Ramadan Activity #1

So the first activity on our Ramadan calendar was to make "Date Balls" for all the neighbors in the building.

Material needed for this activity:

• Date paste. (In Saudi these are easily available. But if not available it can be easily made at home. Just take some soft dates and blitz them in a processor. If they are too sticky try adding a little almond powder or coconut in it).
• Grated coconut.
• very finely chopped almonds.
• Sprinkles.
• some candy liners.

So, the most part is getting the stuff, the rest is very easy. Just roll the dates into little balls. Roll them into your preferred coating. Set them in the liner and you are done.

We bought some really pretty party favors holders from a 2 riyal shop. You can substitute little inexpensive plates for this as well.

We made small cards to go along the dates which my son decorated.

Just before Iftar my son took these in the building and distributed them.

Lessons I tried to teach my son along with activity,

• Languages: I tried to teach him the names of Dates, coconut, almond in Urdu, English and Arabic.
• Motor skills: He rolled the dates into balls, which might seems really easy to us but is not for many 5yrs old.
• Social skills: Sending him in the building with something he made himself is my way to make him a bit confident and proud of his accomplishment.
• Nutrition: while making the date balls we talked about the health benefits of eating dates and their nutritious value.(kinda waste cause he still wants candy for his sweet tooth)

Note:

• Please note that the activities mentioned are to teach kids about Ramadan, the Muslim culture and along side as many things that can be incorporated. But my main aim is to get him excited about learning. So the activities do not need to be perfect.
•  Remember these date balls might not come out a perfect sphere, but bite your urge to go along and make them look perfect.
•  Kids will not want to do the whole thing, like we ended up making more than 50 date balls, my son does not have the patience or the concentration to be doing one task for so long, so after a few (15 to be exact), I made the date balls and he was rolling them into the coconut.
• Let them taste what they are making. Let them smell.
• Ask them questions about the activity they are doing. Like what else can be turned into balls? What kind of coating they would want to have? What else could be sent to the neighbors for another iftar?

I hope you would enjoy doing such activity with your kids. We had a lot of fun. Please share your experience if you have done or plan to do something like that with your kids. We would love to hear and learn from you.

Take care.

Ramadan Activites

When we were little I remember being excited about Eid. The new clothes, staying up late, going for the eid prayer, henna on our hands meeting friends and let's not forget the best part Eidi. Which we would spend on whatever we wanted. But I don't remember being  very much excited about Ramadan, yes we were excited cause some special programs were coming on the Saudi channel 2 like Full house, Crystal Maze I think American Funniest home videos was one too. Cause that was the time of no cable, internet or any other entertainment.

When I think of that time, and when I see my kids or todays kids in general I don't see them getting excited about the programmes even. Cause most of the time they are not watching the tv in the first place. They r either on the ipads, phones, laptops, or the cartoon channels that doesn't change there schedule for Ramadan, so however wrong our excitement for Ramadan maybe, I don't see the kids getting anything now. They don't see much change in their routines, or even our routines. Cause sadly in Saudi most of the families have a general routine of getting up late and staying up all night, which becomes much more exaggerated in Ramadan. Yeah the parents might be praying more, or reading more Qur'an or doing qiyyam all night. But are our kids watching us when we are doing all that or are their eyes still glued to all those screens I mentioned before?

We and our kids,  being slaves to the gigantic (the bigger and smarter tv) and smaller screens is an entire different post I would attempt to write, once I become free of those things myself In Shaa Allah . What I want to share with you today is my attempt to make Ramadan special for my kid. And not in the way it was for us when we were little. But in a more productive manner.

What I want to do this Ramadan and hopefully keep it up, is make it festive, celebrating it everyday, doing something special with my kid almost everyday. I want to make Eid the biggest celebration in the entire year for him. I want him to forget his birthday and remember eid as the day to celebrate. Hopefully I will be able to accomplish this with Allah's help and the prayers of my family.

So, in this regard I will post from today, I know I am starting a little late but I will try to overcome my laziness, and post our daily activities.

So the first activity we did was make an Ramadan advent calendar with Arabic numbers written on them.

I know the numbers are written wrong, I have to correct it yet. Anyho, you get the picture. the activities for each day are written under the yellow tabs.

I will be listing the things we do from now on. Do share what you are doing with your kids to make this Ramadan special and important in their lives.

Take care.

UPSY DAISY

I, a desi, have just been 5 months in the arab land. Have no socializing still. very little to do at home if u dont count my running aound after my 2 yr old. so i spend a lot of time in front of the computer. naturally my 2 yr old is also trying to type over my fingers and telling me not to toucht the keyboard as he is working. so i started searching for nursery rhymes for him on youtube. i found many good ones. i also started searching for islamic ones, i thought its a good way to teach him somehting valuable as well cuz i was not getting anywhere with him. evry time i asked him to recite me the kalimah he would go baba baba black sheep. NOt good right??? i know.

i found some good ones and he likes to listen to them but i am starting with a very few i thought its a goood idea to share them. This is the one he is learning cuz its slow and easy.
i really like this one cuz it is upbeat. The video is good as well. Fun for kids. I likes this one as well but the visual are all lyrics so it doesnt get my kid too enthusiastic when on the comp. but if i sing to him he listens. The other two this one and this one are for a little older kids. i am memorizing it myself to i have subsitutes for twinkle twinkle and mary had a little lamb. I dont have anything against these nursery rhymes, i think nursery rhymes are a great way to teach children vacbulary, language skills and they just plain fun. These traditional poems are inshallah going to be a part of my childs life but i think bringing the islamic culture in his life at an early stage is very important as well.

Hope this helps and was fun.