Well, it all started about 3 months ago. I was having this intention of experimenting whether a child can memorize surah2 from the Holy Quran. So I thought, why shouldn't I start on my son, AZA who is only 5?
What I did was just let him listen to me recite the surah first, then stressed on the sequence of the ayat, and then let him tried. Once he got all the pronunciation right, he next moved to recite the whole surah, under my observation, corrected him along the way...Mind you, I know I was quite firm with him on this sometime, because Insya Allah this will make him memorize better.
These steps were done mostly everyday, on our way back home after picking him up from his school. Yup, it's true everything must be done consistently, so we did this everyday without fail. Spent about 10 mins for this, and the rest, we just talked, sang out loud of the music played in the radio.
To add on that, incentive works well, too. I've spoken to some of his teachers, and they said it's fine to attract children with incentives for anything they'll be doing. I told him if he can memorize 5 surahs, I would bring him to National Zoo. And he did it, Alhamdulillah (fyi, my son is yet to read Muqaddam or Quran, just went for Iqra' lessons). Then the next time he was asking for more. So the conversations went like this:
Me: If 7 surahs, I'll bring you to Sunway Lagoon.
AZA: Yeay, Sunway Lagoonnnnnn....
Me: OK, next is 10 surahs...
AZA: Haaa? 10? Banyak sangat tu...
Me: Takpe, kerana Allah. You want to know where you are going when you got 10?
AZA: No, where mommy?
Me: To Universal Studios, Singapore.
AZA: Yeay, Singapore!!!
Alhamdulillah, he has now memorized 10 surahs. And I haven't fulfilled my promise yet (not good, Roz. Don't do it again!) We plan to go to Singapore in December, when I got my 'bonus', Insya Allah... but this happened on the day Legoland opened to public.
AZA: Mommy, saya taknak pegi Universal Studios. Saya nak pegi Legoland je lah!
Me: Huh? Kenapa pulak?
AZA: Sebab Legoland dalam Malaysia, Universal Studios dekat Singapore, jauh! Lagipon kita kan rakyat Malaysia?
That's Why Maybank Should Give Me Tickets to Legoland... in support of my son's patriotism spirit.
pic credits to LegoLand website, and yeah... AZA is riding a bicycle and entering LegoLand. I know it's pretty lousy, but I don't care, he wants to go... I'll let him go :)
