TEACHING THE QURAN WITH LOVE

After missing a lot of lessons and then returning to the sporadically, this week has been about getting down to business again with teaching Little Lady to read Quran.

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This was something I always ran away from as a child, seeing it as a chore and very boring. Although my dad taught me at home and never hit me, I still hated it. With this in mind, I wanted to make learning Quran a pleasure for Little Lady, something to be proud of and a goal to aspire to. Somewhere along the line, we took a wrong turn, with me scolding and LL stalling at every turn. Both of us ended up frustrated and reluctant.

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Yesterday I tried to do things differently. I asked Little Lady to take her time and when she made a mistake and got upset, I reminded her that it was okay and greatness is not in never making a mistake, but in trying again and not giving up until you get it right. This took some of the pressure off her and I found that the more relaxed she was, the fewer mistakes she made. I also sat with my arm around her for the whole lesson and she basked in the attention and affection and didn’t want the lesson to end. I offered her the opportunity to end the lesson at various points, which usually results in her racing off, but she was keen to continue for a few more pages Alhamdulillah

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I think it helped too that I allowed her to miss a few (repetitive) lessons with the agreement that we would cover these tomorrow and also allow her to choose where she wanted to end. I thought this would mean that the lesson would be cut short, but to my surprise she actually read through more than I would have asked her to for that lesson.

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At the same time, my dad has also found that reward works better than punishment. He teaches Quran at the local mosque and when we siblings were at school, we were always getting complaints from kids saying “your dad smacked me round the head us”, “your dad told me off” etc. Now he has in place a system of rewards: stickers, certificates and gifts that has meant that his class is the first at the mosque to “graduate” at the end of the year. Yesterday he was laughing that he was giving 10 pence to each child for each surah (section of the Quran) they memorise and they were all trying to remember two at a time.
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I suppose if a little bit of kindness goes along way for us, it would go even further for our impressionable children.