We all know the significance of Praying in Islam. It is our duty as parents to ensure that our kids do pray at the appropriate time as well as ensure it is performed in a timely manner.
I would like to point out that patience is very important here. Do not rush them, we don’t want a situation where they only pray because of your presence. In most cases children tend to follow the foot steps of their parents. If you are a very dedicated parent who prays on time and takes prayer as a priority, you have a higher chance of your children turning like you. Action speaks louder than words, they say.
Here are some tips to make our kids prayer;
1. Take Sallah seriously: action speaks louder than words: As parents we have to be serious with our prayers. It has to be a top priority. When your child notices that you drop every single activity where you hear the adhan they’ll know it’s important. We have to show in action and not speaking.
2. Always call them to pray with you: Yasir Qadhi also said we should make sure we call our kids to pray together with us rather than telling them to go and pray. I tried and the difference was just remarkable. It will also be like a bonding time for the family. These kind of memories stick in the heads of our kids as they grow older.
3. Make them pray gradually: I normally make them pray just Magrib, when they perfect I increase the number of prayers gradually. This is also very important so that we don’t bombard our kids. We want to make sure they don’t only pray for our sakes.
4. Maintain a prayer journal: You can create and print a prayer journal for the children. It helps them keep record of the prayers they recite in a day. At the end of the day, sometimes, you can give some awards to the winners.
5. Colorful prayer mats, Hijabs: We have so many colorful and customized praying mats as well as hijabs for children now. Children generally get attracted to colorful objects, so making the prayer room attractive really helps
6. Tell them stories: sometimes before or after prayer, we should tell our children very nice stories such as Seerah or stories of the Prophets. If they are used to this tradition, it will make them want to pray more and more
7. Be patient , throw reinforcers and always
praise them: Please DO NOT shout on them because they refused to pray, you have to be consistently patient, most of these things perfect with age. We have to understand that certain things children cannot even comprehend the value until they reach certain age. When they pray, always praise them.
Signed
BeingMuslimah