JAKARTA - Educating children about religion is Ria Ricis' main focus in Ramadan this year. Even though his daughter, Moana, is only 3.5 years old, Ricis has started introducing her to the worship routine, including getting up for sahur.
"Moana from the first day of fasting, I have also tried to follow up on waking up with him. He sometimes likes to hit me or accidentally take a suitcase or whatever, it has become my alarm for the subuh prayer usually," said Ricis in the Bintaro area, Wednesday, March 11.
Even though he invited Moana to sahur, Ricis admitted that he did not want to put too much pressure on his child. He still prioritizes Moana's comfort and physical condition which is still very young.
"But if this sahur, we wake up a little more advanced, sometimes I like to wake up. But if he grumbles to sleep, I don't want to either. But if he wakes up, we try to eat a little bit," he explained about the tolerance of his son's eating time.
Ricis also understands that for the matter of holding hunger, Moana can't do it for a full day. For him, the most important thing is that Moana starts to know the concept of fasting itself.
"If he fasts, he can't get to the afternoon, sometimes Zuhur has started eating, sometimes at 10 he has asked for food, that's okay too. The important thing is to learn from the smallest things first," added Oki Setiana Dewi's sister.
Interestingly, Ricis has a different principle about rewards or prizes. Unlike most parents, he does not promise certain items if Moana succeeds in fasting.
"No, no (promising a gift), because if I'm with Moana it's about fasting, of course I always say that the gift will be given by Allah SWT. Okay, maybe through his mother, but if his mother doesn't fast, sometimes he has nothing to reward," he said.
For him, school achievement and worship are two different things in terms of appreciation. Gifts for schools are given to motivate achievement, but fasting must be based on understanding.
"Because if he goes to school every day, he will have a review at school or a test that he can achieve, I will definitely give him a gift. So if it's about fasting, you can get a gift or not, not like that," he explained.
Ricis admitted that there were challenges in teaching fasting to young children, but he enjoyed it.
"The real difficulty is not, at most, the difficulty is that he likes to be greedy to eat, to drink. The important thing is that he knows what the meaning of fasting is," concluded Ricis.
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