After initial doubts over whether An-Nur OSCAR would have enough children, we ended up with a good total of 11. Everything ran incredibly smoothly over the two week period Alhamdulillah and the children had a tremendous time. The first week started with children being introduced to each other and it didn’t take any of them long to form friendships with everyone. One of the major highlights of the programme was the complete lack of fighting and clashing and the consistent team spirit that was being exhibited by all on a regular basis. The children would begin most of their days with a colouring picture of an Islamic phrase and then move on to a Quran recitation lesson. The Quran recitation helped build up the confidence of many of the children due the praising and the clapping they received from their peers and teachers after successfully reciting a Surah. After the Quran, the children would be given morning tea and sent to play outside once finished. Needless to say, ‘outside time’ was most definitely the most popular time and the swing set won the award for most popular aspect of the playground. Although the children thoroughly enjoyed the regular activities, it was very clear that they preferred the surprise ones. We took the children to the swimming pool twice a week where many of them learned to overcome initial fears of floating and putting their heads underwater. Many of the younger children became brave enough to enter the adult pool and some of them even asked to go to the deep end with one of the teachers. Swimming was highly popular among our students and so were the picnic lunches and games of ‘octopus’ that occurred afterwards. The children also watched several movies during the rainy days and if you ask them who Beethoven was they will tell you that he is a dog rather than a musician. Finally, the most popular activity among the children was the pizza and waffle making (and eating) sessions. For the pizza making, the children were shown how to make the pizza dough using a bread maker. They were then randomly divided into 2 teams and given a set of ingredients to chop and grate. They shared all the jobs between themselves and managed to successfully prepare the ingredients in the time frame given. Next they had to flatten the dough to form a pizza base and both teams managed to keep them circular. Finally, they had to place all the ingredients they wanted onto the pizza and hand it to the teachers to bake in the oven. One team had 2 members who did not like olives and surprised me when they decided to compromise and place olives on only one half of the pizza. Never underestimate the ability of children when it comes to problem solving. Finally, it came time to eat the pizza and never in my lifetime have I witnessed 11 children get so excited about consuming something. Both pizzas were long gone in less than a minute. If you thought making pizza couldn't be topped (pun fully intended) then you would be sorely mistaken. According to children, waffles are about 10 times more exciting than watching movies, making pizza, going swimming and playing outside. The waffles were made in much the same way as the pizza except that the children were operating as one team. Everyone took part in preparing, adding and mixing the ingredients and the end result was definitely very impressive. Once again, they were eaten in less than a minute. Luckily we made two batches. Overall, I believe everyone feels the programme was a success. The children made plenty of new friends, had the opportunity to experience many exciting activities and managed to combine fun with learning along the way. We’re all really proud of every single one of the children as they acted in an exemplary manner throughout the full two weeks and allowed us to do our jobs with ease.
