Cottage Schooling

[Ashraf Dockrat]

Dear Friends

Assalamu 'alaikum

We are starting cottage schooling in Laudium Pretoria. The idea is to allow for 2/3 of the day to be spent on Islamiyyat and 1/3 on conventional schooling.

The planning is advanced and we have an intake of 70 learners.

Please make dua and pass on your own experiences. I am on the syllabus committee and would appreciate any advice.

Wassalam
Ashraf

[shatibi]

Mawlana,

Please forgive my ignorance, but what does cottage schooling mean?

[Ashraf Dockrat]

Mawlana,

Please forgive my ignorance, but what does cottage schooling mean?

This is where parents get together and get a teacher to homeschool their children, It is "illegal" in SA according to the Homeschooling Act

[ILM_Sika]

Masha'Allah hope it goes well for you, children deserve the best upbringing and education that is available.

[Ashraf Dockrat]

Masha'Allah hope it goes well for you, children deserve the best upbringing and education that is available.

Please make dua. Everything is experimental at the moment. I am on the syllabus committee. We are working hard to begin by 12 January 2011 Insha Allah. Premisis are being prepared and next week we finalise allocations and timetabling etc.

Please do special prayers for us. My idea is that should we have a winning model then this can be duplicated elsewhere Insha Allah

Wassalam
Ashraf

[ILM_Sika]

Of course I will do dua for you, your doing a grand job Alhamdulillah, all you need is careful planning. The more you know how children learn the better results you get, there should be rules followed by all staff and pupils. A passion to teach and nurture them and you give them the ability to use their minds creatively.

However well the teacher prepares her class, insha'Allah that will give you a good start, obvious hiccups will occur but you should not be distracted from the main goal. Do this to please Allah s.w.t and everything wil go smoothly, oh and btw make sure the children enjoy the learning as well, nothing worse than a grouchy student believe me

[ahmad12]

This is wonderful news,

I have no experience in homeschooling myself but if you read the book 'Homeschooling for excellence' by David Colfax you can get some general ideas. Hamza Yusuf has some old talks about homsechooling which are beneficial. I don't know about the sylabus, you can find some online

[Ashraf Dockrat]

Assalamu'alaikum

Jazakallah for the al-Farooq link

As for the Ghazi's I have a long time friendship with Abidullah and his family from my student days with Professor ARI Doi.
They started a new project here in Erasmia with al-Ghazali College to do a series of text books for our local circumstances based on their templates. It has stopped for now i think

Wassalam
Ashraf

Mashallah'

For any books you require visit www.alfarooqinternational.com

They provide syllabi and curricula for organisations like the above. Be sure to check the Iqra Series out.

[ahmad12]

Are you giving them a scholar course so they get ijaza and stuff? Whilst also training them in secular sciences?

[Ashraf Dockrat]

Are you giving them a scholar course so they get ijaza and stuff? Whilst also training them in secular sciences?

Assalamu 'alaikum Ahmad

They are kids. Grade R-7. So I am not sure about ijazah. Traditional books such as the araba'in and the ajrumiyyah and riyad al salihin are part of the course so thank you, you raise an important question.

We prefer the terms "acquired sciences" (vs Revealed sciences) and also "conventional schooling" to clarify to parents.

Wassalam
Ashraf