The First and the Last (Ramadan Day 2)

The second day was more in sync compared to the first day as we had one day of experience. The kids were really excited for the next lesson and they came whizzing right after Asr for their lesson of the day.

We started with the name of Allah. First we revised the two names of Allah that we had done before; Ar Rahman and Ar Rahman. We went through the example once again and remembered what Sunnah is.

Names of Allah: Al Awwal and Al Akhir was also comparatively easy to teach as it meant The First and the Last. However, children with their limited imagination cannot portray "infinity" in their minds. So thinking that Allah (swt) was the ultimate First was a bit off guard for them. "Even before you? Or Dadu (grandmother), or an old person?" they giggled thinking of the mere idea that Allah came before their grandma's grandma.

When it came of speaking of Allah being the ultimate last, a lot of questions came from the curious minds: Death, afterlife, whether animals will be there, whether we will die young, what is a soul and so on and so forth. SubhanAllah, when you have a conversation with children from 3-5, theres so much to know and so much to answer, it's astounding.

What was new to them was, people don't die when they are old, they die when they are assigned to die by Allah. Allah has the power to take anyone's life and it doesn't matter whether he is rich or poor, old or young, Muslim or not. I didn't linger too much on around this topic as their minds are still puerile.

                           

Then came the sunnah topic: Sharing. Like we know, sharing is caring, we started off by learning that. My son particularly is not much of a person who would share anything. This was a great lesson for hm. I gave him example on how he can fight his naps (soul) and share with his cousins to earn a good reward, and even greater one during the month of Ramadan as the good deeds would be multiplied. This worked pretty well for him.

I am grateful for: While we discussed this topic, we spoke of their favourite people at first. Even though my son would say he loves me (bleh) he loves his dad and I know that. So as I know whom the children love ,most, I went on by saying that these people were gifted to your lives by Allah (swt) as he loves you all. 

Ramadan Goals: last but not the least, we had a goal to fast for a few hours. In our country (Bangladesh) Air to Maghreb is around 2.5 hours long. So what we planned was we won't eat or drink anything at all and try fasting and have iftar with the fam. The kids were super excited and tried to keep an eye on each other whether they secretly take a sip of water or have a bite of the very delicious food from the Iftar table. At the end of the day it was as if they had fasted the whole day. 

Teaching children the Mercy of our Lord (Ramadan day 1)

Ramadan Day 1

As much as I have planned, I knew that most of the work might not be well settled as theres a lot on my shoulders at the moment with a toddler and new born. Hence the beginning of Ramadan was not as I had perceived, with fairy lights, moon and stars cookies, and hand made binoculars to witness the new moon. However, my toddler didn’t have the slightest clue that I’d be decorating his bed with banners and line up his shelf with "Good deed" and Sadqah jar that he got as gift from the Pre Ramadan party. The first night was received with huge smiles and lots of activities for the forthcoming days.

                 

Since I was breast feeding my little one, the first day was a bit exhausting, but not too over-whelming Alhamdulillah. And with my hyperactive one, I had to be on my toes, ready with his activities. We targeted with the basics, learning Allah’s names which were recurrent in the Quran: Rahman and Rahim..

“Ammu, Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim”.. my toddler jumped with joy. So this was the easiest to teach.

We discussed how Merciful Allah (swt) is in all aspects, starting from forgiving us when we sin to saying Astagfirullah for the slightest mistakes and how Allah becomes happy when His slave asks for forgiveness. Alhamdulillah

Since my toddler is just 5, I didn’t want to give him too much information and went slow. 

We moved to what Sunnah was and it took the longest time to explain that what rasulAllah (saw) did was Sunnah and when we do the same things we get rewarded immensely. This is what our beloved Prophet did, said, walked, talked and all his actions. To top that we have Ramadan which multiplies our good deeds, so if we do one thing which is Sunnah, then it multiplies in Ramadan. 

On our lesson to acknowledge the great things in life, we started with the food that we eat. It was a great opportunity to learn about Iftar as well, and how privileged we are by the mercy of Allah (again leading to the name Rahman and Rahim).

The first day went well Alhamdulillah. My son seemed to be engrossed in the part where we spoke about how Allah gives us chance to repent when we do something wrong , but if we keep doing it, the angels write it down in the book of bad deeds. As He (swt) gives us number of chances, He is the most Merciful.

It was a great day of learning, even though we got a bit carried away. May Allah make our children steadfast in the deen

Preparing for the blessed month 2018

As I had my first born, I decided from the very first Ramadan that I’d try to make this month fun filled and enjoyable so that he cherishes the month and waits for the next Ramadan eagerly. Similarly, since we have two holidays I decided to make the most of those two holidays as well so that he never misses out on the things we try to avoid or not celebrate.

Deciding and “pinteresting” about these things are the easy parts..what’s hard is implying those in actual life.. and it gets tougher with a new born. However, since the Shayateen are chained, perhaps Allah has made it easy for me and other mothers to cope up with the probable tasks of procrastination.

This year, my big one turns 5 inshAllah. He understands a lot of things including where Allah is and how He (swt) is the Most Powerful. Hence I decided I would teach him the attributes of Allah (swt) by going through the 99 names.

Along with those, I planned on teaching what Sunnah is and why should we do it, which would lead to why we love Muhammad (pbuh) so much. 

Another thing that I wanted to add is daily goals. This would help him (and me) to plan to develop good habits and abide by it inshaAllah. And as a result of the Shayateen being chained, it might actually help us more and make it easy for us to change ourselves.

Last but not the least, I will be adding a list where we jot down the things we are grateful for.. like our body, the senses, nature, etc. and will try to relate it to Allah and how He (swt) has blessed us. 

With each of these activities, I plan on putting updates of how a 5 year old’s mind wanders and how he seizes this in his mind and implements in his daily life.

I ask the readers to make dua for my family and I hope we can make the most of Ramadan. May Allah enable us to lead our children into a good Islamic environment. Have a blessed Ramadan. Ameen.

                            

Ramadan Activity Ideas for Toddlers: Craftworks

Ramadan. 

The most beautiful time of the year. 

So peaceful, so serene. 

So much reward to get. 

So much love to spread. 

Ramadan is indeed the time we attain the best of our Emaan and try to do things accordingly as the Shayateen are chained. As mothers, we want our children to get involved with us in doing the good things in Ramadan, but often we don't even know where to start. Being a mother of a toddler, I feel I'm limited to a certain amount of activities which I can plan for my child during ramadan. It is because I have aother things to think about like household chores to complete including preparing food and all. And I feel that whenever I am trying to do any sort of Ibadah, my son manages to do something mischievous then. It becomes really difficult, and until and unless he sleeps, I don't feel like praying or doing any sort of Ibadah as it doesn't feel peaceful. 

At the same time, I feel he doesn't get the essence of Ramadan like I do. He doesn't have the same excitement and enthusiasm I have. What could I possibly do to make a three year old feel the mesmerizing essence of Ramadan?

Last year,  we did a lot of activities and crafts for Ramadan. Two weeks before the sighting of the Ramadan moon, we got some craft stuff and planned on decorating the house. My son was 2 years old, which meant he couldn't cut or paste. He was there with us, learning the shapes as we cut them out. I let him scribble in some of the pages as we worked. 

 

We also got gifts for our relatives and my son helped us pack for it. We made sure we put lots of moon and star stuff to bring about the essence of Ramadan.

This year, I plan on doing some things differently. With him being a year older, there are more things that I can include, like coloring, pasting, etc. These activities can also be done with younger and older children.

1) Ramadan cookies: 

Children love cookies and the best way to make them excited for Ramadan are involving activities consisting moon and stars. They might not understand the lunar calendar, but they can surely relate Ramadan with the moon. Sure, it's going to be messy and tedious, but they will surely enjoy and learn. We can teach them by saying that when we see the moon in the crescent shape, that's when we know that a new month has started. Ramadan is a name of a month just like January or February. Older children can be given further explanations. This image might also be helpful to teach the lunar calendar.

This is super easy and you don't even need a lot of material and little (or no) effort at all. Plus, who doesn't like oreos?

2) Moon sighting Binoculars:  Continuing from my last point, we can make our children binoculars to encourage them to sight the moon. Again, here you can teach them the basics of the lunar calendar if they are older. The idea has been collected from the page Gilded Dunya. This is basically a DIY task, which will also help teach your children regarding recycling. 

• Take two toilet paper rolls (without the tissue).
• Wrap them with aluminum foil or any colored paper or wrapping paper and scotch tape.
• Cut out a piece of moon and star from a magazine (going green again).
• Attach a string or a ribbon. 
• Ask them to stick the moon and star on top of the binoculars.
• DONE

3) Ramadan Goodies:  Residing in a country where Birthdays and Christmas are embraced and enjoyed by the major population, it is hard to keep children away from such activities. (Please note that celebrating birthdays are not a part of Sunnah and it has pagan roots. Hence most scholars didn't allow to celebrate such events.) 

We can help children to minimize the excitement for such (not so halal) events by making halal events much more exciting and fun with gifts and cakes. If your child is going to a secular school, this will be a great act of dawn for other mothers and children who are on the verge of practicing Islam but cannot practice due to social reasons. I know a lot of parents who cannot let go of celebrating birthdays because of their children as they don't want to miss out on gifts and cakes. So why not make Ramadan more fun by having a pre ramadan party or by just celebrating with a  cake or gifts. This is a picture of the gifts I have sent  to my son's school friends this year. 

 Similarly, this can be also done (taken from the net)

4) Teaching some duas and Surahs and basic Islamic etiquettes: Toddlers learn fast MashaAllah. Not everyone is the same, but as mothers and as muslims, we must put our best effort in moulding them into proper and practicing Muslims. If we turn on the TV and make them watch songs, they will watch it. Similarly, if we make them watch educational and islamic cartoons, they will watch that. At this point, neither do they have control over their desires, nor do they understand what is Islamic or unislamic, and what is right or wrong. If we say that 'let them choose what they want to be', it will be of no worth. As parents, we can try our best to set good examples, make them do good things so that they become good people. Similarly we must try to make them the best muslims. Whatever happens later in the future is in Allah's hands and we have no control over that. That doesn't mean we will stop trying now. 

Coming back to point, toddlers tend to memorize things which you say repeatedly. If you teach them some small and regularly used duas, they will benefit immensely later in life. For example, 

• the dua before getting to bed, 
• the dua when entering the washroom, 
• surah fatiha, surah ikhlas, surah has, surah falaq, surah Kawsar and some other small surahs.   But yes, remember to recite them regularly and repeatedly for them to recall these as well. They will not learn in a day or two. It will take time and patience. I feel the best time to help them absorb this knowledge is at night before they fall asleep. 

5) Making them pray with you: Children learn from what they see. the child will eventually start praying by himself when he sees his family is giving importance to prayer. One good thing in Bangladesh is you can hear the Adhaan anywhere and everywhere due to the plentiful amount of mosques. So best thing is to make Wudu and get ready for Salah right before the Adhaan. When the Adhaan is given out, parents should hasten to pray. This will teach the child that you must not delay when it comes to praying. Call your child when you pray, even if he doesn't know Surahs or duas or the rules of Salah. As he watches, he will learn, and the habit of Salah will be instilled in him InshaAllah.

6) Making a prayer mat: 

this is a fun activity for children and might help them start praying as well, plus it's simple and easy as well. You just need one heavy cotton material around half yard and stitch the sides as they won't be able to stitch. Get some fabric glue and some beads or other accessories and let them paste it. Also, let them do some coloring on it as well. They will love  praying on something that they have made.

These are all some ideas to instill the love for Ramadhan and to help children get prepared for the month with excitement and love. We try not to celebrate other occasions which are not allowed in Islam... This love and excitement for Ramadan will minimize their chance to celebrate other such events, and will make them feel that Islam is not a restricting religion. I hope that our children learn that Ramadhan is a month which we happily embrace and await for eagerly. May Allah make our children the coolness of our eyes and the guidance for the righteous. May we have the ability to nurture them to be great Muslims, and scholars of Islam  who abide by the Quran and Sunnah. May Allah guide them to the path He loves, and never leave them astray, not even for a mili second. Amen

I wish you all a happy Ramadan. 

Ramadan Nasheed for the lovely parents and their children

Ramadhan and Post Partum Mommy

Ramadhan! A month of ibadah [worship]. A month to refrain from sins and adopt good habits. A month to achieve innumerable rewards. A month which multiplies all good deeds. Who would want to miss it?

While some are racing to achieve rewards, some of us mamas know that we won’t be able to do much really because of various reasons. Period, weaning your newborn, taking care of family… these are just the basics. Some mamas get very upset when they know that their delivery would be done during Ramadhan. Which means not only can they not fast, they know they may be so caught up with the new baby and the first experiences, that they may not be able to make the most of Ramadhan.

                          

I had my baby few days before Ramadhan, which basically meant I was missing out on Salah and keeping the fast. As sad as I was, I found some ways which really helped me to feel motivated with my Ramadan goals and didn't effect my health or didn't make me feel I was left out in any way. So here are some points that I would like to share with mamas facing the same dilemma I had faced on how to achieve the most of Ramadhan during pregnancy and right after child birth:

1) If you’re unable to pray for any reason, don’t be disheartened. Refresh your memory by revising old surahs and duas or memorize new ones. This may help you to teach your little one as they grow up. 

2) While you’re nursing or doing household chores, make lots of Dhikr and praise the Creator, subhanawata 'ala. Easiest way to gain rewards and no wudu required! 

3) Your body is an Amanah: Take care of your body. Don’t over do anything and make you too tired. Don't stress your body. After all you have to help yourself get back to shape (by which I mean get healthy not skinny) and at the same time nurse your newborn. If you don’t get enough food for yourself, you won’t be able to lactate. Some doctors also say that stress might decrease the flow of milk.

4) Which brings us to point four, taking care of your family will be considered an act of ibadah if you intend to do so.  

Ibn Ul-Qayyim (rahimahullah) "A woman is half of

the Ummah and she gives birth for the other

half. So, she's the whole Ummah"

~ Ibn un Qayyim (rahimullah)

5) Learn the story of the Prophets. This is what I did while feeding my child. It used to get very frustrating waking up time to time to feed my new born when I was very sleepy. While feeding him I literally had nothing to do. Hence I decided to read the stories of the Prophet to learn the stories so that later I could teach him the stories.

6) Read Islamic books: like for example the Seerah of the Prophet or the life of the women around the Prophet sallalahu alayhi wasallam.

7) Listen to online lectures.

8) Just because you can't pray doesn't mean that you can't make dua! Hence make loads of dua for your child and yourself... and anything good that comes to your mind really!

9) Learn the 99 names of Allah.

10) Do something good for your friends and family. Like for example, if your body allows you, make some food for them. Or give them gifts maybe? 

11) Have interactive sessions with other children. 

If you have young children in your neighbourhood or in your family, like your nephew and niece or cousin or anyone, invite them over. You could show them beneficial videos like Zaky and friends or Productive Muslim Videos. 

This would help you in two ways:

   

        a) Help you to learn about child psychology. Since you have a child of your own, mingling with other kids would help you learn about the different traits of different children which may help you later to handle your baby since you will be learning from experience.

    

        b) Since you will be helping other parents, it might be counted as a reward as the parents might be getting some spare time to do ibadah or do other household chores. Who knows, you might be in their duas for Tahajjud prayer ;)

     

         c) As long as the children imply the things you have taught them, you will be getting reward for it. Your teachings would be like sadaqah jariyah. :) How cool is that?

These are some of the advices I can give to my fellow mamas. Hope these help you to make this Ramadhan fruitful..