Guest post by Rafia Tahir
Prayer has been made compulsory for every individual from the age of seven. It is the second pillar of Islam and shows prayer's importance. It gives great relief and joy to see your kid performing prayers regularly, but it is not easy to get your kids to pray regularly.
You have to face many challenges and answer many of their questions, like why it is important to pray. Thanks to my aunt, who told me the tips and techniques that helped me make my kids regular in performing prayers.
In this article, we will tell you the ways to make this task easy. Let's start.
1. Make Prayer a Priority for Kids
It would help if you made your daily life; an example for your kids because your kids note your actions and absorb them. It may seem like they are not following it, but the fact is that they are memorizing it.
If your kid sees you going to pray daily, it greatly impacts your kid. It is unnecessary to force them to join you, say once, and your kid will start to follow your steps.
As parents, try to make it a habit in your household. As you may have heard, 'actions speak louder than words.' Make it evident by your actions that no matter wherever you are, prayer is never missed.
2. Pray Together
Praying occasionally is not a problem for kids, but making it a habit and praying five times a day is a challenging task for the kids. If your kid is having difficulty remembering the times of prayer, Islamic finder is a good app to find the exact times of prayer.
To change from occasional to regular, you may start to pray together for your kids as many times as possible. Once your kid is used to the timings, you can go to the mosque with your kids.
3. Start Early
A better way to induce the love of prayer in your kid is to start early before your kid turns seven. Take your kid to the mosque even if they don't perform the prayers. The purpose is to tell them that prayer is mandatory.
Give them their prayer mat and other stuff. It will make them happy and encourage them to pray. The process helps them to pray consistently as soon as they reach the age of seven. Moreover, the habit induced from the beginning stays till the end.
4. Be Lenient At The Start
Aggressive nature and scolding your kid will not help you at all. It might scare your kid, and he might lose interest in performing prayers.
Try to focus on creating interest in your child to pray regularly rather than strictly asking them. You can try different methods to teach love; invite your kid's friend to join him for prayers, praise your kid when he performs the prayer, etc.
5. Tell Stories To Your Kid
It is evident from history that telling stories to your kids can enlighten them. Kids love to hear stories; it is an innovative way to tell your kids about the deen. This is an impactful way and has a long-lasting effect on your kid.
Any story that you think will motivate your kid to start offering regular prayer, tell it to your kid. If you don't remember any legitimate story, make a story that highlights prayer's importance.
An important thing to remember while telling stories is to refrain from telling stories that tell the consequences of not praying. It will just scare them off and not motivate them.
Tell your kids that praying is a way of thanking God for all the blessings. You may tell them about the punishments of not praying, but take things slow in the Start. Tell them about the reward of praying regularly.
6. Show Them Visuals
A kid responds to the visuals in a better way. Make a handmade timetable or let your kid make one; hang it on the wall so that your kid remembers when it is a time of prayer.
There are special charts available for kids to remember the timing of prayers. You can buy that as well. Moreover, praise your child when he prays regularly for a week; it will also motivate the kid to pray for the whole next week.
7. Take Small Steps
Making your kid punctual in prayers is very difficult so try to take small steps. Begin with prayers that are easy to pray and are short, like Asr and Maghrib.
It will make the process easy for your kids. Once your kid is easy with offering the easy prayers, you can then introduce the rest of the prayers.
8. Tell Your Kid About Allah And Prophet PBUH
Without knowing the importance of connection, it becomes a ritual. It is important to tell your kid that prayers strengthen the bond between Allah and human beings.
Tell your kids how Allah has made everything, how He provides food, how human is born, etc. Doing this will motivate your kid to perform prayers regularly and increase their love for God.
Seerah of Prophet PBUH is available for the guidance of Muslims. Make it your habit of reading it to the kids.
9. Be Patient During The Process
It is not a good practice to overwhelm your kids with many instructions. Take one step at a time; teach them how to make wudu, then teach them the correct way of saying a prayer, etc.
Focus on the meaning of prayer; why should they pray? Who are they praying to? Make sure that you convey the message. Make sure your kid understands the impact of offering prayers in our life.
Motivation is very important; it will ease the process and make it interesting. Involve kids in the process so that they feel that their presence is important. You can ask them to gather every home member for the prayer, buy them new prayer mats, etc.
Conclusion
Prayer holds a very sacred place in Islam. It is important to pray regularly to strengthen your connection with God. The process is difficult; following the above mentioned methods will help ease the process.
Author Bio
Rafia Tahir provides guest-blogging and copywriting services. Her educational background in the technical field and business studies helps her in tackling topics ranging from career and business productivity to web development and digital marketing. She is a certified Quran Scholar and she occasionally writes articles for Muslim And Quran.
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