ramadan colorful way

Umm Ibrahim, a home schooling mother of eight and developer of several educational websites, takes us through the resources on her website http://tjramadan.talibiddeenjr.amanahwebs.com to make Ramadhan an educational and enriching experience for children everywhere.

FAMILY AND PHILOSOPHY
We are a family with eight kids, ages 3 – 15, and one more on the way, from the United States. We have lived in Yemen and Egypt for the past six years.

When I first started home schooling ten years ago, we could not afford to buy much in the way of educational materials and there wasn't much available in terms of Islamic material so when I came across freebies, I was ecstatic. That is one thing that has driven me to keep my site updated in the hope that others going through the same thing can have an easier job. So, for me, the time spent developing the sites are worth it.

I think crafts and other visual presentations help aid retention, as the children are more involved in the learning process because they put thought into creating something. My kids love to go back and look at what they have done, whether a craft, poster, lap book or creative writing assignment, so they are reviewing concepts on their own as opposed to more formal revision.

One of the goals for making TJ Ramadhan was to structure our learning to incorporate both secular and non secular subjects into daily lessons. Before, we would sit down and read ayat from the Qur'an, or ahadith related to fasting, but it wasn't consistent. Now, with the structured lessons of TJ Ramadhan, there is something to learn or review everyday, and that makes a big difference as far as staying in the Ramadhan mood and having more productive days.


GETTING THE FAMILY READY FOR A CREATIVE RAMADHAN
Ramadhan Control Centre
Our Ramadhan preparations start with setting up a Ramadhan Bulletin board. I found that when we started doing this, the whole mood changed. It felt like Ramadhan was coming and that it was something to get excited about.

We start off with a large poster board. I print out some letters spelling Ramadhan and the kids colour and decorate them with glitter and other art supplies. We put up our Ramadhan Calendar to mark off the days of Ramadhan. We also have a calendar that the little kids take turns colouring in a picture each day of Ramadhan. And then we just round it off with their artwork that they make during Ramadhan.

Ringing the Changes
The behaviour chart is titled, “Faster Behaviour Tracker.” Very appropriately, the hadith on this chart is “He who does not desist from obscene language and acting obscenely (during the period of fasting), Allah has no need that he did not eat or drink” (Bukhari).

It takes a few days or so for everyone to try to practise better behaviour during Ramadhan. But the chart is a good reminder for me and when I see the children misbehaving, I remind them that it’s Ramadhan and that although we should have good behaviour year round, it is especially important during Ramadhan. The chart also reminds us of good things that we can be doing to increase our Ibadah.

Ramadhan Blessings Tree

This idea comes from Sister Blake and is an excellent reminder that we need to thank Allah for our many blessings.
Ø Cut a tree out of brown construction paper.
Ø Cut leaves out of construction paper, in green or in autumn colours (you can laminate them in order to reuse them next year).
Ø Every day your child identifies a blessing in her/his life. You write this blessing on the leave and tape it to the tree after saying “Thank you, Allah, for …”

Crafts
Last year, a good friend of mine, Umm Nassim, compiled the 2007 Ramadhan craft book for the website. She was able to get permission from many sisters to post their craft ideas for which I am grateful and there are some from other internet sites. There are several different genres of crafts from calendars to mobiles, lanterns to collages and dioramas to sewing. You can download the booklet from the website.


Get cooking …
Making Ramadhan goodies for iftaar or dinner are always fun daytime activities. On the website are recipes which include Qamar al deen, a sweet drink or pudding made from apricots, to Konafah, a sweet Egyptian dish made especially at Ramadhan.


FUN AND ART FOR THE YOUNG ONES
There are 30 days worth of activities that teach important lessons in fiqh or Islamic studies on the website for the little ones.


Drawing: My kids love to draw. On the website there are printables that offer many artistic opportunities from drawing a suhoor or iftar meal, to drawing designs on prayer rugs in a lesson about the Tarawih prayers.


Colouring: There is a picture to colour with the dua for the host, for those times that you are invited out, and these make great hostess gifts. Another is of a night scene of the cave of Hira in Jabal Noor, to remind us of Laylatul Qadr when the first verses of the Qur’an were revealed. One poster shows the different ways that we travel, related to a lesson on fasting while travelling.


Journal Pages: A child fasting for the first time can record his suhoor and iftar meal, and at the end of Ramadhan, he can colour in a “certificate” to record the number of days he fasted that Ramadhan.


Mazes: To the Musalla and Back. This was a simple maze to reinforce the concept of taking a different route home from the Eid prayer than the one taken to the Eid prayer.


Crafts: In addition to the craft section, there are simpler crafts throughout the daily lessons, such as a family good deeds mobile. This is a family project where each family member illustrates and writes down one good deed on a card, which is then strung up on a mobile, to remind us to increase our good behaviour, particularly in the last ten days of Ramadhan.


HOLISTIC LEARNING FOR THE YOUTH
The daily lessons were written with my older children in mind. Themes of the day include making good suhoor and iftar choices, common medical problems during Ramadhan, fasting while travelling or sick, sighting the crescent moon, Ramadhan in history, and more. For example, the lesson for the 30th of Ramadhan focuses on Eid, with a family discussion of how the companions (RA) celebrated Eid, and compares it to how we celebrate Eid today. Something else to discuss would be how Eid is celebrated in different cultures.


On the journal page, they fill in what they ate for suhoor and any medical problems they may have had. They can also keep track of their Ibadah. There’s a daily hadith for copywork and a section for creative writing assignments such as writing a newspaper article about Ramadhan.
I would love to be able to just stop secular subjects during the month of Ramadhan and just focus on the deen, but I always feel apprehensive about doing so because I know when we get back, many concepts and skills will have been forgotten. So, I came up with the RaMATHan and language worksheets. The math worksheets feature word problems with a Ramadhan/fasting theme. The language arts worksheets (suitable for grades 3-6) review grammar concepts and correlate with the day’s theme.


One of the TJ fans has the following to say: “This Ramadhan will be the third year that I am using TJ with my own children as well as the children that I teach Islamic studies to. Unlike a more professionally developed website, the activities and printables on TJ have an organic, home-made, tried-and-tested appearance. I am constantly inspired that a mother of eight can find the time to put this much effort into homeschooling her children, and be willing to share it with the rest of us for free. What an amazing sadaqatul jariya!”

All the lesson plans, printables, worksheets and craft ideas mentioned here can be found on the website. These are the links:
http://tjramadan.talibiddeenjr.amanahwebs.com
http://tjramadan.talibiddeenjr.amanahwebs.com/tjramadandownloads/RamadanCrafts.pdf
http://tjramadan.talibiddeenjr.amanahwebs.com/ramadanrecipes.htm