Learning Arabic Numbers (wahid to ashara)

 

Asalaam ‘Alaikum:

I’ve been trying to find ways to get my daughter to work on practicing Arabic numbers and counting.  One day she sat down and happily worked in a math workbook (much to my surprise) for the english numbers.  She considered it fun - she could count out loud and then color the pictures.  It got me thinking . . .

I decided to create a few worksheets similar to those she had in English.  I had to do this because she had already colored on the other ones I had.  I’m still thinking of possibly continuing to create more . . . but that will depend on my time.  Here are the worksheets I have created so far - covering 1 to 10.

Since so many of us are limited in our time, but we are dedicated to teach our children, I thought I’d share an idea with you.  If you have access to a copier - use it!  I was looking at the pages in her workbook and there is no reason I could not put little pieces of paper or post-it notes over the numbers written in English and write them in Arabic for her.  Yes, I know there are “workbooks” available in Arabic already - if that’s what you want to call them.  However, most of them are not interesting, expensive and quite small - not worth the expense in my opinion.

Well, this is just an idea - but when time is important to you - sometimes creating everything yourself is not always the right way to go (trust me, I know).  If your children are not into flashy stuff (etc.) you could also easily just draw little pictures on a piece of paper similar to the layout in the documents I created and have your child count and color them.  Some kids are not picky (although mine usually are).

Insha’Allah this will be of benefit to you.

Asalaam’ Alaikum,
Sumayyah Umm Sadiqah wa Asma

Learning to Read **Making Progress**

 

Asalaam ‘Alaikum:

In the past I have mentioned having problems with using “Teaching Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons.”  I spoke recently with a friend who has used that program to teach all of her children.  It seems she forgot to mention that at least one or more of her children had the same problem.

What was the problem?  Essentially, my daughter had become flustered and frustrated when looking at all those words in the book.  She then announced “I don’t like doing this and don’t want to do it anymore.”  So, we put it on hold (for quite a long while).  Well, my friend gave me a few ideas and they have actually worked, alhumdulilah.  Essentially, my daughter still uses the book when working on the sounds, rhymes, etc.  However, whenever we go over the “word reading” section, I take out a notebook and write the words (exactly as they are written in the book) for her one at a time as we go over them.  For some reason, this doesn’t overwhelm her as much as seeing all those words already on the page.

We have done this for a few lessons and I am surprised at her abilities, masha’Allah.  She is even now sometimes able to read a word without sounding it out - and she is learning the sounds better.  Anyway, just thought I’d share this insight with you other mothers - if you are using this book - as it has been a frustrating time trying to find something else that would work (and I really like this book).

For those of you who actually use this book, you may notice that this lesson (above picture) includes some words that are not in the book (mat and sat, for example).  During our lesson, my daughter kept making the mistake of pronouncing the ‘d’ sound as ‘t’ (even though when I asked her what sound the ‘d’ and ‘t’ made, she knew the difference.  So, I decided to write out the other word that is similar, but sounded different to show her the difference visually and it seemed to help.

Essentially, we are still using Montessori methods as well.  I have been following the “Montessori Read & Write” book by Lynne Lawrence and I do really recommend it.  My daughter doesn’t seem to mind these short learning sessions with “How to Read in 100 Easy Lessons”, but she enjoys using the Montessori methods and will “play” with them for an extended period and consider it fun.  Insha’Allah it will benefit her.

PS:  A while ago I posted our Montessori based tool - similar to “Classified cards”.  Please see here.  Subhan’Allah, in my frazzled state of mind I made these previously all in capital letters without a thought.  Thankfully, someone posted that they should be made in small letters - as this helps with letter recognition when reading (most letters are small case except the beginning of sentences, etc.)  Anyway, I did fix this but never got around to posting the new pictures.  So, for those of you who are interested, I have posted the new pictures here.  I also wanted to mention that I actually made my new cards with the “Montessori font” that is available on the web for free download.  I wish I could remember where I found it - but I am sure if you do a search on “Montessori font” you should eventually find one (if you are interested).
Asalaam ‘Alaikum,

Sumayyah Umm Sadiqah wa Asma