What was my part about?

I have been skimping on N's Quran lately. We're supposed to do the reading, checking tajweed, and tafsir Ibn Kathir for half a page after Asr or Maghrib, and do memorization with meaning and some Arabic keywords after Zuhr.

So, last Sunday, after Fajr, I felt unexpectedly fresh, and I told N to get the mushaf and read with me. The day before, I had asked her to get her mushaf while waiting for Rh to do her '20-minute wudhu' (Rh, if you're reading, this is dedicated for you ;)), but she dawdled, and we blew that slice in time. So since she didn't read on Friday and Saturday, I made sure we read that Sunday. And since S and H haven't been reading with their father, I read with them too.

We ended up sitting in our prayer garments, and H is in his thawb, for about 2 hours that morning!

N went first, reading half a page of her portion in Surah Al-A'raaf. Then H read his one page portion in Surah An-Nisaa'. S then read her one page portion in Surah Hud. I then proceeded to read the verses they read and do the tafsir of each portion.

While waiting for S and H to be done, N laid in bed with her prayer garment, and fell asleep. When I was going over her portion, she was still sleeping.

"N's sleeping!" said S.

"That's ok. Leave her," I said.

Since the kids wake up for Fajr now, and stay up for Isha', we have a sleep problem. These kids do not want to go back to sleep after Fajr, and recently when I asked why, they said,

"Because we usually do Quran after fajr."

"Yeah, and then by the time we're done, we're hungry."

"And germy-breathed," quipped H, flashing his artificial dimple.

So when N slept, I was somewhat relieved, for even with their daily two hour or so nap, they still don't have enough sleep.

By the time we were done, Baby Z had a really full diaper, was fidgety because he had been romping around the room ever since we prayed Fajr, getting no breastmilk or food, and the time was 8:30 a.m. N happened to wake up while I was doing the Tafsir on S's portion, on when a group of angels came to Prophet Ibrahim alahis salam and then Prophet Lut alahis salam.

After S took Baby Z downstairs to feed him, I told N,

"You missed your part, N. You slept."

"No, I didn't," she replied.

"Yes you did."

She was so sleepy she didn't even realize she had fallen asleep. I'm sure it was a sound quality sleep, inshaallah. I put away the Tafsir books on the table, and she came to me and asked,

"What was my part about?"

To be honest, after all the elaboration on the story of Prophet Lut alahis salam, I had forgotten about what hers was about, and I didn't expect her to actually ask me what she missed, subhanallah!

I looked it up.

"Oh, it was about how when nations after nations are thrown into the hellfire, the newer nation will blame the earlier nations for misleading them."

And she went downstairs, satisfied, catching up with what she had missed. When she finished surah Al An'aam and started on Al A'raaf, I told her,

"Oh, N, this surah is interesting. It tells about some people who will be sitting on a wall and are able to see both hell and jannah."

Ever since then, she has been excited to listen to the tafsir, though she has always had a fascination for listening to the meaning before. In a few more verses, we will come to that part of the Surah.

Now, whenever I do the Tafsir with N, I ask the others to come and sit and listen too. Doing it in small chunks each time, I think, helps prevent burn out.

However, as soon as I looked at the time when we were done, I said out loud,

"We have been sitting here for 2 hours! Will never do this again."

Even though it's good, it's a tad unrealistic for us to do this everyday, because at some point, Baby Z might not cooperate waiting to be bathed, fed, and nursed so long, and long sessions may very well lead to burn out to the speaker and the listeners. Short sessions, I have found, work better with kids, as they retain the material longer and better.

"Stop before they ask you to stop," is my motto for any lessons with the kids.