How to Stimulate Young Children to Pray The Prayers

How to Stimulate Young Children to Pray

You can stimulate young children’s understanding and practice of prayer they are already inclined to by involving them in prayer through playful/fun activities and by simultaneously talking to them about it according to their level of understanding. The following are some practical tips to do so:

Teach cleanliness and relate it to Salah

1. When you put the washing machine on say: ‘’We’re washing the clothes.’’ Let your toddler also join in this by putting clothes in the washing machine or in a little tub for doll clothes.
2. Tell your child that we use water to clean ourselves after the toilet. Say ‘water’ many times and the word ‘clean’. Also say: ‘’(name of the toddler) is clean! MashaAllah nice and clean!’’
3. The Wudu is an opportunity to bring your toddler with you, so that he can see what you do. Let your little one touch the water and repeat the word ‘Wudu’ and make it a nice moment of sharing, so your child experiences this is as a special time.
4. Let your toddler help you with keeping the room where you usually pray tidy. You can give your toddler a small brush or a cloth to clean the room with.
5. Volunteer to clean the local mosque and let your child help in his or her own way and share the excitement of keeping the place of prayer clean.

Involve your toddler in prayer

1. Make sure a Topi or Hijab for your toddler is always nearby, so that it’s easy for your toddler to put it on at the time of prayer.
2. Make a fixed place for storing the prayer rugs.
3. When you get ready for salah observe if your little one takes the initiative to get the prayer rug. If he does, say: ‘’JazakAllahu Ghair.’’ When you get ready point with your arm in the direction of Qiblah or mark the Qiblah direction. Lay the prayer rug down slowly in the direction of the Qiblah and say the Adhan or listen to the Adhan (you could use your phone or a special Adhan clock). Eventually your child will learn the words of the Adhan by heart insha Allah.
4. Before you start praying, point to your clothes and say that everything is clean and that you are ready to pray now.
5. Go to the masjid regularly. This creates opportunities to teach that the mosque is a house of Allah. You can say that everyone comes to do Salah and that they love Allah. Talk at your child’s level of understanding to enhance his understanding.

Use play to instill love and understanding for Salah

1. Let the doll also wear a Topi or Hijab that can go on and off.
2. Teach the number 5 for the 5 prayers.
3.  Make use of 5 cards for the Salah and let your toddler take one card to put it on. The card can be a picture of a prayer rug. The doll can then be put on the card as if it’s praying on it.
4. If you have a play house, cut small prayer rugs from fabric and play that the puppets do Salah, Wudu and/or that they  walk or drive to the mosque. You can lay out a route to the mosque with certain points on the way to mark the route. This can make it fun for your toddler to drive to the mosque. You could say: ‘’Here is the school, there is the shop, here is the park…’’ and then show excitement when the mosque is in sight! You can also draw a route to the mosque on a cardboard in the bedroom  and let your child drive it with a toy car. You can extend this according to his level of understanding with more routes to more mosques. Make a picture of your mosque and stick it on cardboard and cut an easy jigsaw of it. It will help to remember the Masjid and it will help to instill love for the Masjid insha Allah.
5. When you play with Lego, let your child build a minaret or mosque and repeat the Adhan.
You can not teach everything in one week, but these are sone steps to remind yourself how daily things can be used to have great interaction and create learning opportunities for your child.
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