How to foster the love of learning in your Muslim child?

‘Oh, you don’t know this! Oh, you don’t know that’

I got fed up from repeatedly hearing these statements from my friends at college.

They were making fun of me because there was so much basic information that I did not know or even hear of before.

It was time for change, it was time to do something about this.

So, I thought to myself that I need to learn a lot of things but how can I do that.

The only answer I could think of then was to READ.

Photo by Hayffield L on Unsplash

Reading was the answer.

But I hate reading, I can’t even stand reading one sentence from any book.

So, I needed a plan.

And this was my plan, on the first day, I would have to read one sentence from a book and then the next day, I would have to read two sentences and the following day, I would have to read 3 sentences and so on.

But what was I going to read?

I stared to think about the topics that I like to learn about, then went to the bookstore and got myself a nice interesting book.

And the war began; the first day I read one sentence with GREAT hardship, can you imagine that reading only one sentence was such a hard thing for me!

The next day, I read two sentences and I was going to faint (not kidding), and the day after, I read three sentences while thinking I wasn’t going to make it and would lose the battle.

But, with great determination and desire (as I was being made fun of), I continued to follow the plan and remember I had chosen a book about a topic that I like which helped me at this stage of the journey.

Happily, today, I can easily finish reading a whole book in a few hours (by Allah’s grace and mercy).

If I told anyone who knows me today that reading one sentence from a book was so hard for me, they won’t believe me.

So, it isn’t always a bad thing to get mocked at, now I know

Why, am I telling you this story?

The first reason is to encourage anyone who finds reading hard or doesn’t like it and the second reason is because when the parents love reading and gaining knowledge, they can easily transfer that love to their children.

I had already loved reading, when I had my first child, so, I started to get children books to read for my child and I started to read to him after a few months from his birth. I would read a lot to him, we could read about 15 books in one sitting and every day, he would come back to me to read those books to him or other books.

So, he grew up with the love of books and reading.

But, most importantly, he grew up with the love of knowledge (By Allah’s grace and mercy).

We read for the sake of gaining knowledge and not for the sake of just reading, for you could be reading all day, but what you are reading isn’t beneficial.

Gaining knowledge is the purpose and reading is one of the ways leading to that. And not just knowledge but beneficial knowledge.

I wanted to share some steps for raising a child who loves to learn and gain knowledge through reading as one of the ways leading to that:

– You yourself must love reading and gaining knowledge.

– You start reading and providing your child with knowledge from an early age which will instil the love of knowledge in them from an early age.

– Teach the child to read for himself (using any suitable program for you).

– Teach your child to read with expression and not just to read with the same monotonous tone throughout the book.

– Bring beneficial books of your child’s choice to read that is suitable for this age.

– Continue to read to our child from books above their reading and comprehension level to improve their vocabulary and learn bigger ideas.

– Discuss the information/knowledge that you read in any book.

– Show the child that you love to read/gain knowledge yourself by reading In front of them.

– Showing happiness to any new knowledge that they come to you with that they have learnt from a book or any other source of knowledge even if you already know it.

It means that the atmosphere of the home is full of love for gaining knowledge and learning, like a beehive.

Photo by Jonas Jacobsson on Unsplash

I hope I was able to paint a picture about the importance of reading as an aid of gaining knowledge.

Nobody wants to be ignorant.

Read for a reason.

Read with expression.

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