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Play is important at Little Caliphs

Children who are 4 and 5 are ready for more organized social play. They grow away from being interested only in their own ideas to being interested in the actions and feelings of others.

Preschoolers love to dress-up and pretend. They need dress-up clothes – hats, high heels, purses, play money, or anything grown-ups wear. Providing costumes, dress-up clothes, and equipment or furnishings encourages preschoolers toward creative, dramatic play. Big boxes that can become houses or stores are wonderful. These activities give them a chance to act out their feelings, emotions, and how they view the world about them. This practice of grown-up roles leads to the child’s understanding of adults by giving the child a chance to play at being an adult. Preschoolers learn how it feels to be big. They pretend, imagine, create, and imitate what they think it is like to be grown up. They practice relating to their friends. Creative play combines the elements of imagination and fantasy with what is real.

The preschooler learns rapidly through play. Learning the differences in how things feel, look, and sound help children develop intellectual skills. The child’s vocabulary expands through learning about color and size in play activities. As children develop physically through running, jumping, and hopping, they learn action words.

Giving a child an opportunity to get messy also is a learning experience. Playing in mud, sand, and water or painting and colouring gives children a sense of freedom and another chance to strengthen their imagination and creativity. Preschoolers are not lying when they tell wonderful and exciting tales about things that adults know are not true. They are being creative.

 

As a mother of five children, I am very passionate about Islamic early child care and education. Alhamdulillah. Besides being a Founder and Executive Director of Integrated Islamic School Shah Alam (IISSA), my path has also taken me into being the trainer, consultant and academic author of The Little Caliphs Program, an Islamic-English-Creative preschool program which I run alongside my husband Haji Roslan bin Nordin.

This creative pre-school curriculum integrates the basic teaching of Islam with other basic knowledge and skills such as reading, writing, drawing, Math, and English. One of my visions among many is to cultivate the ability to read in all young children around the world at the tender age of 4. Furthermore, I would love for this program to be adopted by kindergartens all over the world so that children will have the correct understanding and positive attitude towards Islam, Insya Allah.

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