Teaching My Kids Charity

I've been thinking to develop charitable instincts in my girls. So much influenced by the latest enlightening booklet I read "Charity even with a trifle" by Abdul Malik Al-Qasem, I was thinking what are charitable acts that are suitable for my girls's age. I've listed a few, from giving away their old toys to giving art kits to orphans. Finally I came out with the simplest act; feeding the stray cats. The night before we fed the cats, we have a brief discussion over charity and giving to people and animals. They were so excited they kept talking about feeding the cats over and over again. (Especially Iris because she loves cat so much. I seriously mean so much.) This was some of the conversation I remembered:

Me: Esok kita bagi makan cats, okay. Stray cats, kucing yang kat tepi jalan yang takde tuan jaga. Kesian cats, dia lapar. Kadang-kadang dia cari makanan dalam tong sampah je.

Iesha: Tu-yahh. Cats mana ada duit nak beli makanan, sebab cats tak kerja. 

Me: Kesian kan. Kita boleh tolong cats esok bagi dia makan fresh fish. So dia tak makan-lah sampah banyak sangat kan. (Forget reasoning, I just wanted to make them feel good about feeding the cats.)

So the next morning, they woke up early to start their first charitable activity. We started the activity with a doa recited by Iris "Ya Allah, bagi lah kitorang jumpa cat. Kitorang nak bagi makan fish ni." I asked her to doa because I was worried we wouldn't find any cats to feed. And just after we came out from the car to find cats, there came five cats. The girls were so excited and they asked me to cook some more fish. I told them we can make this as a weekly activity, Insya Allah. 

We then had a discussion over the activity. They suggested to cook more fish next time. They also reported on the numbers and the colors of the cats. Iris also spotted one thin and unhealthy cat which didn't join the party since he came late. Iris promised herself to feed that cat next week. Iyra was so happy she kept on meowing all the way to our next activity. 

Alhamdulillah thanks to Allah for giving us idea to this simple yet meaningful activity. There are so many Quran verses and hadiths on the beautiful of giving. The feeling after giving (charity) is indescribable. I would slowly teach my children to give for the sake of only Allah, not because of showing off or just want to be praised by human. Insya Allah. So, let's check out their activity!

Iris started feeding.

The cats smelled the fish.

They came out from their hide-out.

More cats.

Iesha slowly came closer to the cats (she was a bit scared of cats).

This big cat conquered the party.

Iris tried to be fair by giving more fish to the thinner cat.

This cat is a sure monster.

Iyra joined in.

They were excited.

Iyra pointed to the cats.

Party bits.

No more fish.

Breakfast.

Fun!

"Sikit sangat-yah Mummy masak fish"-Iesha.

They took some for them. Eh?

But eh, why Iyra wore a swimming suit?

Because then we headed straight to swimming pool.

They also treated themselves with lollipops at Candylicious.