Do you struggle to teach your kids the importance of values? I do! Kids always ask, “why do others do this and this, but we do not?” I have prepared an experiment to show them the importance of values, and today I am sharing it with you.

What you need;
-3 different strainers; one could be for veggies, the other could be for flour and the other could be a fine mesh strainer for frying. Make sure that their filter sizes are different.
- Different size grains, such as lentil, fine bulgur, orzo noodle, popcorn kernels
- 3 CLEAR glass with 3/4 water filled in all
- A large plastic bowl to keep the grain fall of around

Then I explained to my kids, what everything meant according to our lives.
The glass of clean water is how Allah (SWT) has created people in a wonderful shape and the best stature. He wants them to keep it clean. (I showed the kids the clear glass with water.) Each grain is for unacceptable mannerisms which many people may do. Some are big, some are small. Like telling lies, cheating, stealing, insulting, yelling, being disrespectful, being cruel, and many more.
The strainers are people’s brain filters which build values through akhlaq (good manners) and ethics. Everyone has a different filter. Some people have larger holes in their filters and pass everything to their soul and body. Their strainer doesn’t filter halal and haram, they do, eat, drink whatever they want. Look what happens to their water. (I put corn kernels, lentils, bulgur, and we see how most of the grains drop into the water). It gets dirty. Some others have smaller holes in their filters, and a few others have very fine filter holes.
As I explained each filter, I poured the grains and my kids watched how some small-holed strainer did not pass the grains and the water stayed clean. When I used the tiny holed strainer with the third glass of water, there was nothing inside the water. I also suggested that, maybe, prophets have that kind of filter. My 14 years old son asked to try sugar and then poured the sugar onto the fine strainer. We were all surprised because even the small grains of sugar didn’t pass the fine strainer and the water remained clean.
When the experiment was done, we all saw the result of the values we practice in our life. We saw that the strainers, our filters, protected our soul and body making sure to keep it clean and healthy. Allah (SWT) wants us to take care of His amanat which He has given us. We have to ensure that we use our filters every day.
At the end of my experiment I added, “guys, we can make mistakes and forgot to use our filters sometimes. We are human and we learn by making mistakes. We can feel like our glasses are really dirty and that can make us feel hopeless. But, do you know what Allah says when we feel like that? He says, ‘whenever you understand your fault and ask for forgiveness, I will clean your water.’”

Hope we all return to Him with clean water in our glass, inshaAllah.