We are very excited about Ramadan this year, simply because we are more prepared than ever before, and yet we still have a million things to do, so that should give you an indication of how NOT prepared we were in previous years.
To be honest, it is REALLY hard to prepare everything for Ramadan. Making sure the house is in order, cleaning out the fridge and pantry, meal planning for THIRTY DAYS, doing the grocery shopping, organising activities for the kids… phew…
And that’s just the physical, tangible, material things.
Ramadan is supposed to be about the spiritual… and let me tell you, I am definitely not spiritually prepared. But I am looking forward to making the time to work on it this Ramadan day because boy, do I need this opportunity.
So, let’s dive straight into the Ramadan set-up for the kids this year. I knew that I wanted to keep things neutral with pops of gold and black, with wooden elements. Because obviously it still needs to match my home right???? I also wanted to incorporate the house bookshelf we purchased recently, which we’ve designated as our ‘seasons’ set up (kind of a Waldorf inspired thing). I had to source a new Ramadan calendar, and although I really wanted to purchase one from Handmade beginnings, I didn’t get onto it in time and totally missed out. So instead, I DIY-ed this one with drawstring bags (which I very fortuitously found at Typo for $1 each, and the money goes to charity, sooo they were PERFECT) attached by fishing wire to a branch (which we used for our calendar last year). I still need to fill it up with gifts and activities, but I’ve got “daily good deed cards” in there from And then she said. I’ve been following Pepper and Pine on Instagram/Youtube and watched her “20 Candy free ideas for a Ramadan Calendar” post. I’m totally inspired to pop some seeds in every second one and having the children plant them in one big pot so that over the course of Ramadan they can see the seeds grow. They’ll be responsible for watering them and nurturing them, a great metaphor I think for what we do in Ramadan, which is to nourish our souls and connection to Allah (swt).
The Tent. Oh how much I love that tent. I really wanted an Itikaf tent, or a “Reflection Tent” and was thinking of DIY-ing it. And then I remembered how much I suck at DIY projects, especially ones on a bigger scale and I went and bought this one from Mocka instead. It was more affordable than other teepees on the internet and very easy to set up. Plus that “natural” colour was perfect. I added the string lights (from Kmart) and it’s just magical…
In the house bookcase there are a lot of books related to Ramadan. I don’t have the time to list them all now, but I’ll update this post in the next few days with the complete list. And finally of course, there is the Play Masjid from ZedandQ, which we all love.
All in all, the kids and I are very happy with the whole set up. I worked on it bit by bit over two weeks, mostly with things we already had at home, except for the tent and the calendar. I’m most pleased with the calendar, as I know that this is a design I can use year after year, until we feel the need to upgrade it. And the teepee is something we can continue to use after Ramadan. The kids are incredibly excited about Ramadan through all this preparation and I’m looking forward to a month of learning, reading and reflection all done in the spirit of togetherness.
How are you preparing for Ramadan? Do your kids get involved with the preparations? Do you think that this kind of set-up is overkill (lol)? If you are not Muslim, what kind of things do you prepare to involve your kids in religious celebrations?
