I feel like I've not prepared as much this year as last - actually, I know I haven't because most of it is just a repeat/re-using what I did last year. 😂😅
Things for me:
1) Batch cook and then freeze individual portions of onions/garlic/tomatoes to save cooking time during Ramadaan. I started this around a month before Ramadaan last year and actually have just continued doing it ever since! I'll buy one bag of onions, one garlic and two packs of salad tomatoes during the weekly shop and cook them all at once one day during the week. I'll take out the extra mix and keep in individual freezer bags in the freezer (so one bag per meal) then cook whatever dinner I'm making that day with what's left in the pan. Then later on in the week when I don't have time to cook from scratch, I can just defrost one bag in the pan (or two if I plan to cook a larger amount to last for two days!), add the relevant salt/spices/meat/veg and dinner is done in less than half an hour. 👌 In the weeks before Ramadaan, I'll make sure I have enough in the freezer so that I won't have to do any cooking from scratch for the whole 30 days, insha'Allah. Alhamdulillah, Ramadaan is not all about the food in this household... And I'm grateful my husband prefers a proper meal at the end of the day instead of the usual fried foods which take much more time and energy to prepare!
2) Clean the house! Change all the bedsheets, scrub down the kitchen and bathroom, mop the hard floors, vacuum the carpets (including behind sofas, those nooks and crannies, etc.) If I know its all been done properly just before Ramadaan, I'm happy just wiping down and vacuuming visible surfaces until the month's over. 😊
3) Have a general tidy up/declutter. All those sideboards and shelves which somehow accumulate junk... Old clothes and toys, ready to give away to charity... This process takes a good few weeks as I don't have time to do it all in one go otherwise! Then one final sweep through the house in the days before. 💪 Similarly, any odd jobs around the house which need doing but have been put off (e.g. DIY things, filing paperwork, the garden, etc.), we try and get those done before the month starts, too!
4) Plan Eid outfits. At least get the clothes bought and the outfits decided, even if I don't iron them - I did that before and somehow they ended up creased in the wardrobe anyway, so now I've decided to just do them the night before Eid instead, insha'Allah. 😅
5) Buy and wrap Eid gifts. Another thing I don't want to waste time thinking about or doing during Ramadaan itself!
6) Set a Quran goal. I made a list last year with how many pages I'd need to read a day in order to complete the whole Quran within the month - I'll admit I'm not the most fluent of readers, so it was useful for me to have a concrete benchmark each day to work towards. I also worked out how long it would take me to read that many pages and planned a suitable time each day to fit it in. Last year, it happened that I'd have some time after Fajr and some between Maghrib and Isha (i.e. when the kids were asleep!) so I could split my reading between then.
7) Set a Hifz target. I'll also admit my strengths definitely don't lie in memorisation! A manageable goal from before was to memorise one ayah from Surah Al-Mulk each day, which meant the whole surah could be completed by the end of the month. 💕 This year, I think I'll make the effort to concentrate on Juz 'Amma - with the added goal of being able to help my children with their hifz more easily too, insha'Allah!
Things for the kids:
8) Get the decorations ready! Previously, I've put them all up myself the night before as a surprise for the kids... Now they're a bit older, I'll let them help out and it'll reduce my workload too. 😂 Same goes for Eid decorations - some of them are pre-bought (e.g. tinsel, balloons, etc.) but others we can make together during the month as an activity in itself, insha'Allah.
9) Prepare a Ramadaan calendar. I've seen lots of beautiful ones (but expensive or time-consuming to make! 🙈) online, but last year I simply printed out the numbers 1-30 (in both English and Arabic numerals), mounted it on a piece of coloured card, they coloured it in and decorated the edges. Each day the twins would take it in turns to stick a sticker in the morning to signify which day we were on and a sticker in the evening to show the day had ended... (I also prepared a small container with pre-cut stickers for them to choose from, so will be re-using that, insha'Allah!) Not sure how we're going to do it this year with three kids lol - just more taking in turns! Maybe when they're a little older they can have individual calendars, especially if they're going to try and keep the odd (whole/half) fast here and there, but for now we don't have the wall space or desire for clutter. 😂😅🙈 You can download our calendar template here.
10) Decide on 30 Good Deeds. We did this last year and it worked well - the girls have requested to do it again this year! So with the lack of time, I'm re-using what we prepared last time lol. We decorated an old container with tissue paper mache and stickers; I printed out 30 flower shaped templates onto coloured card (you can download the Word file here) and cut them out, then we talked about the kinds of good deeds we could do and I wrote 30 of them out, one on each flower, for them to then decorate the petals with glitter glue pens. Aside from needing a little touch up (as some of the writing has faded, especially with the paler glitter gel pens!) these are fine to use again this year, I think! So the cards go in the container, they take it in turns to choose one at random each morning, then they have the day to complete/focus on that good deed. We couple this with reminders on gaining reward and how the month of Ramadaan is blessed with the chance to get even more reward than usual! Here's our list of 30 deeds, for reference:
1. Smile at people outside.
2. Feed the birds.
3. Listen to Mama and Papa straightaway.
4. Give salaam quickly.
5. Share my things.
6. Say "Bismillah" before doing things.
7. Say "SubhanAllah" 100 times.
8. Say "Alhamdulillah" 100 times.
9. Say "Allahu akbar" 100 times.
10. Make dua to Allah.
11. Make dua for someone else.
12. Help Mama with some chores.
13. Tidy up after myself.
14. Give some toys to charity.
15. Tidy up my bedroom.
16. Say "please", "thank you", "sorry" and "excuse me".
17. Call Nani for a chat.
18. Make a card for Dadima.
19. Speak in a soft voice.
20. Let someone else go first.
21. Learn more Arabic.
22. Read extra Quran.
23. Pray sunnah prayers.
24. Not waste water.
25. Not waste colouring pens.
26. Help look after our little sister.
27. Bake food for someone.
28. Donate to a food bank.
29. Give people compliments.
30. Make Eid decorations.
After they chose a deed each morning, we'd put Blu-tac on the back and stick them around the fireplace as both a reminder and to create a wall display of flowers. After the month was over, we left them up for a short while then took the opportunity to discuss them as we took them down.
11) Prepare 30 Hadith to read through together! I think we'll just use this book again this year, as all the work's been done for us: 30 Hadith for Kids by Zanib Mian. We used this a discussion prompt in the evenings just before bed, like a bedtime story replacement. The girls used to look forward to it, and the book's been put away since, so I'm sure they'll look forward to it again this year, insha'Allah. 💕 Maybe when they're older, we can concentrate more on hadith specific to Ramadaan and fasting, but just introducing the idea of hadith and familiarising the girls with the idea of them is enough for me at this stage.
12) Have a Quran routine ready. Alhamdulillah, we already try and have daily Quran sessions but admittedly these are sometimes missed on particularly busy days or cut short for one reason or another... So I need to ensure more priority is put on the Quran - and Ramadaan is a good boost for doing so. Many people say that first thing in the morning is the best time to do it, so I think I'm going to try having a half an hour slot blocked out after their breakfast. Once we get into the routine of it, I'm hoping it will then stick even once Ramadaan is over, insha'Allah! Within this month, though, I want to spend 5 minutes at the end of each session reading through some translations of surahs they know... Ideally, this should be planned out already! But honestly, I've not had the time to do it so will just have to wing it each day. 😅 The idea being to strengthen their bond with the Quran, especially if we can pick out Arabic vocabulary they know within ayaat, too.
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