Educating Your Child and Staying in Foreign Country

This is more like me, writing what's been nesting in my mind for a month now.

The thought of my baby girl going to a foreign school? How will she cope? How do I teach her at home? What should I teach her? How can I educate her so that she will turn out just fine as a Malay and Muslim? Have you ever thought about that?

We've stayed here for almost 4 years. Tini, my eldest one, started her nursery school at the age of 3. As she was born in January, so it's not a problem for her to go to school on time, according to her age. I started wondering about how school when she was 2 and there is this one Mat Salleh asked her, "It's morning, why aren't you at school?" Tini just smile and said, "I stayed home to help Ummi." I just smiled and explained that we just moved here and don't really know how it works around here. 

Now, that Tini is in school and the school allows the girls to wear tudung and covered uniforms. So when she's older and MUST TUTUP AURAT, it won't a problem then. Well, that's 2 worries down. Those with sons, will have no worries about this.

My parents came last month and it hit me when they asked me, "Macam mana didikan agama kat sini? Pendidikan Islam? My parents have all the confident in me to teach the right path, mengaji, sembahyang. But what about the Fekah? Fardhu Ain, and all those stuff? I thought about this for weeks.  It's like a wake up call to me. They gave me one more worries. My parents are right, as our kids are attending the International Schools, what about the

And it hit me again when my parents decided that, "Kalau tak boleh nak adakan semua didikan tu, Tini kena balik sekolah kat Malaysia bila dia patut masuk darjah 1. Kalau tak nanti nak jadi apa? Kat Malaysia dah tentu ada syllabus, Rukun Islam, Rukun Iman. Kalau tak, korang berdua kena buat sesuatu lah untuk ajar Tini tu bias elok dah besar nanti. Jangan main-main, dia tu keturunan ibu dengan bapak jugak, kalau tak betul didikan, kat akhirat besok, kami kena jawab jugak nanti."

I told Mr.Fadzil about that and he agreed. "We have to do something then." he said. So I made a list, think hard how am I supposed to educate her on that. I don't want to be separated from my babies. I'll cry, I'll go crazy!

I am not worried about teaching her mengaji or praying, as she already knew the basics of Alif, Ba, Ta and so on.. Just the other things that bothers me. So.. 

My plans are :

Call my mom, asked her to get me text books for Pendidikan Islam Sekolah Rendah. So that I can teach Tini accordingly. It's been a long time, I don't know where to starts. So I guess the text books might help me.

Get my self more books on all the subjects matter, and read it again before I start educating her. So that I can answer each questions that she throws me.

More and more pendidikan tidak langsung on basics things as Muslim, example : Right and Wrong, can and cannot, all that sort of stuff that we came across on daily basis.

I guess that should do it as a start.

Let's not forget teaching Bahasa Melayu, reading and speaking. I have no problems with the speaking, as my daughter speaks 2 languages now. And I am so proud of her. I always pray, A LOT! That my daughter won't turn out to be like most kids I came across, whose the mothers are so proud that the kids speaks English all the time, and CANNOT speaks Malay AT ALL!! They even dressed up more like the Mat Salleh rather than Malays. Nau'zubillah!

When you're staying in foreign country like Dubai, it's not a problem at all to make sure your kids speaks and reads English. As there are many expats like us and kids easily catch up all this. In school, they were taught about Phonics, which is new to me since I moved here, and then they can go far from that. We just observe them at home and help them when in any way.

Back to the Malays issues. 

I bought a book  from Ameen Bookstore that provides range of books for reading and learning. So this how I teaches Tini to read in Malay. Even though I taught her to read and spells in traditional way of reading in Malay before, it seems the technics provided in this book works out better! It used the same concept as English Phonics but in Malay.

So as Muslim Malay Parents that stay in the foreign country this is my list for my precious:

1. Educate my babies at home, in anyway I can.

2. Teach them to speaks and reads in Malay (because that is our culture and root)

3. Teach them about Islam, includes Fardhu Ain, mengaji, etc. (because I want to be proud of my babies not just in all other fields of education, but also an excellent Muslims; to complete the package)

4. Trained them in manners as there are so many influences from other cultures that may affected the child manners. 

I may sound very traditional, that is because I am very traditional in this matter. I just want what's best for my kids in this 'colder' world. If it's not me who else will help them so that they can help themselves in the future?