Educating Your Child and Staying in Foreign Country

January 14, 2010


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?


8 comments:

  1. fairus

    betul tu fida terfikir gak issue ni bila kita berada di luar negara...tapi kadang2 kita nak ajar macam2 kat anak kita tapi sometimes diaorg tak mau ikut..kadang2 hilang sabar masa mengajar fatin..mmg x da taletnt jadi cikgu agaknya asyik nak maraha je dia..kalau org lain ajar rasa ok kot dia boleh ikut tapi step by step lah..nasib kita duduk negara islam.kalau duduk di negara bukan islam haru jugak nak x nak kita sendiri kena ajar anak sendiri mengaji semua tu..

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  2. Standard la Fida, ajar anak sendiri. Saya pun mana la ade sabar ajar Tini, mula2 dulu ememang asyik kena marah je, sebab dia x mau pay attention. Tu yg geram tu, sejak dah besar ni alhamdulillah, kena marah jugak tapi tak mcm dulu. Sebenarnye memang tanggungjawab kite mendidik anak bab2 soal agama ni, buat mana yang mampu, klu tak mampu selebihnye, kena la usaha mintak org ajarkan ke apekan. But atleast Fida usaha nak ajar Fatin tu, daripada tak buat apa2, insyaallah pandai Fatin tu, bole ikut perlahan2.

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  3. mencabar jugak jadi ibu ni ye kak.disamping nak jage dorang, mendidik dorang..bukan kerja mudah,tapi itulah kelebihan ibu.neway, smg sukses mendidik puteri2 akak :)

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  4. nmmy84: thanks, kerana memahami. Bukan semua orang faham, diorg ingat duduk rumah ni relaks giler agaknye. Keje tak habis dengan urusan rumah, sediakan keperluan suami, anak2 ni permata paling berharga nak kena didik bentuk elok2. Ramai orang nak anak, sebab semua orang ade anak, sebab dah kawin.. Tapi bile ada anak, bukan semua sanngup pikul tanggungjawab berat ni, end-up anak tu, x terdidik, tak ade education, tak lengkap lah. Habis2 sekadar bagi makan dan pakaian diorg ingat cukup. Akak tulis ni untuk mengingatkan diri akak dan kepada kawan2 yang sudi nak amik pedoman silakan. itu je. Thanks ye wadah.

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  5. salam kenal & salam balas ziarah paji (btw, paji tu stand for what ya? saje nak tahu..hehe..)

    this is really good entry indeed! memang betul la, duk di negara orang especially in non-muslim country macam US ni, benda2 macam tu la yang selalu difikirkan. eh, jap..paji duduk di dubai, right? bukan ke kat sana sepatutnya pendidikan Islam kat sana bukan 1 masalah? ke..macam mana? huhu..

    1 lagi pasal isu bahasa tu. sangat setuju! kadang2 tu rasa jengkel je dengan orang yang terlalu berbangga dengan english sampai tak reti berbahasa melayu. memang wujud tau orang macam ni..

    erk..panjang pulak komen :p

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  6. Salam sis,
    Paij tu something i picked up since high school dulu. friends called me PAI, ade formula related tu PAI, so end-up saya guna PAIJ tokok tambah dengan my own code. :)

    Anyway, even Dubai ni Islamic country but our kids pegi International school, yang mana pendidikan islam (apa yg saya tau) tak macam pendidikan islam di Malaysia. Diorg more ke basic je tak detail. Mengaji semua tu memang kite kena ajar sendiri.

    Maybe to some people it seems like nothing, but not me and I know people like us ramai kat luar sana yang risau about this thing.

    Thanks, sebab sudi baca artikel yang panjang nih. (ade orang boring nak baca, mungkin sebab tak ambil berat atau tak kisah)

    Salam kenal lagi sekali.

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  7. tgjwb sbg ibu mng trlalu besar tangungannye..dr mngandung, melahirkan, bg mkn, pkai begitu jgk dgn pndidikan...jika trsalah asuh...itu yg jd ank bunuh ibu kndung...xbole nk salahkn org lain, sb kite sbg ibu bapalah yg mncorakan ank2 kite hgga jd org bguna bile dewasa.
    kdg2 ank2 ni xbole dipksa2 untk sesuatu perkara, tp kena pndai pujuk ati dia..cari minat dia...n blaja sama2..
    smoga bjaya k sis...

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  8. Hajar: Thanks!! Pada akak, benda yang elok selalunye bile nak ajar budak2 memang a bit liat. Jadi masa ni lah as a parents kite guna kuasa VETO, jangan bagi muka sgt, kite pulak ikut kehendak diorg kan? Alhamdulillah anak akak yg tua ni setakat ni mudah la nak mengikut didikan tapi x semua perfectkan? Sometimes yang moral ni die banyak sgt soal, dan x mau ikut jugak tu. Yang tu memang satu cabaran pada akak, bile dah 2,3 kali ajar, cakpa x mau ikut, naik jugak lah 'hanger' kat punggung die.. :)

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