“Ah-choo! Mama, say YARHAMAKULLAH. Yarhamakullah.”

Every time my daughter sneezes, she reminds me to say Yarhamakullah. She hates to say Alhamdulillah when she sneezes. She prefers to say Yarhamakullah too.

Apparently Yarhamakullah is a more fun word. I guesss? She’s two. She has strong opinions. About everything.

Let’s practice the etiquettes of sneezing!

Start with the youngest. Take a spin.

When the spinner stops spinning, see who the arrow is pointing to. That person takes a sneeze. The more outrageous, the sillier, the better. Let the kids have a laugh at the crazy sneezing, then ask them, “What do you say?!”

The person who sneezed should say Alhamdulillah. Everyone else should say Yarhamakullah.

Continuing clockwise, the next person takes his turn at the spinner, and play continues!

Between spins, have a discussion about what the words mean.

Alhamdulillah means Praise be to God.

Yarhamakullah means May God have mercy on you.

Also, have a discussion about how you should cover your mouth with a napkin when sneezing, or sneeze into your elbow to keep your germs from affecting others.

**This activity was inspired by an activity in the textbook (page 2.19) we used when I taught Sunday School a few years ago. I decided to put my own spin (ha!) on it.

**For this super simple spinner, I followed the instructions from this blog post. I used cardboard from a cereal box so that the spinner is a bit stronger, and I added an arrow for this activity. (You could use any other spinner you might have, perhaps from a board game, or even an empty water bottle.)