children at mosque?

[heaven2002]

do you think muslim parents should send children to mosque for two hours every evening (usually mon-fri)?
or do you think parents should teach their children at home in evening?

ive often heard parents say that their child is not learning much at mosque which isnt surprising considering there are usually about thirty in a class and they each get about 5/10 mins with the teacher to recite

wudnt it be better for the child to learn about islam throught their parents and get that 1-to 1 attention from them at same time?

any parents here who have children that go mosque in evening or who teach them at home? id like to know ur views/experiences

[.: Anna :.]

there are benefits from both and its up 2 the parent to decide which is better for their child, depending on the child's disposition and the parents ability to teach, quality of teaching in the masjid etc...
personally if i was able 2 teach them at home and give one to one attention i think i would like to do this, also bc u as a parent know how they are progressing as sometimes wen they go outside 2 learn u arent able 2 keep on top of it so much. but also going 2 the masjid means they will b in a routine with it, and also mixing with the other muslim children is something very important. if done only at home sometimes the mum gets busy with cooking, cleaning or looking after the younger babies and wont hav chance 2 dedicate enough time for teaching the older kids or mayb she feels she doesnt hav enuf knowledge herself compared 2 those who teach in the masjid.
I think its ideal for the children 2 have a mixture of both, teaching @ home and outside. not necessarily masjid every night but they could do islamic school on weekend, or they could have private tutor in hifdh and tajweed, or they could attend an islamic school monday to friday, and parents should incorporate islamic teaching wit them as much as possible, eg in the bedtime stories, in the general chat with them

[Irfan GBH]

I think sending them to madressa is a good thing, as long as it's a good ustaad who actually bothers teaching the deen instead of just reading qur'an

[ghanamuslima]

I do both, i send them on sundays, and work with them at home during the week as i think it's too much for them to rush to the masjid after school.:)

[Ebony]

Should send them to the mosque and check up on their learning, teach them from your own end too; have supplementary resources on the side :up:

[Nazias]

Alhumdulillah, it is good that they learn about Islam but that can to a certain extent depending on your knowledge yourself, as it ends up a very long day for children and the come in half asleep without their homework the next day and I personally found parents who could not cope with their children sent them there to give themselves some peace, even though they had already spent 6 hours in school :rolleyes:

[umm Asiya]

Assalamuwalaikum, i pray this reaches to you with a smile inshaAllah

I can relate to this sister, i myself taught at a madrassa wen i had free time, but due to uni i was unable to fulfill the 2 hours for the classes. Anyhow, i agree that the kids should come masjid because when they go to (a state school) or dependin on what sort of environment the child lives in, they might learn alot of bad manners, learn to wna implement the western concepts, so for them to spend that 2 hours at masjid is really good coz it gives us the chance to help clear their minds from fitnas around them, and give them a clean slate to work from. it keeps them focused and brings them back to islam, makes them fear allah

I myself am not that good a teacher, my arabic needs improving and i have tried and tried n tried as much as i can to help the children, its soo hard subhnAllah coz i love teaching. Its such a problem when sometimes (not all the time) the children are adopting western concepts and their parents might take it lightly, this might nt be true in some one elses situation, bt wer i taught subhnAllah reality is- its hard to put a madrasaa of 2 hours and abit of teaching from the parents together if the child himself doesnt put these 2 things together. You need adab from home and correct principles of how to be a muslim from home, and then from the outside world. otherwise its like starting from scratch 1 each day, the child dont develop.

My question or agenda is this- do you think its a good idea to send children to a state school and not a islamic school, at the same time send them to a madrassa?
subhnAllah i have seen, believe me i have seen the difference between the children that go to islamic schools and the 1's that dont, its nt their fault, and they keep trying hard to become good muslims but if that 1 to 1 attention n help isnt given at home, then it becomes difficult.

so my conclusion is its a good idea to send children to the masjid for a couple of hours, BUT ALWAYS REMIND THE CHILDREN TO IMPLEMENT WHAT THEY LEARN INTO THEIR LIVES at all times, so when they grow up, it wont be so hard for them, and they will grow up practising islam, and know how to handle situations and refer to Islam insahAllah. the youth is very special, it should be in the heart of every muslim to help the youth. i really learnt alot from the children wen i taught, they would tell me they wished their parents helped them, they felt at a state school eevrything they do is wrong coz they keep getn in trouble, their parents might nt trust them etc...some said at school im good bt at masjid my behaviour is bad n i dnt no why (these are all TEENAGERS) , we need to speak more about such issues to see how we can help one another to improve, on another forum a sister actually sent me her lesson plans for when she used to teach so i could learn from her and improve even though i dont know her. subhnAllah help one another out- success will be ours:o
Allahhafiz

[perfectpearl]

A parent can teach them what they want them to learn and avoid others beliefs. For example if there is a Sufi Imam and his teaching the kids, the kids will learn the Sufi way and would believe its right. A salfi mom has to get that thought of wats right and wrong out of the kids mind and teach them from all over again. To aviod that a mother should just teach her kids at home.

If they go at the mosque it depends if the ppl around them are negative influence.

If theres good ppl at the mosque then its okay if parents there kids. The kids will surely learn a lot.

[tru muslimah]

yeh if the madressah's good and everything and the teachers are good then its good they go to the madressah

but then theres no problem if the parents wanna teach their kids what tehy need to know

[RashidD]

I think both should be done... Especially as the child gets older as there might be fiqh lectures or explanations of hadith going on in halaqaat at the Masjid which the parent might not know or be able to explain as eloquently as someone well-versed in the Deen. InshaAllah they could benefit from that!

The second part is i think there should be regular sessions at home whereby the family might read books with each other like Seerah, Qur'an, Tafsir and Hadith or any topic etc which they can... Also, let's not forget that with appropriate + proper Islamic ettiquette our actions can be lessons/ reminders for people.

[junaidb]

my respected elders, brothers, sisters and lil ones

:salams

the best madressah is that of the mother.....kids must learn at home more than they learn at madressah....

i think that they must be sent to a madrasah to fine tune their quraan recitation,fiqh etc.

but the onus is still on the parents...u are responsible for your flock.....

from my personal experiance......i send my kids to madrasah but at the same time they spend many, as much as 3 or 4 times longer learning at home.

and most importantly.....Madrasah must always be given preference over school.....

most ppl tend to make school a very important aspect of their kids lives and send their kids to school early morning till mid afternoon yet you send the very same child to madrasah after school for at most 2-3 hours when he/she is already tired out with the school........dis has always bogged me....i mean why shud we as parents do this to our kids????? isnt this hypocrisy....

curious to hear responses from my respected fellow brothers and sisters....

:coolbro:

[zaki]

there are lots of children that go to the mosque i go to every night there is classes for them which mashallah is very good :)

[naila-k]

When my daughter is old enough I would want to send her to Madrassa, but I agree that it can be tiring for a four or five year old child to have such a long day. My mum is a primary school teacher and she feels sometimes the children are too tired to concentrate at school. I would like to send my child 2 or 3 times a week not every day, so they also have tiem for extra curricular activities and to just relax and be children.
I know people who wanted their child to go to Islamic school but couldn't get in due to the high demand, so sometimes things are easier said then done. I would love my child to go to an Islamic school.

[MG]

as everyone said, if they are not learning anything, then you need to check what the teacher is doing wrong....because if they cant teacher over a specific number, then they shouldnt be taking that many children in one class.

Normally it should take the average child approx 1year (if they attend regularly throughout that time) to learn how to recite the quran and thereafter you can enrol them into proper classes to learn about quran,what its about, the deen as well inshallah

[Lovetolaugh]

Assalamu Alaikum,

Children at mosque? Great, if they're really sitting and learning, it is fine. But if they're brought there so that parents dont have a babysitter and the kids can freely run in the mosque, it destroys the tranquility of the place of wordship. A mosque is first the place of prayer and this is the last place you want to see restless kids.

My friend is even harsher than me on this, she thinks people shouldnt bring their kids to Muslim events when there are speakers.

This reminds me I haven't returned my survey for the masjid. I have an idea about Ramadan and crazy kids.


Oh one more thing that shouldn't happen in mosques is women chatting behind those who are praying after they stopped taraweeh prayers.

[hanifa]

I don't really know the situation in Britain or America. Here, in Saudi Arabia, I want to home school my children, but send them to Quranic School as well. Also, I plan to send my boys to the local masjid to learn recital of the Quran as soon as they are old enough.

About 4 years ago I did hear from an Albanian immigrant in East Croydon, that he sent his kid to the mosque "to learn about Islam". He was a very weak brother, who did not even know how to pray properly, but fasted Ramadan, married to a Filipini woman who worked in the shop with him (they spelled one aother). He told me that the teacher at the mosque would use a ruler to hit the children (on their hands, I think) as a memorization aid. Needless to say, when the man heard of this abuse of his children (from them) he withdrew them from the lessons. Thusanother Muslim family may have been lost in the sea of kuffar. He barely knew anything of his Muslim heritage, and when he attempted to 'gain it back' for his kids, the madrassa methedology put him off.

Is that a common problem, or is it rare, nowadays?

Hanifa

[Blue Tulip]

I had a very negative experience with these types of mosque/muslim school, my younger brother who went there actually got hit with a stick so bad that it left a bruise... ... anway before i could complain someone else had the courage to cuz this certain teacher had thought his classroom was a boxing ring so had been throwing punches around.......... therefore got arrested!!!

In addition to this, in my experience alot of parents send their kids here to learn about islam and think that they dont need to do anything at home... so as u can imagine the impact this will have on the kids... i have seen kids with quran in their hands swearing and kicking each other....etc etc....

so I would never ever send my kids to these sort of places... would rather invest in a private tutor to come to my house to teach on a one 2 one basis in my precence cuz to be quiet frank i dont trust them to be alone with my children

[dawud_uk]

a child gets up, has 30 mins with its parents to shovel some food down its neck then to school and then spends 7 or 8 hours at school.

7 or 8 hours learning dunya, learning secularism, learning free mixing, learning all religions and ways of life are ok and all valid, i could go on and on.

then they have an hour or two learning the Quran, but not its meaning or how to put it into practice along with the sunnah and we are shocked when such kids become secularised and obsessed with the dunya

[afsalim]

My father has been taking me to the masjid since I could remember. Even now I see a lot of fathers taking very young children. Yes, sometimes they cry or make a lot of sound. But most of the times they look at their fathers and mimic their prayers. Children should be in touch with their spirituality from a very young age. InshAllah I'll take my kids to masjid when they start crawling...

[aboosait]

.....Madrasah must always be given preference over school......

:jkk:

In most of the localities where there is a sufficient number of Muslim immigrants the philonthropists have opened schools for the upliftment of the community. Whereas these schools are affiliated to the Gocernment boards of Seconary education, there are parallel short term courses on Islamic basics conducted by Mullahs in the local mosques. While the schools ae supervised by their management as well as the Government, the students of the local Madrassas are at the mercy of the Mullahs, most of whom are uneducated in worldly knowledge.

I call upon the Muslim philonthropists to start schools that teach Islamic basics, Qur'an and Sunnah for an hour each day along with the curriculam prescribed by the Government so that by the time the children complete the school curriculam and write their Board Exams they would have learnt along with physics, chemistry and Mathematics, the essentials of Islam.

:salams

[poppy22]

I work with year 6 children in a school where nearly all the children are muslim (it is not a muslim school).

Most of them attend mosque after school around 5 until 7, every mon - fri. Now most of the kids tell me they hate going - this is beacause it is too much for them (rememeber, they are only children) and they get tired and another reason that crops up alot is that the teachers are allowered to hit them and that they shout alot.

Now, is this the way that they should be taught?

I feel that just going on the weekends would be better. We should let them learn at their own paces. I think that if it is forced so much, they don't really understand the meaning of it.

A teacher comes to our house 3 days a week. for only an hour to teach my husband's younger brother and i think for a child that is enough.

If you force it on them, do you think they will learn anything?

[aboosait]

Most of them attend mosque after school around 5 until 7........


it is too much for them (rememeber, they are only children)


and they get tired and another reason that crops up alot is that


the teachers are allowered to hit them and that they shout alot.


:jkk:

I have taken the above factors also into consideration when posting my suggestions here:

http://www.ummah.com/forum/showpost.php?p=2680216&postcount=20

The teachers in such schools will be trained in teaching techniques and will be under the observation of the parents and management always.

:salams