Every garden begins beneath the surface.
Before there are flowers, branches, and fruit, there are roots quietly growing through the soil. Roots hold a plant in place. They provide nourishment, strength, and direction.
Sunnah Jardin grew the same way~quietly, through family life, faith, hardship, creativity, and the desire to give children a meaningful education.
I am a crunchy, plant-based, minimalist, maximalist, nerdy, geeky, hippy’ish, nomad’ish, bibliophile mother, artist, author, vendor, and partime/full-time homeschooler of five children currently at home, including twins. My children are multicultural, multiethnic, and neurodivergent, and our home is filled with language learning, books, nature, Islamic studies, art, science, exploration, and everyday life.
But Sunnah Learners & The Kindergarten Jardin did not begin as just ideas.
They began with survival, motherhood, and the need to create learning opportunities for my children.
I’m A Mother, Educator, Women, and Human. There’s a Real Person Here!
Humble Beginnings
In the United States, I was a certified early-childhood educator with a specialty in Pre-K and private kindergarten, and training other Early Educators in childhood centers to thrive using everyday materials in the classroom to gain proper NAEYC accreditation. I worked in religious day cares and in centers for early education from 2002 to 2012, but I also worked as a cook, chef, butcher, waitress, host, CNA, medical assistant, and respite-care provider during summer and weekends. Because as you know, the field of education is not one that pays by financial, but by gratitude of the change and happiness your bring. -basically, educators are not paid enough!
Before the age of twenty-seven, I became the primary caregiver for my oldest 3 children after a tragic event changed our family life, while assisting my older brother in taking care of his two children daily and dealing with a burn incident, stabbing, and living in a hotel to regain domestic safety in my life. Those years taught me how to care for people in many different ways-with patience, flexibility, practical skills, and compassion. But most of all , through therapy, distance, and self-appreciation. This reminded me that children suffer the most in hardships, and we never know what our students, student families, and fellow teachers are going through. Empathy, understanding , and compassion was more than learned. It was experienced.
But through it all , homeschooling began for us in 2005.
My son was not allowed to begin kindergarten because his birthday came late in the year. I did not want him to be left behind, so I began creating curriculum, schedules, activities, and learning plans that fit his needs while preparing him for success and following state standards.
I continued this approach with my next child when her birthday fell even later. She was a late speaker, so I introduced sign language to help us communicate and connect.
Over time, our learning became multilingual. We began with English and ASL, then added Spanish. I wanted my children to connect with a Mexican heritage that I had not had the opportunity to learn about myself. Arabic became part of our home for religious reasons, followed by Caribbean French and other languages shaped by the places we lived.
Learning became something we lived. Not something confined to a classroom.
🍎Putting My Faith In Allahs Hands
Sunnah Learners began during a difficult period when our family became stuck in the French Caribbean because of a birthright issue. What began as a complicated personal situation later became a larger journey of immigration and integration in France, in part so my former husband could remain involved in his children’s lives.
During that season, Sunnah Learners became more than an educational resource project. It became a place where I tried to balance sabr, faith, and hope.
In 2015, I experienced postpartum depression and the devastating loss of a baby through miscarriage at five and a half months of pregnancy. I was also navigating a difficult marriage and the many emotional demands of raising children.
Sunnah Learners gave me a way to keep creating, teaching, and nurturing: even while I was hurting.
It became a reminder that faith does not mean pretending life is easy. Sometimes faith means continuing to plant seeds while grieving. It means making space for hope when the future feels uncertain. It means returning to Allah again and again.
Down To Earth & The Journey It Comes With
Later, during another painful season, I experienced the spiritual distance of my then-eighteen-year-old child, alongside a very difficult marriage and the repeated challenges of Zika, dengue, and COVID.
These experiences made me think deeply about the world my children were growing up in.
I wanted them to see both sides of their lives, the beauty of their cultural and religious roots, and the wider world around them. I wanted them to understand language, nature, science, art, history, community, and faith.
That desire gave birth to The Kindergarten Jardin.
The Kindergarten Jardin became a creative, nature-inspired learning space where children could explore through books, crafts, play, language, science, art, and the natural world.
Sunnah Learners became the Islamic and academic foundation.
Fajr Focus became the spiritual anchor.
Together, these three spaces became Sunnah Jardin.A garden created to nurture hearts, grow minds, and bloom faith.
I Strive Daily!
Today, my work has grown into many connected branches.
I am a TEFL, TESOL, TEYL, and phonics-certified English tutor and teacher. I work with primary and middle-school-aged learners through WhatsApp, face-to-face lessons, and my own private metaverse classroom.
I am also a children’s curator, visiting communities, educational spaces, and shops throughout France and nearby parts of the European Union to discover experiences, resources, and opportunities for families.
As a teacher-author, I create educational resources for Teachers Pay Teachers and interactive learning activities for Boom Learning. My colouring books and emergent readers are available through Amazon.
I also create functional and applied art, hand-painted wooden children’s toys, and ready-to-use printables. These physical creations can be found through Vinted, TikTok, and Etsy.
Through YouTube, I share educational videos and playlists. Across Instagram and Facebook, I share freebies, learning ideas, product updates, and sales.
Beginning September 5, 2026, I will also be hosting TikTok Trivia through direct messaging, with opportunities to win gift cards for Teachers Pay Teachers, Amazon, Boom Learning, and more.
Everything connects back to the same roots: helping children learn, helping families discover meaningful resources, and creating a life where education, creativity, faith, nature, and culture can grow together.
Our Multilingual Home Environment
Languages grew naturally in our home.
We began with American English, Black English, and ASL. Spanish became a way to connect with heritage. Arabic became part of our religious learning. Caribbean French and Martinique Creole grew from our years in the French Caribbean, along with exposure to British English.
Now, living in eastern France near Germany, my children are learning European French, German, Spanish from Spain, French Sign Language, and cultural Arabic. They have also asked me to include Chinese, Japanese, and Wolof in our language journey. Our families background is African American, Mexican, Nigerian, Native American, White Irish, and for my children: French, Italian, Indian, Caribbean, and Sudanese background. We are very much so a proud multi racial, ethic, family! Oh. We have a new addition to our home. Aswad (Black in Arabic). A cat we choose to keep in the family after the birth of my grandbaby, from my oldest daughter and her husband. So our little tribe just got bigger! -yea, we tend to love animals a lot!
Our home is full of books, questions, art supplies, nature collections, conversations, different languages, Islamic learning, and the beautiful challenges of neurodiversity.
Schooling in many forms
I am both pro-community school and pro-homeschool.
My children attend community school and learn about the social, political, cultural, and physical world around them within France’s laïcité-based educational system. At the same time, we continue learning at home through reading, writing, mathematics, language, nature, Islamic studies, creativity, and real-life experiences.
To me, homeschooling does not always mean refusing school. It means remaining actively involved in our children’s education, character, faith, culture, and development.
Whether your family follows Common Core, religious education, eclectic homeschooling, worldschooling, nature schooling, project-based learning, community schooling, or a mixture of many approaches, there is space for you here.
Personal growth, faith, and community
In my free time, I study French pronunciation and regional dialects so I can soften my strong American accent. I grew up saying “y’all” and “ain’t you about to,” and living in the Caribbean for many years also gave my English a Caribbean influence.
I also continue expanding my Islamic knowledge through undergraduate-level studies based on the Qur’an and Sunnah, including ʿAqeedah, Fiqh, Tafseer, and Seerah according to Ahl as-Sunnah wa al-Jamaʿah.
At the same time, I live among Christians, Jews, Buddhists, spiritual people, and non-believers. I value respectful interaction and take part in outdoor activities and community life. I lift weights three times a week, attend a local English-speaking group, and participate in activities offered by my local library whenever possible.
These experiences help me continue growing in faith, language, health, and community integration.
What I believe is important for families
I believe families need more than academic lessons. Children need safety, love, structure, patience, meaningful connection, and the freedom to grow into who Allah created them to be.
I believe education should support the whole child—their emotional, physical, intellectual, spiritual, social, and creative development. Children learn best when they feel respected, understood, and included.
Families also need practical flexibility. Every child develops differently, and every household has its own culture, responsibilities, challenges, strengths, and rhythm. A successful learning environment should be adaptable rather than built around one single method.
I value faith, good character, family connection, language, culture, nature, creativity, literacy, science, movement, and real-life learning. I believe children should have opportunities to ask questions, solve problems, make mistakes, try again, and develop confidence.
For families raising neurodivergent children, multilingual children, multicultural children, or children living between cultures, learning should make room for their complete identity—not ask them to hide or separate important parts of themselves.
Most of all, I believe parents should be supported rather than judged. Families do not need perfection. They need useful resources, encouragement, community, and educational choices that help their children feel safe, capable, connected, and loved.
My Mission. My Goal.
My mission is to help families nurture children who are knowledgeable, confident, compassionate, spiritually grounded, culturally aware, and connected to the natural world.
Through education, language, creativity, Islamic learning, nature exploration, and real-life experiences, I create resources that support the whole child and respect each family’s unique needs, values, culture, and learning journey.
I hope to encourage parents, teachers, homeschoolers, and children to keep learning with faith, curiosity, patience, and purpose—while building meaningful connections with Allah, family, community, heritage, and the world around them.
Sunnah Jardin was shaped by the joys, struggles, trials, mistakes, discoveries, and solutions of a large blended, multicultural, multiethnic immigrant and expatriate family living in America, to the French West Indies, to France.
It is for teachers, homeschoolers, Muslim parents, community-school families, multilingual families, neurodivergent families, nature lovers, artists, readers, and anyone searching for a more meaningful way to learn and live.
This is not a perfect garden.
It is a living one.
It has been watered by trial, error, happiness, laughter and grief. Then strengthened by sabr, brightened by creativity, and rooted in the belief that children deserve to learn with joy, purpose, beauty, and faith.
Welcome to The Sunnah Jardin.
Our roots are deep, our garden is growing, and there is always room for one more seedling.
Breathing and living intenionally.
💕Amanda Aakifah Emily💕
🧵Weaving community school & multilingual muslim homeschool! One trial and error at a time!
