Hayya Ala Salaah!

S is now praying the full five times a day. N is now prayingZuhr, Asr and Maghrib. H by accident has started praying Asr, Maghrib and quite recently Isya'. He's not 7 yet.

What I did with S was to introduce her to one salah at a time and have her commit to that one salah until she's ready to add another one. Catch : once she chooses the salah, she has to commit to it. I offer her the choices in the beginning.

Advantages of this:
1. She doesn't feel forced as she was given a choice.
2. She learns how to commit to something
3. The process is gradual and it teaches her accountability (for the commitment)
4. It gives her time to perfect the movements and recitations in salat, one salat at a time
5. Less confusion over how many rakaah one salat is
6. Gives her a sense of accomplishment at accumulating more salat until she reaches the full five

Disadvantages:
1. She will insist she doesn't have to pray a salat that she didn't pick yet
2. People at the masjid gave her dagger stares when they told her to pray and she said she didn't have to
3. She will play around while we pray the salat that she didn't choose yet

However, lately, N has been joining us for Isya' even though she hasn't chosen Isya yet. It's not every time, but at least she joined us out of her own accord. As for H, he is not officially supposed to start praying yet, age-wise, but I think, the fact that everyone in the house is praying, especially his sisters, gave him a sense of community that somewhat cajoled him to join. Hubby started bringing him to the masjid for Isya weeks ago.

"H, you wanna come with me?" he'd ask.

"Yeah!" came the excited response.

"Get your thawb," hubby would say as he put on his shoes and went out the door.

Since then, H has been doggedly following hubby to the masjid for Isya' and even gained himself some recognition, as a side benefit. Everytime they came back, hubby would tell me he talked to people. When H didn't go with hubby, hubby would tell me that some people were asking for him. Well, well, since H by nature is not as shy and reserved as his sisters anyway, it is no wonder to me that he has gained that much rapport with those brothers at the masjid. Good for him.

Alhamdulillah things have worked out regarding H's affiliation with hubby. In the beginning I worried about him stuck at home most of the time, especially sunce he is becoming more and more active. He seemed to need male interaction and modelling. Now, hubby has practically taken H under his wings. They play soccer and basketball together. They go to the masjid together. They memorize Ar-Rahman together, well, hubby supervising H anyway. They even joke together. H seemed more fulfilled, alhamdulillah. This all reminds me of Imam Ahmad Ibn Hanbal's 'hadith ball' with his son Abdullah.

H is also now 'iqamah' guy. So N has Fajr and Isya left. H has Fajr and Zuhr left.