How does someone homeschool her children if she is not proficient in English?

Question :  Language a Barrier

How does someone homeschool her children if she is not proficient in English?
 

SF: 

I believe she should learn with her kids. Its never too late to learn.
 

Dr. MM: 

Yes I agree with that too...learn with kids
 

Iraj:

 Find good English teacher.
 

Bushra‬:

Read with your kids
Do word games
 

Ummibaps: 8 sons, 1 daughter / 18yrs to 2yrs

You can teach and guide and help your child seek knowledge in any language that is your family's mother tongue..math, science, logic.....The point is to communicate and educate. ....

English is needed to study and prepare for O levels or Matriculation examinations etc...so for academic preparation the family will need to seek tutors. If the family can learn the language together even better. For this exposure to the language is needed in the form of audio books, videos....different forms of media. ...

As for knowledge of the world,  deen, tarbeeyah etc a mother who doesn't speak English can still teach her child. ...a French speaking doctor, a German speaking engineer,  a Philippine nurse,  an Urdu speaking pilot are not considered uneducated.

The more languages a child can communicate,  the better...

A mother can prepare her child for life in the world in any language she can communicate with her child.
 

Sumera : 

Ummibaps, can you elaborate on your point? This somehow concerns me so I wanna analyse.

 

Ummibaps: 

Sister Sumera,

Things like how does gravity work, what causes rain,  addition , subtraction, good manners, how to garden,  construct things, paint ..etc all this is not dependent on the English language. Parents who have knowledge can teach their children what they know and help them find information on what they don't know.

Since the examination and college education is in English here,  the child needs to know the language to study and prepare for exams etc....and tutors, videos etc can help with that...but knowledge can be received in any language. ...

Even those parents who have  grown up speaking English can not teach everything....so they need to get help....and if the children decide to study in an Arab country,  or France or Germany,  Korea  for example. ....English with be little help ...They will need to learn the language. ...

They will still have knowledge but in another language. ....

And to learn any language means lots of exposure to it....

Um....I hope I'm making sense. ...do let me know if I'm not
 

Sarah :

 This brings me to a slightly different question which I am struggling with. I can't teach my children their school stuff without losing my cool.  They are four and three and have tons of oral and written homework and exams and all in Arabic.  I am at my wits end every time I sit with them and my constant threat for them to obey me is to either work with me or go to a tuition. I don't know the language and I also can't deal too well with pressure and the whole inappropriate age writing pressure.  Will I be able to homeschool?  The first thing my husband and family will say is that you can't make them do homework leave alone homeschool.  I don't blame them for thinking  that way

 

Dr. MM: 

Yes you are. Its double the hard work for parents as they have to learn first to teach their young ones...parenting is a tough task. But rewarding when you see them swim through.

 

SF: 

When I was home schooling I realized that there is a great alleviation of pressure that is pressure from school my son would return from my dresser and in the afternoon when I produced his homework books announcing it was time to do homework boy how his mood would change

 

Dr. MM: 

Boys are so volatile

Its very tough to make them sit at one place
 

SF:

Where is when he was at home sitting down for an hour or two wasn't stressful for him at all NFL as far as learning is concerned he gained a lot
 

SF:

I also feel that the most stressful time for a child to be in school is at the age of 4. As this is the time when the child is being taught how to right. Which means writing the letter A 10 x and sometimes even more than 10 times in one sitting which drives most children nuts especially boys
 

Dr. MM: 

Yeah agreed they wont repeat writing same words again and again
 

SF:

Sarah my dear . start homeschool . which school is giving such nonsense h.w. to little kids. Please read John Holt how children learn. Read home works magazines with your family. Take them to HS families. Let them meet their children.I  have been a teacher for many years and when the time came for me to teach my child I was clueless. Why? Because I was teaching him what school wanted me to teach him. Now its my third week homeschooling and we are going fine. No hw. Means we read and write what we want. He has already asked me to teach him concepts schools teach at grade 4 ( he's 7 years ) and I explained him.and  I play based activities till age 7. Research shows rote learning, and paper pencil work before 7 damages critical thinking capacity of brain.
 

Sarah : 

I know.  I totally believe the letting children learn at their own pace thing and all this pressured learning makes me want to pull my hair out. 

So cool you can actually do it.  May Allah make it amazing and super easy for you
 

EH: 

Sara that's the whole thing that people don't understand... Children are already sick and tired by the time they get home then later in the day we ask them to sit and do HW which annoys and frustrates them even more which in turn annoys and frustrates us!
It's not that they don't want to listen to us... It's just that they're sick of those alphabets....
On the other hand when we HS we only make them sit (at least at that age) for max 1/2 an hour! That too only on days they are completely willing and they're good to go... HW/CW all done

 

(Note: The above is a copy of a Whatsapp conversation,   partly edited for clarity)