Tips To Educate Our Children To Solah

These are the tips we use to educate our daughter to solah with us. Alhamdulillah it works for us. We educate our daughter to solah since she is 1 year old ++. Even though it's not compulsory for her to solah. We think that it's easier to educate her when she is still small, because the children learn by imitating adults.

1. Actions speak louder than words. When the baby is still small, we (either dad or mom) can hug / hold the baby or put the baby beside us while we are performing solah, so that the baby can watch our action.

It was reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) carried a small girl whilst he was praying, picking her up when he stood up and putting her down when he prostrated (sujood). This was reported by al-Bukhaari and Muslim from Abu Qutaadah al-Ansaari: “The Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) used to pray whilst he was carrying Umaamah, the daughter of Zaynab bint Rasool-Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him). According to the report of Abu’l-‘Aas ibn Rabee’ah ibn ‘Abd Shams, when he prostrated he put her down, and when he stood up he picked her up.” (Narrated by al-Bukhaari, no. 486, and Muslim, no. 844). 

How we pray while holding the baby 

2. Take out the distractions while we solah, such as toys, tv, handphone and computer.

Before we start solah, we will turn off the tv first. Or, sometimes we just turn down the volume of tv and start solah, our daughter will definitely get the remote and turn off the tv first, then only join us to solah together.

3. Always practice solah in a group / as a family and solah in loud voice for maghrib & isyak.

We used to solah together and her papa will read the recitations in loud voice for maghrib & isyak. Our daughter will follow our actions & recite together, even though the pronunciation is still not 100% correct & complete, but we can understand which surah she is reciting actually. Currently, she knows surah Al-Fatihah, Al-Ikhlas, Al-Falaq & An-Nas.

4. Get them interest to listen to adhan, iqamat or quran recitations.

She likes to listen to adhan & Quran recitations on tv. At that time, she will stop from playing, stand in front of tv & watch it until the end. Sometimes, she will grab a Quran / Iqro' book to ask us to recite for her, too.

She is placing her hands to her ears when she saw someone reciting the adhan.

5. Don't start by offering / rewarding them with something for they to solah together. However, praise them / hug them for their effort to solah together with us. Educate them that they are not doing something just because of the rewards.

We never offer our daughter any reward for following us solah. It’s true that “do this and get that” type rewards can improve behavior in the short term. However, the praise-and-reward method will cause the children end up doing things to impress, instead of doing things for themselves. The more rewards we use, the more we have to use them to keep children motivated.

6. Invite them to solah together. Don't force them if they don't want to solah. Just keep encouraging them to solah with us from time to time.

Sometimes, our daughter doesn't want to follow us to solah together. We just ask her, "Do you want to solah together?" At first, she declined. But then she suddenly stand besides us & solah together. Don't force a child to solah when it is not obligatory upon them. Educate them to give them a reason so that they solah. 

7. Buy them tudung or telekung they like (for daughter) if affordable

Like our daughter, she likes to copy our actions. What we wear, how we wear. They observe, they learn & they do. Before this, she likes to take her mama's headscarf or telekung and wear it, even the size is far too big for her. After bought her a pinky telekung, everytime we solah, she will get her telekung and wear it by herself then start solah. Sometimes, when she can't wear it well, she will get angry and cry. Haha..

1st pic: She didn't have a tudung / telekung at that time. When her papa is praying, she put on her receiving blanket to cover her head & asked her mama to wear her a long sleeve shirt.

2nd pic: She is wearing her mama's telekung. She doesn't want to take it off & can't force her to take it off too. Oh my...

3rd pic: Finally, she gets her own telekung. We bought it online. It's quite big / long for her, yet she loves it very much.