3 Ways To Make Ramadan Special For Kids That AREN’T Fasting

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As Ramadan approaches, parents of young kids like myself are trying to find ways to teach our children about the Holy month.

With older kids, it can be easy to explain what the month means and how we can use it to minimise bad habits. But with toddlers and young children there needs to be a balance of making the time fun and exciting, alongside teaching them its importance.

As Muslims, children are obliged to fast once they hit puberty. Before this during Ramadan, kids will usually partake in family meals such as Iftar (opening of the fast), build the habit of praying five times a day and use the time to understand the importance of helping the less fortunate.

However, as the month places a huge importance on fasting for older children, younger kids might feel left out and want to do more to get into that Ramadan feeling.

So, here are some ways you can help to make the month special for young children that aren’t able to fast. These tips have been suggested by the creators of Salam Occasions, an online store where you can buy Islamic toys, books and decorations.

Decorate your home

Making changes in your home during Ramadan can really help kids differentiate the month of Ramadan from other months.

Children love to help out, so why not let them join in to put up some bunting? Salam Occasions have a range of balloons and acrylic decoration pieces that can transform your prayer space to make it even more exciting for the kids.

Do activities

Learning doesn’t have to be boring – when teaching your young children about Ramadan and what it means, bringing in colouring books can be a game-changer!

Alongside this you can even get your kids to have a healthy competition of designing a mosque, to teach them about the importance of praying together.

One of the three founders of Salam Occasions, Raheema, says: “My three-year-old would probably be able to tell you more about Ramadan than I would because of these books!

“A lot of people are turning to Islamic board books and colouring. As a parent I’ve introduced everything to my daughter from birth and by now she knows a lot more duas (prayers) and stories of Prophets than I did at that age!”

Countdown to Eid

Counting down to a special day definitely makes the month more exciting, building up towards Eid is a great way to get your kids involved.

Now that a lot more Muslim-owned companies are creating advent calendars to help children feel more connected, you can use these to teach them a lesson a day.

You can even DIY your own and tick off each day with a ‘moral of the day’ or ‘word of the day’ related to Ramadan. Alongside this you can even use the countdown to get your child to put £1 a day aside for charity.

This can really cement the idea that Ramadan is all about helping others and being a better person.

Either way, once it gets to Eid, the day where Muslims celebrate and mark the end of the month, your child will feel accomplished looking back at the past month!

At the end of the day, Ramadan is about learning how to be a better person. Whether it’s helping your kids break bad habits such as not fighting with siblings, or using the month to educate them about religion and morals — these tips are sure to get your young kids involved in wanting to learn more.

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Consultants vote to strike in Wales

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Doctors will walk out in April over “extreme pressures” and “unsafe staffing levels”.

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Man hails ‘quality of life’ drug available on NHS

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Ross Cunliffe says “the right thing has been done” in making daratumumab available on the NHS.

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‘I was left lying in my own urine’

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A 73-year-old man says he was denied pain relief and was left lying in a bed soaked with urine.

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‘I embrace my alopecia, but I’d love my old hair back’

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People living with alopecia could have access to treatment on the NHS in Scotland for the first time.

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Putin Makes Bizarre Dictatorship Claim Day After Navalny’s Funeral

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Vladimir Putin has just claimed the world has no place for “dictatorship, double standards or lies” – more than two years after he invaded Ukraine and a day after his most prominent critic was laid to rest.

The Russian president was speaking the day after the funeral of Alexei Navalny, who died under mysterious circumstances in a Russian penal colony in the Arctic circle last month.

The Russian prison service claimed Navalny felt unwell and then fell unconscious while on a walk, and medics were not able to revive him.

He was serving a lengthy sentence on charges widely seen as politically motivated at the time.

Putin has not directly addressed Navalny’s passing even though it has become an international news story.

Leaders across the West have also blamed Russian president for his critic’s death – US president Joe Biden said he has “no doubt” it was the “consequence of something that Putin and his thugs did”.

But speaking on Saturday to the participants of the World Youth Festival, Putin bizarrely praised equality and justice, according to a report from the Russian state news agency TASS.

Putin claimed: “I know that these values are shared by the vast majority of the Earth’s inhabitants.

“This is why we must take care of them and defend them together, fulfil our dreams together, and help each other to make the lives of billions of people – let me stress this – billions of people better.

“This world has no place for racism, dictatorship, double standards or lies, and people are free to speak their language and follow the beliefs and traditions of their ancestors.”

It’s worth remembering Putin has been called a “dictator” by Biden in the past and the Russian president’s brutal actions in Ukraine have left the country pretty isolated on the world stage.

Having suppressed his most vocal political opponents over the years, Putin is also a shoo-in to win the upcoming presidential election in Russia. He has already spent more than two decades in power.

The Kremlin has been cracking down on any kind of public dissent in Russia in recent years, too.

Independent media and human rights defence group, OVD-Info reported that more than 400 people were detained at events across 32 Russian cities in the first few days after Navalny’s death – including journalists.

Mourning supporters of the outspoken Kremlin critic were even prohibited from laying flowers in his memory.

Navalny’s family also claimed they struggled to find a venue to host his funeral in Russia, with many refusing once they found out who the funeral was for.

However, thousands still turned out to show their support for Navalny on Friday, chanting “no to the war” and “Putin is a murderer”.

According to the US-based think tank, the Institute for the Study of War, the Kremlin likely allowed this unusual show of rebellion to happen to “avoid prompting wider outrage”.

The experts suggested: “The Kremlin likely did not order large crackdowns against displays of anti-war sentiment in order to avoid prompting wider outrage while also projecting confidence in public support for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his war effort in Ukraine ahead of presidential elections on March 17.”

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Jeremy Hunt’s Claim Tories Always Aim To Lower Taxes Leaves People Pointing Out The Obvious

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Jeremy Hunt told broadcasters this morning that it is an “eternal truth” that Conservative governments “try to bring the tax burden down” – but not many people agree.

The chancellor was speaking to journalists on Sunday ahead of the unveiling of his Spring Budget later this week, an annual event where the government outlines its plans for taxes and spending.

The pressure is on for Hunt and PM Rishi Sunak as Tories have been calling for more popular policies to soften the general public ahead of the general election later this year.

Hunt refused to reveal any particular policies he has lined up before his announcement on Wednesday – but he did repeatedly suggest that the public can trust the Tories with the economy.

He told Sky News: “I do want to show people in an election year that eternal truth that Labour governments spend more and tax more, Conservative governments spend more wisely and try to bring the tax burden down.”

He echoed this claim on the BBC.

“We’ve been very consistent, that we would only cut taxes in a way that was responsible and prudent,” he said, adding that he would not be announcing any “gimmicks” this week.

But, in the last four years, five different Tory chancellors have pledged to bring taxes down – only for them to rise to a historic level.

In fact, the current tax burden in the UK is the highest since World War 2.

As Labour’s shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, pointed out: “It is the Tories who have raised taxes to their highest level in 70 years.

“No matter what the chancellor does in the Budget this week, working people will be worse off thanks to 14 years of Tory failure.”

Many on X (formerly Twitter), seemed to agree.

And several users pointed out that the last few years in government have hardly improved the economy – especially after former Tory PM Liz Truss’s disastrous mini-budget sent the markets into a complete spin and as the UK is currently in the middle of a recession…

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Labour Peer Slams Rishi Sunak’s ‘Sinister’ Speech On Mob Rule: ‘Bit Of A Cheek’

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Labour peer Shami Chakrabarti described Rishi Sunak’s recent claims about extremism in the UK as “sinister” during an interview on Sunday.

Over the last week, the prime minister has condemned supposed extremists for “trying to tear us apart”, alleged “our democracy itself is a target” amid rising “mob rule” and called for the police to do more to protect the UK.

But, speaking to Sky News at the weekend, Chakrabarti said: “I don’t like his theatre, quite frankly.”

“The thing I find most sinister about it is that he’s almost suggesting that he has read the riot act to the police,” she added.

“He’s called them in, he’s told them that he wants the protests not to be managed, but to be policed.

“I think, in a liberal democracy – and he’s now claiming to be a liberal patriot, that was the language he used – we don’t have prime ministers interfering with operational policing.

“And this has been happening every so often under his government – there will be a summit where the police chiefs have been called to No.10,” she said. “And then there’s a press release about what they’ve been told by the prime minister or the home secretary, and I really don’t like it.

“I don’t think people in Britain want their politicians to be deciding how particular a police operation should be conducted.”

Host Trevor Phillips asked: “Sinister is quite a strong word for this, isn’t it?”

“It really is and I’m using it,” the peer said, adding: “It’s also a bit of a cheek for the prime minister to be talking about these things when so many of his ministers and senior Conservatives have been pouring fuel on the flames of polarisation, on culture war division in our country.”

She continued: “The language of Lee Anderson and Suella Braverman has been a real problem for me.”

Anderson, a backbench MP, lost the Tory whip after refusing to apologise for attacking London mayor Sadiq Khan, claiming the “islamists” had got “control” of the Labour politician.

Braverman, previously the home secretary and now a Tory backbencher, separately claimed “islamists” run Britain. She has not lost the party whip.

Chakrabarti continued: “It’s a bit of a cheek for the prime minister to then come and try and look statesmanlike with his reading the riot act to the police about how they should do their very difficult job.”

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Can green ‘super powders’ really make you healthy?

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Products containing probiotics, vitamins and antioxidants are being sold as healthy essentials.

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Kylie Minogue’s BRIT Award Performance Has Everyone Making The Same Glasgow Willy Wonka Joke

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A sentence we didn’t expect to be writing this evening but here we are – part of Kylie Minogue’s performance at The BRIT Awards 2024 has sent social media into a tailspin thanks to a cursed Willy Wonka experience in Glasgow.

Yup, it’s been a helluva week to live online.

If you have been, I don’t know, having a life in the real world these past few days, you perhaps missed out on the Willy’s Chocolate Experience in Glasgow that led to people phoning the police. Yes. Really.

Arguably the best bit of the entire fiasco was The Unknown, right?

Well, you can imagine the internet’s joy at Kylie Minogue unwittingly bringing out a set of dancers during her medley performance at the end of this year’s BRIT Awards who were all dressed… not dissimilarly to The Unknown.

Thank goodness for X (formerly known as Twitter which we DEFINITELY don’t still call it), as as expected, users delivered the goods.

Just another normal night at The BRITs!

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