cholderby Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 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! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stripe Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 You could do it in a low-key way for example just identifying the alphabet in isolation on toys (blocks or puzzle pieces) before moving on to the workbook. My kids don't seem to really get different alphabets mixed up but I have personally observed a greater likelihood for getting ﻉ and 3 confused so writing 3 (the number) like an ﻉ. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mabelen Posted January 2, 2011 Share Posted January 2, 2011 I don't have first hand experience with teaching a different alphabet. My kids learned to read in English first and then in Spanish once their English reading skills were pretty solid, meaning they didn't have to sound things out any more for the most part and were not afraid of tackling regular children's books. In our case, their English reading skills transfered very nicely to Spanish since we share the alphabet and Spanish is a fairly phonetic language. I also have to add that ours is a bilingual English-Spanish household, having followed the One Parent One Language approach from day one of their lives. The Arabic alphabet is a little more complex than say Greek or Latin as far as I can remember. Each consonant can have 3 different symbols depending on whether it goes at the beginning, the middle or the end of a word... Plus vowels are not always present in writing, although they are probably used in children's books. I remember we used vowels in our first year of Arabic in college but by our second year they were phased out. I think I would make sure your son's reading skills are solid and then tackle the Arabic alphabet in a systematic way. I am sorry I cannot be of more help. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cholderby Posted January 3, 2011 Author Share Posted January 3, 2011 Thanks! I think we will indeed start slow, one isolated letter at a time. I just don't want to make it any harder for him than it already is! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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