Teaching Bella about Ramadhan

{source: Disney Baby}

It is already the 7th day of fasting, how is your Ramadhan so far?

As for me, Alhamdulillah so far I am able to fast, eventhough I am still breastfeeding. I am still careful with my milk supply, so as long as I think that I can still produce enough for Khaleeli, I hope I can continue my fast.

This year, we started talking to Bella about Ramadhan. I think she is old enough now to understand concepts, so before the holy month arrived I have tried to include fasting and Ramadhan into our conversation.

Being a typical 4 year old she is was not very interested in this serious topic, but I tried anyway. The thing about children her age is that they may seem disconnected or not paying attention to what we are saying, but then it actually does go into their mind. One day they will mention the same thing to you and you will be pleasantly surprised that it actually registered :)

"Bella, Allah will be very happy if we fast for him. Fasting is also good for our bodies, He wants us to be healthy"

"Bella, Ramadhan is a good month to help orang miskin, you know, those people who don't have rice and candy to eat like we do"

"Do you want to bake some cupcakes so we can give it to other people dear?"

"If you help orang miskin, then Allah will give you lots of stars" -- (we use that as an metaphor for pahala, it really helped her understand).

I think she is getting the message. Last night before bed, I was telling her a story about Ramadhan and she was mentioning something about sedeqah and all. I think I should take her to tarawikh prayers at the mosque too sometimes.

We always believe in building the concepts first before asking our children to jump into doing things, so I hope by the time she is ready to fast, she will understand why she is doing it. Same goes with solat (prayers) too.

By the way, I have discovered an interesting free Ramadhan activity book from Learning Roots (UK). I think it is awesome. Click here to be directed to the download site :)

So, how do you teach your children about Ramadhan? Do you have any specific way to teach them about this wonderful holy month?