How to Nurture Your Kids With Islamic Education

in child development, Muslim scholars and Western scholars agreed that the period of 0-6YO is the most critical time in developing a child's brain. during Abasiyah age, a child at that age (preschool) was equipped with Islamic practical life lesson before they moved to Islamic knowledge i.e. al-Quran, hadis, feqah etc. in primary school and later to knowledge in other fields i.e Math, Science, Astronomy, Geography, etc. during secondary. what matter most is what he got at his below 6YO that will determine his manner toward the future.

child education in Islam is not to depend on any institution to provide such skills and knowledge. even homeschooling is not a new thing in a true Islamic culture. even Rasulullah himself was homeschooled by Halimatus Saadiah during his early years.and the famous tagline of 'al-ummu al-madrasah' (a mother is a school) could be a strong evident that Islam encourage home education.

being a full time working mom (FTWM) should not be an excuse to not able to provide a good school for our kids.

a great school of a FTWM:

1. through role modelling
it's a fitrah for a lil kid to copy what he sees from his surroundings (remember the story of a boy slaughtered his brother after seeing his father slaughtered a sheep? and the mother lost all her 3 sons in the tragedy). and dont expect to teach the kid to say doa if we ourselves just doing it for the sake of teaching him but when away from him we never care.
- perform our daily ibadah as sincere as possible and involve our kids.
- take care of our hyegiene, health, look so that we are always in a good state.
- dont show our anger toward other people in front of them.
- dont break our promises.
- avoid talking about other people (mengumpat) when they're with us.[patotnye jgn ngumpat langsung].
- dont say bad things about their father at his back.
- etc.

2. practising them
children love to learn but in our culture, we usually take 0-4 or 5 YO as 'tak tau apa & masa untuk main'. we are retarding their brain potential in any ways! non-mumayiz kids really 'tak tau apa' but at this stage, they are absorbing all the things. this supports Abdullah Ulwan's theory of 'what determines future characteristic of a child is what he sees and experiences before he turns 7'.
- wash them as soon as they finished their 'big project', wash their hands before meal, bathe them, clean them, brush their teeth,etc. as early lesson to toharah.
- bring them together during solat, say doa everytime they want to start someting, bring him to crowd, etc. as early lesson to ibadah.
- wash their hands, faces and feet before bringing them to solat, after waking up and before go to sleep, as early lesson to wuduk.
- give them toys and book as early lesson to ilm.
- bring them out as early lesson to socialization, humanity, and other values.
- etc.

3. through advice and conversation
the famous Lukman al-Hakim used this approach to educate his son (in Surah Lukman). he conveyed the message to his son through his talk. for little kids, keep saying it to them will result an echo effect that makes them remember it.
- don't take conversation with little children for granted.
- always saying good words, praise, word of encouragement, etc.
- make family discussion a routine.
- go out & about and utilize the time to have good conversation with the children.

4. through daily routine & activities
Islam suggests us to spend good and quality time with our children. even staying at home to be with our children is better than iktikaf alone in the masjid. during Abasiyah age, kids were brought to masjid together with their parents.
- involve kids in housechores such as cooking, doing laundry, house tidying, etc. if possible dont shoo them away from kitchen cos there's lots of things to learn.
- dont associate our life with karut things i.e. ghost, spirit, & other things those bring us close to syirk.
- take them together to classes we follow.
- do exercise together.
- make sedekah a family routine by encouraging them to put money into tabung masjid etc.
- etc.

and as we all know, child education should start before they are born through:
- take care of our health along the pregnancy journey.
- eat good food, in term of nutrition & sources (halal).
- think positive.
- plan for the unborn child's future, for his education, welfare etc.
- etc.
and after they are born through:
- say azan & iqamah to their ears.
- give them good names.
- breastfeed them for at least 2 years.
- perform akikah for them.

Islamic practice is nothing more than common senses. we dont have to get a degree from al-Azhar to be a good Muslim. Western & Eastern theory of child education and early learning is parallel to what Islam says about it. & following whatever theories is actually practising Islamic way, because what in those theories had been practised by our Islamic scholars' parents during the time of Islamic civilazation glittering.

if we knew about al-Razi, al-Biruni, al-Kindi, Umar Khayyam, Al- Khawarizmi, Ibnu Sina, etc., they were not only mastered in their field such as medic, math, botany, astronomy, etc. but also in other curriculum like philosophy, music, art, literacy and so on. how could they be such that great?