Wednesday, August 17, 2011

We love you RAMADAN!

(Belated) Ramadan Mubarak to my lovely readers!!

Alhumdulillah, so far we have had a great vacation, except the fact that we are missing my parents a LOT! (Alhumdulillah A'ala kuli haal).

With the blessed month upon us, and almost half way in it and our busy Ramadan routines, I feel the Ramadan spirits are going down. I think its very important to remind ourseleves again and again that this whole month is blessed and its not going to come back till next year. And, who knows if we will live to see the next Ramadan or not. So to ALL my beloved readers keep up the spirits and don't let your nafs take the best of you this month. Remember! "The devils are chained and Jahnam (Hell) is locked for ALL of Ramadan!" so WE are in-charge / responsible for our actions this month.

Spending the month of Ramadan away from home can me very difficult! I miss my kitchen, home, rounitne, and most of all my resourceful 'Rawdah'. Alhumdulillah, we are still having a great time here with my inlaws and friendly sisterhood. We have not done much sit down and learn stuff with the kids but did lots of other things to make them feel the importance of this holy month. I had so many things I wanted to do with them, so many ideas to celebrate this month... Qadr Allahu masha fa'al

Here are somethings we did... and are doing.

1) We made a Ramadan banner for the house before Ramadan started to Welcome Ramadan. I stuck to my '20 minutes a day' rule and we were done in 2 days!






2) We attended a 'Welcome O Ramadan' playgroup/Ramadan Party that my friend had hosted. They kids had a great time, they did crafts, circle time, Ramadan nursery ryhmes, and had lots of healthy snacks.

3) We have been going to lots of Iftar parties! Everyone waited till Ramadan to invite us over and now mashaAllah we have invitations almost everyday! Alhumdulillah.

4) We had prepared a Ramadan special gift for both the kids, so they feel that its something very special for us.

5) AR has been reading "The Gift of Ramadan" and "The night of decree" with me and Baba. Since he is older I try to have a little discussion with him here and there about
  • Ramadan being a special month
  • The moon
  • The extra hasnaat (good deeds) we get in this month for doing the same acts we do in other months.
  • Poor people who don't have food to eat
  • Quran and the revelation  to the Prophet (saw)
  • Atikaf
  • Extra remembrance of Allah
6) We are still listening to our Ramadan Nasheed collection

7) Ramadan crafts... coloring a masjid, and setting a pretend iftar table. AR painted a wooden car we had gotten him and we wrote Ramadan 2011 on it as a keep sake. 

8) My friend gave me this amazing Ramadan chart  from Little Explorer. Its a bit advance for AR but he still tries to go through the list by doing what he can do.



9) I wanted to give a Ramadan mubarak gift to family and friends, so I thought why not write the iftar dua on a nice paper and give it away. It was very inexpensive from our last year Ramadam mubarak gift. We gave out dates coated with coconut on a plate with a Ramadan Mubarak note.


10) We made a sadaqah jar for our brothers and sisters in Somalia. This has been great to teach him about the concept of charity/donation. We also played the game 'charity shop' by smart ark. I found it to be a great learning tool.

11) We made binocular to see the Ramadan moon and lanterns to lighten the house at night.

12) InshaAllah we'll be learning about the moon cycle.

So these are somethings we have been up to this Ramadan and this vacation. I pray to Allah swt  that all of us can make the most out of the last half of this blessed month of mercy. We should strive utmost to get His mercy and our sins forgiven and recite the book of Allah as much as we can. Make the most out of this month and the last 10 days!

Please take a few minutes and watch this video



Fi amanaAllah from us to you all <3!

1 comment:

  1. Assalamo alaikum,
    Ramadan Mubarak! I was missing updates on your blog so Jazakallah for writing this beneficial post. Hope you enjoy the remaining vacation and I home to join you in your homeschooling adventures when you are back home safely Inshallah!
    Barakallaho feeki :)

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