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At homeFrom the archive

Everyone has a role at home

In our home, children do the jobs adults do: cleaning fish, cutting chicken, picking vegetables, ironing and carrying the heavy things.

In our house there are no freeloaders. Everyone has a part to play, and everyone has to step up, children included. They do the jobs adults do: getting food ready for cooking, cleaning fish, cutting chicken, preparing meals and helping with the housework.

This started when they were very small. The first photos here are from around 2012 and 2013, when Hilwaa was a toddler.

A toddler in a pink top pushes a vacuum cleaner hose under the dining table
A toddler in a pink top pushes a vacuum cleaner hose under the dining table

In the kitchen

As the children grew, so did the jobs. They put on plastic gloves and cleaned chicken at the kitchen sink. They sorted vegetables on sheets of newspaper on the floor, with the youngest sitting in to help.

Two children in plastic gloves cleaning chicken at the kitchen sink
Two children in plastic gloves cleaning chicken at the kitchen sink
An older child and a toddler picking vegetables on newspaper, with a bowl of washed greens
An older child and a toddler picking vegetables on newspaper, with a bowl of washed greens

Not every job was in the kitchen. Here two of the older children put together paper booklets, sheet by sheet, on the floor.

Two older children assembling paper booklets, one lying on a pillow and one bent over the pages
Two older children assembling paper booklets, one lying on a pillow and one bent over the pages

From the water to the plate

Fish did not always come from the market. The children went fishing, held up what they caught, and watched closely while the fish were cleaned. From a jetty they spotted a stingray through the clear water, and on another trip they stood in shallow water with a large stingray close by.

A boy holds up a fishing rod with a small catch, his sister standing beside him
A boy holds up a fishing rod with a small catch, his sister standing beside him
A child in a life jacket stands with an adult in shallow water, a large stingray nearby
A child in a life jacket stands with an adult in shallow water, a large stingray nearby

Talking while we work

While we do all of this, we explore the greatness of Allah and His signs in what is in front of us: the fish on the plate, the vegetables from the market, the stingray gliding past. That is Integrate, the third step of our 4-I approach: taking what we learn into the things we do every day.

As they got older

The jobs never stopped. We treat chores such as ironing and preparing food much like the practical-life work in a Montessori setting. In 2021 a boy took his turn at the ironing board, and in 2023 three children carried a rolled-up carpet down the corridor together.

A boy in safety glasses irons a shirt on an ironing board
A boy in safety glasses irons a shirt on an ironing board
Three children carry a rolled-up carpet down the corridor together
Three children carry a rolled-up carpet down the corridor together

If you would like to try this at home, start with one real job your child can do beside you, and talk about what you see while you do it.

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