Busy baby Mama blogs

You know this year is super mad busy. Kids going back to school, and many to do list that just can’t seem to get down. The last thing I’m thinking about is an Eid Party. But how can I not? One thing I realized about our Muslim children is that they are exposed to birthday parties that are so attractive that it’s important to celebrate our holiday just as special if not more to make it a memorable and an extra special event.

I came up with a to do list.

1. Make invitation cards and give them out at your next Iftar in the masjid. DOWNLOAD HERE: eid invite-1. You can also request each child to bring a gift for another child (no more than $5- $10). So each child will go home with a gift. Also let them know that the gift should be non gender related. This will make gift exchange hassle free.

2. To make decorations you can print this download (DOWNLOAD THIS: eid mubarak party bag labels ) on color paper and paste them on centerpieces. Add balloons around the rooms, and tissue chains. You can choose a color theme like green and white. Make a big poster sign that says Eid Muabrak. Kids can easily make this for you in a jiify.

3. To make a goody bag, print downloads and paste them on goody bags. The content can be healthy treats. I found Annie’s gummy rabbits packs and chocolate chip granola, a nicer alternative to candies. Also Dollar Tree has some nice party favors and school supplies that you can walk away with a lot for $10.00. Party City’s might have some sale items that you can get for 10 cents -25 cents per party favor.

4. Decorate a home made or ready made cake with “Eid Mubarak”. Add moon and stars if you like. you can draw a mosque, palm trees, little muslims…your imagination is the limit! This image is from brilliantcakes.com

5. Nasheed that you can have on while the kids enjoy playing.

6.  Game Ideas:

Arabic Alphabet Hunt -children will have to find all 28 Alphabet letters which are hidden around the house. You can put write the letters on an index card . Have them placed randomely around the house or room. When they find them, they  bring them back to get a small treat. As they find them they put them in order and they all get a prize.

Eid Clothes Game- This is for 2 players or two teams. Each team will get a small bookbag or suit case placed across the room. They must race to the bag, gab a bag, and put on the clothes and race back to their starting point. The team that finishes first wins. 

Tubs of Ilm Water game : Look at this link.

Islamic Pictionary: Make 2 teams. Play this game like the regular Pictionary. Each team member in both groups  must draw a picture of something from the Quran or Quran-related until their team members figure it out and shout the answer.

Musical Chairs with Nasheed: Play the same game except use Islamic songs.

7. End of the Party finale!

Gift Exchange-Have them decorate a brown shopping bag, and attach ribbons as handle. Place all the gifts they brought in one garbage bag that can not be seen. Each child can dip their hands inside without looking. They immediately put this in the gift bag. Instruct them not to open it until they get home if you like.

Make a Palm Tree Pinata out of  brown shopping bag and green paper palm tree leaves. It’s takes 10 minutes to make, and anyway it takes less than that to break…

End it with Surprise balloon toss! One teacher at Hamza Academy, Zahra Biler, had secretly blown up 20-25 balloons, put them on a bed sheet,  and thrown them in the room at the end of the party.  Yell “EID  MUBRAAK!”  before tossing them, which will naturally signal the kids to go chasing after the loose balloons. Soon as they grab one, you might want to write their names on them.

After such a fun and exciting event, send them home with their goody bags, gift bags, and their balloons. Insh-Allah, they will be begging for next year Eid Party.

Busy Baby Mama blogs

So the masjid is packed. You don’t want your child to be dangling his feet on the balcony of the sister’s section. You know your baby is going to wail every time the Imam recites Takbir. When you  are forced to stay home with your kids because you have no choice. Ramadan just doesn’t seem all too exciting anymore. Wrong! This is the best opportunity to have a wonderful bonding family time that you could ever imagine! Here are some simple tips to make the last ten days with your toddler a spiritual experience for everyone.

And if your toddler is a late night sleeper, and you just can’t get them to bed…well, why fight them?  Join them! 

1. Convert one of your rooms into a masjid. Fill your masjid room with prayer rugs, Quran stand, Copies of the Quran, Dhikr beads, some Islamic story books for kids. Add Islamic artwork on the wall. Try to have as little furniture as possible in the room.

2. Make a Chart of Good Deeds for praying this special Tarawih prayers. DOWNLOAD HERE: Toddler Tarawih Chart. Have a decorative box full of prizes and treats.

3. Have your child eat a full meal, and shower before the last Isha prayer.

4. Keep a special basket filled with hijabs and kufis. Only keep the hijabs that will not fall off while you pray. They tend to try putting it back on and get frustrated while you pray.

5. Boys can call the Adhan. So can little girls if they want too! Or have all the kids take turns each day! What a great opportunity to learn and practice the Adhan!

6. Hand out Special Ramadan Tarawih Tasks. Give them special tasks to make them feel important. Let them fix the rugs, check to see if they all are in a straight row. Place cups and bottles of water near each row for thirsty family members who have fasted all day while they pray! 

7. Pretend “Pray” with Dolls and Toys. Line up their dolls for prayer as well. They can be in the back. Begin by  imaginary play of the dolls wanting to go for Tarawih prayer. Dora can have hijab, and curious George can be an Imam.

8. For little babies and toddlers- Give them lots of distraction like snacks on nearby tables, and their favorite toys (not the noisy ones!)

9. After Isha prayer- Sit down and have them sing a Ramadan song, make a special dua, listen to Quran stories, recite the Quran. Let them listen to you read the Quran aloud, they tend to imitate, you might want to have some dua books so they can use that to imitate you.

10. Keep it short. “Read very short surahs, so if they join you in prayer, it’s easy for them to follow. Don’t get irritated if they jump on you and ride you like a horse. They may even run around while you are praying. It’s not really important that they pray, but they see YOU praying. Sometimes we are tempted to put them in another room and watch TV while we can peacefully make salah, but we allow the children to be slipped away by the dunya of entertainment.

11. After completing the Tarawih- Give them a sticker on their chart, and a treat from the treaure chest. Within a week, you will see that running around and horseplay will gradually slow down, and they may insist in leading the salaah, or calling the Adhan. They will automatically ask for hijab, and will even help you put out the prayer rugs. I never forget once when I finished my fard and started folding my rug, my child said,  ” What about sunnah?”

12. Before going to bed, let them listen to the Quran. Ending the day with Quran is the best thing you can do with your child. Tuck them in with an Islamic story, and recite their duas, dhikr, Surahs and go to bed!

Busy Baby Mama blogs

After reading this post, I had to try making my own! I made this one with my child using a tomato sauce jar, tissue paper, wire and beads.

1. Use watered-down glue and tissue paper, and let your child paste the color tissue on the jar. You can add designs, by cutting heart shapes, moons or stars.

2. When completely covered with the tissue, paint modge podge over it to seal your child work.

3. Wrap wire around the top of the jar. Leave enough wire that it can make a loop and tie to the other end.

4. Have your child add beads through the wires. Finally, tie the open end of the wire to finish! 

5. You can use LED light, or even tea candle ( I found the bottle very heat durable) and have it as house decoration. If you want to take it out I would recommend using plastic jars.                                        

My daughter was so thrilled, she could not wait to take it to the masjid to show her new home made fanoose at  the local masjid!

Busy Baby Mama blogs

The Prophet (pbuh) said “This is the month of charity in which believer’s sustenance is increased. Whosoever feeds a fasting person or gives a fasting person a single date or a sip of water, to break the fast, for him there shall be forgiveness of his sins and he will be saved from the fire of hell, and for him shall be the same reward as for him (whom he fed)” (Tirmidhi)

The children are  never too young to learn about charity. It seems the younger they are, the more compassion they have for those who do not have. I remember hearing that one masjid made Iftar baskets to give to the needy people around their area. So my daughter and I got busy, and made our own.

Here are the steps you can take to make your own Iftar basket.

1. Buy baskets at the 99cent stores, or sometimes thrift stores have a good deal of them! You also need cellophane wrapper , tape, and ribbons.

2. Buy food items that can make one family meal. For example-For Pasta Dish, Buy spaghetti, tomato sauce, spices, fresh oregano or thyme, pamasan cheese will go in the basket. You can even add your favorite recipe too.

3. Have your child put them inside the basket. Explain each ingredient will make  the recipe. Help your child wrap the basket with cellophane. Add tape to any openings. Twist at the top, and wrap it with tape to secure the top.

4. Embellish it with Ribbons and Eid Cards! This one was a dot paint Eid Card made by my little infamous artist!

Busy Baby Mama blogs

Thank you Rayah and Behi Abdelmaged for sending us this picture of your beautiful Ramadan Journals! We truly enjoyed looking at them! We hope that your journals will be filled with happy memories and reflections in this Blessed month. For those of you who would like to make your own Ramadan journals, here is the link. 

Busy Baby Mama blogs

The sweetest month of memories with reflections of worship, and tears and joy  passes by so quickly, it’s difficult to keep track of what really happens each Ramadan. Sometimes we have those beautiful unforgettable moments that get placed in the deepest part of our memory. We cherish it in our hearts…I remember those tearful moments like  praying Tahajjud prayer  with thousand other worshippers on the 27th of Ramadan at 96th street masjid in New York….or the happiest time when my daughter was born during Fajr on the 4th day of Ramadan. We chuckle at the time when my son was 3 years old running upstairs having a big play fight while we were making our Tarawih prayer downstairs (and we could hear everything!) I tell my children every Ramadan like oral tradition, we would remember some…and forget some.

That’s why I decided to make a family journal every Ramadan where we can be together and write down these wonderful times we share. We make one time during the day to write together, and the rest of the time they can choose to write on their own.  Before I go to bed, I jot down a few comments to leave my kids to encourage them to keep writing. By the end of Ramadan, the journal would be filled with fond memories, hadith, Islamic stories that can stay in our family tradition.

Getting kids to write might be a huge task, but I decided to make ONE  regular composition notebook to fill with our family inspiration the entire month. And that seemed to work just great for me. We have a box of markers, gel pens, color pencils along with pens. We keep inside  few swatches of scrapbook paper, clip art, stickers, and embellishments, and leave it on our coffee table. This gives chance for even Ramadan guests to contribute in our writing marathon. Some older youth might want to make their own.Why not? Every year they can add to it until it is full.

First cover the regular composition notebook with scrap giftwrap, fabric, and collage of pictures. Add modge podge if it’s mostly paper. Add letter foams to say “Ramadan Journal” Write all the family members’ names.

Inside the book, it can be a collage of writing mixed with photos, clip art etc.  You can add hadith and ayahs in english to help youth realize what this Holy Month is about. Every Ramadan, you can look back and see some events that we can laugh and cry about.

Here are the ones I made with my children….and don’t forget to share your photographs of your decorated journals so we can post it on Facebook!  

Busy Baby Mama Blogs

My child loved watching this video from Creative Kids. She loved the idea of the author narrating his own story and illustrating it all. Taking inspiration from this video, she went on to creating her own Ramadan story. It took her a few minutes to get started, but it kept her busy for over two hours putting her thoughts on paper. She then did the next best thing- created her own video; by narrating it and flipping her pages to her story on my laptop camera. It was a great project to do. She wrote about all the things she gets to do in this special month of Ramadan that she doesn’t get to experience any other time.

I personally love the fact that it was all on video because how often do we save our children’s work? The papers get put aside in a safe place only to collect dust and perhaps end up in the trash can a few years later. I even had an idea of using this video as a “Ramadan Mubarak” card to email her grandparents and family members. I am sure they will enjoy seeing her on video and make their Ramadan that much more special. It’s just our way of sharing the joys of Ramadan and parenthood with our loved ones. I hope you get inspiration to do this project with your little ones.  A 3 minute video is really simple to create and email to dear ones. I am hoping she makes one for Eid and we can email it as our way of saying “Eid Mubarak” Insh’Allah!

Busy Baby Mama blogs

I’m getting the jitters…Ramadan is right around the corner and am I prepared for it? For most sisters who have kids, and I mean even one can seem like you have a full house…the challenge during this Holy month is how to make delicious Suhoor/ Iftar and at the same time read the entire Quran. I would love to lounge on my living room carpet and indulge in my personal ibadaah, but then as usual that dreaded time comes when I HAVE TO COOK. Yes, instead of pulling out the Quran I have to take out the pots and pans, and begin my daily ibadaah of making Suhoor. I know I’m still getting blessings by making those parathas, french toasts, and hot cereal in little or no sleep…but I ask myself every year, will I have ‘time’ for my own worship?

Then I came across this website. Myhalalkitchen.com. These 2 posts from her site were a life saver! This inspired me to make  my own Ramadan Menu template and get organized in the kitchen so I can spend less time preparing food and more time preparing for my Akhirah. Inshallah! 

 Download here:  Ramadan Menu Calendar  Template. 

Busy Baby Mama  blogs

My heart went out to a child who was holding a 9 month old baby during the late night tarawih prayer last year. I asked about her mom, and the 10 year old Egyptian American girl responded with a smile and not a trace of detest, “She’s at work, and my dad needs to pray” I thought to myself this could be a wonderful time to bring children together while adults are praying and do craft activities, and have babysitting services so that someone like my little muslim worker can get a little break to enjoy her Ramadan. I always see youth escape after 8 rakahs, running around the mosque enjoying the Ramadan moon care free of their parent’s eagle eye.

It’s Allah’s mercy on some of them, that they grow to love the masjid and Islam even though there are no fancy activities for them!  However much I admire their courageous and carefree spirit, I still wish that there can be a children’s program during Tarawih prayer and give them a fun time filled with games and craft activities to make their Ramadan memorable and special.

This can be started by few concerned mothers (even fathers) who frequent the masjid. They just need one room in which they can bring some art supplies, games, craft materials, papers and even playdough. Mothers who have their “month break” could watch the children (as long as they are not in a musalla area), or some young teenagers as well. If they can afford to, add small playground sets inside. If everyone want to contribute financially to this, they can even hire a baby sitter to watch the kids. Bigger centers that have extra space away from the musalla can hire instructors to give lessons in karate or taekwondo. Don’t forget to have a schedule posted for volunteers and times that they can be available for extra help. I believe it would run pretty successful if there is even 2-3 people involved.

Please let us know if you were able to implement this or are already doing it, I’d love to hear from you about it!

Busy Baby Mama blogs

Here comes the sun…and the 101 playdates I have to plan for my children. In search of some fun summer recipes (not too time consuming and easy on the ingredients),  I found this one. My kids really enjoy it and it’s so easy to make….and did I forget to mention it’s healthy?

Chocolate Banana Pops

I lay out a plastic table cloth and invite all the kids over to the table to make their own Chocolate Banana Pops to decorate and have later.  It gives them a constructive activity to do before they run off to play in the sun and sprinklers. When they return, I serve them with  some milk…

But did you know that bananas are also mentioned in the Qur’an as one of the fruits of Paradise? When you are making this recipe with the kids, don’t forget to mention these facts:

Although the bananas in paradise are far more superior to the ones on earth, I have to say you still get a lot of healthy bites out of this yellow fruit.

Bananas are especially recommended for fever, digestive system disorders, cramps, and muscle slackness.It also is known to decrease blood pressure and are used to treat allergies.

Sometimes it is hard to convince the junk food generation the importance of having banana rich in potassium and Vitamin B, however I was on a hunt to find a recipe quite so tasty that even the sweet tooth toddler will come for seconds…