Since I became a mom, I am hyper aware of the fact that learning happens largely at home. Also, because my son is growing up in a predominantly non-Muslim community, I have a couple of goals:
- My goal is to give him some solid foundations.
- I want to present Islam in a welcoming and fun way.
- I want to maintain his interest in discovering the religion on his own terms.
These goals drive the reason for this blog post. To those of my readers who are in the same boat as me, raising their children in a place where there aren’t a lot of overt influences. I wanted to compile some Islamic activities that will encourage curiosity in young children and if you are anything like me, you will learn a thing or two as well!
I don’t claim to know Islam fully, but I know there are some pretty cool and exciting resources that have been in circulation by other bloggers and educators that are fun to do and keep your kids engaged in religious content.
The following are some activities that I will be doing with Azan to teach him about the Islamic month of Dhul Hijja, the Best 10 days, Hajj and Eid Ul Adha.
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AGE RANGE: 3+
To begin our discovery into the month of Dhul Hijjah, the last month of the Islamic calendar, I am loving this broken down lesson plan for parents and islamic educators alike to begin the conversation with our little muslims. My Little Alim is doing 10 daily lessons to understand the many different aspects of Dhul Hijjah, Korbani, Hajj and everything else related! This is definitely my first stop as I start to teach my son!
AGE RANGE: 4 – 6
A lot of our kids have been painting rocks this year, as a way to spread joy during this Pandemic. Here is an activity that uses the familiarity of painting rocks to tell the full story of Hajj.
Handmade Beginnings also has a beautiful video accompanying her post that will further explain how to do this activity.
The great thing about this craft is, as your children understand the story better, they can add rocks with images that add more dynamics to the story of our pilgrimage!
AGE RANGE: 3 – 8
If you are like me, and have very little knowledge of all the places of significant during the Hajj Pilgrimage, this crafty and fun activity teaches kids to be resourceful and create a diorama through their artistic expression.
The best part is, this activity can be as simple or as detailed as the ages of your children demand. For example, we can use egg cartons and toilet rolls (lol – Covid 19 has caused us all to have an abundance of those) to full on clay models!
[CLICK HERE to see what Handmade Beginnings did in this year’s version]
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AGE RANGE: 5 -11
With a spin is offering a comprehensive activity kit that allows your older child to understand the process of Hajj. It includes:
- 10 interactive activities.
- A set of 8 Resource cards explaining the Hajj and some of the significant steps performed on the Hajj.
- A Hajj journey map print which you can follow along as you learn about each step.
- 6 place cards giving a general timeline of the dates and events.
AGE RANGE: All Ages.
This is an adorable story telling of the legacy of Hajar (AS)wife of Ibrahim, and her commitment to her child Ismail as she ran between the mountains Safa and Marwa looking for water for her infant. Her persistence in her need to feed her son and her unwavering trust in Allah are honoured during Hajj by making the trek between the mountains.
And last but not least, Dear Muslim child has knocked it out of the park with this amazing resource package that is visually appealing as well as jammed full of stories, activities, and interactive resources for you to be able to not only teach your kids about Hajj and Dhul Hijjah, but also keep it as a book on your shelf that you can refer to even after Eid ul Adha is gone. Here are some of the things you can expect from this stunning work:
- Printables & Crafts
- Hands-on experiments & STEM challenges
- Illustrated letters from Hajj
- Illustrated story of Haajar, Isma’eel and Zamzam water
- Illustrated story of Ibrahim (AS) and the sacrifice
- Posters & Advent calendar template
- Coloring pages
- Eid greeting card template
- Flash cards
- Hajj Journey puzzle
- Hands-on math activities
There are so many other resources and inspirations that you can gather from all over, but these are the ones I will be using personally this year and I thought that it would be useful to you, my dear FacetFam!
If you are using some other resources that you think will be beneficial to me and my son, please comment below and let me know! If you can provide links, even better, so that we can all benefit!
I hope this little list helps!
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