My Salah Mat Review

I have fond memories of my father teaching me how to pray, and now with the help of My Salah Mat, I find myself passing on knowledge to my sons in a more enjoyable way.

(Disclosure: I was gifted the My Salah Mat for a product review. All opinions, thoughts and photographs are my own. Click here to get 10% off your own 'My Salah Mat' using code  ZED&Q10.)

My Salah Mat is an educational prayer mat designed to help parents and guardians introduce salah to their children in a fun interactive way!  It covers almost everything when it comes to the salah such as: names and times, duas, wudu, adhaan, positions with explanations and surahs! It's touch sensitive and has visual cues which help motivate children to make salah actions.  This is so important as no digital game or worksheet based activity can give you this experience. More-so, kinaesthetic learners, like my sons, benefit greatly from this.
 

Included in the box is the huge Salah Mat  (45" x 28") which recites in 15 languages (you'll need 3 AA batteries to operate), a well designed salah activity book, an instruction manual and a parent guideline book which outlines how to use the salah mat for different age groups. As a home educating parent this book has saved me a lot of lesson planning time. 

This mat is made from a waterproof and fire resistant plastic material. We have been folding our prayer mat and placing it away everyday as we have limited space.  This is concerning as continuous folding causes creases which may likely start to tear. I'd really love to see this mat made from thick cotton material or something more sustainable and durable. (This will likely increase the retail price.)

My favourite feature about this product is that it grows with your child! It's designed for children aged between 3-10 years, however anyone who needs to learn Salah will find this beneficial. My 5 year old has been learning the athaan and some salah positions along with their names. What he found most frustrating is that there is no pause button. This makes it difficult for him to repeat after the reciter. While my 3 year old rushes to get his prayer mat and mimics us while we pray!

The great thing is I have my 5 year old teaching his brother actions he's learnt. Above he is teaching him Salah positions, and below, wudu actions! I must say it does help increase listening skills and assists them in following instructions!





My 3 year old makes takbir with his hands raised in the air. In order to help him remember we played a game.  I asked whether we raise our hands towards our ears or cover our noses when beginning the prayer. They repeated the actions and thought it was so funny! Now he remembers how to make takbir! 







It's important to note that this prayer mat shouldn't replace parents and guardians. However, it should be used as an aid to create an inviting atmosphere to help instil the love of salah in our children. It's our duty to teach them the importance of salah, encourage them, create memories and build that connection with our children.