Getting Your Children Ready for Ramadan: a Simple Plan from Now

Written by Rin Aziz · Checked by Dr Wendy Booth, a student of Islam · How we write and check our blog

Why start in November

Every year the same thing happens. Ramadan arrives, parents decide this is the month the children will pray, fast, read Qur’an and learn their duas, and by the second week everyone is exhausted and nobody is enjoying anything.

The fix is boring and it works: move the hard part earlier. Habits take weeks to settle and they settle best when nothing is riding on them. November and December are quiet. Use them.

Here is a thirteen-week plan with one job per stage. Not thirteen jobs. One at a time.

Weeks 1 to 4: build the salah habit

The one job: pick two prayers a day and make them non-negotiable.

Not five. Two. For most families the easy two are Maghrib, because everyone is home, and Fajr at the weekend, because there is no school run. Pray them together, in the same place, at roughly the same time.

Two things help more than anything else at this stage. The first is that your child has their own mat rather than borrowing a corner of yours. It sounds small and it is not. The second is that they can hear the words said properly, out loud, as many times as they need, without an adult standing over them correcting.

For learning the words

Kids Interactive Prayer Mat (Blue)

Touch keys speak each step of the prayer aloud, in the right order, for all five daily prayers. 36 keys, 10 languages, and designed for children up to about 130cm tall, roughly ages 3 to 7.

See the kids mat →

Keep a simple record of the two prayers. A chart on the wall is enough, and our guide on using a salah chart without bribes explains why stickers work better as a record of what happened than as a prize for doing it.

By the end of four weeks you want the two prayers to feel ordinary. That is the whole target.

Weeks 5 to 8: what Ramadan actually is

The one job: make Ramadan something they understand rather than something that happens to them.

Children are told Ramadan is coming, told it is special, and often never told what it is for. Ten minutes a week in December sorts this out. Where Ramadan sits in the Islamic year. Why the dates move. What the Qur’an has to do with it. What Eid is at the end.

Stories carry this better than explanations, especially for the under-sevens. Reading about Ramadan a couple of months before it starts also means the questions arrive now, when you have time to answer them, rather than during the first week of fasting.

Learn it before it starts

Ramadan Activity Book

Worksheets and activities that explain what Ramadan is and why it matters. A page or two a week is enough.

See the activity book →

Books that work well at this stage: Ramadan in Space for ages 3 to 8, and Race to Umrah for ages 5 to 7. There is also a 5 Pillars activity booklet collection if you would rather cover the whole picture and let Ramadan sit inside it.

Weeks 9 to 12: practise the month

The one job: rehearse January so February is familiar.

In January, try the Ramadan shape of the day without the fasting. Eat breakfast early together one weekend. Have a proper family meal at Maghrib time and pray straight after. Put the phones away for half an hour and read.

This is also the point to add a third prayer, if the first two are solid. If they are not solid, do not add a third. Two prayers kept is worth more than five prayers nagged.

• Move bedtime fifteen minutes earlier across January, not overnight in February.
• Let the children choose one thing they will do every day in Ramadan, and keep it small enough that they will manage it.
• Decide now what Eid will look like, so it is something to aim at rather than an afterthought.

The last fortnight

The one job: make the house look like something is coming.

This is the bit children remember. Not the lectures: the decorations going up, the calendar on the wall, the fact that the whole house changed for a month. It is also the cheapest part of the whole plan.

Put the decorations up a few days before, not on the first night, so the anticipation has somewhere to go. Our Ramadan and Eid decorations are all small, simple things: bunting, balloons, paper fans.

What about fasting?

This is the question every parent asks, and it is the one we are least able to answer for you. When a child should begin fasting, and how much, depends on their age, their health and the view your family follows. Please ask your own local scholar or imam. We write about raising children and about everyday practice; we do not give religious rulings, and you should be wary of anyone selling you prayer mats who does.

What we can say from what parents tell us is that children who have been part of Ramadan in other ways (helping at iftar, praying, giving something away, staying up a little later) tend to want to try fasting when the time comes, rather than dreading it.

FAQ

When is Ramadan 2027?

It is expected to begin around 8 February 2027. The exact date depends on the sighting of the moon, so treat early February as the window rather than a fixed day.

What age should a child start praying?

Families differ, and this is a question for your own scholar. What is clear is that children copy long before they are obliged, so letting a three-year-old stand beside you on their own mat costs nothing and builds a lot.

How do I get my child interested in Ramadan?

Explain what it is for before it starts, give them one job that is really theirs, and let the house visibly change. Children engage with things they understand and can see.

Is thirteen weeks really necessary?

No, and you can start this plan in January if that is where you are. But the salah habit is the part that takes longest and matters most, and it is much easier to build in a quiet month than in Ramadan itself.

Shop this post

• Kids Interactive Prayer Mat (Blue): teaches all five prayers aloud, for children up to about 130cm.
• Kids Interactive Prayer Mat (Pink): the same mat in pink.
• Ramadan Activity Book: what Ramadan is and why, in worksheets.
• Ramadan in Space: a story about Ramadan for ages 3 to 8.
• 5 Pillars Activity Booklet Collection: five booklets covering the pillars, Ramadan included.

There are more free printables in our free Islamic printables collection.