This is one of the questions I want to know the answer to clearly. Actually, what is the reward for fasting for your little one, is it okay or not?
By the month of fasting, your child has the intention to fast fully. When you heard it, you was very happy, please! Even though he has learned to fast since he was 4 years old, Earth has not been able to fast all day long. We were never forced, just trying to provide motivation.
But what if the motivation is in the form of a reward? Is it allowed? We afraid, our child is fasting just because he wants a reward so that it eliminates the essence of the benefits and what can be learned through fasting.
Duh, don't, please.
Teaching children to be able to worship is difficult and easy. The hope is, as long as I can explain and give examples about worship, the children can understand and participate in the practice. The problem is whether or not the child wants to follow it without me having to force it.
Then how?
Is it enough to explain that we need to practice worship to get a reward? If you have a lot of rewards, then you can go to heaven. Meanwhile, palaha san paradise is a very abstract form. Is the child's age able to understand?
The stage of development of children's thinking has not yet reached the stage of abstract values. For example, what is reward and what is heaven. According to Piaget, a well-known child cognitive development expert, children only begin to be able to understand abstract things such as reward, heaven, sin and the like, at the age of entering adolescence or at least 11 years and over. Before that, children still have difficulty understanding abstract things and are still limited to understanding logically for concrete things.
Concrete here means what can be seen, touched or tangible for children. Based on this, it will be difficult for us to expect children to do worship because they understand that they will get a reward in the hereafter, for example. Or vice versa, should not do something because it is sinful. So children need to be stimulated by something concrete or tangible so that they will do what we expect, such as a gift.
So, it's okay, give rewards to children when fasting?
Giving rewards in the form of gifts is okay, considering that children still have difficulty understanding abstract things such as rewards and children still need extrinsic motivation. But the prizes given are not excessive either. It's not just about the material.
In addition to being a concrete example for children, parents also need to show rewarding experiences after children worship. For example, smiling or speaking softly after worship. Or you can say "Oh, calm down, if you finish praying, you can sleep well, mama..."
In this way, children who learn through observing will also absorb the experience of doing worship in a fun way. Then, If the child feels happy, it will be easy for children to understand something. So do it with fun. Worship is a serious thing, but that doesn't mean how to teach it must also be serious and rigid, really.
As parents, we also need to develop children's abilities to have the motivation to get self-satisfaction, not just because they want to get gifts.
Good worship teaching for children is to set an example and make it a daily habit so that children who are great imitators can more easily absorb and apply what is being taught. And don't forget, always do it in a happy mood, yes!