Muslim Preschool Homeschool: What should I teach my Preschooler?

"What should I teach my preschooler?"

This is a common question from homeschoolers, particularly those new to homeschooling like myself. I struggled with the same question for a while and I took to youtube and blogs in search of an answer. Much to my dissatisfaction, I found several. I was looking for one perfect answer, THE answer. However, I found that depending on what philosophy you subscribe to, the answer was different.

Hands on activites with wooden material. Free play. Books. Nature-centric play/study. Arts & Crafts... the list was endless. So I found myself trying to figure out WHAT to prioritise or IF to dip my hand in every jar, and if so, to what extent?

It was exhausting. It took a while for me to realize that what I was looking for i.e. the ONE PERFECT answer, didn't exist online. Or even in books written by veteran educators or homeschoolers. That there isn't a one-size-fits-all approach and every homeschool, like every home, is built upon its peculiar values.

So, instead of trying to figure out what to teach my preschooler, I was guided to ask what was most important to me our family?

As Muslims, our priority should be raising children upon righteousness, and righteousness is a consequence of Taqwa (God-Consciousness). This realization, and adopting this value as our most-central criteria, helped us sift through and narrow down our options.

No, we didn't drop everything to teach only Qur'aan and Islamic studies, but it did help me figure out what to take, how much of it to take and how to take from the abundance of resources out there. This revolutionised our homeschool, alhamdulillah.

So our nature walks and engagement were transformed into oppurtunities for us to deepen our connection with Allah through marveling at His signs in nature, experiencing and learning Tawheed ar-Rububiyyah and familiarizing with our environment, all through play.

Our book choices for read-alouds became more deliberate and we added to our bookshelf only those titles that aligned with and reinforced our family values.

Everything became increasingly easier, simply because we reduced distractions and overwhelm by defining our most central value in our Muslim homeschool, alhamdulillah.

If you were hoping to find a one-size-fits-all response, I am sorry to disappoint. If you were hoping to find a guide then here you are:

Define your values, and by extension, your goals for your child(ren). Then use that as your cookie cutter over the rolled-out dough of resources out there. Whatever fits, makes it to the oven. Whatever doesn't, do not hesitate to discard.

If you found this useful, then keep an eye out on this blog. Over the next few weeks, I will be sharing more guides on preschool homeschooling for Muslim homeschoolers, in shaa Allah.

And I'd love to know, what are some values that define your Muslim preschool homeschool?