Asalamu alaykum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu ladies, 

Ramadan is just days away from us and I wanted my kiddos to be excited!  Our beautiful guest only comes once a year, so it’s important we prepare for its arrival. The Salaf us Salih used to prepare way in advance and we are guilty of not having the same yearning. So I wanted to get us going, but not the usual couple of weeks before Ramadan which tends to be more the physical preparation. I want our minds, hearts and physical limbs to start preparing for this beautiful month right now.
This activity is aimed at younger children, but even my older kids like to join in. The main objective of feeling excited, and waiting in anticipation for Ramadan is felt by everybody though because our ‘house’ provides a great discussion point that everyone can get involved in.

So, let me introduce our Ramadan guest house where Ramadan will be staying. He has been gone a whole year, so now the grass has overgrown, the dust has settled all over the windows, and there is no furniture inside -what can we do?? 

Well, let’s get ready for Ramadan’s arrival! Take a peek at the blades of grass…

Every question pertains to something related to Ramadan, and you will notice I kept the questions fairly simple. The reason I did this is I know many families begin their Ramadan preparation a little closer to Ramadan, and as Ramadan draws closer, we will be learning about the fiqh of Ramadan in more detail. For now, these simple tasks can be incorporated into your homeschool pretty much straight away and can also be used as an after school activity for kids that go to school. Every time the kids complete the task, cut the top off the blade of grass to show it has been completed. In the end, you will be left with a beautifully mowed lawn.

The dusty windows? Wipe away the dust and encouraging quote of Ramadan will appear..

And don’t forget the inside. After mowing the lawn and wiping the windows, the kids can draw all the materials for the inside of the house. So our house, both inside and outside will be ready to welcome our special guest. 

What you will need:
A thick piece of card/poster board. The size depends on how big you want your house. 
Paint or coloured paper
Glitter
Black marker
Plastic wallet and white paper OR a laminated piece of paper.
Glue
Scissors
A list of tasks you would like your kids to complete. This can be customised to the ages of your kids. 

Begin by measuring half of your board and then half again. Bend these to create two flaps.

Draw on the details for the house and paint. You can also use coloured paper if you wish. For the inside, I wrote a little message for the kids and left the rest blank for their drawings.

 

After the house is complete, sketch out some blades of grass of different lengths and paint green. You could also write on coloured green paper. Ensure the blades are wide enough to write out the tasks clearly. Write on the tasks (in the top half) and glue onto the house. Make sure you don’t glue on the blades, just glue the bottom so the blades will be easy to cut later. 

Next, write out your inspirational window messages on white paper. If laminating, write out the messages and then laminate. However, if using a plastic wallet trim off the edges, write your messages and then glue back together.

We also added a Welcome Oh Ramadan greeting to our house, you can type this out or paint directly onto the house. 

Our house is now starting to take shape…

But the windows are still clean. Time to dab some paint onto the plastic wallet/lamination sheet.

There you have it. We are now ready to get mowing. wiping and preparing our house for our guest, RAMADAN!

Share any ideas you do as a family to build up the anticipation for Ramadan below!