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