Ramadan activities

I wanted to post all the activities and crafts I WANTED to do this blessed month, but I was sick in the beginning and life is so busy sometimes, subhanAllah.

Since I prefer to teach History sequentially, from ancient to current,  I haven’t taught my kids the Seerah of Prophet Muhammad, salla lahu alahi wa salam, per se. Learning is all the time, so I insert a hadeeth into a discusion or in answer to a question.

So far the only serious study related to the Seerah we have done was with the book, Islamic Tahdhib and Akhlaq: Theory and Practice , by Aisha B. Lemu. We were working through the lessons on character and manners before Ramadan.

I ordered it from Amazon, but you can also get it from islamicbookstore.com. It’s a book I saw used at a Sunday school at a masjid i visited many years ago in Evansville, Indiana. The book is one of the most comprehensive, yet easliy understandable on character and manners that I have seen. It is written at about middle school level, but good for adults, too. Please, if anyone has any recommendations, leave me a comment!

My children were learning World History along with Geography, inventions, events, Prophets and Peoples, roughly in order but for Ramadan I wanted to focus on the biography (Seerah) of Rasulullah, salla lahu alahi wa salam, as well as understanding the importance of Ramadan.

So I used a few sites for them to read from, mainly I read to them or Dd(13) reads to Ds(8). I also own a few books on seerah but many Islamic books can be downloaded free online at kalamullah.com, just enter a specific book or subject in the search box.

Here are a few children’s seerah websites we’ve used:

http://www.prosyst3ms.co.uk/8965/index.html (For younger kids with booklets to download, printout, and worksheets)

http://www.seerahforkids.info/seerah/ (For good readers or older kids-has backround music, if you want to mute)

http://www.musalla.org/Seerah_3.html (For good readers, with backround information on Prophet Ibrahim, alahi salam, and the Hajj)

http://www.kalamullah.com/sealed-nectar.html The Sealed Nectar, Seerah of the Prophet. In depth, can also be used by the parent as a guide.

This link is nice as a reference, simple timeline of dates and events in Rasulullah’s time: http://www.islamicemirate.com/resources/timeline-of-the-prophets-saw-life.html (sorry this is no longer available)

When teaching History, I sometimes used Ibn Kathir’s The Prophets, but I am a huge fan of the amazing work compiled by Dr. Shauqi Abu Khalil, published by Darussalam, titled Atlas of the Quran, Places, Nations, Landmarks.
I was even more pleased to learn that Darussalam also published Atlas of the Prophet’s Biography, also by the same author and can be read online or downloaded through google books :

http://books.google.ae/books?id=mZmBkoDa9fcC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Atlas+of+the+Prophet%27s+biography&hl=en&ei=wyXaTqHXBs7nrAenxOHODQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=book-thumbnail&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Atlas%20of%20the%20Prophet’s%20biography&f=false

This book can be used also as an outline for Seerah studies or to read stories of Rasulullah, salla lahu alahi wa salam, to kids.

One of my favorite sites, with an interactive timeline of the Prophet Muhammad, salla lahu alahi wa salam: http://prophetictimeline.com/home/index2.php (edit: this link does not seem to be working 6/9/16 however it may work with just prophetictimeline.com but I could not get it to load. Here are some alternatives although I cannot vouch for them entirely:

http://www.thirteen.org/edonline/accessislam/timeline.html

http://www.historyofislamtimeline.com/

http://www.pbs.org/empires/islam/flashtimeline.html

http://www.prophetictimeline.com/Prophet/Timeline.php

Another helpful link : http://ummmaimoonahrecords.blogspot.qa/search/label/Ramadhaan Great sister’s blog with MANY resources, links and activities for Ramadan, maa shaa Allah.

I wanted to upload our crafts, which I will inshAllah, although i wanted to do that before the last ten days of Ramadan started! This is Dd’s third year of fasting, i think, and my son is trying to, so it’s been difficult to get them both awake and alert at the same time, including me! Most of the time, i have to be there to provide the enthusiasm or motivation, at least for Dd, crafts aren’t her thing but Ds is always raring to go, ready to try anything! lol

Tomorrow I hope to do a masjid/minaret diorama with the kids. I had a neat idea to make it different. I will upload pics, inshAllah.
Also, when i figure out how to upload docs, I will add a couple coloring books to this post, iA. Here is a simple one I have but you can get it here now: http://www.muslimhomeschool.net/lessonplans/colourin/ramadan%20colouring%20book.pdf

Finally, another important goal I had for Ramadan is for the children to learn all the necessary du’a like, breaking the fast or duas for forgiveness. We also read ayaat from Quran about fasting.

I hope something in this post was useful, al hamdulilah. Please forgive any mistakes from me, for Allah Alone is Perfect and free from error.

May Allah, subhan wa ta’ala accept your fast and forgive your sins, this glorious month that the final revelation to mankind was revealed.

I hope you and your family are in the best of Imaan and health.

Read Full Post »