Having spent the first 9 years of my life in a Muslim country (Kuwait), the month of Ramadan was a very different affair. But even when we moved to the UK, I still remember some amazing times.
Some of my fondest memories are of Eid when I was in school. I loved that the whole family would go for prayers in the morning and when I say the whole family I mean aunts, uncles and cousins the whole lot of us. After that we would all get together at one of our houses for a spot of lunch and then go home to get changed into our next outfits for dinner which would normally end up being at our house.
These days, everyone is too busy to get together. Most of us are married and hardly any of us get together anymore. The ones that work don't want to take the day off due to the uncertainty of what day Eid will fall on as it's all based on the lunar calendar and the most of us ladies are reluctant to go for prayers as it's so impractical.
I struggle to think of what my kids will be like and how they will get excited about celebrations in our religion. I want the excitement I had to be the same for them. Living in a western society it's always going to be a struggle. Don't get me wrong, I love living here and I embrace every part of it, I'm the biggest kid and the first to put up a Christmas tree. I love Easter egg hunts. Obviously, none of these celebrations have a religious meaning for us but I see no harm in enjoying them with the kids.
So, thinking about it for a few years now I decided that Zak and my niece Sofia and nephew Hayder was old enough to start learning more about Ramadan/Fasting etc. When brainstorming for ideas, I realised very early on that the Christmas Advent calendar had the right idea. They interact with it and receive a treat everyday and here is what I came up with.
I bought these little boxes online from Crafty Capers. In hindsight, I would probably have gotten bigger ones as these don't really have much room for treats but then that would have meant getting a bigger frame to put them in and I'm not sure I could have found space for those.
I bought some decoupage paper pads from Hobbycarft, for the tops of the boxes I drew around the outline of the lids, cut them out and stuck them on using PVA glue. Once they had dried I used rub on numbers from Sticker World to date the boxes. It is so hard to find number stickers appropriate for this kind of thing. I wasn't entirely happy with the sizes but that was my own fault, I was in a rush to get them made before Ramadan began.
Once I had worked out the best layout I bought some frames to fit all the boxes in, I got 20"x16" frames. Using some of the same paper that I used on the boxes lids I covered the backboard and left the mount in too. Once that had dried I stuck on the boxes using UHU glue.
I wrote out a question for each day that would teach the kids a little bit about Ramadan/Islam and with a little chocolate I filled each day.
And voila, the frames were complete....
Ideally, if I had more time I would have made a Ramadan sign for the top. Hopefully I can do that for next year. The best thing about these calendars is that they can be used every year, the only thing, would be to refill the sweets and once the questions were no longer appropriate they can be easily replaced with harder questions.
Ramadan Mubarak to you all.
Some of my fondest memories are of Eid when I was in school. I loved that the whole family would go for prayers in the morning and when I say the whole family I mean aunts, uncles and cousins the whole lot of us. After that we would all get together at one of our houses for a spot of lunch and then go home to get changed into our next outfits for dinner which would normally end up being at our house.
These days, everyone is too busy to get together. Most of us are married and hardly any of us get together anymore. The ones that work don't want to take the day off due to the uncertainty of what day Eid will fall on as it's all based on the lunar calendar and the most of us ladies are reluctant to go for prayers as it's so impractical.
I struggle to think of what my kids will be like and how they will get excited about celebrations in our religion. I want the excitement I had to be the same for them. Living in a western society it's always going to be a struggle. Don't get me wrong, I love living here and I embrace every part of it, I'm the biggest kid and the first to put up a Christmas tree. I love Easter egg hunts. Obviously, none of these celebrations have a religious meaning for us but I see no harm in enjoying them with the kids.
So, thinking about it for a few years now I decided that Zak and my niece Sofia and nephew Hayder was old enough to start learning more about Ramadan/Fasting etc. When brainstorming for ideas, I realised very early on that the Christmas Advent calendar had the right idea. They interact with it and receive a treat everyday and here is what I came up with.
I bought these little boxes online from Crafty Capers. In hindsight, I would probably have gotten bigger ones as these don't really have much room for treats but then that would have meant getting a bigger frame to put them in and I'm not sure I could have found space for those.
I bought some decoupage paper pads from Hobbycarft, for the tops of the boxes I drew around the outline of the lids, cut them out and stuck them on using PVA glue. Once they had dried I used rub on numbers from Sticker World to date the boxes. It is so hard to find number stickers appropriate for this kind of thing. I wasn't entirely happy with the sizes but that was my own fault, I was in a rush to get them made before Ramadan began.
Once I had worked out the best layout I bought some frames to fit all the boxes in, I got 20"x16" frames. Using some of the same paper that I used on the boxes lids I covered the backboard and left the mount in too. Once that had dried I stuck on the boxes using UHU glue.
I wrote out a question for each day that would teach the kids a little bit about Ramadan/Islam and with a little chocolate I filled each day.
And voila, the frames were complete....
Ideally, if I had more time I would have made a Ramadan sign for the top. Hopefully I can do that for next year. The best thing about these calendars is that they can be used every year, the only thing, would be to refill the sweets and once the questions were no longer appropriate they can be easily replaced with harder questions.
Ramadan Mubarak to you all.
