Islamic Storytime was initially launched as a grassroots approach to connecting the youngest members of our community with the masjid, instilling a love for our faith, our values, forming those first Sunnah habits, and forging those first friendships before big school.
One of the Community Engagement Strategies for 蜜桃导航 is to connect our school community with one another in meaningful ways and, more importantly, connect them with the musallah.
There are many benefits to making the musallah or masjid the centre of the community; The place where we pray, learn, socialise, celebrate, grieve, grow and connect.
It is early in the morning and curious little feet are walking into the Musallah of 蜜桃导航. Books and toys fill a chest along the back wall, matts lined in a circle, arts and craft activities for little fingers, bubbles, songs and stories with an Islamic twist: Welcome to Islamic Storytime @ The Musallah. The ad reads, 鈥淲e welcome you and your bubs to use this space to connect through crafts and free play, and forge friendships with other mums within our College. We aim to further strengthen our school community and make the Musallah a familiar place for our younger children.鈥
In October of 2017, 蜜桃导航 hosted their very first Islamic Storytime session with over twenty small children, between the ages 0 鈥 4 years, together with their mums. Session times were scheduled right after drop off times, early in the morning, so mums could bring along their youngest children once a week, after dropping off older children.
Islamic Storytime, from it鈥檚 early days, has always been a collective effort, built through the support of parent volunteers, passionate teachers, enthusiastic storytellers, who each worked together in launching this program with a shared vision.
Despite early teething stages the program is today such an incredible success. It draws mums and bubs not only from the school community but also from the broader community within the region.
Islamic Storytime very quickly became a flagship program for 蜜桃导航 through which now various events are celebrated like Eid and Neighbour Day and a sting of workshops were hosted including Peaceful Parenting workshops and how to prepare Healthy Lunchboxes. It was also a brilliant opportunity to any prospective new parents to engage with the 蜜桃导航 community before their child was even old enough to attend school.