I’m Hafsa, a former Primary School teacher and now mum of 2 girls residing in the holy city of Makkah with my husband. Quran has been a central part of my childhood. My mum used to run Quran classes from our home Alhamdulillah. But my journey never stopped as I grew fond of learning Tajweed and reciting the Quran aloud with confidence, which meant enrolling on different courses, having numerous teachers to even teaching Quran at a local Quran school.

 At what age did your child(ren) start learning the Quran?

Alhamdulillah, by the mercy of Allah, my children have spent and are spending their childhood in the blessed city of Makkah. Traditionally I had always thought I’d teach them by starting with the Qaida first, but actually I was encouraged by friends to start the children with Hifdh of short surahs from as young as 3 years old. Over the years, they have now mastered the Qaida and are able to read the Quran too.

What is your current routine for hifdh?

For the time being the focus has been on reading the Quran and reviewing past learnt surahs. But I am hoping they can re-focus on hifdh once again in sha Allah. The girls usually start their Quran reading after breakfast and slowly we are extending the amount from 30 minutes to an hour so that we can include the hifdh in too.

What are your main challenges and how do you overcome them?

Because our routine for Quran is mornings, it is really to stay consistent and to ensure we catch up if/when there are distractions. If we miss the morning, we try for after Asr or before bed. Keeping consistent is the main one.

How can we make the whole hifdh experience engaging and interactive for kids?

Yes, as they were growing up we used a lot of actions (I studied some sign language in the past) and signs to help us remember certain verses. For example we pointed up with our index finger for reference to Allah. For certain Surah’s we looked into stories for example Surah Feel – we used the Story of the Elephant book by Shade7 – a fabulous pop-up book getting the kids really excited about Quran. We used flashcards with imagery where relevant. We’ve had Quran parties -where the kids and their friends come together to celebrate the surahs they’ve remembered and get to recite out loud too.

Do you have a method for revision? How do you ensure effective hifdh retention?

So the girls usually listen to the reciter via the iPad or a Quran app and repeat and then repeat a few times more until they seem to remember. When doing new hifdh, encouraging them to review becomes a challenge. So in the past we kept to new hifdh during the week and revision on Fridays only. The challenges are when they are in review mode, that’s what they want to stay in and when doing new surahs they don’t usually want to do revision.

If you were to start the hifdh journey all over again, what would you do differently?

If we were to start all over, I’d probably just plan out the surahs we are doing each week and make it a challenge to complete -as we do our homeschool work similar. Whilst the girls enjoy their connection with the Quran. -having a hifdh club meeting other friends memorising too would help (although they know their friends memorise too)

How do you keep yourself and your kids motivated to continue this journey?

This is tough one – we travel a lot, and so consistency is key. We lose track at times of the hifdh (myself included). We have some months we are doing great and then others we lose focus. So maybe a review at the end of each month would help us to find out what caused our distractions -show ourselves grace and move forward Insha Allah with the hope of a better month. I think having a teacher for the kids other than myself would help – but at the moment they feel more comfortable with me.

On days when your child doesn’t want to learn or doesn’t focus, how do you deal with it?

We take a break, I don’t push it too much. I let them play and either we come back to it after lunch or a snack or continue later. Alhamdulillah because I emphasised more on their loving relationship with the Quran, they are now happy to wake up and get going with reciting / or memorising themselves Alhamdulillah most of the time.

How important is it for parents to be involved in their child’s hifdh journey?

I think it is super important for parents to be involved in their child’s hifdh journey. Whether it’s encouragement or tracking and motivation, as long as it’s done from a place of love and understanding so the child has a loving relationship with the Quran. It also is vital that the parent has a good relationship with the child – enjoying fun moments with them too.

Did you do anything to prepare yourself for your children’s hifdh journey?

I tell the children about my own hifdh journey. Sometimes they see me reciting in front of them. They know I am memorising too and so it encourages them with their memorisation as well.

If you were to give just one golden advice to other mums, what would it be?

Consistency is key. Review how it’s going monthly with your own teaching methods. Be honest with yourself if you’re not cut up for teaching your own child – that’s ok. Find a good teacher to guide them and your job is to encourage and reward them as they progress Insha Allah.

Thank you to Hafsa for sharing these invaluable tips and advice. Connect with Hafsa and find out more about the work she is doing @mamateachesme