Daily Menu at Home

As we have been studying the first batch of Juz amma for more than a year, we brought an exam simulation to the little girl which planned to be done at the end of this month. But, suddenly she asked us to do that yesterday.

“What about now?”

Just like that.

So we wrote down 20 surahs she had learned in a small paper and she would pick it. Passing mark is 70% of 20 surahs. She did it pretty well. Calm and confidently. I asked her another bonus surah since my favorite wasn’t picked up.

Statistically, 20 surahs in a year are not that much. But, just like in any other subjects I have been teaching her, I prefer going slow and consistently done without zero days.

We didn’t enroll her to any school for these six months. We have secured a seat in one of primary school for the next school years. So within this interval, she just studied at home with me.

I can’t and will not teach her like any real schools. Her daily schedule would be like this :

One quran session after subuh only lasts for 15 minutes.

One iqro session after dzuhur only lasts for 20 minutes.

One piano session in the morning only lasts for 40 minutes.

One numbot session before piano only lasts for 30 minutes.

One reading together session before bed only lasts for 15 minutes.

One mixed subjects after piano session only lasts for 30 minutes.

As she loves reading, she is usually doing it in her free time by herself. Other than that, it’s free time. She could play, singing, watching, or whatever. Sometimes I take her outside cycling or just going around to do grocery and bakery visit. She gets one hour of trash in youtube kids everyday and another hour to watch real thing in either Netflix or Prime Video. She always wakes up by 5 am and goes to bed before 8 pm and by 8 pm, her day is done. My shift ends.

Setting such schedule above, we aim for nothing but building good habits. What we want to build is the habit, the exictement and the love for learning. For the sake of learning, not for grade, not for exam, or for any prizes. The habit that will turn into values and in the long run become the character and hopefully the destiny. The legendary Atomic Habits from James Clear summed it well below :

Recently, I also have been reading Simplicity Parenting from Kim Payne. He said in the introduction page :

“Daily activities says a lot about who we are as a family. You can see what a family holds dear from the pattern of their everyday lives”.

The rest of the book told exactly everything that we have been done. What children needs is secure environment to grow. How? Through regularity and daily rhtym at home. They need to know what to expect each day and there’s no better way to do it than setting and having daily schedule at home.

I am currently enjoying the result of rhytm and regularity that has been built since she was baby. She has been waking up at 5 since she was a baby. Few years ago, I wrote two similar in this post and this one.

When she ate for the first time, her first meal was fruit juice right after wake up. Seven years later, the first plate she has after subuh and Quran is still the same.

“Children depend on the rhythmic structure of the day—on its predictability, its regularity, its pulse. They benefit from dependability and regularity throughout childhood, but especially in the first three years, when the greatest learning takes place unconsciously. Not only can children find security in the patterns of daily life, they can begin to find themselves”.

Setting regularity and rhytm to the child’ daily life is not only beneficial to the children. It makes parenting much easier. We don’t have to find new things to do everytime.

Boring? no.

Why?

That explains why she is rarely to never display any tantrum, in whatever setting we have been. We dont only bring this regularity and rhytm in daily life, we bring it everywhere. During our traveling time, we wake up at or before 5 am for subuh and followed by first breakfast with fruit and bread then an hour later for rice. We always go out by 8 am and always back home by maghrib. By 8 pm, we are all in bed.

That explained why I had never enjoyed Paris, Tokyo, or Seoul at night. Three times in London, the one and only night time in London was this day of witnessing the beauty of London Night life.

Do I miss a lot? Not really.

Because it’s more important to enjoy everyday of the whole seven days than to sacrifice the rest of holiday for the sake of enjoying one beautiful night.

More importantly, staying healthy after the holiday is as well a point to note. With keeping our daily regularity and rhytm during traveling, we keep our physical and mental health altogether. We resume our daily activities again right after arrived home.

There are a lot of good points from the book such as the importance of art for young children, the benefit of having silent time, to declutter things like the toys, books, clothes, as well as the schedules. Having clear space has strong relations with clear mind. We simplify things to live better.

Just like the big message from the book : Our life will be simplified by simplifying our child’s.

Yes, it’s really true.