A few thoughts

After Ramadan it is time to review and decide what to do next. Also to check on how far we’ve got on various projects.
Reading. Still in progress. In “Man and Prophet” we have reached the time of the conquest of Makkah, and the changes that took place in the weeks that followed it.
In the story of Salah-ed-Deen we have seen him consolidate his power in Egypt, and then move north, dealing with the squabbling princes of various castles and cities. The Franks were in the area for the crusades and Salah-ed-Deen wanted to drive them out, but first he had to deal with the disunity amongst the Muslims, some of whom sought allegiance with the Franks against him. At the point we are now it is about 1185 and Salah-ed-Deen has taken control of much of Syria, including Damascus and Aleppo, has had an excursion into Nablus and Jenin, and is making repeated attempts to control Mosel. It seems that the other men of power around him were somewhat unreliable, not keeping to their word or always sticking around.
Quran. The boys have accepted use of the “computer tutor” into their daily routine. Ia is not too interested in Arabic letters.
History. We have started looking into the history of the Sumerians, as part of the background study for contextualisation of the history of Ibraheem (as). The Sumerian culture preceeded Ibraheem (as) (if he has been correctly placed in the Babylonian era), but the Sumerian culture is the basis for that. Interestingly we found out that the Sumerians believed (in addition to their idol worship) in a great flood that wiped out all the bad people, with only a few being saved on a boat. In their version the boat was manned by a king, and their gods were involved too. But interesting that they had distorted knowledge of what happened to the people of Nuh (as). They also had beliefs which stem from the story of Adam (as).

Also, about something I heard on the radio. It was the usual LEA or NUT man cites “major socialisation issues” with home education. Apart from the usual wondering “What on earth…?” I thought, probably there are socialisation issues, in that schools seek to socialise children into uniformity, all learning the same thing at the same time, fitting into the system. Home education is very “individual” and socialises differently. Maybe that lack of conformity is the major issue. The problem, as the authorities see it, is that children will not be moulded as they wish them to be. Being different, even in a productive, constructive way, is anti-social? It means you are not socialised to conform, accept and be as a cog should? Oh well, even less to worry about there then.