Mr. Nadeem's story encouraged me to pen down my own story too. I came to Canada with my husband and 2 kids, 6 and 10. Being here, my prime importance was the education and training of my children. I was a University graduate but my English communication was very poor. I was also very shy and it was very hard for me to talk to strangers

Here, when I was taking my children to school  for admission, I was very nervous. I met with school staff, counselors and teachers. They all were very nice and behaved so well that I felt very relaxed. I got my children admitted in the school.   Teachers advised me to keep checking the homework, and to keep close contact with the school.

My involvement with my children's studies, started building my own knowledge and skills. Coloring books, puzzles, vocabulary building exercises, small project and what not? I was amazed with the teaching techniques. School work was fun for us. After finishing the schoolwork, I used to read stories for them. I also started teaching them Urdu and Quran Majeed along with Islami Taleemat. For us, bedtime stories were a mixture of history, Urdu, general knowledge and English. I joined the LINC classes and started visiting the public library with my children frequently. My student life came back, but this time I was enjoying it. My husband was very much surprised as I was very allergic to books when I was in Pakistan, and here, I was glued with the books all the time.

In few months, I learned a lot while helping my children. My frequent visits to school and meeting with teachers were also a great source of learning  and confidence building. After six months, a teacher told me that there are some vacancies of lunchroom supervisors in schools. If interested, I should apply for it.
I applied and I got the job. The job responsibility was just to manage the lunch room area and there was no direct interaction with the students. In addition to the average monthly payment of $ 200, this job provided me a great opportunity to closely observe the students of different nationalities. Some of them were very hyper, some of them just normal and few of them were very well behaved. It added a lot to my experience and knowledge, and helped me to understand my own children better.

Next year when new session started, it brought me a surprise. The class teacher of my elder son contacted me. She told me that there is a South Asian family who needs help for their children regarding home work. There was some remuneration attached, and I've to spend just 3 to 4 hours per week. The offer was good but I was not very confident. Teaching your own children is different than to help others children, specially when some remuneration is also attached to it. I was also not sure that how this arrangement would work with my children? What would be the group dynamics when they all will study and work together?

After a careful thought and talking to my husband, I accepted this offer for a one week free trial. First couple of days were difficult, but it worked well later. My children liked the idea of group studying. They helped each other and started sharing their knowledge and skills. They also learned to maintain the discipline. I tell you, this proved a very good learning experience for us. I got similar offers later, but I turned down as money making was not my sole objective by doing tuition

Now it's almost over 2 years to our stay in Canada. Yet, we are not over with settlement problems, but we are inching towards our goals. Whenever, we get breathing time, I hope to attend some relevant continuing education program. Thanks to Yahoo group providing me a chance to share my experience with others.

Zehra Kamal.
Scarborough