The long holiday ahead

May is almost over and each time we hear the countdown to the Fifa World Cup mums are counting the days to the start of a long holiday. Yes, holidays are happy, fun and special times but we need to keep the children OCCUPIED. that is the challenge… insha allah I will try to assist with some ideas (hope other mums will assist by sending in there’s). here’s something on a local site that covers many parts of the country:

 

 

LET THE FESTIVITIES BEGIN

Things to Do with Kids during the School Holidays

Cape Town and Western Cape with Kids:

• Cherry Picking in Ceres (from November to December annually)
• The Scratch Patch at Simons Town (or the Scratch Patch at the Waterfront)
• Take the kids for a ride on The Blue Train in Mouille Point
• Sleepy Hollow Horse Riding in Noordhoek (30 minute pony rides for 2-12 year olds)
• Rainbow Puttet Theatre in Constantia (Saturday Mornings)
• Noordhoek Farm Village is great for kids
• A is for Apple in Tamboerskloof and Woodstock
• Cool Runnings Toboggan Track in Bellville
• Art Jamming in Gardens
• Ice Skating at Grand West
• Iziko Planetarium Cape Town
• Millstone Eco-friendly Village
• MTN Science Centre at Century City
• MORE > Family Friendly Things to Do in Western Cape
• See our most comprehensive list at 101 Things to Do with Kids in Cape Town

Johannesburg and Gauteng with Kids:

• Adventure Golf in Randburg
• Yoga for Kids in Sandton
• Yeesh! Fun for Kids
• Visit the Butterfly Garden in Pretoria
• Skate boarding at Boogaloos Skatepark
• Sci-Bono Discovery Centre
• Ten Pin Bowling at Galaxy World
• Visit Gold Reef City Theme Park
• MORE > Family Friendly Things to Do in Gauteng

Durban and KwaZulu Natal with Kids:

• Fly a kite in Shelly Beach (or Amanzimtoti, or …. )
• Get Active at the Adventure Centre in Rosetta
• Old Mutual & MTN ScienceCentre
• Play Mini-Golf
• Take the kids ‘Candle Dipping’
• Visit the Durban Natural Science Museum
• Spend a day at uShaka Marine World
• Visit Flag Farm Animal Farm
• MORE > Family Friendly Things to Do in KwaZulu Natal

Port Elizabeth and Eastern Cape with Kids:

• Family Fun at Funtasia
• Sun and Fun at Hobie Beach
• Play Chess at Happy Valley
• McArthur Baths Swimming Pool Complex
• MORE > Family Friendly Things to Do in Eastern Cape

Garden Route with Kids:

• Visit Monkeyland
• Strawberry Picking at Red Berry Farm
• Interact with Elephants
• MORE > Family Friendly Things to Do in Garden Route

Mpumalanga with Kids:

• Visit the Dinosaur Park
• Pony Camp for Kids
• MORE > Family Friendly Things to Do in Mpumalanga

Limpopo with Kids:

• Mangela Animal Touch Farm
• Tour of Geluksfontein Dairy Goat Farm
• MORE > Family Friendly Things to Do in Limpopo

For some more inspiration, take a look at our Things to Do in South Africa section on SA-Venues.com – there’s one for every province, so no matter where in the country you are, you’ll be able to find some fun things to do to suit any budget. If you know of a great “Thing to Do with Kids” please post a message in the comments below to share with our readers!

Useful Links:
South Africa Family-friendly Accommodation
South Africa Attractions and Destinations

 

 

Source: http://blog.sa-venues.com/provinces/school-holidays/

New website: Halaltrip.com

halaltrip.com, an online directory of worldwide Muslim-friendly hotels, has just launched to public. Users can easily rate businesses helping to create the most transparent travel source for Muslims. Each hotel profile includes information whether alcohol and Halal Food is served and if woman-only facilities like pools and other wellness activities and a prayer facility are offered.

“We want to be the leading online source for Muslims planning their holidays or religious trips. halaltrip is a strongly Islamic based free web service providing honestly researched information on Halal travelling. Ratings will be daily examined based on a fair and faithfully set of criteria. This is an underestimated market as we are reaching out to more than one billion people”, says Founder Karim Saad.

Internationalization coming soon

Currently halaltrip is only available in English but will be multi-lingual within the upcoming weeks. “Internationalization is our next big goal! As soon as possible we are going to launch an Arabic and a Turkish version”, forecasts Saad.
Despite the worldwide economic crisis the so-called “Halal tourism” is still on the rise. The World Travel Market Report (WTM) called this special segment of travelling an “untapped field not only for Middle and Far East but also for Western Europe”.

“Global Players like TripAdvisor, YahooTravel and HolidayCheck are just the peak of a huge variety of rating sites. Despite that there is still a ‘niche’, targeting a Muslim audience, who is keen on travelling within a Halal environment. That’s what halaltrip is for”, hopes Saad for a great future of his project.

For further information please contact:
Karim Saad, Founder
Tel.: 0043 (0) 699 180 498 11
E-Mail: business@halaltrip.com
Web: http://www.halaltrip.com
________________________________________
halaltrip – your islamic travel guide
Media & Public Relations
http://www.halaltrip.com | press@halaltrip.com

Top Ten Forms of Halal Entertainment

An article from MuslimMatters.org which is useful at this time of year.

A guest post by brother Abu Muawiyah Ismail Kamdar – a young student of knowledge under Dr Bilal Philips.

Many Muslims have a misconception that having fun is Haraam. Nothing could be further from the truth as having fun is part of human nature and Islam is the religion of Al-Fitrah (Human Nature). Unfortunately, despite the fact that most forms of entertainment are Halal, many Muslims seem to indulge in the Haraam forms instead.

So here are my top ten favorite Halal things to do for fun. But remember even Halal forms of entertainment become Haraam through overindulgence and neglecting your Islamic duties:

10. Eating out:

Everybody enjoys going out to their favorite fast food joint and enjoying a delicious chicken tikka or burger. This is completely Halal and extremely fun, especially when you go with company, so go ahead and enjoy yourself… just make sure the chicken is Halal!

9. Reading:

Not everybody enjoys this but I do, there is nothing like a good book to take your mind of things and help you relax. Of course one must choose a book whose content in Halal and it is preferable to read books by Muslims, unless you have reached the level of knowledge to read Non-Muslim books, and separate the good from the evil.

Don’t forget that the first command in the Quran was to “READ” so enjoy your reading, and may Allah help us all reach
the level where we enjoy reading Islamic books.

8. Swimming:

This one is recommended by the prophet (peace be upon him), and there is no better way to cool off on a hot day! So make sure your Satr is covered and enjoy the water in the upcoming summer.

7. Relaxing:

We all need a break and nobody can pray all day, the prophet (peace be upon him) recommended that we will our lives in balance and said, “An hour for your Lord and an hour for yourself,” meaning that we should split our day and balance between Islamic work and living life. So do not stress, when you get tired, sit back and relax. Its perfectly Halal, just don’t sleep through any salah times.

6. Video Games and Videos:

Not all video games and videos are Haraam; it’s the content that matters. So if you enjoy playing video games and can balance without getting addicted, make sure you only buy Halal games (that means no Grand Theft Auto!). The same with movies and other videos, watch something Islamic or something beneficial and keep away from movies which have shameless scenes and teach bad things.

Most importantly, do not get addicted and sit till Fajr time praying Pro Evolution Soccer, because that would then become haraam. So balance and be careful and responsible when choosing the content, and do not try to fool yourself that a certain movie is halal when you know it is not, because you can not fool Allah or the angels sitting with you watching and writing down every moment into your book of deeds.

5. Nature:

I love nature! Whether it is the ocean, forests, animals, I just love being out in the natural environment. It is one of those times when I feel closest to Allah and feel peace inside me. There is no feeling equal to praying under a tree or on a mountain. Take my word for it and book your next family holiday at some place natural, like the Drakensburg Mountains of South Africa. It is Beautiful!

4. Nasheeds:

I love Nasheeds, in them I have found the perfect replacement for music and a source of both joy and education for myself. It is narrated that Umar (RA) said, “Singing is the companion of the traveler”. I do not know how authentic that narration is, but Imam Malik did say there is nothing wrong with singing while traveling – so load your cars with Zain Bhikha and Dawud Wharnsby CDs, and throw out the Haraam music, and enjoy Halal beneficial entertainment as you drive to work and back!

3. Hanging out with the right crowd:

Your friends either make you or break you. The prophet (peace be upon him) said, “Every person follows the religion of his best friend so be careful whom you befriend”.

Since we are all social beings, hanging out and socializing will be high on our list of ways of having fun, yet it is so important to have the right friends. Your friends are the ones who encourage
you to pray or to skip the prayer and catch a movie. They are the ones who tell you your Hijab looks beautiful or that it makes you look old. In the end, whom you choose to hang out with, makes the biggest difference in who you become.

Sadly, in South Africa we have an added problem in that having fun is looked upon as Haraam as a result many practicing Muslims in this country are B-O-R-I-N-G! So it is even harder to find good friends here who are practicing yet cool and fun, but they do exist. You just have to look in the right places, like at the Al-Kauthar courses and ILM-SA programmes. Hang out with those crowds, you will become a better Muslim and have an awesome time at the time!

2. Playing with kids:

I have two baby boys, two baby nieces, a baby brother, a baby cousin and many other little people in the family and there is nothing that is more fun to me than spending time with these innocent sweet kids and playing with them. Children are a joy and the coolness of my eyes. On this point, I hate people who hate kids and treat them badly, it’s because of such people in our Masjids that many kids grow up traumatized and hate the Masjid and Islam. That is not Islamic at all.

The prophet (peace be upon him) would play with kids even in the Masjid, sometimes when he was in Sajdah, he would be very long because his grandchildren were riding on his back. That’s the Sunnah not banning the kids from the Masjid and growling at them whenever you see them! Playing with children is part of the Sunnah methods of having fun.

One last hadith on this topic, once the prophet (Peace be upon him) kissed his grandchildren in public, a man commented that he had ten kids and never kissed any of them. The prophet (peace be upon him) replied, “What can I do if Allah has removed mercy from your heart, who ever does not show mercy will not be shown mercy,” Think about that next time you mistreat a child.

1. Marriage and all the fun it legalizes:

Being with the opposite gender is the natural desire of every human and it is such a situation that one has the most fun, especially if there is love between them. Islam does not prohibit this but promotes it in the form of marriage while prohibiting it outside of marriage. So dump your boyfriends and girlfriends, get religious and marry a cool religious person!

The prophet (peace be upon him) stressed the importance of marriage many times and also stressed the importance of having a fun marriage. If your marital life sucks, your life in general will be miserable, but if you are happily married and enjoying it (like I am, masha’Allah) then you can cope with every other problem you face. The prophet (peace be upon him) has a fun marital life, he would race with his wives, have food fights with them, joke with them. Study his life with them; he was the perfect husband so let us all follow in his footsteps.

Once the prophet (peace be upon him) advised a young companion who had married an elderly woman, “you should have married someone young (like you) so that you could play with her and she could play with you”. So what are you waiting for?

If you are married, make changes to improve your marital life and make it a source of fun and pleasure for yourself, and if you are not married, get married soon and have a lot of kids so that then do everything else of this list with your wife and kids, its more fun like that than when you are alone.

What is your idea of ‘halal entertainment’?
Do you have any tips for parents during the holiday season?