My 5 yo is reading English at what I assume to be an average level for his age (he has almost finished Kindergarten HOP). We've been doing conversational Arabic for a couple of years and I have a workbook all ready to go to teach him written Arabic but I'm a little worried it might mess up his reading and writing in English as it is both a new alphabet and read in the opposite direction. Is there ever a good time to introduce this? Should I wait until he is reading/writing a little better? Or should we just get on our way because there is so very much to learn? I'm planning on starting Latin in 2nd or 3rd grade in addition to Arabic. FWIW we are not native Arabic speakers, in fact DH doesn't speak it at all (which is funny because he is the Arab in the family:)). Thanks!

My son, age 5, used that this year in our co-op. I don't know if the activities were from the book but he absolutely loves them!

You can't buy it, but I thought someone might find it interesting to know the material I used to learn reading and writing in Arabic is a used 1st grade work book from a school in Baghdad (I know a former teacher who moved to the US). I always wonder what that little boy would think if he knew his old notebook flew halfway 'round the globe and ended up in the hands of an English-speaking 30-something mom :D. I REALLY appreciate your sharing resources! Thank you!

Thank you so much! Since I'm not part of any Arabic speaking community, I have had a really hard time finding materials! Since reading this thread, I've ordered Arabic Without Tears, from the same publishers as Gateway to Arabic. Shipping cost more than the book so I imagine it won't be here anytime soon but I am so excited to finally have age-appropriate material for young English speakers learning Arabic!

:bigear: You don't speak Arabic at home, but you do speak Arabic, right? We're non-speakers (DH's family is from Lebanon but they've been in America long enough that none speak Arabic now). I've studied Arabic on and off for years (and I don't have much to show for it, sad to say) but I'm looking to start my kids (ages 5 & 3) on some course of study. We live near a large Arabic speaking community so I'm trying to find playdates and other activities to expose them to the language. So far we've just read board books and played some YouTube videos of the alphabet and such. I'm really interested in the books you mentioned, where can I buy them? Amazon (in the US) is currently only carrying books 5 & 7. Fairytalemama - Are you in Dearborn? I'm from Dearborn, currently in Southfield. You'd think there'd be more Arabic for kids resources around.

My 5yo is really fond of the Usborne See Inside series, esp. See Inside your Body, See Under the Ground, and See Inside Science.

I think I might see an OT. As someone said, there's nothing to lose. And I just ordered Tricky Fingers!

Thank you all so much! That gives me some new things to try and some much needed reassurance. He does type, so maybe we'll continue on with that. He is very into Transformers and Legos, so I guess that is some fine motor practice. I do think it is at least in part a perfectionism problem. And he's stubborn. He spent 45 minutes last night trying to convince me to brush his teeth for him. The last thing I want to do is turn writing into a power struggle.

Our HSing consists of phonics/reading and math worksheets (only because he likes them) this year. But he refuses to do any writing of any kind. He has never colored, never picked up a crayon to scribble, won't play tic-tac-toe, do a maze or dot-to-dot! I have tried fat pencils, pencil grips, crayons, pens and markers. Most of the math worksheets involve circling the correct answer, which he will occasionally do. If the circle is anything less than perfect, he bursts into tears and and walks away from the table. I've tried to show him what the writing of other kids his age looks like, but that hasn't helped (and its kind of hard to do on my own). I know in my heart that he's not going to be 22 and not know how to write his name, but I am worried that he is behind. My MIL is a school teacher and not happy with the idea of homeschooling...I'm afraid that this is going to be brought up as exhibit #1 against HSing (and proof I'm a bad mom :001_huh:). We have purchased pre-k HWT, but I meet the same resistance with that as anything else. I'd appreciate any advice, even if it is just to talk me down from this ledge!

OK, I don't think I'll ever figure out all of the abbreviations! HWT isn't on the abbreviation sticky... Handwriting Without Tears? I am a newbie with a 4yo son too, so that got me interested. If you are talking about handwriting, I'd be interested to know if your son is at all interested. My 2yo daughter loves to scribble but my son would rather do ANYTHING else. Thanks!