School@home

29 March 2011
At 7am, the Khan children get ready for school. But they don't have to change in to their uniform or take the school bus. They are attending classes at home with mom as the teacher.

All four children are getting home-schooled. Aaishah (16) and Aaminah (14) are in high school and pretty much study on their own, while Abdul Rahman (12) and Fatimah (10) are supervised by their mother Nabilah.

From Sunday to Thursday, the Indian family strictly follows a 7am -3pm study session with breakfast and lunch breaks in between. Weekends are family days.

"We strictly follow our schedule. I don't take phone calls during this period and does my house works in the evening. It is mostly study time for us during the day. Discipline has to start with the parents," said Nabilah.

Despite not completing her bachelor's degree in preference to starting a family, Nabilah said this is not a deterrent as the curriculum offered by the US-based schools where the children are registered - the Keystone High School and Calvert School - are easy to follow.

In addition to textbooks, the schools provide lesson manual that guides parents what lessons to cover per day and the time table per subject. All course works should be completed within a 12-month period, but the Khans pace their study according to their comprehension of the subject, breezing through the easy subjects and taking more time to understand the difficult ones.

"The main benefit of home schooling is the flexibility. Sincerity and punctuality (to the time table) is important or we will be left behind. Once we fall behind, it will be difficult to get back on track.

"The way the system is made is once the child gets acquainted with the system, he or she becomes self-independent. He knows how many lessons he has to do per day," explained Nabilah.

The Khan children previously attended the mainstream education, but shifted four years ago to home schooling after their parents were left unsatisfied with the quality of education they were receiving from the schools in Abu Dhabi.

"We moved them to other schools but still we're not satisfied with the quality of education and the quality of teachers. The schools have also become commercialised that each student are not paid individual attention," said Rizwan Ahmed, who also voiced his concern over the inappropriate behaviour students often learn at school due to peer influence, such as smoking.

"There was also a lot of pressure on them as they are loaded with homework and many exams, they don't have time for anything. There's no family time and we were not able to explore their skills as they don't have time to go deeper into the subjects," added Nabilah.

Now, the children are excelling in their studies and are averaging 90 percent in their overall grades. The family attribute this to the children finally understanding their lessons, which encouraged them to learn more.

"I am used to learning by rote, so it was difficult at first to change this learning style. At home schooling, I learned how to use my critical thinking. When we are given assignments, we have to write this in our own words. Earlier I had to memorise from the book. But after seven months it was okay," related Aaishah who is now in Grade 11.

Aaminah, Grade 9, is now an avid reader whereas earlier she avoided reading altogether.

Both girls have the option to select their high school subjects according to the US education system and both chose the prerequisite subjects to the higher education courses they intend to take - medicine and engineering. This means tough subjects such as Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Life Sciences, Health, Algebra, Consumer Math, Economics, Trigonometry and Calculus.

Should they require help, the girls could liaise with a Keystone teacher via e-mail, direct call or join the virtual learning. When online classes are held, these are recorded and those who cannot attend due to the time difference (9 hours), can access the recording whenever they are available.

After their regular school hours, the kids are encouraged to take on one extracurricular activity per day including swimming, badminton, cricket and football. The girls can also pursue their interest in crochet and baking.

"They now have more time to pursue other interests and develop their skills," said Rizwan. In addition, the family has the flexibility to go on holiday according to their choice anytime and are not bound by school schedule.

However, home schooling does not come without its challenges.

"For the first six months, it was a struggle. We thought we made a big mistake," recalled Nabilah.

"This is a new concept and both the children and parents have to adopt till they become comfortable with it. It requires a lot of dedication from parents," said Rizwan.

But the biggest challenge is ensuring that the children have a social circle and regularly interact with their peers. And that's where organisations like the Abu Dhabi Home Schoolers Association (ADHSA), UAE Muslim Home Schoolers (UMHS) and the Northern Emirates Homeschoolers Association (NEHA) come in.

There are currently more than a hundred families across the UAE that are home schooling their children. The ADHSA alone has 43 and over a hundred students while UMHS has 60 members.

All organisations provide support to the families by sharing experiences, giving advice and holding social gatherings and activities including weekly park meet-ups and monthly field trips.

Canadian national Krista Heath has been home schooling her three children for the past 11 years. All three children have not experienced traditional learning as all were home-schooled from the beginning.

The Heaths took this option to nurture Drew's (first born) intellectual capacity after he showed that he could read and spell big words with his blocks at three years of age.

However, unlike the Khans, the Heaths are not registered with any educational institution, but are abiding with the Ontario regulations.

"They don't need to be registered, it is not required. We have all the subject matters covered and I have a programme where I track their grades, community service and field trips," said Krista who said they select the textbooks themselves and follow a literature-based system where the children are taught by watching documentaries, reading history books and using geography workbooks.

Krista has earned a Bachelor's degree in Education while her husband has a PhD in Algebra. Krista is one of the founding members and the chair of ADHSA.

"I am trained to teach 35 students, and now I'm teaching only three," said Krista who believes in pushing her children to master their subjects before moving forward.

And to assist her on languages and other subjects, Krista has enrolled Drew to an online course in French, Science and English. She also hired an Arabic tutor for the children.

"The challenge is to guard our time, this is precious to us. We have to manage distraction and not allow others and the rest of the house to take away my home schooling time. For me, this is a full time job.

"We also have to manage life, how to manage to keep them schooling when I'm sick," said Krista.

The benefits are unparalleled, according to Krista. "We really enjoy the flexibility and lifestyle. We can go on holiday when we want and the children have a lot of fun and social time," Krista enthused.

Both the Khans and the Heaths recommend home schooling, but also caution other parents about the challenges. "It's a lifestyle choice. It's rewarding but not easy. It has great challenges but also great rewards. It's not the only choice but one of the options," Krista forewarned.

"Home schooling education is not for everyone. Parents have to spend a lot of time from the begin ning to develop their child's social life. It's a commitment and you have to take pro-active action," advised Rizwan.

Home schooling in Abu Dhabi is currently not recognised by the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC).

Brian Fox, division manager for private school Licensing and Accreditation at the ADEC said that the council is aware of the growing number of parents opting for home schooling.

"Expat families from Europe and North America are used to that education option, but it's not something that's in our radar right now. It is occurring and ADEC has to address this in future," he said.

BY : Olivia Olarte

Source : Khaleejtimes