Asalamu alaykum ladies.  
Happy Monday! 
Today’s discussion is one I’ve had on my mind for a while.  It stems from the questions we as homeschool Moms constantly ask ourselves.

How do I know Im doing the right thing?
Am I good enough?
Can I really teach my child and prepare him/her for the real world?
And perhaps number 1 on the list.
Am I really cut out for this?

And as much as there is a plethora of information online, beautiful homeschool Instagram accounts and plenty of podcasts, often the underlying simplistic answer to what makes a homeschool successful gets a little lost or dare I say complicated.

Because when we look at what the essence of homeschooling is, isn’t it simply the continuation of nurturing our children?  It isn’t something entirely new, it doesn’t begin the day you officially inform your local council or the time you let your family know why you aren’t going school uniform shopping. The latter date is only for paper purposes. 

With that being said then, isn’t a successful homeschool simply embracing motherhood intentionally and purposefully?

When I reflect on the times my homeschool feels like a ‘Happy Muslim Homeschool’ it’s the days I feel emerged in my role as a mother, embracing it and being content.    

Those are the days I wake up feeling blessed.  I appreciate my home; mess and all.  I feel privileged that Allah honoured me with being my children’s mother.  I’m able to look at the bigger picture beyond the laundry mountain.  I view the routine as a constant stream of blessing Allahuma barik, rather than unfulfilling tasks that don’t seem to end. 

And the steps to embracing motherhood purposefully don’t start from any blog or book, it starts at our understanding of what Allah Azzawajal wants from us.

Motherhood like any other job is a responsibility.  We have been entrusted by Allah to raise and cultivate our children to worship Him alone and follow the path of the Prophet sallahu alayhi wasalam.  It isn’t simply about the chores and meeting the demands of our family.  It’s far more deep-rooted and holds more weight than gold.

Being a mother means being the primary nurturer of your child.  And being that primary caregiver doesn’t happen by itself.  It requires us to be attentive, emotionally available, mindful, present and encouraging. Motherhood is the process and dedication to cultivating conditions in which our children may thrive and blossom insha’Allah. 

Nowadays, society constantly bombards us that motherhood should merely be our baseline, a ‘temporary job’. It paints motherhood as mundane and monotonous and makes it almost obligatory that we must do other things on the side for our motherhood to be worthy.  If no one spots you listening to podcasts whilst washing the dishes, its an indication that motherhood halted your growth.  We must be actively ‘seen’ doing something that that shows we haven’t lost our intellectual ability. 

But isn’t the very nature of raising our children perhaps the most intellectual role of all?  For how else to our children grow, develop, begin to speak, learn to love reading, form healthy relationships?  After the mercy of Allah, It is our intellectual capacity to understand and facilitate our children’s holistic needs that raises emotionally balanced human beings, who will grow up to love their faith and insha’Allah be pillars of the community.

I am by no means saying we as Muslim mothers shouldn’t pursue other things.  Rather the opposite for Islam encourages us to actively seek knowledge, and pursue beneficial avenues.  But realise that we all do this anyway, just in different shapes and forms.  Prefixes are more so of an indication of lifestyle; they take or add nothing away to the base itself.
Whilst one sister may be running a business to help financially contribute to her household, another sister may be taking care of her elderly parents; both are worthy.

So the key to a successful homeschool is pretty simple, though of course not always easy. For being purposeful and intentional is being content with Allah’s favours upon us, which will always lead to success and happiness; not just in our homeschool but in every aspect of life.