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.