At young ages, most children are really interactive. They can’t sit still for very long and have short attention spans. Insha Allah I wouldn’t personally worry about too structured teaching at really young ages. One can teach his/her child very naturally about Islam.
Some ideas:
Teach duaas naturally. When you eat have him/her say Bismillah. When he/she goes to the bathroom have them say the duaa. Let them hear you say duaas throughout the day. Sometimes they amazingly pick up duaas (and some quraan) without formal instruction, by hearing them repeatedly, consistently.
Teach simple adab/hygiene. Eat with your right hand. Make istinja after using the bathroom, etc. From experience, I have learned that it is easier to teach these skills while they are young. When they are older, they get set in their ways and it is more difficult to correct “bad” habits.
Children love to be read to. Read the Quraan, Stories of the Prophets, ahadith and talk about what they mean. Ask them questions about what you read. Answer their questions. Try to paint pictures in their heads about what you are reading.
Teach them basic aqeedah. At 18 months I started teaching my youngest daughter and now my youngest son to respond to “Ayn Allah?” Where is Allah. Of course they don’t really understand the meaning at this point, but when I ask him where Allah is, he points to the sky (well, if he is laying down he may point off to the side, but the foundation is being set for when he is older, insha Allah.
Just take your daily routines and remember Allah much and teach them how to do things Islamically. Explain why you do this and that. (e.g. We start putting on our shoes, brush our hair with the right because the Prophet (salla Allahu alayhi wa sallam) did this. When you see them eating with their left hand, respond with the quraan or ahadith, like, ash- shaytaan yakul bis shamail. The shaytaan eats with his left).
Those are just some of the ideas that I had. Life is full of lots of “teachable” moments that don’t require worksheets and textbooks. Take advantage of them! (I am saying that to remind myself as well).
I have lots of posters and printables for Islamic Studies for older children at http://talibiddeenjrtoo.amanahwebs.com/is_home.htm
Filed under: Islamic Studies
Mashallah a very good blog, Please take a look at Haq Islam site and link it up here if you think it of benefit.
Wasalam
Salam
Jazakumallah kulul jaza wa yjalahu fi mizani hasnatikum inshlallah
for creating this great website, I have just started weekend school it help me a lot in setting up lesson plan, as I luck teaching skills & help me to be more interactive in teaching islam. Ihope for more lesson plan for kindergarten & elemntery leve in Seera & Aqeedah with worksheet
jazakum Allah
Amina ( umYousof)
Bahrain
Salam Alaykum
Masha’allah a well organized blog. Keep up the great work. We are also in Yemen, Tarim Hadramout. It would be nice to see u one day
wa alaykum us salaam,
Masha Allah. Thanks for the comment. I was hoping it wasn’t too “all over the place” sometimes I just get to posting and may not categorize things quite so efficiently. How’s the homeschooling going down there? I don’t know much about that area (basically any area outside of Sana’a). How do you like it down there?
Assalamualaikum TJ,
your blog and website are excellent! I wonder how you have the time to do all these work plus homeschooling your children and managing the household chores?? I have a helper at home but still finding it difficult to manage…
Keep up the great work!
Nani