 As-salamu alaykum and welcome everyone. To introduce myself, my name is Shaheen Rashid. I've been a homeschooler now for, well my oldest is 23 as you heard, so a good 23, 24 years, but I was a teacher before that. And I came to homeschooling almost kind of in the same mindset as a lot of the tech folks have with their own children, right? They develop the technology, but then they keep it away from their kids. Similarly, I was a teacher, but then I chose to homeschool my kids. So in that same mindset, I, you know, I got interested in homeschooling and learned about it actually even before I had my own children. And this was back in 1998, 1999. There was a talk at UC Berkeley that I attended many years ago and from there started my journey to homeschooling myself. And when I say homeschooling myself, I truly mean homeschooling myself first and then my kids. And that's kind of the big thing about homeschooling is it's not just as imparting knowledge to our children because we are learning along with them. MCC East Bay has been housing and hosting if-tars for the Muslim homeschooling families of the Bay Area. And we've been here now five, six years for multiple if-tars in Ramadan. And what grew up as a few families 10, 15 years ago, homeschooling families coming together to celebrate Ramadan has now grown to over 250 Muslim families in the Bay Area. And in fact, this Ramadan, we were here right here in the same hall having if-tars together and the homeschooling families were over. We had 200 people. So that just tells you, and this is just here. And I was a weeknight, not everybody from the South Bay made it out. So it's in one way showing you how much homeschooling has grown over the years, and especially with the Muslim community. So with that being said, I kind of talked about my journey to homeschooling, which was coming from the educational field or educational world, and then wanting something better for my kids than what schools offered. And that's kind of why I came into homeschooling. But it's not so much about me. I want to kind of hear, since we're such a small and cozy group, why are you here? Anybody? Why are you here? I mean, it's a Friday evening. You could be doing so many other things. You could even be home, live streaming and watching this. Well, why are you here? He's forced. Okay. Okay. Mashallah. So you are a homeschooler already. You're trying to make this year successful, inshallah. All right. We are homeschooling and just looking for the Muslim community to kind of like connect to. I know a lot of other homeschooling moms, but I don't know too many Muslims. And we are Muslims. So it would be nice to meet and connect locally, I guess, you know, yeah. I'm welcome because we have a huge community, mashallah. And one of the people I'm going to point out to you is sitting right here, meet her and she will put you onto our telegram group for the East Bay homeschoolers. So that's one thing I wanted to say. So I am on it and it seems to be very active online. But physically, I haven't met anybody yet. So that's one thing that it would be nice to maybe create some chapters, you know, you know, that will meet. Yeah, it would meet more locally because, you know, we are absolutely. And that's what we tell people because it's a volunteer run organization, you know, just host a part day and get people out to your area. So you start it and people will come. And that's kind of how it started. Because I am a founding member of the East Bay homeschoolers. And then also, you know, part of the Silicon Valley Muslim homeschoolers, which serves the South Bay community. And all of these organizations started because moms who were homeschooling said, let's get together, do something. Right. And the big thing about homeschooling is that it is a very natural, organic thing. You know, unlike a school where curriculum is given to you and you just teach it with homeschooling, you have to put in the effort and you kind of have to do it for yourself and for your families. So, you know, that's that's the I guess the blessing and as well as the challenge with with one of the challenges with homeschooling. But, you know, it's anybody else. So thank you. Yeah. I was a high school English teacher for five years. And then I took some just took some time off when I had her and then I'm having another one. So I do want to get back into some form of teaching, but not like full time in the classroom, because I just don't like they're too little for me to do that right now. So I just wanted to see what the needs of the homeschooling community were if there were like opportunities for teachers in like a more flexible setting. And then obviously like with Muslims too, like I've never been able to really like teach through an Islamic lens since I was like at a large public high school. So I'm here to just kind of see what the needs are of this community. You will see that you'll be a very hot commodity in this community as a as a credentialed high school English teachers, inshallah. Again, you know, I will definitely point you back to you know, sister Heidi to get your number so that we can definitely put that out for as a resource. So thank you. You know, for a lot of people, whether it is curiosity about homeschooling or concern about what's happening outside, or it's just the challenges that they're facing, whatever it may be, people are here because we all have a care and concern for our children. And it could it could be out of fear of what's out there or out of, you know, this love and passion for education. But whatever that pull is, we're all driven by the same thing, which is our children and the love for our children. And that is, you know, the big thing, because our children are an Amana, they are a trust from God to us, right. And we have to educate this trust, we have to fulfill this Amana that we've been we've been given, and not just educate them intellectually, but we have to raise a holistic human being that and meet all of their intelligences. So we're not just here to train the mind, but we're also here to nurture their spirit, and then make sure that they're physically growing and developing and being challenged the way they should be, as well as, you know, socially and emotionally. So developing that whole human being and raising a full person is important, which sometimes can get overlooked in with, you know, different other avenues of education. And then of course, to help them develop at the right time. And that's another huge goal of every parent, and no different from that of someone who's homeschooling. And we are really, I think the goal, one of the big goals for homeschoolers, and I think for all parents, but definitely you see it more in the lens of homeschoolers, because you're playing both the roles of the parent and the teacher is to give our children the proper tarbiyah and the proper talim. And they're two separate things. And when I use these terms, and I don't use them interchangeably, because there's one thing about training behaviors, and there's the other about teaching intellectually. And this is the balance of both that we want to make sure we have in our homeschool environment or our homeschooling world. You know, I grew up partly in this country, partly outside, but when I went to public school in this country, like a lot of us in this room may have, our parents did what was best for us at the time and place that they were in, whether it was a public school or a private school, they did with, you know, a decade two, sometimes three decades ago. But our parents did for us what was best at that time and place that they were in in this country. A lot of us who went to public school went to public schools for the intellectual side of our intelligences. And then the home was where the tarbiyah came in the home was where the Islam came in or Sunday schools at the masjid is where the Islam came in. And it was, you know, at that point, I think there was still this separation of church and state and that, you know, public schools focused on just the intellectual growth. And so families were all comfortable with their kids going to Sunday school and learning their zine. And it was still fine because you had your worldly sciences and then your spiritual sciences kind of going hand in hand and balanced. And that was great. That was many years ago. But unfortunately, this time and age, I think this generation is not in that blessed environment of, you know, school is going to teach you one thing and and the home and the measure is going to fill in the gaps. Because unfortunately, the school is not teaching you just one thing. And the home cannot just fill in the gaps because they are the gaping holes not gaps. And then the second thing is that I will argue that the public education system today is directly, you know, is directly attacking our Dean. And I, you know, truly will I'll try to show you what I mean by that. But I will ask you first of all, if anybody can tell me what are the five principles of preservation in our Dean? What is the Sharia here to protect? Anybody? Like what is the Sharia protecting for us? I mean, I know there's a whole poem in Arabic and I'm not a scholar, so I'm not going to read that or recite that. But basically, the Sharia is here to protect these five things, which is first and foremost religion or our Dean, right? And this is how we establish our Akida, our prayers, our five pillars. So that's the very first thing that the Sharia protects. And this is, you know, principle of preservation. The next thing, of course, is life and or Nafs. That's another thing that that the Sharia is here to protect and preserve. Lineage, of course, and honor in that sense, intellect and wealth. These are the five basic principles of the Sharia is here to preserve or protect. And unfortunately, the public school system today is directly here and attacks these same five principles. And how do I mean, what do I mean by that? Well, first of all, it's very easy to see how the public school system is attacks our Dean or religion. First, of course, there was no religion being talked about in public schools, which was, you know, years ago with a separation of church and state. But beyond that, now there is an atheistic agenda present and prevalent in, you know, the education system. Not just is it an atheistic agenda, but there is also a nihilistic agenda that our children grow up with listening to and learning from. And they're absorbing this. So this is directly under attack of our Dean, right? It's completely counter to what we raise our children to do and learn and be like. The second thing, of course, you know, life, when I mean, nuffs or life, that's another big protection of what the Sharia is here to safeguard. And whether we talk about bullying, whether we talk about the whole trans agenda and the and this gender fluidity, all of that is truly in attack, in direct attack of protection of the nuffs, protection of the self. And this is also, you know, if you look about, if you look at lineage, that is another big thing that the Sharia is here to protect is our lineage, right? And how, if your lineage and your honor are, you know, how will they be protected when promiscuity, homosexuality, these things are commonplace for our children? How is that protecting these these ideals and these ideas of our Dean? And intellect, we think about the intellect and the intellect having to be protected. Well, the proliferation of drugs in the school system, to the point that public schools have to have, you know, random drug checks. Well, if you have these random drug checks and their drug dogs coming in to sniff out drugs in public schools, and drugs are, you know, the one of the reasons why it's told in the Quran, it says do not use this because they alter your mind, their mind altering, they differ, they really deter how you can grow intellectually. But then beyond that, even just the misdiagnosis that a lot of children who are a little active will get, you know, labeled with and then, you know, given medications or put aside, that's not intellectual growth. It's not intellectual growth at all. And then, of course, if you want to, you know, get into the whole social media aspects, that's again, attack on intellect. And then wealth, right? When we talk about wealth, we're talking about, you know, what is the sharia here to protect again? And we talk about wealth, let's let's look at ethics, right? Stealing. Well, when we talk about sharia protects our wealth, we talk about all of those things that the sharia talks, teaches us. No stealing, no cheating. But then when you have no ethics or morality, when it's okay, and the teachers tell you it's okay, just go ahead and use chat GPT to write your essays and turn it in because it's more about getting it done and checkmarking all those boxes, right? And if that's all right for you to just use the book and answer the questions, get your homework done, control F through the PDF, find your answers, find your resources and plug it in because it's just a matter of getting things done at this point because, of course, all the answers are Googleable or wikiable these days. If that's what's really being taught, your ethics are being challenged. The question of morality is being challenged. There is no real truth. There is no what is right and what is wrong because the things that were certain in the past, like a certain basic morality, a certain basic baseline of ethics, you know, a certain whether it was presence of God or what gender you were. These were not negotiables. They were set. But today, these things are seen as uncertainties. And whereas the uncertainties, which is today being seen as certain, so it's becoming more and more nuffs driven. How do you feel today? Because what you're taught, what you will be how you will be dealt with is going to be based on how you feel today. The uncertainties are given, you know, the stronghold, whereas things that are certain, like for a big family, God, parents, none of these things are certain. Your parents don't know much. Families don't matter. We are here to take care of you. Whether you look and watch the documentary, What is a Woman, or there's another new one that is coming up. All of these documentaries show how families are being broken down by the public school system. And I know a lot of people will say, Well, you know, we didn't move into this country to home school our kids, to hold our kids at home. I've heard a lot of immigrant families say that. And I ask one question to them. And that's a very simple question. When you moved into this country, did you think that you would put your children into a government school in this country or a public school in this country, which is the same equivalent of a public school back home, whether you're from Egypt, whether you're from Afghanistan, whether you're from India, Pakistan, wherever it doesn't matter, you or your parents would never think of putting your children in a public school in your own countries. But for some reason, an American public school is seen as the guiding light. And you need to take a step back and think about that. Why is it any different? If you wouldn't trust the system of education in your own countries, why would you trust it here? And then the other question I also bring up for people or a point I want to make is when we talk about people coming into this country for a good education, they usually come in for a higher education. Nobody comes in to go to your neighborhood public school. They come in for the Harvard's and the Stanford's and, you know, those those universities, not for the elementary schools where starting in third grade, or even now second grade, you have the opportunity to choose with gender you belong to and not inform your parents. So and this is all, of course, beyond just the whole edutainment aspect of modern education today, which is side effects of technology, but truly, you know, the whole making our children depend on the crutches to education rather than get an education. And this is it was an interesting conversation we had just last week where my husband, he's right here, and he said to one of my cousins, he said, you know, when did you first have television or when did you first see television or watch television? And she looked at him quite strange. And this is a woman. She's she's, you know, 40. And she looked at him quite strangely, like, what do you mean? Like from the time I was born, we've always had television. Right. And and he said, Well, and she looked back at him and said, What about you? Now, he's obviously an immigrant into this country. He said, He was 14. Right. And that's very similar to not just television, but even computers. Right. A lot of people who are today engineers doing really well in the computer industry did not have computers to work on until they themselves started engineering or got into way higher into their educational lives. Whereas we, for some reason, today feel like even a six month old and a one year old should be given a device for some reason. So we are already beginning to give our children crutches to their learning rather than teach them how to learn first, and then have them use tools. So the tools should not replace the real learning that needs to happen. So just just a side note, I know. But I just wanted to bring that up because I feel a lot of times we forget that, you know, the base has to be strong, and then the choices can come after. So the structure has to be present before you can have, you know, whether it was Picasso as an artist or, you know, whether it was the great chefs of today, whoever it is, they all learned the basics first. And then they got creative. And unfortunately, right now, the push has been so much into the creative side that we're missing the basic foundation. And it's very easy to fall. The pillars will not stand. So why, why should you homeschool? And I'm not going to spend too much time on this, because I know a lot of you here already know this. But one of the basics, basic reasons why people homeschool is because of moral and religious grounding. You know, we are not the first community in this in this country to homeschool. We're actually the last community of homeschoolers. The religious communities, whether it was Christian or Jewish or others took to homeschooling way before we did. But again, we are a much younger community growing in this country. So it's obvious that we will grow into homeschooling as well. But seriously, it is that is one of the fundamental reasons people choose to homeschool moral and religious grounding. But beyond that, I think academic relevancy becomes very important. I consult with a lot of different families, some of them non Muslim as well. And I know a lot of the Hindu families in the Bay Area reach out for consulting services, not for religious reasons, but because they find that the academics in this country are so poor. And if they have come all the way from India to this, even even the public, the private schools are not as challenging or rigorous as what they were used to back home. And they do reach out because they want more academic rigor. One big reason for families to homeschool is also stronger family bonds. And I can talk about one family, I know personally, who chose to homeschool all four of their children when their oldest child was diagnosed with a terminal illness. And the family had to, there were so many doctor visits and so much going on that the parents decided they would have all the kids at home and homeschool because they didn't know how much time their oldest daughter had. She did pass eventually in within a year or year and a half. But what was interesting is that the rest of the three did not want to go back to school after that. Even though for them it was a choice of, you know, just temporarily, they chose not to. And they said they couldn't give up on what they had. Because at home, there isn't a, well, you're a third grader, you go over there, or you're a second grader, you're going to go into that room. We're all in it together. So the older ones will help the younger ones, well, the younger ones will learn. And sometimes they already know something when it's time to teach them because they've heard it from the older ones so many times over. Environment and this is not even something, you know, to laugh about. But unfortunately, it is a point to remember, you know, metal detectors in schools were not how I went to public school in this country. But it's a very common thing today. School shootings have gone up, everybody's aware of that. Again, that's another big reason why families just, they're afraid, they're afraid. And in the past, it used to be okay, bullying, they used to be okay, somebody snatched their hijab off or they pushed a guy because, you know, those were the things of the 80s and the 90s. Right. Now we don't have to worry about that. Organizations like Islamic Networks Group have worked very hard to make schools inclusive for all religious communities. But it's not about being included anymore. Because you're, as a Muslim, you're fine, that's not what they're what they're attacking. It's not the physical appearances. It's the inside that's under attack. And that's even more subversive and even more scary. One big benefit of homeschooling is how much time you have in a day, how much time you actually save and how much time you have for other things. Somebody asked me recently, well, people always ask how many hours a day would you homeschool for? And I say, you know, four hours, you don't need more than that. And they look at me like I'm crazy because I mean, their kids are in school from eight to three. And here I am saying four hours. But anybody who homeschools knows this, you're not waiting on other students to catch up with your child, and you're not waiting for your child to be at somebody else's pace, you're meeting them where they are taking them to the next step. There isn't any time wasted. And as a teacher, you also know if you've you know, you have to plan your lesson with a 55 minute period. Whereas when you're homeschooling, you can if your child is into it and they're excited about something, they may spend two hours on that subject and get through a whole lot more. So you end up having time to explore beyond just the books. Someone asked me, okay, what do your kids do? And you know, it's not that my kids did anything great or awesome, but I'll share some of their extracurricular activities that they chose. But I'll also talk about people in the community that I know of, whose homeschoolers have been able to explore so much more. My oldest one is all about he's doing, he's into cars. So he's still into cars. That was he started off with the car wash business at 10 years old from our house, washing neighbors cars and family cars, but then into changing oil on cars and tires and whatever and whatever. And he still works on restoring cars. That's just his hobby. And so that was one of the benefits of being able to have time to explore your hobbies. And this is not a point to just push away because if you ask a high schooler today, what are your hobbies? Unfortunately, most of them will not be able to tell you what their hobbies are. And it's not because they haven't one, because they haven't developed it, but two, they really didn't have time to think about what they enjoy doing and learning. I asked somebody this recently. And this is why I'm mentioning this. I asked someone, what is your hobby? And he said sleeping. And I said, that's not a hobby. That's something we all have to do. And it just shows you that he did not have time to really figure out what he enjoys doing or learning. And my my second one, he got into was online resale of these shoes like sports shoes and athletic shoes. And he was into basketball, but he started this online business of reselling. And I guess there are certain, I don't know the details, but certain Supreme brand is worth the brand it was, but they would drop these shoes on, you know, like special odd times. And then you would get those and then you could resale them. But he did that. All right. And then of course, sports, they all they all learned the sport different sports. But these are just my kids. Within our community, I do know of people who are homeschooling and they have really enjoyed what they were doing. One of them has, you know, she's really taken off on into from crochet and art into doing her own. Now she's doing fashion design, but really got into sewing, because that was a hobby of hers that she took on to the next level. Another one, and she got into baking. And she's now doing completing her degree in culinary arts, but she also started her own business where she would bake cakes and cookies and we've all bought stuff from her. And she has her own own little business. Also, she's now she's working at a bakery and working on her degree in culinary sciences. Another homeschooler. And all of this just to show you, you know, this is just a very, very, very small sampling, but you have time to do these other things, which is why if you truly look at athletes who are going on to the Olympic levels, or whether it's or actors, child actors, or, you know, dancer ballet dancers, anybody who's trying to be professional in any of anything that's intensive, they're homeschooled for that reason. And they're homeschooled because they will have time to pursue those interests. And of course, the final part here being adaptability and choice. You are not stuck to any one curriculum or any one way of only doing this. Right? If, for instance, your family is one of those digital nomads that are globally traveling all over, and you are going to be in, you know, or you decide you want your child to take the what is it NGSE, which is I guess the British standard of completion of high school, or the Singaporean standard or whatever, you have that option. You're not stuck to only these standards. That's the benefit of homeschooling. The world is your school, not a standard set by the state of the Department of Education of a particular state. So you really open up the world to your children. And if you are looking at a global economy, then look at a global educational world too. Don't just limit yourselves and independent thought, thinking for yourself, you know, everybody talks about the buzzword critical thinking. See that or maybe, maybe not. Okay. Well, everybody talks about critical thinking, but, you know, and you feel, and I've heard this question asked so many times, what's the right curriculum to teach critical thinking? And my answer is your home. Right. Life teaches critical thinking skills. Again, simple example, I know it's a little off topic, but I was at somebody's home, and they had just moved into their new home. So things were all over and we had taken some food to help them settle in. And then we're looking to make some tea, and she had a can of, you know, the kind of evaporated milk. And she was like, okay, here, but then she's like, Oh my God, I don't even know what I don't know if you have a can opener because it's probably in one of the boxes. How do I even, and she was kind of going, now what do we do? And I was like, Okay, no big deal. We'll make it work. You know, grabbed a knife, banged it in, made a hole, poured the milk out. And she just stood there staring at me. And I was like, I could make, you know, when you go camping, you do these things, right? And she just was shocked. And I kept, and I thought to myself, you know what, it's not anything against her. I know, but it was a matter of when you are only trained to think a certain way, you will only think that way. Because that's what you've been trained to kind of like having those blinders on the horses, you can only see this path in front of you. But when the blinders are off, then you'll look around. And that's what homeschooling does. It takes those blinders off. So you can look all around you and you're not only going to follow this one path and not know or think for yourself how to problem solve. You do not need a curriculum to teach you how to do this. You need life to teach you how to do this. And that only happens when you experience life. And your children cannot really experience life when they are in a classroom of same-aged kids from seven until four and then coming home and being retaught what they were supposed to have been taught in those first few hours of the day when their brains were fresh and they were in a classroom. And if anyone is an immigrant from India or Pakistan, you know what I'm talking about because this is exactly what used to happen. You would be in school, you would learn your lesson, then you'd come home, or then you'd go for your tuitions and then the teachers would reteach you. So you spent double the amount of time learning. And a lot of children unfortunately today end up doing the same thing. So what homeschooling does is takes those 12 hours of teaching and learning that you have to do and condenses it because now you only get what's important and relevant and pertinent to you at your level. Okay, so let's talk about what homeschooling is. First thing I'm going to tell you is that homeschooling is free, absolutely free. It does not cost you anything. I'm going to pause there because this is an important point I hear a lot of people say how much does it cost to homeschool? It doesn't cost you anything to homeschool. In fact, if you choose to go with the charter school, the charter school even gives you money to pay for classes to homeschool. So it's opposite to the idea of a private school where you're paying school fees, you're not. You don't pay anything to teach your own children. It is legal 100% legal in the state of California and all states in the United States, but definitely in the state of California. And it is not new. It is the fastest growing model of education in the US. Again, for those who came in late, this resource guide right here on the table and also on my website, you can grab it later, but it has a lot of different resources, the second one being a list of charter schools that serve Alameda, Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties and San Mateo County, San Francisco County. So basically, it's a resource guide that I just helped put together on the different charters in this area. Also the different homeschooling groups that are prevalent in the Bay Area, as well as how to sign up for a private school affidavit. Absolutely. Absolutely. Yes, absolutely. Now, that's what a private school affidavit is, is where you're basically taking charge of your children's education completely and you're checking out of the educational system of the state and you're saying I'm in charge of my child's learning and education and I will teach them what I want to, how I want to, right? And then you have certain guidelines, of course, but it's really you. You're not getting any funding. You're not getting any help or resources, but it's you taking charge for children's learning at that point. And that's exactly what this is. Parents take charge of their children's education. It's not that, you know, a lot of times and this is another interesting thing because recently I met somebody and I asked them, you know, it was on the topic of homeschooling and they said they needed some help and I said, OK, so what was your child learning in the previous grade? They couldn't tell me. And they couldn't tell me because they really did not know. And I asked them, what curriculum was your child using? What were they, whatever the school gave, whatever the school chose? So there was this blind faith in the education system or the public school system by this family that they had completely just succumbed. They'd given their children up to the school, unaware of what curriculum was being taught, unaware of what their child was learning. They it was, I don't know, they go to school. And isn't that enough? So this is where, you know, with homeschooling, you are aware of what your child is learning. You are aware of what the what books you're using, what curriculum you're using, what level they're at, are they ahead? Are they behind? Do they learn fast? Do they need more time in one subject as to the other? You are intuitively connected with your child's learning through homeschooling. And then, of course, a lot of times if families want oversight, that is an option as well. One big thing I want to point out, you do not need to be a teacher to homeschool. And this is important to keep in mind, you do not need to have a teaching credential or an MED or any or a BED or anything in that sense to homeschool your children. All right. In fact, somebody said to me years ago, they said, Oh, well, it was it's easy for you. You were a teacher, you could homeschool and you taught 30 of other people's kids, you can teach three of your own. So you can definitely homeschool because, you know, you've done it. And the example or the idea that I pointed out was like, you know, and again, this goes back to my immigrant background. But a lot of immigrants, a lot of us who are not not native Arabic speakers, we learned to read the Quran back home and we learned to read it not necessarily with the best guide. Right. So now some of us did some of us did not. And if we did not, we had to relearn it. We had to kind of correct ourselves. It was harder to unlearn the wrong way of saying that and, you know, go into the thought we had to relearn and relearn. Right. It's the same thing with homeschooling. As a teacher, I was trained to teach in a school. I had to unlearn that and then reteach myself home education. So do not look at it and say, Oh, because you're a teacher, it's easier for you. That's like saying, Well, because you learn to read the Quran as a child, learning Arabic is going to be easier for you. They do not they do not equate. So if you keep that in mind, you'll see what I mean. You have to homeschooling is quite different. You're not here to control 30 kids in a room and get content across. Your work is a whole lot easier. One, because you're dealing with your own children, you know them. You know, if they had a hard night and then now they're going to be cranky the next day and you think, Oh, okay, maybe we won't start a new lesson in math right now. A teacher in school doesn't have that insight. She doesn't know they had a hard night. And she cannot say, Well, we're not going to start a new lesson because so and so had a hard night at home. They're just going to have to tough it out. Right. So you as a parent and especially as a mom, yes, a lot of times people will say moms are the main homeschoolers. Yes, moms are the main homeschoolers. Usually in most homes, moms are the main homeschoolers. But that's kind of like mom moms are doing that job, that role, right? And there's nothing wrong with that. Dads usually step in and take on one subject or maybe two subjects. And that's perfectly fine. But the goal here is that you are teaching your children and I'll be very honest. After fourth grade, my math teaching was outsourced only because that was that's not my my forte. That's not my subject. And my husband was very busy with work. And as much as he said, I will do it, it, you know, schedules didn't match up. And so great. I found a really good math tutor, who is a good friend of mine. And she taught my boys math, my daughter, too. But, you know, initially with them. So homeschooling does not mean you have to do it all. It means you need to be aware of it all and find and facilitate for your children. It's really up to you. Again, you can if you want, or you don't have to. I know a lot of people who say, well, I can OK, fine, I'll homeschool my kid. But how do I know they're doing OK? I want someone to be able to check in and tell me that, you know, they're on on track and they're not falling behind. And in that case, you know, charter schools work for that. Then you have that oversight where they will test your child annually or by annually, and they'll put them in your kind of like rank them or not rank them, but they do the same state testing that public school kids do. So that is an option for families who want that. But it doesn't have to be. Another question I get quite often is, can you homeschool a special needs child? And the answer is, yes, please do. Please do because you will be there fully for your special needs child. The system does not have enough resources to take care of your special needs child. And that could be somebody who's a gifted, you know, twice gifted, or it could be someone who has, you know, different abilities, whatever it is, you know your child best, and they deserve your love, your care, your attention and your educational support. In fact, there's another group that's listed on this, which is the Muslim group, and they are the family of, you know, for the for special needs. And they have a lot of homeschoolers there, too. The last thing when I say about homeschooling, there are many different ways to homeschool and many resources here to help you. When I started homeschooling my kids when it was what 23, 24 years ago in the Bay Area, we were maybe four families or five families who we could point out and say, Oh, yeah, they're homeschooling. Today, we have over 300 Muslim families in the Bay Area, all the way from Antioch, Don South towards Gilroy, all the way on the peninsula and all the way east into Modesto, Merced, and Stockton. And this is just this area. And every day we have people, families joining more and more families, pulling their children out because they're tired of fighting the fight with the school districts. They're tired of fighting. One sister called me recently says, I don't know what to do. Her daughter is in seventh grade, sixth going into seventh grade. Their public school on the peninsula requires all of them to have swimming lessons. They don't care if her daughter is in a bikini or not. That's not the issue. But their swimming lessons are coed. And she cannot get out of it. And whatever she does, whatever she says, the school, the principal, and she's gone through all the channels and she cannot. She said, you know, I kind of I succumbed when they had dance as part of PE, and they had to do coed dancing. But now it's coed swimming. At what point will it will stop? My daughter is in seventh grade, she's 13. And there's some and she's and she's so again, these are fights that parents have to constantly fight. And some of them are getting tired of it. How much do we keep fighting? We don't need to fight this fight. And worse, our children don't need to be fighting these fights. If our goal is to protect our children truly, then let us protect them. Let us not send them into the battlefield without the right armor, without being prepared to say, go fight this fight. That's not their job. Not when they're seven, not when they're nine, not when they're 11. And people say, well, our kids will have to live in this world. Yes, a nine or 11 year old is never given a car to drive and said, go go go to the grocery store drive and go get me a gallon of milk. We don't do that. Yet we don't think twice about putting our nine, 11, 15 year old in situations that they are, I'm going to constantly have to fight against. And then we get concerned when they turn against us, or families have problems. So Oh, one big thing I get asked, well, do homeschool kids go to college? And the answer is yes. In fact, they do. Homeschool kids do go to college. A lot of homeschool kids want to go to college, they start going to college much earlier. They start going to college while still in high school. And the state of California makes community colleges free for homeschoolers as well for all high schoolers. But when you're in high school, you're in high school, you're already taking a full load, you don't have the time. But as a homeschooler, yeah, you can be taking community college classes and they're absolutely free. No, they can start at age 14. From age 14, high school classes can be taken by students from age 14, 14. Okay. And one else. I mean, is it is it like depends on the is it gonna be like depends on the age or depends on the grade as well. So again, that's it's some colleges, community colleges will start at 14 as an age. Some will start at grade nine or 10. So it in different community colleges are also like a school district, right? Each one is the community college district. So you'll have to check with each one. But usually the baseline is 14 or ninth grade. Okay, usually is going to be considered as like AP classes or they can be considered as AP classes for high school. Yes. So they get the credits about they will get credits for high school. Correct. Okay, sounds great. Let's talk about what homeschooling is not. Because this is also important. It is not new. It is not a new form of education in this country or elsewhere. If you think about it, you know, whether wherever in the world you are from or your families were from royalty was always homeschooled. You never had royalty going into a public or a private school or a missionary school or no, they were always homeschooled. So when we talk about giving the best to our children, and whether it is in clothing and food and medicine and shelter and whatever, let's keep that in mind with education as well. Because homeschooling is that royal treatment that you would be giving your child. Right. I'm not saying it's easy for you. I'm just saying for them. Okay. Homeschooling is not prescriptive or uniform. It's not one size fits all. Everybody doesn't do the same exact thing. Everybody doesn't do learn the same exact way. And this is where it becomes really interesting and really exciting, because one of your child and you know, and this is where you get to know your children as well. I'll give you my own example with my boys when I would read to them. And I still see this, you know, I would read like I was reading Peter Abbott to my children and my two boys because they're closed in age. My oldest one, he's very hands on. He's the one who's with cars and working with cars all the time. But he was always like that with very kinesthetic. I would be reading the story of Peter Abbott. And it would Peter Abbott was, you know, it was kind of he was put under the basket and all of those things he would be under the bed or under the couch, you know, the couch cushions would be over him. He'd be jumping up and he was never just sitting still and listening. That was him. He would always be mama like this, like this. And that was how he was. Right. My second one, he was the one who would be sitting right next to me. And he would be listening very intently. And he would, you know, whatever was happening with his brother didn't bother him, but he would have to sit there. He would have to look at the pictures. He would, you know, he would be the one who'd want to even sometimes hold the book. My daughter would be the one who had to kind of follow along with her fingers. The letters in the story. Right. Same story, three different ages, three different kids, three different styles of learning. This is not possible for a teacher in a classroom to do with 30 students. And it's not fair for us to expect this of them either. And this is where that royal treatment for your children comes in. This is how you learn best. Great. My kids used to, we have, we have like a slope or a hill in our backyard. My kids would run back there. You know, they had my boys are very active. And my daughter was just like a boy at that point to run from the top of the hill all the way down going, look, we just drew the Nile River and there's the Delta. That's how they would learn this. So what they learned, they would put into practice and that they did that on their own. Right. So it's not prescriptive, it's not uniform, but you're meeting each one where they're at. And homeschooling is not dependent on just one person. None of us would think twice about hiring a Quran teacher or an Arabic teacher for our children. We would find the best Qadi who would sit with our children who would teach them Arabic, we'd find the best alim to teach them their Deen. We do that with in a heartbeat. No questions asked. Well, homeschooling is the same thing, except you do that with every subject. If you don't feel capable, then find the best tutor for your children. You already heard me tell you how I found someone from my kids for math. I will also embarrass myself, but I'll very honestly tell you I found them a really good art teacher because it wasn't me. She taught them how to sew. My boys all know how to sew. She taught them how to knit. She taught them how to crochet. They all did this and they had an amazing teacher, Masha'Allah. And the other amazing thing you can do when you find the right teachers is you can you get to know them because it's not just the content that they're teaching. And this is important. It's not just the content they're teaching, they're teaching them a whole lot more. And this is how our Dean was, teachers and students sitting across from each other, learning from each other. There was a chain of transmission. The children learned more than just the content. They learned akhlaq, they learned adab. They learned how their teachers would stop when it was time for prayer. These are all things that they pick up, which is why it was so appalling when we read about the teacher in San Francisco who decided to take her kindergarten class to a field trip to her own wedding, which was a wedding at the city hall in San Francisco. And she was a lesbian. And kindergarteners were taken on this field trip. Our children are exposed to a whole lot of stuff. And when we put our children in the hands of others without knowing where and who these people are, do you know who this woman is or who this man is or who this person is in today's day and age, standing in front of your children for six hours of the day? Do you know what they are imparting to your children beyond just the books? I've been a teacher, I've taught kids, and I remember the day when one of my students in the middle of teaching stopped me and said, and this was at an Islamic school years ago. I mean, he's a father now with his own kids, but he raised, khala shayeen. And I was like, yes. And he was, I have a question for you. You got a new watch. And I was like, what, you know, but that's how observant they are. Even in the middle of me here teaching sentence structure and grammar, he had to pause me to say, I got a new, you got a new watch. And I noticed it. This is third grade, but still, that's how, how much our kids learn from beyond what we say, which is exactly why, you know, if you read your kids will read, if you pray, your kids will pray. It's modeling behavior. And finally, I want to mention this again, I know you're not seeing the whole thing, but it says homeschooling is not limiting or isolating. In fact, homeschooling opens up the world for our children and for ourselves. People, you will talk to everybody, you will meet everybody, whether they're in, you know, because guess what, as a homeschooler, one of the things I loved was not having to deal with traffic. This is before everybody went into the hybrid work world, but I didn't have to deal with traffic. So I would do my groceries in the morning time. And, you know, only the, you know, grandma's and the grandpa's were out there in the grocery store. I did not have to deal with traffic. I got the best rates for swimming classes because it was off peak time. And so my kids were outside meeting people in the real world. I remember years ago again, this is just my anecdotal stories. I know but we had to take our car down to the mechanic. So all of us had to, you know, I dropped when I dropped the car and they dropped us back. The shuttle dropped all four of us back. Right. And the whole way back with the shuttle driver, my kids were just yappity, yappity, yappity, and he was, you know, and the first best conversations begin, oh, no school today. And the answer is, we're homeschooled. And there starts a whole conversation. Oh, you're homeschooled. What is that? Right. And then you keep going on and on. And my kids would just have this conversation with people. And as this man, he dropped us off home and he said, you know, I had a very interesting conversation with your kids. I usually don't have people talking to me. And especially little kids, they were so comfortable talking. And I was like, you know, first in my head, I just laughed and I said, Yeah, well, you know, they're homeschooled. They don't have many people to talk to ha ha ha. But point was not that the point was there were no barriers for my kids to say, Oh, this is an adult. I cannot talk to them. Because that's what happens in schools. You can only talk to similar aged kids. Whereas when you're homeschooled, you talk to grandparents, you talk to adults, you talk to younger kids, their age is not a barrier. You learn adab you talk with proper decorum and respect. But you talk to everybody. You interact with everybody. So you're not isolated. So there are a lot of different curriculums that you can choose from. In fact, there are a lot more now than they ever were before. Because one of the big things that major publishers of curriculum like Pearson and McMillan McGraw Hill and all of these companies have realized is that there's a huge group of people consumers that they've been missing out on by not catering to the homeschoolers. So now everyone has a homeschool version of the same curriculum that schools have. But again, you really have to look at your child and yourself and determine what's the best approach for you because you may choose a curriculum and people have people have chosen like I've chosen, for instance, in the very beginning for my kids, I chose right start math, which is a great curriculum for math. Right. But it was not sustainable for me or my family. And the reason for that is, for instance, the right start math curriculum required me to prep prepare for every lesson I would have to spend like an hour preparing for that lesson with the with the little manipulatives and this and that and this and that and had to prepare the whole thing. And by the time I was done, I was exhausted. And then I had to still teach this. So it was not a sustainable curriculum for me personally. But there are other families for whom this worked wonders. They loved it because it was very prescriptive and very clear as to what was expected. So you have to kind of do an introspective look at who you are, what your goals are, what your children's needs are before. So that's where it's like there is no one uniform way of homeschooling. And that that's truly where you can sit down with the consultant and talk to them. And you know, and that's kind of one of the reasons I offer the services that I offer is because people want to know, okay, what's right for my child? How do I know what to teach? And then we have all of our groups, which like the homeschooling groups are constantly. In fact, there's a homeschooling 101 workshop at MCA on the 27th, whereas there's a whole curriculum display different curriculums will be out there for families to look at. What's the right one just to kind of see before you buy anything? Right? So one thing I am going to say about homeschooling is it's not a closed minded blind approach. You cannot just walk in there saying, okay, it's got all going to be taken care of. It's not. It's an active sport. You have to be actively participating in your children's upbringing. You have to be actively participating in your children's education in every subject. Okay. And but and I know people say, my God, that sounds like a lot. That sounds hard. It is a lot. I'm not going to lie and say it's not. And it is hard. I will not even disagree with you on that. But I will tell you that the options are harder. The other options are even harder. Public school options. You're thinking, okay, I don't have to do the physical work, but the social, emotional, spiritual, all of that drain that you have to go through is a lot. Right. And you kind of have to take balance it out. The thing with homeschooling is you can choose how far, how deep, how much you want to teach. And you can pull back. I know families, when they have babies, they will kind of, you know, that that year is not going to be the very productive year because mom is busy with the newborn. And the others are kind of helping. But guess what? They're learning other things. They're learning caregiving. They're learning to be part of the family. They're sometimes my kids all were doing their own laundry by the time they were eight. It's funny because my last one was born when my oldest one was eight. Maybe there was a correlation. But point is that you're teaching them beyond just books. You're teaching them to be independent human beings, sovereign human human beings. And that's part of learning. Some families will use cooking and cleaning and setting the table and having breakfast, all of this as part of education because it is part of education. It is not, you know, it's not that you go to school, somebody has packed your lunch, you come home and somebody somehow miraculously lunches or dinner is already ready and dishes are already done. You don't know how anything happens. That's not life. True education is where you know where your food comes from. And you don't think that eggs come out of the grocery store shelf. But you know they actually come from somebody else who harvested those for you and brought them out of the chicken coop for you. They are kids. And I'm not even kidding. They're teenagers today who truly believe orange juice is actually not from an orange because we have never followed the process all the way through. And it's not that they're, you know, unintelligent or stupid. It's that nobody ever showed them or told them. If nobody tells you how will you know? Because you never had the opportunity to look up and look around. Most people, most of our children have never seen a chicken being slaughtered or cleaned. They only know it cooked in its cooked version. We have sanitized our world for our children to the point that we've handicapped them. They don't know how to care for themselves, let alone care for others. That is all part of the entire education package. So let's talk very, you know, briefly, because I know at what time is Makhrib here? I'm sorry. OK. Well, very quickly, and we can come back to this after Makhrib. But how can you homeschool? The first is what we call the private school affidavit. You have to fill out a form on a website, the California Department of Education. You fill out a form that takes you less than 15 minutes once a year and you are done. That's the only thing you need to turn in. And directions for that are also on here. And then you take charge of your children's learning. That's how the sister in the back does it. It's a simplest way to get started. OK. But then there are other ways. Some people go with the charter school. We've got folks here with the charter school as well, where it is you're still teaching at home, but there's oversight. There is still testing. And that's a different way of homeschooling. And this list has some of the Bay Area charter schools listed here as well for you. It is a public school, a charter school. Things like that. OK. So a charter school is a public school. Yes. But you're not going in there. You are still homeschooled. You just have a license to teach under them. Or the school has a license and you're teaching under that umbrella. Once a month, a teacher will come in and meet with your child, test them, check your work, check your quickly come back together. We can wrap up with questions as well. I've got one question from the livestream from someone who had posted. So I will answer that as well. I can begin with that actually. So Brother Mohammed, you had a question on the livestream. On with the livestream. OK. So I got a question and it said, how did we make up for the social or communication skills that the children might miss out while being homeschooled? And I actually will say that they do not miss out on any of the social skills. It really is up to you. If you are a social family, a very communicative family, your kids will be that way too. If you are very insular, then your kids will be that way too. But there really aren't going to be any. Now, I do know people have asked, well, we have an accent to our English when we speak, because I was taught back home and I don't want my kids to have that accent. And those are the simpler things that you can work on by even finding a tutor and someone to speak with your neighbors. But in fact, your kids will pick up and speak like natives because they are natives here and they'll speak that and you just have to kind of expose them to the world, not necessarily to a school. The second question that I know you asked was if we plan to move permanently overseas to a country that doesn't recognize homeschooling, is there a way to get any kind of educational degree or certificate? Yes, that's where the charter schools come in because they will give you a high school diploma. You'll get an official transcript, which is one of the reasons why a lot of people choose the charter school route is for all of the official paperwork to be in place. So if you are someone who is looking to travel abroad or to live in a different country and the recognition of a diploma, a certificate, a transcript, any of those things is needed for your child's further education, then a charter school may be the route you want to adopt. But you'll still be able to homeschool. So I hope I answered that question. If there are any others, you can let me have those. But I do want to finish up on the different ways to homeschool. So one way, as we said, is going completely independent. That's the private school affidavit. This is where you take charge, you run the show, you do not get any support, any funding, any money from the state. But then you're also you're kind of like going off the grid, you're plugging out of the matrix, if you think of it that way. But that's truly what you're doing. Right. And so you are saying, I got my children's education, I'm taking charge of it. I don't need anyone telling me what or how or when and to teach. And in return, I'm not going to take any of the money right from the state from any charter school or anything. I'm completely off is the first way. The second is the semi independent, which is through a charter school. A lot of families choose this route. A charter school is basically a public school, but not a brick and mortar public school that you go into. You will use their, you know, umbrella, they handle all the paperwork for you. You have to apply and, you know, you apply based on the county you live in, not the city. Unlike a school district that is city based, a charter school is county based. So you apply based on that. When you're accepted, and again, acceptance is not guaranteed, not because it's, you know, all public schools are guaranteed. Yes, but it's for lack of space. They don't have enough teachers. So they will not be able to put any more children in. But if you're accepted, then you're basically going to follow that protocol of being in a charter school to educate your children. Cooperatives, co-ops. Now I know that last week this MCC hosted an open house of all the different Islamic schools in the area. And one of those was also Ilm Tree. Ilm Tree is a co-op where a lot of families come together and educate their children together. They use charter funds or independent funds, but families do it together. And that's a homeschool variation as well. And it's doable. And it's, it's, I'm not going to lie and say it's easy. Well, somebody else is going to teach my child. It's not necessarily always going to work out because you're dealing with people. You're dealing with human beings. There's a lot of interaction and, and, you know, their personalities that have to, you know, gel and jive and it takes a lot of work. Everything takes work. I will not deny that. The district dependent way of homeschooling is called the independent study program. Every school district in the state of California has an independent study program that they have. And they usually, it came about for, you know, children who were not able to go into a classroom for whatever reason, it could have been health reasons or, or for whatever reason they could not function in a classroom setting. So all of the same curriculum, books, lesson plans will be given to the parent to teach at home. That's what independent study is. And some school districts are better with their independent study program than others in the sense that they are better equipped to handle it. They're also better at the way they deal with the families. So one of the local school districts that really does it well is Fremont. So Fremont has an independent study program called COIL, Center of Independent Learning. And that's a very big and well running, you know, homeschool independent study program that works for some families. But not all school districts are the same. I live in Hayward. And if you even think about the, you know, independent study program there, even they're like what? You know, it's almost like we can barely get our schools to run. Now you want to, you know, homeschool to doesn't work out that well. Right. So it really is almost like where do you live? And then why do you want to plug out of our system? The reason they offer this independent study program is because for every child that is pulled out, the school loses funding, right? School districts go by funding based on the number of students that are enrolled. So the school districts try to hold on to the funding by holding on to your children. Oh, you don't want to be in a classroom. Okay, that's fine. Do you want to be in your own home? That's fine. We'll give you the books in the curriculum, but just stay within our quote unquote system. Right. So again, it's all about the money always. Yes. The Berkeley offers that to independent study. Yes. A lot of schools do now offer virtual virtual learning, especially post COVID virtual learning has really taken off and that a lot of school districts offer that. The third here is virtual, which is this is everything virtual, you know, where you are, whether it's California Virtual Academy, Kava or K12. This is all an entire every day from the time they start school to the time they end school, everything's online. I'm going to leave it at that. It's very, you know, I don't think that is the way children should be learning in front of a computer for so many hours of the day. But for some families, that's what they prefer. And I will leave my biases at the door and move on to the next one, which is concurrent or middle college, but that's only for high school. This is by the time you get to high school, where your homeschool children can take community college classes for free and get high school credit. Actually they get dual credit, they get both high school and college credit. But that's the other way. But that's again, as I mentioned, that's for high school. So if you think about it, this kind of goes from the least support you get to the most that you get, right? Because the independent or private affidavit is nobody's supporting you, you're on your own, right? Whereas the virtual is you do nothing, you're literally put your child in front of a computer and they are doing everything, they as in the curriculum that's already established, not necessarily a human being teaching. So those are some of the ways to homeschool and the most common ones. Yes. Yes, now it is actually open to anyone. It's not just to Fremont, because in the past coil used to be just Fremont city based, but now it is county based. So anybody in Alameda County or adjoining counties of Contra Costa and Santa Clara can apply. Yes, you will have to complete their coursework. Yes, you do not get to choose the coursework. So you will show up once a week to the coil facility, they will give you the books, the lesson plans and the work that you need to complete for that week. And then you go back in every week to turn it in. And they offer a couple of classes on site depending on the level or the grade. So they may be like a mass class that they can take or an English class depending on the grade. So yeah, correct, they can do some art or they can do some gardening or you know, so different classes that are available to your children. That is with the charter. That's the second one semi independent. So that's charter school funding. Correct. So they will. So when you're with the charter school, you can get funds to pay for your curriculum or to pay for tutoring or to pay for certain sports and activities. That's the way the charters work. Yes. Yes. You can always apply. That's an I tell families that you can always apply. School has started. So all of the home schools have already actually started because Monday was the start of the first school day. Also, there's no guarantee of admission if you're going with a charter school, because it really depends on teacher availability. You can apply and depending on where you live, if there's a teacher in your area who is willing to take on a student and has space, you may get in, whereas somebody who is in Santa Clara may still be waiting for a teacher because they don't have availability. So you can always apply and see if you get in and you hear back. But that's where I would say apply to all the charters that you're eligible for, right? Because they're all county based. So based on depending on where you live, I would say apply to all of them. You're not enrolled in any unless you sign the contract and you meet with the yes. So you can be, you know, waiting or you could be in right away. So and not all charter schools are the same either. That's another thing I will say some charter schools are a lot more flexible than others. Flexible in a lot of ways where they're flexible with curriculum, they're flexible with you as a parent and a teacher. And there are others who are not. So again, you know, doesn't this is where that whole nothing is uniform comes into play, right? Just because you're with and then their families within even, you know, like Nadia is with the charter school. So is Heidi. So am I. We've been with the charter school. But then I as a within my charter school, my ES was very hands off. I didn't have to, you know, the ES is the teacher that you meet once a month very hands off. She trusted what I did with my kids, let me do what I have to teach how I have to. There are others who were not as lucky. They had teachers who are very much about every month, they would come in say, okay, from which page to which page did you finish in which book? And they would spend hours with each child. So it really is a relationship as well that you have to manage. But that's definitely, you know, something that you want to think about before you sign up and say, well, this is how it's going to be. One thing I'm going to say is nothing is set and nothing is always this is exactly how it is. No, there's a lot of room for change and flexibility. You need to be your child's advocate all the time. Yes, Pacific Charters Pacific Charters also serves Alameda County and is way more flexible. Coil serves Alameda County, but it's even more rigid. Yeah, and it's listed on this list as well. No, it's never late to switch. It just you I would say apply and see if you get into Pacific Charters. If you get in if you have your, you know, ES and everything, then you can always withdraw from one and enroll in the other. So if you want to begin homeschooling, what would you do? Right? That's a question I get asked. OK, the sounds great. I know the options outside are not for us. We want to homeschool. Well, the first thing I tell people is, you know, do yours to get your family on board with what you're going to do, whether it's your, you know, if your children are older, then you definitely want to talk with them. But as both spouses, get on the same page. It's going to be much easier to move forward when all the wheels of the cart are aligned and moving forward together as opposed to going in different directions. So that's yes, get everybody on board. But educate yourself about homeschooling. Don't go in there blind. I'm not here to tell you it's going to be easy. I'm not here to tell you that everything, all the problems are going to be solved. And if you're having a hard time with your child in the public school, you want to homeschool them, it's going to solve everything like a flip of a switch. Don't don't don't be deluded by that. Right. Especially for the number of years that your child has been in public school, when you choose to homeschool, I say for every year that your child has been in public school, give them that many those many days to de school themselves before you start homeschooling them. And what do I mean by that? What I mean by that is there's a lot going on that your child has packed on over these years. If you're homeschooling a 10th grader now, that's 12 years of public school that you have to kind of take out of their system before they'll be willing to listen to you. Right. They may be done with education completely. They may be done. Unfortunately, I hear from a lot of high school parents who reach out because they feel desperate now. And they were like, I wish I had not put my child in high school. I wish my child would, you know, and they're now they're turning back. But you cannot just flip a switch. You know, start with a lot of prayer. And I know it says it's the last thing here, but it's the first thing and the last thing constantly be praying for your children constantly. And I always tell every family that I consult with and I talk to, even if it's a dollar of Sadaqa, give it with the intention of your children's education and well-being. Even if it's a dollar, even if it's a quarter, every single day, you know, do that because that's that charity is kind of going to, inshallah, keep something away from you and your children. That's hard. And you don't want that on you. And things are not going to be easy. Even if you're homeschooling or otherwise, but choose your battles, choose the battles you want to fight. It's OK if the home is a mess and the dinner is not ready. That's a battle for me. I was willing to fight and my husband was quite OK with that for some families. That's not a battle they're willing to fight or compromise on. So pick your battles. Know what you're getting into. Because, you know, you have to kind of prioritize. You are a human being. You're taking on another role, another job. Your home will always be there just because you're schooling. The home doesn't go away. Keep that in mind and do not, you know, detach the home from the school. That's not how it works. It's homeschooling for a reason. Your children should be part of doing the dishes and vacuuming and helping the home before you can be part of their schooling. Don't detach the two and take everything upon yourselves. It's going to be very hard to sustain. I know families who get into homeschooling. I've been a consultant now since 2008, 2009. I can't even remember. And I've consulted with families all across the globe. One thing that I tell families is take it slow initially. This is with anything that you do. You don't want to go in full speed, burn out and then drop the ball, saying, I cannot do this anymore. Slow and steady. Those are the best acts even from the Prophet Sallallahu alayhi wa sallam's hadith, right? The best acts are the slow consistent ones. You can do it, but be realistic. And I also say this, you know, and this is an example I give all the time. Like if we go into a restaurant and we go into a restaurant, what do we do? We start by ordering a drink and then we get the appetizers and then we get the main course and then we get a couple of different main courses and then we get the dessert. Right, that's the restaurant. We can do that. But when we make dinner at home, one dish is all we make. We're not setting up the drinks and the appetizers in the main course and we don't do that. It's the same thing with homeschooling. Do not replicate school at home. You do not have a school librarian, a school nurse and a teacher and a guidance counselor and you don't have those facilities. You are all of them. So be real and be supportive. There'll be days when that'll be hard. There'll be days that will be easy. You know, remember the key and the reason that you're homeschooling. Have your intentions in front of you. Why are you even doing this? Because I'll tell you one thing, whether you choose private school, public school, the best parochial school or homeschool, there are no guarantees. Taufiq is from Allah. You just have to do your actions. It is from Allah, truly. And the other thing, I don't care how well you chose to homeschool or put your children in private school or whatever school, it doesn't matter. When they are done, they will not know it all. And that's a guarantee. They will not know it all. That's what life is for. They have to continue learning. So the best thing you can do for your children as a homeschool parent is teach them how to learn for themselves. Teach them to be lifelong learners so that whether it is their dean, whether it is a new job, whether it is a completely new piece of technology, whatever it may be that comes their way, they will be interested and they will want to learn it. Don't kill the curiosity. That's what schools do. They kill that curiosity. So you have to nurture that so that tomorrow if there is a new trend or technology or something that changes drastically, they are not caught off guard but they are actually curious enough and courageous enough to go ahead and learn about it. That's the best thing you can do as a homeschooler because you will not, guaranteed you will not be able to teach everything. But don't worry about the things you miss because once you've given them the tools to learn, they will do it. They will learn it themselves. You had a question. What are some of the concerns that parents are coming to you with in high school? Like why are they desperate? Why are the children having such a difficult time? We're not experiencing that yet but I'm pretty sure it's coming. My parents were wise enough to intercept. I know actually kids who've pulled themselves out of high school and said, I want to homeschool myself too. They've done that because with parents homeschooling, I mean working, they do not want to be in that environment for multiple reasons. One is of course more recently the trans agenda. That is in their face all the time. In the past kind of homosexuality was on the side. It was there and it was known but it was like fine, you do you and we do us and we don't bother each other. And that was one thing. But now it's very much in your face. And it's not just are you an ally but are you with us? And if you're with us and you should accept us and be with us and it's beyond just being an ally or you do you and me do me. It's now everything's in your face. Both with the homosexuality and with transgenderism and the whole push for acceptance. Accept me and you know boys choosing gender girls and boys choosing to change their gender. And this is not something that is kind of like a hidden or Muslims are not affected by this kind of thing. I think the more we think about it, the more we're doing the ostrich syndrome of sticking our heads in the sand and thinking everything is fine. Because this is very true and they're Muslim kids who are unfortunately transitioning as well. And parents have no say because by law now parents are gonna be deemed as abusive if they step in to stop this. They don't even need to be informed. These are huge things that are happening and think about this happening in high schools, public high schools, but it's happening in middle schools as well. So those are the two big ones. The third one is this whole idea of being completely atheist of course that's one big huge one that has been. It's not a new thing, but it's one that again atheist agendas are being pushed. There is no God. What is God? Why would God have so many people poor and destitute and those kinds of questions that kids are being kind of fed with and then they are responding to it by kind of being completely nihilistic. A lot of Muslim kids from even well off families are depressed and depression that goes along with drug use and abuse, right? Both medically and recreationally. And these are real problems that Muslim kids are facing in high school, a lot of which parents are pulling their children out of high schools for. Or should they stay homeschooling until college years and go straight from homeschooling into college? I, the latter, the latter. And the reason is there's no reason to be in a public high school. Got it, okay. And there are kids who accomplish, especially homeschoolers who've been homeschooled all the way, accomplish high school very quickly and easily through community colleges. Yeah. And I want to take it forward. If that's what you think we should be doing, that the child should be homeschooled until college, what do you see the challenges can be for that child to get himself or herself integrated into the college system or the UC system? I don't know. So California is one of those amazing states where they have a very good pathway from community college into the UC system. In fact, it's called a tag or transfer agreement guarantee where community college students can actually, they are guaranteed admission into certain UCs that they choose based on their GPA and stuff. So that way there is no challenge. I think the big thing that people will, and the big reason why I feel like by high school, sure, by high school, you can slowly start by 10th grade putting your children into community college classes one at a time, again, by having researched the teachers and if possible with other homeschooled kids. So they are not by themselves if possible. But the reason I say that is there is no problem for them academically or even socially because they're not insular the whole time. They're dealing with so many other children, homeschooled and otherwise in life. I think the biggest challenge that I will speak just for myself and my kids was the schedule and the rigor, right? That was like, whoa, okay, hold on. I can take as much time as I like to learn what I want to learn. And if I need more time, I have that when I'm homeschooled because the goal of homeschooling is that you learn the content and the subject not just run through the book. If it means it takes us a year and a half to go through algebra one, it takes us a year and a half to learn the concept of algebra one, right? Whereas in school, that was the one challenge is everything is sped up or in college. There was no time for you to acclimate but that was kind of one of the more minor things. It was tough, but they ramped up quickly. Oh, I don't see any issues. In fact, I will ask you this and I'll ask everybody here, when you come into the message or you see people at Eid, right, at an Eid prayer, the entire community is present, homeschoolers and otherwise. Can you distinguish who's homeschooled and who's not? And absolutely, they don't. Yes, absolutely, even non-Muslims. There is nothing that distinguishes them. How is this community working towards making sure that our children are just not boxed into this Muslim community? Are we making sure that they are also integrating with how are we doing that? So we have a lot of different homeschool groups and it's really up to the family who they want to choose to interact with or not because they are families who are going to be very insular and say, no, we only want to meet and interact with Muslims and that's fine. And then there are lots of others who meet and interact with a lot of non-Muslim homeschoolers as well and non-Muslims, I mean, when you go in and take your children for a swimming class, they're meeting, interacting with non-Muslims, it's not, they're not, oh, they're not homeschool, they're not Muslim, there's no distinction in that sense. Again, and then when we go in, we have our homeschool groups that have field trips. Like there's one coming up, ended this month to the Sunni Regional Park. It's led by the people at that park. The families who go in there, Muslims, non-Muslims, everybody comes together. They're interacting and meeting with people, all types of people. And the best thing I think I've seen with, my children are with the charter school and they even go into the charter school for classes, for labs, for things like that. Some of the teachers are Muslim, some of the teachers are non-Muslim. The people that they meet are non-Muslim, but, and this is the part that I think is essential. When you're homeschooling, it's not so much about, are they Muslim or are they Christian or, no, the key thing is what are the moral values that these families hold? Which is the thread of what everybody who's homeschooling is going for. I've worked with Christian homeschooling families. Father's a pastor, mother's a teacher. I've worked with Hindu homeschooling families. I've worked with Jewish homeschooling families as well. All of them have the same thread of morality and ethics and virtues that are common and decent human being kind of values, which they're all standing for. And I think those are the alliances that we want. Those are the families that we do want. It's not just floodgates, everything goes, but at the same time, there are those barriers when you go bowling that come up to help you hit the pins at the end. Similarly, this is what we're doing for our kids, kind of putting those barriers up so they can keep rolling the ball and getting to the pins at the end. So another question, as you just mentioned that, there are field trips and their activities and whatnot. So that is on the parent. So here we were talking about, hey, we are not driving, we are staying home. No, no, no, there's nothing that says you're not driving, you're staying home. It's again, up to each family to decide what they want to do and what they don't want to do. Homeschooling is about, it's a family's decision. And so the parent has to decide, do I want to interact? Do I want to drive? Do I want to stay home? Do I want my child in front of the computer? Do I not? So it really is a family-based instruction all the way through. Absolutely. But my point that I'm trying to clear in my mind is that if my child needs interaction with other kids, it is upon me. Take them out and do that. That's what everyone else is also doing. Yes. Okay, yeah. It's all right. Sister had a question there. So your question, and because I couldn't hear very clearly I'm gonna restate the question. The question is, when you're with a charter, how do you have control over the curriculum that your child uses? And the speed. Yeah, so you have some, it's not as much as if you were going with a completely independent, absolutely, there is some flexibility and the good thing about it is for someone whose child is a little behind and needs support, that's what the charter school does is they offer you all those additional support services. They're children who have learning disabilities, dyslexia or, you know, dyscalculia and those are found by the teacher and then they have support services to help whether it's extra tutoring, whether it is, you know, resources specialist, whether it's for speech therapy, you know, so they have those because it is a publicly funded school. So they have those available for you. But, and if your child is moving faster or moving ahead, you have the flexibility to move them ahead as well. They may not change the grade, like you may be a still a third grader, but you're doing fourth grade math, great, you know, and those things, but you have some flexibility, not complete flexibility as with the private school, effort David. And there's a question here that I got from someone online. I wanna travel, I wanna include travel into some of my homeschool education. Can you give tips on that? Is there limit on the amount of time that I can be out of the state or country if I'm in a charter? Yes, if you are with a charter school, you do have a limit of time that you can be outside the country. You have to have 156 days of instruction or there's a set number of days of instruction that you have to have where you are in the country and present if you're with a charter. If you would like to, you know, the PSA or the private effort David is the way that you have no limits you can be traveling abroad and be out of the country more. Yes. Yeah, actually I believe in, there is like two things go together, education and the social life as well. So education including the Akhlaq, Terbiyya, the Islamic studies, everything there but also the social life. So from what we experienced like in my family through the BIS Berkeley independent study, there is no enough social life there. So you mentioned the groups that can go here and there and with lots of activities. How we can interact with this group? How we can like involve a lot of children? Absolutely, and that's exactly what this here tells you. The first three groups here, the Silicon Valley homeschoolers is based out of San Jose, but all of Santa Clara County, San Mateo County, all of those counties, they host events and whether it's field trips, activities, they do a whole bunch of stuff for families and you should join them. If you go to their website, you can join them and then they'll put you, and there's a dad's WhatsApp group as well for dads. You can join that group and do father, son kind of activities with other dads who are homeschooling. So there's a lot going on in terms of what you can do for your kids socially through that is the Silicon Valley. East Bay homeschoolers is right here out of, well, Fremont, if you will, but we're Fremont, Hayward, Union City. That's where most of our families are based, but we have families all over from Dublin and Danville and we have families who come all the way from Modesto too. They come for activities, but we have activities, we do iftars, we do park days, we do arts and crafts, there's mommy and me. There's a lot that goes on. Again, it really is a matter of, and both are volunteer run organizations. These are not nonprofits that have been established or for profits that are established. So if there's something you want, you make it happen, join one of the groups, make it happen. And that's exactly how the dads group started. For years, the dads kept asking the moms to set up a WhatsApp group and the moms said, no, we're not doing that. It's for you and they did. So really it's about, and this is the big thing about homeschooling and I'm gonna say this because I've seen this for years now. Homeschooling does not mean everything is figured out and you're given a prescription to follow. That's not homeschooling. You do not get a recipe. It's not like one of those home delivered meals where you get the recipe and the ingredients and you just put it together. That's not homeschooling. That is school at home. If you want the school at home option, that's where the coil comes in or the kava or the virtual learning comes in. That is replicating school at home. Homeschooling is very different. Homeschooling is where you and your family decide what you want to learn, what you want to do and then you go from that. Not saying you don't have a curriculum, not saying you don't follow standards, but you will not find everything figured out and prescripted for you. And that's the blessing of homeschooling. All right, so Bismillah. I will end with that because I know it is time. Once again, I'm gonna just bring everybody's attention to this table of my books. These are what I call recommended reading for parents, for families, right? If you want to get into homeschooling, educate yourself. I got into homeschooling, like I said, back in the 90s and that was my big shift from teaching to home education. Read, join, and in fact, we now have a book club that we started for parents. Join that book club as well and we can definitely, and the information about the book club is also on my website, which is listed here. And inshallah, you'll find Taufiq. May Allah put Taufiq in. Oh, the first book that we're reading is actually right there, Educating Your Child in Modern Times. So that's the first book we're reading. It's available at Rumi Bookstore. It's a series of four small essays and definitely get that. Join as the book club is next month. It's September 6th. The Zoom link is also on the website and inshallah, we'll try to meet in person as well. But with that, I will end and just make du'a for Taufiq for all of us, inshallah.