Wake-up call

Every morning *sigh* its really a struggle getting my kids to wake up, especially the eldest for her Fajr prayers. Even after getting to bed early and advancing the wake-up call 15 mins early, she will still be late 

Recently, I happened to come across an article from soundvision.com that teaches few tips on how to get our kids or even us to wake up for Fajr prayer. I think some of the tips are worth trying. Hope at least one of the tips works for my daughters.

The tips are :

Tip no. 1 : Avoid too much junk food
It is suggested that junk food intake, to be reduce or limit only to weekends because these food are high in sugar and tend to make people including kids, hyper and lazy. If the kid wants to consume such foods, try to limit it between Zuhr and Maghrib.

Tip no. 2 : Get the kids alarm clocks
Now this suggestion, I had done so already and the exasperating about it is that my daughter will set the alarm faithfully and yet right after the alarm went off, she will either snooze it or shut if off and went back to sleep.  Imagine I have to face this scenario everyday…. *faint*

But I like this suggestion because it went further than just having an alarm clock. It suggested that I buy a clock with the sound of Azan in it. (Psst…anyone know where I can get one?…In Singapore please?…)

I hope when I find one, the call of Azan will further help to boost them to be conscious.

Another point, the article mentioned that if one alarm clock is not enough, get two or more. Place the others in various places, further away from the bed. Why far? Point is the person have to wake up and walk to shut the alarm so hopefully by waking and walking it will prompt them to remain awake.

Tip no. 3 : Assign one of the kids the responsibility for waking everyone up.
This is also good, but I wonder if perhaps I will have more stress from it. My kids have the tendency to quarrel among themselves for the slightest matter….they either play together or fight together…hehehe

Now, according to the article using this method will create a sense of dutifulness and responsibility. The kids should take turns doing this with the older ones made responsible for getting the younger ones to get up.

Tip no. 4 : Attach getting up for Fajr with a certain privilege
Example, if your kid misses Fajr on a certain morning, he will not be allowed to go over his friend’s house or play computer or do things that he likes to do later in the day.

Tip no. 5 : For teenagers, make sure they have friends who pray Fajr
Now, this is a very very good tip. I notice that teenagers when they have friends that pray or likes to do good deeds, they too will follow suit willingly. That is why peers pressure is like a double-edge sword. It can either make you or break you. As parents, one of the things we must always remember is to know who our children’s friends are.

One of the ways to promote such good peer influence is by we, as a family, extend or widen our circle of friends to include practicing Muslim families who have practicing kids of our children’s age. Encourage their friendship as well as invest in sending kids to Muslim youth camps regularly where the habit of Fajr praying is practice.

Well, I definitely hope one of the above works for my daughters. Wish me luck!