In These Stilettos

Ramadan is the ninth month of the Islamic calendar, It is the month in which Muslims around the world fast to commemorate the first revelation of the Holy Quran to the Prophet Muhammad (AWS). It’s a month about learning to exercise self-control and to give charity to those less fortunate. Growing up in a Christian household and having Christmas holds very special memories to me, as a child so much excitement is created and there are endless activities to do as a family. As a revert I want to get my kids just as excited about Ramadan, especially as they are not fasting, getting them involved in activities with the rest of the family. I created a “Ramadan corner”, an area especially for the kids to sit and hear stories and craft.

The first thing I wanted to create and I have seen quite a few of them doing the rounds online was a Ramadan Calendar. My one may be no where NEAR as beautiful as some of the fabric ones I have seen but it was a whole lot cheaper! It’s not perfect, but neither am I 🙂

After much back and forth I settled on making it with a large artists canvas. I painted that and then cut of pieces of felt which I stuck onto the canvas with a hot glue gun. I then painted the numbers onto the pockets with a stencil. Each pocket has a different activity to do inside the relevant days.

I’ve been getting quite a few questions since I posted on my instagram stories on what to include inside my Ramadan Calendar.

Here are a few idea’s to get you started:

 

Bake Ramadan Cookies

Make a Ramadan Banner

Make a treat with dates

Learn a new Surah (verse of the Quran)

Donate two toys to Charity

Donate some clothes to Charity

Make Eid Cards

Make a Masjid out of Card

Read a story on the Prophet Muhammed (AWS)

Read a story on the Prophet Issa (AWS) (Jesus)

Read a story on the Prophet Jonah (AWS) (Jonah) – You get the picture. We try to cover all the Prophets

Learn about how they celebrate Ramadan in another country.

Here are some other craft ideas to include that I have done with the boys so far :

Making a crescent moon out of a paper plate – for some reason my boys loved this activity even though it was the most simple.

Sticking on buttons onto a moon – This is a great fine motor skill for little ones. My youngest loved sticking on each button individually and putting them together like a puzzle.

Moon Sighting binoculars – Easy as pie with two toilet rolls. We decorated ours with star stickers to tie in with the night theme.

Ramadan Lantern – This craft got to me the most. It didn’t come out as neat as I would have liked it too and my control freak kept wanting to interfere with the boys. Anyway – cut down the skyline of mosques and cut out shapes. I took clear coloured paper and stuck that onto the stained glass window. Wrap it around a bottle (I used a 500 ml coke bottle) and put an LED candle inside.

My First Dua Book – I first saw the idea on The Muslimah Guide’s Blog here .This was made using a cut out of the boys hands. On each page, once a week we will try to learn a new Dua (Prayer). Preschoolers can learn simple Dua’s like Giving Salaams, giving thanks to people (Jazak’Allah Khairan) and giving thanks to Allah (Alhumdulilah).

Make your own Sadaqah jar : Giving charity is absolutely essential for Muslims, It is one of our 5 pillars of Islam and is at its core. There are two types of Charity a Muslim should give – Zakat – this is compulsory, and is a set percentage of ones wealth to charity (a bit like Tithing in Christianity). Sadaqah is the voluntary act of Charity for the benefit of Allah (and a person’s soul). Its giving money to the guy on the street, volunteering your time at an orphanage, giving food to the homeless.

We made our own Sadaqah jar for the boys to fill up and give to people after Ramadan. I took a plain tin that cost R8 at flowerspot and painted glitter at the bottom. They decorated it with stickers.

30 date Jar – Children are visual (hence the advent calendar as well). In Islam we break our fast everyday with a date and water. I filled a jar with 30 dates so everyday the boys can take our their date and they can see the jar becoming emptier.

Make a Ramadan Banner – you could go traditional with a bunting style but i cut out circles from paper plates. The boys painted the plates with their rainbow paint set and then i just wrote out Ramadan Mubarak. Punch holes in each circle and string together with twine.

The idea’s are endless really. You can create whatever you want, I like to recreate the stories we tell. For example when telling the Story of the Prophet Yunus (AWS) (Thats Jonah and the Whale in English), we make a whale out of a paper plate to go with the story. Just have fun with your kids and learn as you go. Ramadan is about learning, it’s about family, it’s about coming together and strengthening your faith. For non-Muslims I hope you learnt a little more about our faith from this article and that it helped in some way.

These crafts will help your little ones (and you) understand the traditions, culture, and festivities of Ramadan a bit more and will bring you all together. Do you have any other fun crafts to do ? Id love to hear about them.

Ramadan Mubarak everyone !