I am currently in the process of teaching Little Lady her Arabic alphabet and it is turning out to be very trying for us both. I began by sending her to an Alimah (female scholar), but this was difficult due to timing (7-8 in the evening) which I felt was late for a small child and because we had to drop and pick her in the car every day, so if hubby had a delivery booked we had problems and she often missed lessons (I must be the only person in the western hemisphere who doesn’t drive). Beside this, because we left it to someone else we weren’t making her practise at home and she would miss two lessons and forget everything. I had no intension of putting my daughter in with a male scholar that I didn’t know (no offence intended – but I just feel happier that way), so I had to take responsibility myself.
The Alimah gave me some good advice about age – she suggested that girls start at four and boys at five. She had noticed that children younger than this forgot lessons and then couldn’t understand why the teacher was annoyed with them. I have seen children start younger than this with good results, but with a very gentle approach rather than the traditional desi no-carrot and a big stick approach (which I will not be applying)
I am using the Ahsanul-Quaid (Easy Beginners Lesson-Book) and she has memorised the letters and caught the pronunciation quite well. I have found that the gentle loving approach has not worked and I have to be very stern to get her to get ready, sit up and practice. It doesn’t help that Little Man will try and do everything to distract her and every lesson so far has been punctuated with a fight between them.
I am also trying to teach her the names of Allah and start her with memorising Al-Fatihah. She was happy to start with this Surah as I told her that having the Quran in her mind and heart will make her good and keep her safe. It also starts with Alhamdullilah which she already knows.
I am not very confident with this, but I think of my dad who taught all five of his children and many of the neighbour’s children Quran and memorisation of Surah’s of the Quran over a period of fourteen years without any formal religious education and I realise that as with all things it takes sabr and determination.
Please make dua for me and my children to succeed in this endeavour.
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Mashallah - May Allah grant you the sabr and knowledge for your kids to succeed in learning and understanding their faith. Inshaallah I will have kids who I can teach! Make dua for me
ReplyDeleteHey best little sis,
ReplyDeleteYou're always in my dua's.
Allah grant you good helath and a horde of little ones inshallah
Ferzanah
Aslamu alakum
ReplyDeletei used the qaida method for all my kids and my self with the discpline it can work inshaAllah , its also a good idea to have someone with correct tajweed to listen to you now and then for corrections and pointers. When i was in the UK i didn't want the kids learnng at the old school 5-7pm 2hrs per day 5 days a week syatem, 2 reasons i resented the stick method as i want them to love quran and learn it for the love of Allah not beacause they are forced to learn it. In my area there tended to be teachers from the Asian sub Continet community and i found the prounciation of arabic tajweed was not very accurate and i felt if i taught them bad habbits now, they maybe hard to correct later. I thank this generation as they established a very important Islamic link in the UK and their role was important Allah reward them all ameen. As a non arab speaker i have found learning the Tajweed hard , i persvere for the sake of Allah and the reward rememebering that there is double reward for the one who struggles subhanAllah. stick with it sister may Allah give you the strenght and sabr ameen.