Excellent Ideas on How to Make Use of Long Vacations

27/04/2011| IslamWeb

"Those who appreciate the value of time are the ones who make great achievements in their personal and professional life. Such people realize that time is too short to achieve everything that they want. On the other hand, the people who do not pay much attention to achievements consider that time is of low value.” [Time Management by Ahmad Abu Shaykhah].

The first school term has ended and we are now at the beginning of the long-awaited mid-year vacation. It is time to unleash our talents and make use of our time to utilize this period in what benefits our children and us.

Time is a Muslim’s most valuable asset. Every wise person must pay attention to the way they spend their time. Our children should take advantage of the vacation in response to the recommendation of the Prophet, , who said, “Seize five before five: your life before your death; your health before your sickness; your free-time before your preoccupation; your youth before your old age; and your wealth before your poverty.” [Al-Albaani: Saheeh]

But how could we make use of the mid-year vacation in the best possible way?

A good, ambitious and realistic plan is the way to success:

To take advantage of the vacation in the best possible way, by the permission of Allah The Almighty, we should first make a realistic and practical plan, because if we fail to plan, we have planned to fail.

Stephen Brennan said that we can only achieve our goals through a plan to which we adhere strongly and work hard to implement, because there is no other way to achieve success.

However, when we start making the plan, we will face a great problem, namely, the fact that the father is busy at work, which also applies to the working mother. Therefore, we must know that the first step towards a successful plan to make use of the vacation is to sacrifice for the benefit of the whole family.

The objective: Family solidarity leads to family happiness and attaining the satisfaction of Allah The Almighty

Dear educator, it is very easy to make plans and programs and to make promises, but very few people really honor their promises and implement their plans. The cause is the absence of the objective and weak belief in it, which in turn weakens determination. This means we must have a clear objective upon implementation of the plan and our belief in this objective must be firm.

The objective of our plan is to achieve unity and solidarity for the family, because they are the foundation of the family’s happiness and stability. We should work toward achieving this objective all the time, but we will utilize the vacation to reinforce it.

We must believe with certainty that any plan aiming at achieving family happiness is considered a rewarded form of obedience to Allah The Almighty on one hand, and a way to preserve and maintain the psychological health of the whole family on the other hand.

In other words, we should not consider such plans as a waste of time, but as an invaluable investment within the Muslim family. Your family is a strong brick in the great building of Islam. Its strength means the strength of the whole structure, and vice versa. The Prophet, , said:

-      “What you feed yourself is a charity for you. What you feed your child is a charity for you. What you feed your wife is a charity for you. What you feed your servant is a charity for you.”[Al-Albaani: Saheeh]

-      “Verily, Allah will question each custodian about his trust, whether he preserved or wasted it.  Even the husband will be questioned about his wife, the parent about his child…”‎‎[Al-Albaani: Saheeh]‎

-      “When Allah grants wealth to any of you, he should start with himself and his family .”[Muslim]

Your children really need family warmth:

‘Abdullaah ibn Ja‘far, may Allah be pleased with him, said, “Whenever the Prophet returned from a journey he used to be received by the young children of his family. Once, he returned from a journey and I was taken to him. He carried me and then one of the sons of Faatimah, may Allah be pleased with her, (Al-Hasan or Al-Husayn) was also brought to him. Thus, he made him ride behind him. We entered Madeenah while the three of us were riding one mount.”[Muslim]

Children enjoyed great warmth under the care of the Prophet, . Similarly, our children need warm care to embrace them after a busy term.

Educationalists state that the family atmosphere affects the personality of the children and their psychological health. Mussen’s study proved that the family atmosphere, represented in the nature of the relationship between the parents and their children, has a significant influence on the children. Hence, children who do not enjoy sufficient parental compassion are less secure and less confident in themselves. They also show signs of poor adjustment in their social relationships.

A study by Mahmood Abdul Qaadir also stresses the influence of the emotional warmth and family harmony on the child’s personality. This study uncovered a statistically significant connection between parents’ acceptance of their children and family harmony. It was found that children who live in families that have emotional warmth and family agreement, accept themselves and resist the causes of depression in a stronger way. They are also more content.

The proposed program:

We have made this plan to be an ambitious and realistic program at the same time. Hence, if we cannot apply the whole program, then we should not ignore it completely. It is a small program in size, but large in content and effect by the permission of Allah The Almighty. However, the most important thing is to continue applying it to until it turns into a habit.

The objective: Strengthening family ties during mid-year vacation through applying this program, and then pledging to apply it concisely during study time.

How will we apply the program?

The program will be applied by the Permission of Allah The Almighty using three main methods:

1-    A one-hour session called “Family Provision”

2-    A one-hour daily picnic

3-    A three-hour weekly picnic (weekend)

Pivots of the Family Provision session: ‎

1-    Faith-related pivot: A daily act of worship to be agreed upon ‎during the Family Provision Session‎ such as asking for ‎forgiveness one hundred times, performing two Rak‘ahs, observing fast, giving to ‎charity, and so on.

2-    Religious and cultural pivot:

A- Noble Quran (20 Minutes): Reading one page from the Book of Allah every day even from the 29^th or 30^th parts.  

The father should start, followed by the mother and then the children. If the children are too young to read, then it is enough for them to listen. If the whole family cannot read the Quran correctly, then it is recommended for them to listen to a page from a good reciter. Then the father or the mother can read its interpretation from a concise book of Tafseer (Quranic exegesis). The family should encourage each other to memorize that page and recite it by heart by the following day.

B-   Prophetic Hadeeth (10 minutes): You will also read one Hadeeth (narration) every day. The father starts reading, followed by the mother and then the children. The father then explains the Hadeeth concisely from a suitable book, and then all the family members encourage each other to memorize this Hadeeth.

C- Cultural competitions (10 minutes): The father or the mother prepares a cultural and religious competition consisting of 5-10 questions with symbolic gifts for the winners.

3-    Entertainment pivot: The remaining period of Family Provision session is an open period, during which the family members may have a hot meal or sweets prepared by the mother along with watching a beneficial TV program, a cartoon movie or playing a  PC game.

We should not burden our children during the vacation through frequent orders to study; rather, we should make the vacation an occasion for entertainment and recreation.

Dear caregiver, you should know that entertainment materials are not void of cultural benefits, but they may be culturally and educationally better than pure educational or cultural materials.

After the vacation:

Dear caregiver, after the vacation you should agree with your family to hold a longer weekly Family Provision Session to make up for the whole week in addition to conducting a weekly picnic, during which family members gather for entertainment and recreation.

Finally, let me give you this glad tiding: I have already started the Family Provision Session in my house and it had a great effect on my wife and children. We did not find it difficult as some people may believe and it was of great faith-related, cultural, religious and emotional benefit.