How early is early and how late is late?
I have been receiving numerous requests to address the questions raised above. One mum particularly wrote “I have been having a really hard time getting my son to read his Qaida. He is almost 5. He refuses to read. I get irritated because his teacher is waiting. And when he finally sits down with a book, he isn’t looking at his Qaida, he is looking elsewhere. I lose my temper and start screaming. Today he said he doesn’t want to learn Qaida and I got very upset about it. How can I deal with this?” Another sister wrote “I’m constantly busying my child with maths, phonics, Qur’an, Arabic, handwriting and online videos. I don’t know if I’m pushing her too far and stretching her too much. I need advice on how to take a step back but still, feel like she’s going to ‘fall behind”. I smiled when I read these messages because they sounded like me back in the day.
Firstly, we need to set the stage long before we start teaching children phonics or Qaida. Setting the stage includes reading to them as much as possible from a young age, if not birth. Turn off the TV, put the phone down, and read books together. Make sure your children see you reading too – Qur’an, a book, a journal or a magazine. Read yourself and read to your child. And if you are someone who doesn’t speak Arabic, remember learning Qaida has extra burdens for a child. Why would a five-year-old want to learn something totally foreign? Unless, of course, he has frequently seen adults and older siblings reading Quran in the household. Play audio Qur’an while putting the child to bed, during school runs or cooking and cleaning (Please note having a conversation while Qur’an is playing in the background isn’t permissible). Keep reading small surahs from Juzz Amma together from toddlerhood.
Sometime around the age of five or six most children are ready to read. I have a soon-to-be five-year-old who sits down with the Quran every day and pretends to be reading while mumbling various Qur’anic words she’s heard from various surahs. She sees her older siblings reading Qur’an daily so she just imitates them. This shows her Qaida readiness. She also does the same in English, she picks up a book and pretends to be reading while making up the story looking at pictures. So, when children start picking up the Quran or a book pretending to read- this is a good indicator you can proceed to some kind of ‘formal instruction’.
Generally speaking, at age five or six most children are ready to read (not write). You can start with ten mins daily ‘Qaida’ or ‘phonics’ practice, using any method preferable to you. It’s better to combine visual (pictures/flashcards), audio (speaking/listening) and manipulative materials (touching/sensing/feeling to match, sort and list items). I have one rule to recommend- keep your lessons short and make them mandatory. When you sense your child’s readiness, don’t offer “Do you want to do a reading lesson today?” I have yet met a child who instantly ‘fell in love’ with Qaida or hifdh or phonics or doing basic maths. However, use your common sense here. If you stick to your ten minutes daily learning schedule and your child hasn’t made any reading progress in 3-4 weeks, then stop it for a month or two. You can always resume at a later date.
When it comes to Qaida, focus on memorizing/hifdh as much as you can while still young. Ideally, your child should have memorized at least 10 surahs before he started his Qaida. This is the only way he can make a connection with Arabic print. When teaching, a logical sequence is that we focus on speaking before reading and reading before writing. So, it’s extremely difficult for a child to make a connection with print if he can’t say anything orally in that language. If he is almost five and refuses his Qaida lesson, I would advise you to leave it for a couple of months and focus on ‘setting the stage’ and hifdh. If he still refuses at age six, say “We will have to do it anyway” but make sure to keep it between 10-15 mins daily.
When it comes to writing, perhaps, one of the greatest disadvantages of many phonics programs is trying to teach reading and writing at the same time. Most children are ready to read long before they are ready to write. I have even read somewhere that some countries don’t start teaching writing until 2nd or 3rd grade. It makes sense to focus on reading as much as possible initially because good readers will make good writers (with a little push, of course). That’s because, the more they read, the more they will pick up subtle punctuation and grammar rules deductively. Most well-read children will want to write and with a little push and guidance write very well.
Where to draw the line between overdoing or under-doing? Well, as long as you consistently do your 10-20 mins daily lessons (for each of your chosen subjects), you are doing more than enough. Most mothers do much better than they think. That’s most likely true for you too. Whatever you teach, try to stick to these three golden principles: short lessons (maximum 20 mins daily), quality over quantity and varying the order of subjects (I adopted these principles from Charlotte Mason and they served us very well over the years).
The beauty of home education is- you don’t have to do every school subject. Make a list of what you think is important and once you do- make them all mandatory. Remember, children may pretend to be reading Qur’an but they will not fall in love with Qaida lessons (or reading Qur’an for that matter). Children may love reading books but they will not fall in love with learning phonics or writing stories or doing fractions. No child has ever said “I love hifdh/memorizing Qur’an” or “I love handwriting practice”. We can only try and keep trying to establish learning as a habit.
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Iroda is a UK qualified teacher, Education Consultant & CEO at Raising Young Scholars www.raising-scholars.com
“I am a teacher and teacher-trainer by profession. I am also an educational consultant, parent educator and a seasoned homeschooling mother of six who helps other mothers succeed in their parenting and homeschooling journey. I earned a BA in English and M.Ed in Teaching English in the UK. I have been developing, designing and teaching various courses both in the UK and abroad since 2003.
I have also founded Raising Young Scholars, Islamic Online Academy that delivers high quality, interactive and engaging online courses aimed at Muslim women and children.
In addition to my full-time job at a university, RYS is working towards launching an accredited Islamic Online school to equip Muslim children with academic, character-building and life-skills needed to make them the leaders of tomorrow. Teaching is my passion and I try to instil a culture of lifelong learning in all my students.
