Kemarin, untuk pertama kalinya, Agim tidak marah ketika aku meminta agar TV dimatikan ketika Spongebob show berlangsung. Dan hari ini, untuk pertama kalinya juga, Agim tidak marah ketika aku memindahkan saluran TV ke siaran berita ketika Go! Diego Go! masih setengah jalan.

Dua hari terakhir dia memang seperti tenggelam dengan buku tulis kotak dan peralatan tulisnya yang baru. Bukan sesuatu yang mahal. Hanya tempat pensil kaleng biasa bergambar Spiderman, dua batang pensil, penghapus dan penggaris yang juga bergambar Spiderman. Senin pagi, hanya semalam setelah kami membelinya, lima halaman buku tulisnya sudah penuh dengan tulisan tangannya yang masih lucu. Satu huruf berulang-ulang dari atas sampai ke bawah, dari kiri sampai ke kanan untuk setiap halamannya. Setelah selesai satu halaman, dia selalu meminta aku untuk memberi nilai. Nilainya selalu 100. Karena memang hanya latihan menulis huruf. Dan dia tidak mau diberi nilai pakai pensil. Harus pakai pulpen. Setelah itu dia pasti bangga sekali dan memamerkan ke papanya.

Bukan hal yang luar biasa memang. Tapi semangatnya membuatku lega. Bayangkan saja. Sebelumnya aku selalu berharap agar TV di rumah kami rusak saja agar anak-anak tidak sticked dengan film kartun. Susah sekali membangunkan mereka dari kartun favorit. Dan dua hari ini aku benar-benar amazed karena anak-anak tidak keberatan sama sekali ketika aku meminta ijin mereka untuk memindahkan saluran untuk nonton berita atau bahkan mematikan TV (sinetron? no way!). Bahkan mereka terkesan tidak peduli dan tetap tenggelam dengan buku tulisnya.

Mungkin juga karena peralatan baru mereka. Tapi memang sejak beberapa minggu lalu Agim minta dibelikan buku tulis kotak besar seperti buku PR adiknya yang didapat dari sekolah. Aku baru tahu bahwa mendapatkan itu sangat menyemangatinya. Padahal selama ini aku susah payah download sana sini dari internet, bahkan sampai subscribe ke beberapa resource yang tidak gratis, tapi belum menemukan sesuatu yang rasanya pas buat anak-anak. Sesuatu yang membuat mereka bersemangat seperti sekarang.

Jadi? Well… A new lesson : Apa yang menurut aku menarik dan menurut aku menarik buat anak-anak, ternyata belum tentu demikian buat anak-anak sendiri. Tentu saja. Karena Agim dan Dian adalah Agim dan Dian. Bukan aku.

Dian loves drawing. She draws and paints using any material. Even our living room or backyard wall. (lol). Here are some of her draws using marker and paper (not wall ).

I made this reference poster in Indonesian. I would like to create one also in English and Arabic. But for now, I think we will just go step by step. When I think the children are ready for reading in Indonesian, I will continue with English and Arabic, Insha Allah. For Indonesian visitor, you may download it here for free.

The children love to cut and paste, and play pretends with the results. I downloaded a lot of creativity printing from Canon Creative Park. You may also download free from there. For one weekend, we only work on one part of project. Right now, we are doing Papertown. Today we already have a house and a Convenient Store.

Actually, I am a full time working mom from 8 to 5. That make some constraints for us to run this homeschool. Although, I still enjoy this and will continue doing this Insha Allah.

Usually, I prepare the study subject for the next week during my rest times at office. On Friday evening, I print the material out and put them together. For that, I have bought a private computer of my own and put it beside my office desk. On Sunday, I sort the print outs and check them again. At last, on Monday, we ready for a new lesson again.

For now, since Agim is 5 and Dian is 4, we still focus on basic reading in Indonesian and in Arabic, counting, and some basic arts such as painting or crafting. I have noticed that the kids can not stay longer that a half an hour. I think that’s okay as long as I know that they learn something new everyday.

Inspired by an idea of an ukhtee, I’ve made this project for my little ones. Except, instead of using magazine or newspaper picture, I printed pictures from internet. That way, I would not have to worry about that eyecatching material on the magazine or newspaper that will take the kids attention away.

Dian did all the scissor and the sticky work on the picture, except for the letters.

It is a fun way to get the kids learning alphabet. We did it just last night.

Just print a simple alphabet outline, or you can draw it yourself. Apply glue inside the letter, and at last spread glitter powder onto it. You can get it in most craft store. Kids love anything twinkling.

Last night we had our first serious time. Dian spent long enough coloring 4 pages of her A book. While Agim only held on for 15 minutes or even less for that. I relize that I shouldn’t expect too much in our first lesson together. Eventhough, they both seems happy getting new book. I try to remade them based on coloring book on homeschooling.about.com, but with some changes on the content, regarding we speaks in Indonesian.

I myself didn’t know at the beginning where did they get the idea. Lately, I found that they got the idea from a Blue’s Clues show. It shows us how the tornado works. By combine two plastic bottles on their neck, one of them was quarter-filled with water. Turn the bottles upside down and wa can say a water-taifun formed. Thank’s for such great idea Joe.

This weekend we have no plan to go anywhere. Agim & Dian insist me to help them making a cruise ship from an ex ice cream box. Lucky we have two of them. They are enjoying playing them.