Tips For Parents

1 Begin when your kid is newly born. Do not wait. Instead of using songs, recite the last 3 suras. Kids love to hear something before sleeping. This would tune their ears to Arabic.

2 At the age of 2-3, begin with stories with 1-2 words a page. Pictorial stories with one word or 2 words per page. Read the story for them. Make it funny. One story per night. Repeat it 2-3 times per week. 2-3 stories per week. Kids do not read, they rehearse.

3 More readings. Select suras with tangible meanings. The elephant, the Flame, The Mercifull

4 Focus on memorization. Kids memorize very quickly even if they do not understand. This improves their pronunciation and enhances their memories.

5 Use kids’ rooms to put some vocabulary on the walls. Use pictures beside words. Take pictures out. Change words from time to time.  Write names of items in Arabic.  Keep them for long times.

6 Use games and fun. Point to things. Count items. Pantomime Exercises and sports

7 Let kids tell you some riddles, jokes, anecdotes, or stories in Arabic. Start with the ones they knew.

8 Expose them to kids’ programs in Arabic. Let them spend some times with Arabian families.

9 Insist on speaking Arabic at home, on phones, with visitors.

10 Ask your old kid to make Azan at home. Train the older one to lead the prayer.

11 Short activity after morning prayer. All family members sit in a circle to read 2-3 lines from Qur’an every member. Increase the number of lines as your kids improve. Never quite this tradition.

12 Keep your kid reading one story per night. Do not miss a single night. Only weekends. You need to tune your ears, so listen first. Select stories that match their mental age.

13 Let them write one page per night. Reading is a different skill from writing. Make their writing a quality work not a quantity work.

14 Send your kids back home for a long time at the age of 5-6.  Then after that once a year.

15 Memorizing the Qur’an should never stop at any time or for any reason. Grammar is knowing about the language not learning the language.

16 Should we have 2 separate Arabic classes at Islamic schools? This only apply to Arabic classes not the whole curricula.

17 Assign specific times for studying Arabic. i.

18 Never teach grammar before 8 years. i.

19 Encourage kids to listen to news i.

20 Insist on speaking STANDARD Arabic at home not your dialect, please, please, please. i.

21 When you teach words pay attention on long vowels. i.

22 When teaching alphabet, teach letters in similar groups not necessarily in order. i.

23 When teaching alphabet, teach letters in words that are already known. i.

24 Teach words (nouns) with their plurals. i.

25 After teaching the alphabet, start teaching guided composition gradually: Fill in the blanks Matching Sentence completion Adding words to the sentence Writing similar sentences Writing paragraphs i.

26 Teach longer chapters in the Quran: reading and meaning i.