With only a few days left to Hari Raya Puasa, there’s really no time for any sort of well-informed activities kit for my little one. Time-strapped moms will understand me. ๐
So here are the cheat (free) resources that I am scouring off the Internet to start off Little P’s racial harmony education. Please note that this post is really more for non-Muslim parents as Muslim parents would already be subject matter experts in this already!
1. “Know your festival – Hari Raya Puasa” English Printable & Mandarin phrases
Before we start, we of course have to do be the prepared adult (somewhat, cos time-strapped remember? :P ) So check out this free printable infographic from NLB as it’s a short and sweet summary of What is Hari Raya Puasa… cos I do need to arm myself with some general knowledge and talking points to introduce the festival to Little P right?
If you, like me, speak to the little one in Mandarin pre-dominantly, here are some Hari Raya-related Chinese phases that you may already know or need a refresher on – 5 phrases to teach your child about Hari Raya.
This video has even more phrases, but do note that this lady appears to be in Malaysia so some of the words she uses may be different from what we use in Singapore. For example, for mosque we say “ๅๆๅ ” instead of “ๆธ ็ๅฏบ”. Still an opportunity to expand our Chinese vocabulary :P (OK, Mr P informed me that “ๆธ ็ๅฏบ” is used in China.)
2. Hari Raya-themed Colouring Pages
Little P has been into working on his fine motor skills through colouring lately. I thought Hari Raya-themed colouring printables maybe something he would be interested in working on. So I also printed out this downloadable .pdf of Hari Raya Colouring Sheets from Teacherfiera.com. You can download the colouring sheets at their page here.
Check out more related colouring pages at Littleplayroom.co.uk
– Mehndi hand colouring pages
– Ramadan colouring pages
3. Hari-Raya Reads
For avid readers or avid listeners of book-reading parents, here are the 2 books I planned to borrow from the library. Yes! Both books can be borrowed from NLB if you reside in Singapore. :)
Book 1: My Mother’s Kitchen by Emila Yusof
In My Mother’s Kitchen, the protagonist is a girl who enjoys working in the kitchen with her mother.
She talks about the different food that they make together like fish curry, sambal petai and bubur cha-cha.
I like it that at the end the book comes with pictures of the actual ingredients talked about or used in the dishes. So the little ones can start to learn to recognise them!
Book 2: Hafiz and the Raya Recipes by Debra Ann Francisco
I’m still hunting for this book in the library but the read aloud video looks good. It covers some Malay words like Abang (for brother) and also it’s written in rhyme, which is usually said to be great for language development.
Buy Hafiz and the Raya Recipes on Amazon.
4. Making Hari Raya treats
Speaking about food, check out House on the Hill Montessori’s step-by-step guide to making Honey Cornflake Cups as a Hari-Raya inspired practical life activity.
5. Malay cultural music relevant to Hari Raya
Besides food, music is also an integral part of one’s culture. I chanced upon a slide deck put together by River Valley High School students working together with Malay Heritage Centre museum staff to design museum experiences for lower primary and pre-school students to learn about Hari Raya Puasa.
The following are the two songs they proposed to teach child basic information about Hari Raya Puasa. You can read more details on their slide deck here.
Original lyrics and English translation here.
Original lyrics and English translation here.
6. DIY a mini photo book or photo cards
Last but not least, Hari Raya Puasa is a festival that revolves around people and togetherness. If you would like to make available some photos of our Muslim friends for your little one to look, here are some free to use 3rd party photos (do note their terms and conditions).
- Male in traditional clothing
- Some ladies in traditional clothing
- A family in traditional clothing
- Also other miscellaneous photos – Singapore mosque, Ketupat, Dates
Remember the printable NLB infographic that I shared right at the start of this post? In the end, I cut out my print out into little bite-size sections that sort of matched the photos. This is so that Little P can see the actual thing in photos and connect it to the 2D images in the graphic. The English cut outs are too difficult for Little P right now, but I tell myself he can keep using this book for years to come. HAHAHA!
I did the DIY booklet in a rush so I have limited Chinese translations for Little P in there. (Useable is good enough, mom has no time for perfection here. :P )
We also started looking at Sagebooks on and off when he is interested. As a result, he has also started to show interest in tracing the Chinese characters we stuck here. So it was a good idea to print out these big Chinese characters for the book.
Generally, I would talk about the photos in Mandarin, and at the same time referring to Malay/English names where relevant. But if he were to ask the helper to read to him, the helper will at least have the English text to refer to.
Left: Cut out from NLB Hari Raya Puasa infographic.
Right: Sultan Mosque. Photo by Zhu Hongzhi.
Top Left: Cut out talking about traditional attire from NLB Hari Raya Puasa infographic.
Bottom Left and Right: Teachers during Hari Raya celebration in school by Nax and Male portrait by Muhammad Faiz Zulkeflee.
Peace Education the Montessori Way
In helping children relate peacefully to others, parents need to be diverse in their own experiences. Your children will naturally develop that appreciation for diversity when you do this. This means trying new foods yourself. It means seeking out communities that are racially diverse, economically diverse, politically diverse, and having those relationships.
Exposing your children consistently to other cultures, and to people who think differently than you is so valuable. If youโre reading stories to your children that are from other cultures, follow up with real experiences. You need to also eat the food of that culture. Talk about real people from that culture. Read biographies of historical figures from the same country. That way, experiencing other cultures becomes routine for kids, instead of something fascinating or fantastical.
EXCERPT from Peace Education: the Montessori Way
Growing up, my mom used to bring us sometimes to our Muslim neighbour’s house to eat Raya foods. My mom herself was converscent enough in Malay as well.
But truthfully speaking, we ourselves don’t have direct Muslim neighbours nor Malay friends that we contact on a regular basis. But I guess what I have listed above is a starting point! We all have to start somewhere. ;)
Buy Education and Peace – a collection of speeches delivered by Maria Montessori – on Amazon.
That’s all we’re doing to give Little P an idea of Hari Raya Puasa this year. He is down with cough and cold at the moment so a visit to the Malay Heritage Centre and down the street to look at Sultan Mosque is on hold. I think as we continue to come back to this topic every year the festival comes along, we will slowly build up our knowledge and have a better appreciation of what our Malay/Muslim friends are occupied with during this season.
What else would you suggest we do the next time Hari Raya Puasa comes around?
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