different ways to let kids learn and remember their lessons. Storybooks, Games... But we decided to use Reading and Writing Arabic with their names and expressions for that day. And we had a great class with lots of fun! Alhamdulillah...

And of course, after the class, we never miss playing outdoor games and climbing trees since we only see each other once in a while.

Zulnun climbs while Al-Ameen watches

Al-Ameen

The time for goodbye hi-5's came at around 12 pm when our Mother and Auntie arrived from the seminar. They had a surprise lunch treat for me and my sister to a family friend's newly opened cafe. Auntie Sol, the mother of the little kids was supposed to come with us but sadly wasn't able to because of a headache. I'll write about the cafe trip in another blog, Inshaallah...

Wassalam.

Hunting In The House

"SQUEAK!"... "What was that bro?", I asked my eldest brother after attempting to distract him from his serious mode  on the internet. "I don't know.", he answered. Then came the sound of flapping tiny wings... "A BIRD!" I exclaimed.

While my brother didn't seem to notice, I ran as fast as I could from the room to the sala, only to find my cat catching a sparrow in action. "Lyncat... NO!", I exclaimed. Although my command stopped him for few minutes, it was too late. The bird was already down. My cat had somehow scratched its left wing and it could no longer fly. Lyncat was looking at me right through the eye. He looked at me as if saying, "What have I done wrong?". Yeah, he was a cat. And I guess it's not so bad to hunt once in a while. But then, whenever I looked at the bird, I get reminded of the other birds that get themselves eaten half by the outdoor cats. Besides, I was thinking that the bird might have flu... These were the things I had in mind at that moment. XD

My thinking was distracted when I saw my cat coming towards me in the kitchen with the bird in his mouth. Was he offering the bird as a gift for me like what the how-to-care-for-cats book says? Did he want to eat it? Or... Did he want to play with it? That turned out to be the answer. He put the sparrow down and started tossing it, stalking on it, and slightly biting it. 

"Ajran...", I called out to my younger sister. I guess it was natural for cats to play with moving things. But for some reason, I could no longer watch what seemed natural. I held Lyncat back just on time to stop him from his eyes-wide-open-ready-to-stalk move while my sister got the bird. "Does it have any wounds?" I asked Aj. "No, but it's thirsty.". 

My lil' sis tried to feed the bird and make it feel comfortable, but it had to die out of shock and exhaustion. My sister and the dying bird have their moments but I leave it to my sister to blog about. 

I went back to the kitchen to check on Lyncat and found him looking for the bird on every nook near the place where he saw it last.

Sorry Lyncs... Just stick to playing fights with my youngest brother as you always did... Much safer! hehe

  

The Tawaf of Creation

Everything moves around its center, while at the same time moving around itself. This is the dance and the natural worship of creation. I believe the Arabic term for this movement is 'Tawaf'. The way we Muslims do around the Ka'abah. And so the English term for this should be 'Circumambulation'.

In Surah Yaaseen Ayat 40, the Qur'an says:

"Each flows in its own orbit."

In the atomic level, these movements of entire creation are exactly the same as electrons rotating around its nucleus.

When we talk about atoms, we really cannot help but talk about Quarks. This is called the Sub-atomic level. Electrons in this level behave either wave or particle. It could no longer be described as solid. It's an empty space after an empty space. It has no reality except in perception. The Qur'an says it clearer in Suratur Rahmaan ayat 26-27:

"All that is on earth will perish," "But will abide (for ever) the Face of thy Lord,- full of Majesty, Bounty and Honour."

In the sub-atomic level, quarks are found inside the protons and neutrons. Each of this has 3 quarks. There's this theory called the String Theory suggesting that electrons and quarks are tiny loops of vibrating string. This string is what connects atoms together. Therefore it is what is holding everything together. If we may follow up this String Theory with Qur'anic idea, we find that it commanded us to "hold together the Rope of Allah".  (Qur’an 3:103)

String or rope in this sense is what gives us the realization of truth. Outside of this Rope of Allah, we are lost. Outside this rope, there is no existence. And within this rope, there is only one reality.

This one reality is what gives creation its true face. It is the beauty behind everything. The Qur'an describes it as:

"To Allah belong the east and the West: Whithersoever ye turn, there is the presence of Allah. For Allah is all-Pervading, all-Knowing." (Qur'an 2:115)

The remaining question here would be "Who am I" and not "What am I".

But my father advised me to take no answer except what is given by the Prophet (s.a.w) who calls himself "Abdullah" in its truest sense.

Allah knows best.

Atoms

Atoms are the ones that make up matter. They are the ones that make up our skins, organs, tissues, and cells.

An atom has three parts: Protons, Neutrons, and Electrons. Protons are positively charged, while Electrons are negatively charged. Neutrons however are neutral. A kind of cosmic glue called ‘The Atom's binding force’ sticks the Protons and Neutrons of an atom to each other.

Once the cosmic glue loosens, the atom will crumble… It can be called the Mercy of Allah covering all things.

Scientists have been studying atoms for years… And they found out that although atoms are composed of Protons, Neutrons, and Electrons, an atom is an empty space. Therefore everything is nothing but an empty space since atoms make up everything in the Universe. This means, the Earth is an empty space. It means that our body is just an empty space. So who are we? And who am I?

When I asked my father about this question, it turned into a special class. He satisfied my inquiries. He also told me a story of someone who said "I am not, only Allah is." long time ago. Then he explained to me the verse below:

Allah S.W.T. said in the Qur’an.

“Everything will perish except His Face.” (Surah 28:88)

Allah is the Absolute Truth. And the whole existence of all creation every moment is totally dependent on Him alone.

Ramadhan Kareem!!

Alhamdulillah, Ramadhan has finally arrived! It's a month every Muslim in this world is looking forward to. As for us here at home, the five of us Arsad kids have been looking forward to it since the last Ramadhan has passed.

And as for me, I've been thinking if i'd still be alive from the last Ramadhan till this year's Ramadhan.

Welcome back to the words "NO MORE TV DURING RAMADHAN" written across the tv screen. Our father made the rule 4 years ago when we were  first homeschooled. We've loved them so much and it's one of the things the 5 of us are always looking forward to every Ramadhan.

May Allah s.w.t. Grant us His favor and blessings on this month.. Ameen

Enrolling For an ALS Examination

Assalamu Alayukum!

My younger sister and I are gonna be taking the ALS A&E (Acceleration Learning System Accreditation and Equivalency) exam this year. It's an examination for out-of-school-unit children. As home schoolers, we're required to take it before we can get into high-school or college. My sister is gonna be taking the Elementary level exam while I'll be taking the exam for Secondary level.

 I remember the first time I took the ALS examination 2 years ago. I was still 13 then and the day of the examination was one of the first few days I started "permanently" wearing the hijab. As I've been wearing it on-and-off since Kindergarten 2. I very proudly carried it while I was the only one among all the examiners in that place wearing it. It also helped me cover my exam answer sheet from the person behind me to whom I had the feeling was leaning over looking at the papers of my seatmate and I. XD
The exam was quite easy I suppose. The only thing that made it kind-of-confusing for me was that it was in Tagalog. I've had some problems with this subject since kindergarten. My brother knew about this and I remember him giving me pinpoints on the names of polygons in tagalog in case I might forget.

June 15, 2010...

I was in the middle of washing my clothes when our Auntie Salha came calling, telling me to write an essay about the Importance of Education or Ang Kahalagahan ng Edukasyon, to be specific. "What? But I'm not in the mood yet.", was all I could answer. "Well, you've only up to this afternoon before 4 pm to finish it. You'll need it before you could register for the Exam.", she answered. When I came inside the house, my sister was already writing the essay. And so we spent our morning till afternoon writing the essay in a language we found not-so-easy to write an essay with.

After hours of thinking, writing, and browsing for translations in dictionaries and in the internet... We exclaimed, "Success! Alhamdulillah!". We barely had time to get ready to go to the registration center, Upper Bicutan Highschool. But we went there only to find out that the essay we wrote was not the essay to be written...

Aww... But at least the essay topic they gave was much easier. They also told us that we're required to take review classes before taking the exam. I wasn't letting that chance of inquiring further pass. So I asked the teacher assisting us whom to look for and the schedules for the review.

My sister and I were glad that the processing of our registration forms were done fast. We were told to come back after 2 days to claim our Examination Slip.

I admit that we had trouble inquiring about the registration before that day. But Alhamdulillah, we were able to register before the deadline, which was extended for a few more days.

We've been taking up review classes for the exam for about 2 months already here in the Silangan Elementary School, Taguig.

After a long time of inquiring, we feel very relieved that finally, we're on it already.

Alhamdulillah...

Me and My Math (FRACTIONS)

Before I was home-schooled, mathematics has always been a mind-bugging and nose-bleeding subject. It was not until one morning during our semester break 6 years ago when my father gave me and my siblings a focus on the basic math operations and some simple fractions that my interest on this topic sprang out of the blue. After that semester where the days my brother, younger sister and I started to excel more in mathematics. But things didn't end with that, there were lots more to be learned.

When our parents decided to homeschool the 5 of us, the first thing they focused on teaching us was MATH! Our father taught us how to draw a borderline. He was very specific about the measurements of one line from the other. He would leave for the office every morning leaving with our Mother and Auntie our assignments for the day. And when he arrives home at night, the first thing he asked us was, "How was you borderline assignment?". This went on for months for neither among the 5 of us could make it perfectly.

After some time, we, the Arsad siblings thought our days of hard math were gone. Our parents had changed the math topic on focus by then. But we were only greeted by an actually much more complicated topic... FRACTIONS!

Knowing our Dad has already taught us about it, we thought things would go on smoothly. But things did not turn out quite well with the way we ought it would. Our parents gave us a higher level of fractions.

Everyday, we would do our 10 items quiz of fractions before we start reading and answering our recommended books.

14 1/5 + 18 6/9 = ?, those things appeared like hieroglyphics on the blackboard. It was like solving and unlocking another mystery inside the Egyptian Pyramids... It took us almost 2 years to master the rules and ways of the mysterious Fractions before we got to move on...

After "quite" some time, those hieroglyphics started to turn into ABCD's... But we still got confused at times...
I'd say we should always practice our math skills regularly as not to forget them... Just like practising how to read the Egyptian symbols regularly as not to get confused with them..

Wassalam...