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.
