Getting kids to enjoy learning
Learning should be enjoyable.
Many people have asked us how it’s possible to get children to achieve so early. There’s been a lot of guessing and very few facts, simply because in the past I never liked to talk publicly about the way I brought up my children. I’ve always preferred doing practical things instead of talking, but in any case, I think it’s better if people know the facts, so from time to time I’ll write about various aspects of my teaching philosophy on this blog.
Since there is so much to write about, it would be impossible for me to cover everything here, but I hope and believe that people — especially fellow parents and teachers — will find this information useful. I’ll be writing and talking about my teaching style in more detail elsewhere; this first post just covers one small (albeit very important) aspect of my general approach to teaching.
Let’s now go back to what I said in the opening paragraph: learning should be enjoyable. I started teaching my children from birth, and if you spend time with babies it’s easy to see that they are incredibly curious and receptive to new information. In other words, they want to learn!
If you are able to spend some time with a baby (preferably one who likes you!), here’s something simple you can do to see this for yourself. Hold up a toy in front of him — almost any simple and colourful toy will do — at a distance of about 20cm from his face.
Pay close attention to the way he reacts: depending on his age, he will do anything from focusing on the toy and tracking it with his eyes and head to reaching out and grabbing it.
In fact, if he’s able to, he almost certainly will try to take the toy from you, after which he might manipulate it and study it from all angles, or shake it, or put the toy in his mouth, or drop it, and so on.
What’s the baby trying to do? He’s trying to learn about the toy, of course! He wants to know what it looks like, how it feels, how it tastes, and what happens when he shakes or drops it. The baby is also learning about himself; among other things, he’s figuring out how to coordinate his movements and he’s also developing his motor skills.
Clearly, then, babies are very curious about the world around them. This innate love of learning makes them easy to teach, not to mention extremely rapid learners! Because of this, I consider the first five years of a child’s life to be the most important as far as their education is concerned.
Aside from developing fundamental skills such as speaking, reading, and writing, the first five years are a great time for a child to acquire good learning habits such as a high attention span, a strong bond with their parents/teachers, and a simple enjoyment of learning (whether it be from books, things he’s playing with, conversations with other people, TV, the garden, or anywhere else).
This blog isn’t the right place to go into all these areas in detail (unless anyone wants to read 20,000-word posts!), but I do hope to at least be able to give people some of the general ideas.
Making learning fun for babies and toddlers
“Making” learning enjoyable for a child is easiest if you simply get him to maintain his natural love of learning from his earliest days as a baby. All you have to do is spot the times when he wants to learn (e.g. when he’s showing interest in a toy or person) and then come up with some fun learning activities for him.
Don’t forget that you’re trying to get him to retain his existing enjoyment of learning, so it’s important that he associates learning with positive experiences. Have a sense of fun/humour, and don’t worry about setting goals or targets for your baby; just enjoy the time you spend with your child and seeing him learn for what it is.
Try to keep your learning activities exciting or at least interesting; to do this, you might have to be a little creative in the way you introduce new things to your baby. For instance, simply speaking to him in a sing-song voice will help keep him amused and interested.
Patience is essential. Only teach your baby as long as he is interested in the learning activity, and if he seems to have completely lost interest (e.g. he is looking somewhere else) or is no longer alert, just stop! There’s always another day.
Let’s now talk about what not to do: it’s crucial that you don’t make learning dull, tedious, or overly repetitive for your child, as this will cause him to start associating learning with negative experiences from an early age. These negative associations tend to stick with children for a long time.
Essentially, all you have to do here is not suck all the fun out of learning. One simple thing you can do is to make sure that the learning activity is interesting and pleasant for you, as your child will very often feel the same way. In fact, you’ll often find that you naturally communicate your interest and excitement in the activity to your child.
Making learning fun for older children
Let’s now talk about the case of older children; in particular, children who, for one reason or another, seem to dislike their studies or learning in general. The trick here is to get to know your child well and figure out what will make learning fun for your child.
So what does make learning enjoyable for a child? It depends on the child’s personality, of course, but here are some of the more common possibilities:
- The child likes the challenge and resulting sense of accomplishment that comes from learning new things
- He enjoys spending time with and/or receiving attention from his parent/teacher/carer
- He enjoys learning informally through hands-on activities (e.g. cake baking or upgrading a computer) and/or educational-but-informal discussions (e.g. “why do some people have curly or straight hair?” or “where does the picture on the TV come from?”)
- Positive peer pressure: he likes to compete with other children and tries to outperform his peers
- His studies are integrated with something he already enjoys (e.g. he can write essays about computer games or see how maths is used in football)
- A parent/teacher/carer has made learning fun for him at an early age, and hence he’s come to associate learning with good feelings
- He likes to show off!
Which of the above applies to your child? If you’re not sure, it’s a good idea to find out! Here are two examples to illustrate how you might use this knowledge to make learning enjoyable for your child.
Example: Focusing
Suppose your child has difficulty focusing on his schoolwork for very long, but is happy to play computer games for many hours every day. What you have to do here is figure out why he is willing to focus on computer games but not his studies.
If you’ve realised that the challenge-and-frequent-reward system in games keeps him interested for a long time, you could divide his work up into a series of small challenges and give him a reward after he overcomes each challenge. You could give him a sweet for each question he answers, or if he doesn’t even want to get started, reward or congratulate him for just writing his name down!
Alternately — or at the same time — you could offer to let him play games for as long as he likes provided that he finishes his work for the day. This will have the side benefit of helping him understand that doing his work now leads to rewards in the long term.
Depending on the kind of work he is doing, you could try to integrate his gaming hobby into his work. If he needs to write an essay, for instance, you can ask him to write about what he likes about his favourite games or to describe his favourite gaming characters.
If he doesn’t know why maths or physics are useful, you can help him find out how computer games are made so that he can see how these subjects are used by people who program games. Or he might just prefer to use computers in general, in which case you should let him do as much work as he can on his computer.
Example: Reading
If your child doesn’t like to read, there are many things you can do to encourage him. As always, your task is to use your understanding of your child to figure out what it is that might get him to like reading.
The easiest thing to do is to simply let him read about things that interest him. Since there is written material covering virtually every subject known to mankind, this should not be difficult!
Get him used to the idea of reading to find out more about the things he likes or is interested in. If he likes fast cars, ask him if he can find (via books or the Internet) the top speeds of the fastest cars, how cars are built for speed, and so on. You should also try to integrate reading into his daily life — if he’s going to the dentist for the first time, borrow a book on the subject so that he can find out what will happen during his visit!
Some children dislike reading because they can’t see how the text might be interesting or entertaining, especially if they’re reading a book that isn’t illustrated. If this is the case for your child, liven up his reading by acting out the book’s content with him. Be imaginative and read the book with a great deal of expressiveness; if he’s reading a story, make it seem like the story is actually happening in front of him. Over time, he’ll gradually start associating books with the excitement he gets from reading with you.
You might notice that your child likes to do the same things as his peers or the people around him in order to fit in. In this case, you could take him regularly to the children’s section of your local library — initially, he might not read anything, but if he sees that everyone around him is happily reading, he’ll be much more inclined to pick up a book for himself. Encourage him by showing him how to navigate the library to find books about things that interest him; at this stage, it doesn’t really matter what he reads, as long as he makes a start.
Bear in mind the fact that I haven’t covered everything in this example! There are lots of other possible reasons why a child might not like to read, such as being restless or having a low attention span; I’ve only discussed a few of the problems here. Likewise, there are many other potential remedies for reading problems that I haven’t been able to cover in this post.
April 30th, 2008 at 1:46 am
[…] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptIn this case, you could take him regularly to the children’s section of your local library — initially, he might not read anything, but if he sees that everyone around him is happily reading, he’ll be much more inclined to pick up a … […]
April 30th, 2008 at 9:14 am
assm to the yusof family esp. kak halimahton,
tears swelled in my eyes as i went through your earlier postings.. stay very strong and keep hanging in there, kak.. very bright and close-knit family you’ve raised, despite all the strains and hardships in bringing them up!! may ALLAH shows dear sufiah the way home, eventually..
April 30th, 2008 at 5:08 pm
Dear Mdm Halimaton,
Thank you very much for sharing the learning strategies. I hope to read up more on your experiences. I hope I will not offend you with this question. But as a young mother, I hope that your frank sharing will benefit me and the others as well. In retrospect, is there any part of the bringing up process that you would have changed, that perhaps would have made Sufiah not choose the path that she has chosen. As a mother, was there any warning signs that we should heed or take into consideration during the growing up stage? That being said, I am sure that at the time of bringing up your kids, you have done the best that you could, given your circumstances. I do hope that Sufiah will come to her senses soon and maximise the potential that she has in a respectable way.
May 1st, 2008 at 1:29 am
[…] hyusof.comI started teaching my children from birth, and if you… […]
May 1st, 2008 at 2:19 am
hi
i think computer games..can make our mind more…wide open..
my nephew…he..just score all…’a’ in every subject..(9a’s) in *spm*…
and he is a computer games…wormm…he play games…all day long…and start study after finish…the games…
he said..he want to be a games designer…
May 1st, 2008 at 9:40 am
Assalamualaikum..first i would like to express my deepest sympthy for Puan and family. Be strong and accept this as a test of our iman.
Secondly..i wud like to thank and congratulate u 4 yr willingness to share yr experience in child upbringing. I found it very interesting and beneficial.
I’m a headmaster of a primary school in Perak. I’m going to try out yr methods wherever n whenever possible. Ok. Thanks again and may yr prayers to God accepted and answered.
May 1st, 2008 at 10:43 am
Salam,
Kak Halimaton nampaknya akak sudah memberi serba sedikit ilmu macam mana kakak mendidik anak-anak kakak.
Terima kasih kak…sekurang-kurangnya dapat jugak pembaca dalam blog ini ilmu dari kakak untuk di manfaatkan kepada sesiapa yang memerlukan. Semoga Allah memberi ganjarannya kepada kakak.
Di Malaysia ni banyak juga kusus-kusus motivasi diadakan…untuk pelajar-pelajar & juga kepada ibu bapa…tetapi banyak yang kena bayar & satu sesi tu selalunya mahal jugak…tidak dinafikan ada juga yang percuma seperti diadakan disekolah-sekolah.
Kak soalan utama sekali ialah macam mana dengan Sufiah? Adakah berita yang menggembirakan diatas usaha-usaha mencarinya…saya tahu ia memang satu langkah yang amat sukar…tetapi ia tidak mustahil akan membuahkan kejayaan kelak.
Dengan usaha serta doa yang tak putusputus dari semua pembaca blog ini…terutama sekali dari kakak ibunya…inshaallah kak lambat laun Allah pasti akan memakmulkanya dan saya harap kakak sekeluarga tabah menghadapi ujian ini.
Sekian dari Melaka, KL, My.
Wassalam.
May 1st, 2008 at 11:36 am
Thank you for your kind tips and I will try to apply them to my own children. I am really grateful that I got your reply. I hope you and your family will always get blessings from Allah and continue to be strong and have faith in Allah.
Once again, thanks so much and hope to hear from you again.
Wassalam
Rohani Abdullah from S’pore
May 1st, 2008 at 11:43 am
Assalamu’alaikum..
Jazakumullahu khairan jazak atas perkongsian ini..
moga ada manfaatnya..
melentur buluh.. biar dari rebungnya..
May all of the story from this website touching sufiah’s heart then come back to the beloved family..
May 1st, 2008 at 1:02 pm
thanks so much for the sharing the learning methods. so sad that i have grown up teenagers at home, and only 1 interested and trying hard to excel in her study. my son is my failure, he has not achieve any diploma or pass his olevel, i hope ALLAH will help me to help him… do you have any tips how to handle teenagers?
May 1st, 2008 at 1:47 pm
aswt,
mdm, I am surprised upon recieving an email from you and thank you for
letting me share your learning methods. My youngest son is in preschool and so I have to adjust some of the methods to suit him. Anyway, thanks again for the knowledge.
And as for Sufiah if she ever read this, please comeback home.
wasalam.
May 1st, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Assalamualaikum, Puan Halimahton;
Some of the tips that you have posted here are really new for me, may be due to my negligence. The more I read the more that I think I need to learn from your experiences in raising up your kids. I wish I know these great tips a few years back when my eldest daughter was in the preschool. Nevertheless, I will make use of your tips for my seven other children. In the meantime, may Allah give you Sabr in dealing with your problem. I pray that Sufiah will be back to you.
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:01 am
Assalamualaikum Sister Halimahton,
Thank you for sharing the learning methods which is in my opinion very useful. Looking back to my nieces and nephews and I realised why some of them have not interested in learning.
First, my own sister and her husband never pay attention to their kids. They are busy working and hardly sit together with their kids to know what happen to them. The most thing yang membuatkan mereka tiada minat untuk belajar kerana sikap my sister who always screaming or yelling bila anak2 dia melakukan kesilapan. In my opinion, ini membuatkan anak2 takut dan merasa tidak dihargai. Tetapi bila saya bertanyakan sesuatu tentang apa mereka buat di rumah, di sekolah, saya dapat lihat yang mereka begitu excited to tell their story.
May Allah give His blessing to you and your family.
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:03 am
Assalamualaikum kak Halimaton,
Thanx for the educational tips. Will pass around to my friends and hopefully they can benefit from it.
Semoga Anda di beri ketabahan hati dalam menghadapi ujian serta cubaan dari ALLAH dan juga di bukakan jalan bagi Sufiah agar kembali kepangkuan keluarga dan diberi hidayah. Insyaallah. Ameen.
ANI
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:14 am
thanks mdm halimahton, for sharing the learning methods. i’m sure it’s very practical and useful for those have kids or children.
i pray that Allah will lighten your burden, insha Allah..He knows best what the best for us.
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:18 am
Thanks for sharing this tip Kak.
Wassalam.
May 2nd, 2008 at 1:44 am
Thank you so much for the tips.
I wish to use it and apply it to my children.
I want them to have a fun way of learning.
Thanks again.
May 2nd, 2008 at 2:15 am
tq very much for the tips
May 2nd, 2008 at 3:34 am
Dear siti,
I think the teenage years are usually the most difficult for parents to handle — you’re certainly not alone! Please do not give up hope, though, as I believe there is a lot you can do even if your son is already quite old. I taught lots of teenagers who were doing very badly at school when I started working with them, and they all ended up doing quite well in their GCSEs (the equivalent of O-levels in this country); while it might be unrealistic to expect straight As in every subject, I believe it is almost always possible to at least get a big improvement if you use the right approach.
Unfortunately, it is a bit difficult for me to give specific advice without knowing the full details of your situation; basically things like your son’s age, his likes and dislikes, and the specific problems he’s having with his studies. The post above only covers a small portion of my approach to teaching; lots of other issues that might be relevant to your situation weren’t discussed, such as the importance of mastering the fundamentals before moving onto the “next level” of material. This is a very common problem with GCSE and A-level students in the UK.
Much of the advice given above about enjoying learning still holds true for teenagers, though; in other words, if motivation is the problem, you’ll need to get to know him really well, so that you at least know what he’s interested in and what might make him enjoy learning or studying.
However, it’s true that teaching teenagers is usually a little different from teaching younger children; teenagers are in the process of transitioning from childhood to adulthood, so in many ways they like to be treated like adults (i.e. they want more freedom and also want to be regarded as equals). You can almost expect them not to listen to everything you say! I try to get around this by encouraging them to be independent and to learn how to make good decisions on their own. They might make some mistakes, but learning how to overcome these problems is an essential part of growing up.
Sometimes teenagers struggle to control their emotions and get angry or upset over very small things; in fact, I think there is research indicating that children actually regress emotionally once they reach their teenage years. As always, you just have to be very patient when dealing with them.
One thing I try to encourage teenagers to do is to keep very busy. It’s surprising how many “typical teenage problems” can be sidestepped if the kid is so busy with his studies, hobbies, or anything else he’s interested in that they consume all his emotional energy. This is just a conjecture of mine, but in my experience, children who do keep themselves busy seem to have much less trouble navigating the difficult teenage years than those who don’t.
Hope this helps,
Halimahton
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:06 am
assalamualaikum kak halimahton,
thank you so much for sharing the learning strategies. anak saya kini berusia 2 tahun. hopefully akak dapat memberi learning tips, iaitu kaedah bagaimana yang terbaik khusus untuk kanak-kanak 2-3 tahun.
thanks again.
May 2nd, 2008 at 4:23 am
Assalamualaikum Lynnda,
You’re absolutely right about parents needing to spend quality time with their children — in fact, it’s probably one of the best things they can do for their children’s education. Even if it’s just for half an hour a day, the kids will benefit a lot from their parents’ interest in what they are doing. Of course, at the other extreme it’s not a good idea to always spend the whole day with the kids, because they do need to learn to do things independently!
Best regards,
Halimahton
May 2nd, 2008 at 7:00 am
Alhamdulillah… this first post is informative n useful. congratulation kak halimathon n family, i’m sure most of us failed to use this approach and practice in such a way that u did. i am very grateful to receive this post because it teach me a lot in child learning process. if possible, i need your favor to give me an opinion for the kids (age between 9 to 15) which been left behind in education. most of them cannot read bahasa or english words. i hav done many approach but it seems like no improvement at all; some of then are not interested and some are not confident with the way i used to them. is there any experience or approach that u can suggest to me to face and recover this problem. Thank you so much.. best regards… susie
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:09 am
Dearest to u,
U are great yourself that is why your children can be prodigies. i am 29 years old and till now i still haven’t got a diploma or degree. i am always wondering why other kids or children can get great “As” in examinations, masuk Universities studying great subject like Computer Engineering, Bio chemistry, medical, science and what not. i envy sometimes. so now i am trying to implement your techniques to myself. Do u think it will too late? i love Psychology subject , i want to be a Psychologist but i still havn’t got the chance.
i didn’t grew up like other kids.My mother is a malay and my dad is a Pakistani. My Mom died when i was 1 year plus and i stayed in an orphan in Singapore coz my dad is unable to take care of me however he visits me almost every day. My Dad holds a Singapore cizitenship but Dad dies of old age when he was 65 plus n that time i was 11
years old. i was taken by my aunties to Malaysia. She has 3 children. i live together with her 3 children. Now 2 of her children was send to Australia to do Computer Engineering and has suceed and the last daugher is currently taking Bio Chemical in Monash. And me i didn’t do well in schools. the first SPM i got SAP(THAT IS BAD) tht time i stayed with my other uncle, he got 4 children. i was being treated not well by some of my family member. Then i resat again my SPM and stayed with my other aunty and got grade one . Then i realized that i am capable to study and not stupid. Infact i also got a scholarship by KPM(Kementrian Pendidikan Malaysia) to do T.E.S.L( Teaching English As A Second Language). i only finish half way coz lack of concentration. i wasn’t happy lack of motivation all i got was scolding most of the time when i come back from Campus. i give up. and i lost hope. and now i want to get back i am graving for that is a good profession and degree. Please help me.
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:43 am
assalamualaikum kak halimahton,
Thanks a lot for your advice here. This is a really good article, especially for malaysian mums who now are mostly working and leave education of the children to caretakers. You’re a good role model to look up too. Thanks a lot.
May 3rd, 2008 at 1:29 am
Salam sis,
My son has ADHD n he is 11 this yr. I don’t know really how to encourage or makes him wanna read books. Most of the times we need patience with his stuides n behavior. He dislikes compositions n comprehensions. N when somes to exams he would leave some of the pages as he claims it is too overwhelming for him to just finished it. He had misses school quite lots.. foundation caused been sick lots since he was a baby. In n out of the hospital. H is self esteem is low too. Hope u could inshallah hlp me with some of my problems. Jazakallah hair. Be strong sis!
May 3rd, 2008 at 4:03 am
Hiew, i think u r too emotional and pretty naive on how newpaper articles are written. There are many ways in which an article can be written, facts twisted to sensationalize a story. Did you really see and experience the icy cold chambers or is it something you read in the papers? Sufiah alone in England? In which country do the rest of the family live? I did read that the parent took turn to stay with her for awhile, at certain time, she was having aversion to fast food and insisted on organic food.(if the newspaper article was accurate) I think that although as parents, we want the best for our children, we tend to make mistakes in the journey of bringing them up also. Also, teenagers tend to blame their parents for everything, some teenagers are so much in angst that they hate and blame the whole world for every little thing that dont go well in their lives. They seek short-term pleasures without having long-term perspectives. Although she’s no longer a teenager, I personally feel that Sufiah is going through that stage of confusion, seeking short-term happiness, dreaming of being treated ‘like a princess’, …… most people cant say that they have a perfect childhood, but that doesnt mean that they shouldnt be grateful for all the good things that their parents have done for them instead of focussing on perhaps the unfavourable ones. There are times that as parents we tried to do what we thought was best for our children, albeit it may not be the perfect way, we make mistakes, we learn from them, but it’s unfair to say that we have done nothing good at all.
May 3rd, 2008 at 5:03 am
Salam,
Kak Halimaton, thanks for sharing the tips. anyway, hope that sufiah will come to her sense. just dont stop praying. Allah Maha Mengasihani.
May 3rd, 2008 at 6:07 am
Hi Hiew,
Please make an effort to read all the posts before commenting. I have no idea where you’re getting some of your information from, but you’re wrong on just about everything. In case you’re not aware, I’m Sufiah’s younger brother, and we lived in the same environment until we went to university so I know exactly what her situation was. This isn’t just my mum’s blog, you know — everyone listed in the “About” section contributes.
Anyway, please visit these links if you want the facts:
About Us
Corrections of Misconceptions
FAQs
And here’s a point-by-point rebuttal to the stuff you brought up in your comment:
* Sufiah wasn’t forced to wake up early and pray — I don’t know where you got that from. In reality, Sufiah made her own decisions about her religious practices and she decided to wear the hijab at Oxford on her own.
* The whole “cold” thing is utter nonsense and always has been. Our old house *was* cold, but it was just impossible to keep the place warm even though we installed a new boiler and used fan heaters all the time. Some reporter a long time ago asked about the cold, and my dad joked that it made it easier to concentrate when studying. Which was pretty stupid of him, but you’d think that a reporter would be able to tell the difference between a joke and a fact…
* Sufiah wanted to go to Oxford, and I know she really liked maths because she would often do maths for fun (as would I). She might have changed her mind after she actually went to Oxford, but we were all enthusiastic about going to university.
* Sufiah wasn’t on her own in England. All five of us were born in the UK and have lived here all our lives.
* Nobody was forced to study. When we were little we worked with our mum for about two hours a day, and after that we studied as much or as little as we liked. I myself was pretty undisciplined and so I’d often go for a week or two without doing any work at all.
Regards,
Iskander
May 3rd, 2008 at 7:21 am
Dear Kak Halimahton and Family..
I believed you are hurting with what Hiew said. May be he never did his research before making his comment. In my opinion, we shouldn’t
believed 100% with article that we read in news paper. They always write something that they want us to know not something that we should know.
May 3rd, 2008 at 12:29 pm
Hey Hiew..u r a great fool, not only had you hurt Kak Halmahtan and family, you had brought disgrace to this site..
How dare you judge when u can’t see that dirty laundry in your closet!
i hope you get deleated and buzz off!
my heart is with you Kak and family..
May 3rd, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Don’t worry, it doesn’t bother us if people make the occasional harsh remark!
It’s just the way people tend to be on the Internet — you’re not going to find any open discussion forum that doesn’t have its fair share of dissenting voices. Hiew was just expressing his opinion, and even though it’s clear that he didn’t have all the facts, I don’t see any reason to attack him personally. In any case, I’ve already corrected him, so let’s just leave it at that.
May 4th, 2008 at 3:29 am
Dear Halimaton Asalamualaikum,
Generally what you have done to your children (in teaching and learning methods) are exactly same as what I have done to my children. And it proven when my daughter now is studying Medicine in UK (formerly was selected to study in TKC) and my son was also selected to study in the best boarding school and became one of the best students in national level Exam . He always secures first in the badge. he even finished his religious scholl early.
I agree with you that we must start early and the first4-5 yrs is the best stage to mould and develop a good foundation to our children.
But I beleive one thing, never to force children to learn. I coach, guide, motivate and mould them since the moment they were born. We start everything early. make them to socialise/mix with others early.
Your children are very lucky since both parents are good in math. as for my children I teach them how to learn …. with this they can grab any knowledge easliy. One reason we do this because my husband and I are not that brilliant in math or other science subjects.
Nevertheles, one that we cannot forget that Allah will give to anyone (in terms of rezki, knowledge etc) to those that Allah wants. Anythings that happened to us I believe there is hikmah behind them.
wassalam
Just to share experience
May 4th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Hiew should read this blog first before commenting anything. where did he get the idea of cold chamber anyway? please read first before judging Puan Halimahton. Plus, whatever happens to Sufiah is her own choice, she is already a big girl, a lady, she chooses her own path. It has nothing to do with her mother’s upbringing. Everybody makes mistakes in some points of their lives, just pray that sufiah will realize her mistake and will return to her family and realize what a wonderful mother she has.
May 4th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Assalamualaikum K.Halimaton and family,
Thank you for you reply since i am wondering quite a while abt your respond.Thank a million for sharing your proven personal experiences in sharing your priceless teaching method.
I am not married yet but would love to share with all my friends which are mostly young mothers and my married brothers as well.
My personal sincere deepest sympathy to you on what is happening on Sufiah and I give you the highest salute that being a strong woman not to react based on direct stimulus response against Sufiah.I believe this is a challenge GOD gives to you as HE knows that you are strong woman and it is turn to see how you able to face it.HE shows that GOD loves you and your family.Be bold doing positive work and the most valuable social responsibity that have i ever encounter in my life.Thing happens with a reason.
I wish i could meet you in person and visit you.I was there in Wokingham in Feb coz my bro worked there and my only chance to tour UK.Now he is backfor good.
Thank you very much again.
Warmest regards
Sharna
May 6th, 2008 at 2:54 am
May Allah Bless U
May 6th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Salam K. Halimaton & Your family,
Thank you for your effort to share the knowledge with all of us. May Allah bless you and your family and give HIS “NUR” to Sufiah.
May 7th, 2008 at 2:46 am
Dear Halimahton & family,
Wow! This is really worth it for you to share with us and has made people’s eyes open wide about your family. This is an amazing true story.
Bravo & congratulations.
May 7th, 2008 at 12:42 pm
Assalamualaikum Kak,
Firstly, may allah increase his blessing and guidance for all of us. God know best and every happening is with reasons. May allah granted you sabar and iman.
If i have a question on child upbringing, shall i ask in this blog? I am very sad and label myself a failure because I cant control my son and he hates me.
May 7th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Assalamualaikum,
Kak Halimaton, terima kasih sudi berkongsi ilmu dalam
mendidik anak-anak. Mudah-mudahan ilmu ini dapat dimanfaatkan
oleh semua dan sebagai pendidik, method yang diberikan amat berguna.
Moga kakak dan keluarga mendapat rahmat Allah sentiasa.
May 7th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
assalamualaikum,
Good post.
Seeing the parent reading quietly and focusing every day (rather than watching TV or chatting on a mobile endlessly) is also a good example for children. Especially if they see that their mum and dad love to read, InshaAllah this passion will be passed on.
Having many interesting books freely available all around the house will also be useful. Even if you don’t see the child reading the books at first, eventually, if they enjoy reading, they will probably go through them. I have gone through nearly every book in the house, lol.
Keep up the good work
mieka’s owner
May 9th, 2008 at 6:07 am
Thanks for sharing with us your learning strategies. May god bless you and your whole family.
Regards
Singapore
May 13th, 2008 at 4:55 am
Dear mdm halimaton,
Thousand thank for sharing the information on getting kids to enjoy learning and also thank u for replying my email. Best regard to u and your family n may Allah bless all of you..i did do some tought about what has happened to your family n it did has a lot of hikmah where we get to know u n your family better n closer and u can share your experience on teaching your kids n this will gain more of the good prayer from every people to u n your family..may allh bring back sufiah 2 u n be under Allah’s guide.thanks again
May 13th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Assalamualaikum Pn Halimahton,
Your methods on getting child to enjoy learning are very useful. Do you get them from somewhere (books etc) or by long experience, study and making conclusion. All these useful information can be compiled carefully and make a good book (if you can spend time)!
I am a mother of seven and from my experience raising my kids, this method works for half of them. I am more academic person but my husband is a more technical person. My children who are more to technical (like their father) experience difficulty following this style of learning.
I believe that ‘nature’ also important. However ‘Nurture’ (your methods) helps a lot in accelerating your child to become prodigy. You and your husband- both of you have good brain!
I hope that we can get in touch through e mail.
May Allah bless you and your family.
Wassalam.
May 16th, 2008 at 5:34 am
[…] mentioned in the previous article, keep everything you do during the Learning Times relaxed and informal, so that your child […]
May 20th, 2008 at 9:28 pm
[…] a bore, but children tend to learn (and retain what they have learnt) much better if they actually enjoy what they are doing. With a bit of imagination, it’s possible to make even the most mundane […]
May 21st, 2008 at 10:49 am
so sweet of you iskander : ). Yup! I’m learning something from you that we cannot attack person like hiew personally. In a good way, just tell him that he is wrong. You know y i’m saying i’m learning something? Coz, i’m a hot temper in person and cannot be provoke. Hope i’ll learn a lot of good thing from you & your mum. May Allah bless you and your family
May 30th, 2008 at 8:57 pm
Assalamualaikum..
I’m a teacher of MRSM in Malaysia. Thanks for sharing your learning strategies..it’s help a lot to guide my students and also my kids. Keep your good work !
June 23rd, 2008 at 3:53 pm
hi isk,
how are u…
i’m still waitng the news….
how the pisang org. did they find soo-fi..
last time they see soo-fi..and soo-fi said she need some time to think….
but i think we’all waiting too long right now….any news?…from her..?
may Allah bless you and your family..
to mr hamidi,
hope u success…try to..bring her back..
dont give up…
July 8th, 2008 at 1:46 am
assalamualaikum….
I’m a junior reporter at one of the mainstream press in Malaysia which we never published even once bout your family though i’ve read all the real info through this website.
by the way, thanks for sharing the learning strategies, it’s guide me a lot and improvise my learning…..wish u could be a teacher in Malaysia and help Malaysians to be place more in world standard university….