Hajj Activties # 7, 8, 9 and 10

And for the last round of activities!

7. Educating ourselves before we educating our little ones: I listened to a couple of lectures to re-remind myself about the details and and virtues of Hajj and these 10 days. Here's one that I really benefited from when talking to the kids about the rituals of Hajj.

HAJJ WORKSHOP

8. Hajj ritual setup: By using the kids blocks, making a few things and printing Day 1 to 5 cards from Islamic Bulletin Board, we setup our Hajj table. This was by far the best teaching tool we had about Hajj. It was very hands on for them. So many people did Hajj on our table, AR took almost everyone he knows to Hajj. 

Make a Kabbah and learn the hitory though story telling. You can use cardboard box, construction paper. I played safe and painted a wood box black and added some gold to represent the kabah. it. Its very sturdy. Make some hujajj in ihram we added  their wives. 

Using the kids wooden blocks we made Mina and Jamarat. You will be able to find many things to represent these if you look around the house.

We used 2 big rocks from our rock collection to represent Safa and Marwa mountains 

The empty area is where Arafah is, the Hujjaj stand there and make dua. Muzdalifah is where the people are sleeping.

Felt sacrificial animals, the camel is missing.

This project is very easy, frugal and green. We try to keep things around our home as pure and simple as they can be, the goes for play, learning, cooking and cleaning.

9. Hajj Felt story board: Using our felt story board we did some hajj related stories and a life time journey of Hajj in our imagination. Unfortunately I was not able to take pictures and now we are out of town. It was a time consuming project for prepare for me, because I had to cut out each part separately.

10. Memorize and Chant the Talbiyah, Tahleel, Tahmeed and Takbeer : The Prophet SAW said: "There are no days on which righteous deeds are greater in the sight of Allaah and dearer to Him 

than on these ten days. So, intensify Tahleel and Tahmeed."

  

• Tahleel - La IlaahaIllaAllaah "there is no one worthy of being worshiped but Allaah"
• Takbeer -   Allaahu Akbar "Allaah is The Greatest"
• Thameed -  Alhamdu lillaah "praise be to Allaah"

I pray and hope that you all find these activities a good idea and helpful teaching tools for you families inshaAllah

I pray that Allah SWT gives us all to the taweeq (ability) to benefit from these best 10 days. And also accept  all our acts of worship in these day. Ameen 

Hajj Mabroor to ALL the Hujjaj inshaAllah. 

Hajj Activities # 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6

Since we normally travel during the hajj break, I have to do Hajj based activities and learning before we leave. So we started last week and break starts in two days. I thought I would share some things we have been doing before we head out inshaAllah.

Its really important for us to make children feel a change in the home environment as we approach these important occasion, marked in our religion/life, i.e, Ramadan, Hajj, both Eid, the fast of Ashura and so on. It should be a special festival like feeling in the home.

I thought it would be best to start of from the foundation, which are the pillars of Islam and some other activities.

2.  Make a pillars of Islam model: We used cardboard rolls same as toilet paper rolls but a bit hard and sturdy, to make this. Our focus was Hajj, and inshaAllah I plan on covering others one topic at a time giving it its time to be absorbed into the kids.

3. Read a book about the pillars of Islam: We read over our "The Pillars of Islam" book. I recommend to every Muslim family. Its beautifully illustrated and written in very simple words. It comes with a partner book "The Pillars of Iman".

4. Learning Roots Pyramid Pillars: We made the Pyramid Pillars and talked about them a bit, again the main focus was Hajj.

5. Watch this video.  

Part 1

Part 2

6. Listening and singing these Nasheeds everyday. 

this

this 

And this our favorite <3! 

InshaAllah stay tuned for the last few.

Hajj Activity #1: DIY Hajj Banner

Last week we made this Hajj banner to welcome the ten best days of the year. The theme of course is Hajj but I also added the Hajj Rituals. Every morning we talk about each place and see some pictures we have from our trips to Arafah, Mina and Muzdalifah. When we did Hajj last year we took AR with us to do Jamarat, so he remembers a lot of the things very clearly.

To make the banner I used felt, needle embroidery floss, a stiring and some templates. Then I cut out the Hajj route (Arafah, Mina, Muzdhalifah and Jamarat) and the sacrificial animals using templates I had printed. You can draw yours if you are good at it. I found the templates easier and faster! I used assorted sizes and colors for the base and glued the sacrificial animals and the Hajj route on them.

AR suggested to write the names of everything on it, of course Mama loved his suggestion and thought of embroiding the names on the base. H is in love with the little felt kaba we had to represent haram.

Banners can be made from any medium, paper, fabric, foam sheets in any design, I chose Grey, yellow, white, black and blue to match our living room colors. Banners can be fun, beautiful decor and educational, H has learned so much about the Hajj with us in the last few days mashaAllah through just being part of the morning Hajj discussion.

Nurturing children: Why "early learning" doesn't help

Great Article. 

Nurturing children: Why "early learning" doesn't help