How to Teach Young Kids About the Prophets When They Can’t Read or Write Yet

So many parents want to teach their young kids about the prophets and other important Islamic topics but are not sure how to start when their kids can’t read or write yet.  So many educational resources, even those designed for young kids, require a lot of reading and writing.  However, almost all learning at a young age does not (and should not) require lots of time at a table with a pencil in hand.  Read on for some simple yet creative ideas for teaching young kids about the Prophets of Islam (peace be upon all of them).

Teach young kids about the prophets by retelling the stories in simple language

Honestly, a lot of books about the prophets contain quite complicated language.  You know your child and their level of comprehension best.  Just retell the stories to them in simple language and keep it short.  You can always split the story over several days which is highly recommended in the case of longer stories such as the prophets Musa and Yusuf (peace be upon them).  It’s a great idea to quickly recap the previous day’s story, it acts as a natural review exercise.

…then ask them to retell them to you!

Alternatively, you could ask your kids to retell the story to you instead of you offering a recap.  This is brilliant as it allows you to see what details they consider important, whether they missed any essential parts of the story, and if they fully understood it, plus it helps develop their speaking skills. If you have any older children joining in, you can set a timer which helps them analyse and select the most important details.  

Play Qur’an and ask if they can hear the name of any prophets

The Qur’an is full of mention of the prophets and you can encourage a connection to the Qur’an by asking kids to listen out for their names and stories.  Young children who are just beginning to learn Arabic might just be listening out for the names.  This exercise can be easily differentiated for a range of kids.

For example:

1.  Tell them the name they are listening for and ask them to raise their hand when they hear it.
2. Tell them a prophet will be mentioned inshaAllah and to listen for the name and tell you after the section has finished playing.
3. Play the surah, ask them to listen out for Prophet’s names and if they know the name of the surah or any other ayah from that surah.

Teach young kids about the prophets using crafts featuring objects from the stories.

Young kids love hands-on learning and there are so many fun craft projects to help you teach young kids about the prophets.  There are lots of objects that feature in the stories of the prophets that are great to include in art projects e.g. a ship in the story of Nuh, a camel in the story of Salih, the ka’ba in the story of Ibrahim etc.  It’s important to explain to kids that we don’t know exactly how these objects looked and to stick to the Islamic guidelines for picture-making (faceless images).

Look at the globe and talk about the places of the prophets

Discussing the places the prophets lived and visited helps kids to understand that these are true stories of real people.  In the Arabian Peninsula Unit Study we explored the stories of Ibrahim, Salih, Hud and Bilqis and the places they lived.  Egypt features heavily in the stories of Musa and Yusuf (peace be upon them).  You can download a free Virtual Field Trip about Al-Quds/Al-Aqsa to learn more about the home of so many prophets including Dawud, Sulayman and Isa.  This is a great time to point out that a prophet was sent to every people (surah Nahl 16:36) and we only know the locations of some of them.

Chat about any friends they have that are named after prophets

The first word that most children learn to write is their own name!  Young kids naturally personalise learning and love to learn most about their environment and the people in it.  Most children with Muslim friends or family know someone who is named after a prophet or someone from their stories (for example Maryam, Hawa or Hajar).  Alhamdulillah, this really helps the stories stick in their minds.

Teach young kids about the prophets using simple fun worksheets

Let’s face it, some worksheets can be boring and time fillers.  When we first started learning about the prophets, I knew my son would have little patience for anything dull and pointless.  He wasn’t a fan of colouring or writing at that point.  So I designed a set of worksheets that helped kids learn the Arabic names of the prophets and contained simple true or false statements about each prophet.  They were actually the first set of worksheets that I sold in my online shop and kickstarted TeachMeIslam so they are very special to me.  The feedback has all been overwhelmingly positive Alhamdulillah.  If you would like to buy your own set, they are available on Etsy and TPT.

Free worksheet set for teaching about the Prophet Adam

I hope you have found this post on how to teach young kids about the prophets helpful.  If you would like to get a FREE resource designed to teach kids about the Prophet Adam you can click here to download the resource and sign up for the e-mail list.  All members of the e-mail list have access to a FREE resource library full of beneficial resources to help teach your kids about Islam.

Here are some other blog posts you may be interested in:

7 Ways to teach about the prophets of Islam

Why you should teach about the prophets of Islam