One of the things I really wanted to achieve during this time away is to mess with the boys’ heads – in a good way.
In life I have often found the most emotionally and intelligently flexible people to be those with a healthy exposure to the world. Being with other cultures and seeing how things can be done differently I believe gives people that flex. On top of that, operating outside of your ordinary surroundings helps build character and confidence.
Boys from the local madrassa
So, their learning to read Arabic has been great in that respect. When I watched one of the boys recently confusing his English/Latin and Arabic scripts when writing something, it didn’t worry me – it elated me. This is exactly the sort of head messing I wanted for them – this is pure brain exercise.
They are making good headway with their Arabic, which they do for an hour a day 5 days a week. All of them “get it” in very different ways. One writes it beautifully (like a calligrapher), the other has precise pronunciation and the other a strong memory.
Their time at the local madrassah has sadly come to and end due to the kids going back to state schools after their recent holidays. Their evenings at the madrassa was a great bit of head messing as they had to pluck up the courage to engage and interact with kids that didn’t speak a common language. After time they fitted in very well, getting involved with the games and making some friends. It was also eye opening for the boys to see kids coming to school in what is essentially a building site.
Nikki with her girls
This also meant an end to our English lessons which we were giving at the madrassah. Just as we were starting to get somewhere it came to an end! It was however a great experience for us both to don our TEFL robes again; the kids were a real joy – very sweet and playful and an amazing knowledge of the Premier League! Man U is still the brand to beat it seems.
My Boyz
It was also a nice way to get to know the community a bit and see what they get up to behind the tourist scenes. Last Friday the boys were invited to recite some verses of the Quran at an awards ceremony for the madrassa kids – which they did.
The boys being interviewed
Another fantastic head-messing moment as they stood on stage in front of some 200 people from the local community and recited four verses. As you can see though from the video, Faris mainly hid, despite the promise of ice-cream. Even so, to see them have the confidence to go up and do that was great – exactly the character building stuff we wanted from the school of practical life.
Although we could probably never homeschool back in the UK, taking time out to do stuff like this is so important as this is these are the things you can’t get in a school system. I think one of the things we’ll take from this trip is to keep doing practical things with them that complement what’s going on at school. It doesn’t have to be abroad, it just needs to be tangible and mess with their heads a bit, in a good way 🙂
No Payne No Gain 