Arabic - what are you using?

[EmmaNZ]

I know I have asked this before, but we're stuck again. We have been using Gateway to Arabic but have hit a hiatus - not enough review, too much random vocabulary. I am not good at bulking things up on my own, especially in Arabic when my own is so rudimentary.

 

So.....what else can we use as a supplement? something to switch to? anything??? How I wish all the fancy programs for the more common foreign languages existed for arabic!

[Ummto4]

Are you a muslim ? Or are you okay with some Islamic references in an Arabic book ?

 

If you're okay, try Medina Arabic Course (3 books). It's very step by step. By the end of book 2, you should be able to understand the grammatical construction of Al Baqarah (second surah of the Quran) and An Nadwi's Stories of the Prophets. If you want a colorful one, Goodword Kidz has printed the same material into 8 colorful Arabic reader books.

 

You can watch the DVD based on that course (made by Lughatul Quran Toronto) ahead of time . The good thing about the DVD is that it really fleshes out all the grammatical concepts and give you ideas on drill (pronoun drill, verb conjugation drill, and some conversation).

 

We're taking it super slow.

[EmmaNZ]

Yes we're muslim. I was considering that series, so will go and look at it again. I didn't know there was a DVD along with it, that sounds helpful.

 

Thanks so much for your reply!!

[Spy Car]

 

If you're okay, try Medina Arabic Course (3 books). It's very step by step. By the end of book 2, you should be able to understand the grammatical construction of Al Baqarah (second surah of the Quran) and An Nadwi's Stories of the Prophets. If you want a colorful one, Goodword Kidz has printed the same material into 8 colorful Arabic reader books.

 

You can watch the DVD based on that course (made by Lughatul Quran Toronto) ahead of time . The good thing about the DVD is that it really fleshes out all the grammatical concepts and give you ideas on drill (pronoun drill, verb conjugation drill, and some conversation).

 

We're taking it super slow.

 

Can you tell us a little more about this series?

 

And have you seen these YouTube videos? I just watched the first one (discovered after reading your post) and I really liked the teacher, so gentle and humane. There was a disconcerting jump during the lesson (a section seems to be missing) but I learned some things I did not know about indefinite articles in Arabic. There are a bunch more. Off to watch :001_smile:

 

 

Bill

[Spy Car]

I just watched the first lesson part 2. I love this guy!

 

 

Bill

[Kate in Arabia]

I had the same issue with Gateway; I found it a bit disjointed, and not nearly enough practice.

 

I'm using a mix of materials; I've collected a lot of curricula and workbooks over the years, so I have one that I use as the "main book" for each child then I go to the other workbooks for additional practice.

 

My oldest (14) is using a "learn Arabic through the Qur'an" type book, and I take the grammar points and find additional drills to supplement from other workbooks.

 

My middle (10) is using the New Arabic Course for English Speaking Students, which is published in India. It introduces basic grammar points, but then has 3-4 pages of drills where you are translating sentences back and forth.

 

My youngest (6) is using a range of materials. I'm using a workbook/activity book series from Librairie du Liban that I used with my boys and they all like (lots of coloring, etc.) (their website seems to be down, I can't link); this beginning Arabic series, I have a collection of plastic Abjad letters that she's using to practice using the letters in their different forms using the vocab from each lesson; I have her working through the starter book from Gateway to Arabic; and we have a bunch of different beginning Arabic readers, so I choose some for her to read and I read to her as well.

 

I don't know if you have an Arabic speaker in your house, but dh reads to the kids almost every night; he has some collections of different short stories on his iPhone :tongue_smilie: that he reads to them while they're getting ready for bed.... like Juha stories, or other really short, funny tales. He'll read and ask the kids to translate into English as he's reading along.

 

hth!

[EmmaNZ]

Spycar, I haven't seen those videos before but they look like they may be useful if we decide to go with the Madina books. Glad you're enjoying them!

 

Thanks for the info Kate. It's frustrating isn't it, that nothing is written well enough?! Any chance you could link to the book your 10 yr old is using? We might be on the bottom end of that. (I couldn't get any of your other links to work either!)

 

Can I ask another question? I have until now avoided the arabic readers because I'm worried I can't read them! I can read arabic just fine with all the harakaat, but don't really know where to start with even really basic day-to-day arabic. How can I improve this, because I think it would help a lot?

 

Sadly no arabic speakers in this family. I am a revert and my arabic is already better than my hubby's! We are stuck out in the sticks as well, so no friends on hand to teach me either. We'll just keep plodding on....

[EmmaNZ]

Just bumping in case I get any more takers......

[Bayt ul-Hikmah]

:bigear:

[Amirah]

you can download the madinah books, the videos bill mentioned and worksheets to go with the videos from here for freehttp://www.lqtoronto.com/downloads.html they are the same as the ones on youtube the company that produces them made them available for free online. i am a convert myself and am working through book 1 myself. i find these really good. my husband speaks arabic and he thinks its very well fleshed. for kids though i don't know how it would work lol mine is almost 3 so i am a year out from homeschooling though. i plan to use ad-duha for quranic arabic and i love arabic(husband will teach or translate) but if i find something better lol ..... ooh if you want free arabic readers there is this http://omarmariam.irsyad.sg/web/volume1.asp they have 3 levels and there are 7 to 8 books in each level they are good for practice.

[Kate in Arabia]

Can I ask another question? I have until now avoided the arabic readers because I'm worried I can't read them! I can read arabic just fine with all the harakaat, but don't really know where to start with even really basic day-to-day arabic. How can I improve this, because I think it would help a lot?

I have a Master's degree in Arabic, but in the program I attended learning Arabic was all about using it as a research language, not as a spoken language. So I had trouble with day-to-day Arabic in the beginning. Here's some things I did:

 

Made signs around the house writing the names in Arabic.

 

For myself, vocab lists or flash cards that I kept on my person so I could flip through them whenever I had a spare moment (like sitting and waiting in a car).

 

I bought a bunch of those beginner Arabic dictionary books, like they have in English, with pictures of things and the Arabic word underneath; I'd sit with the kids and ask them to show me different things I'd name in Arabic.

 

I found a set of graded readers, the first level was really simple - like 2-10 words on a page with pictures. I read through them myself first (with a dictionary, lol) and made sure I understood all the words and the meaning, practiced reading them aloud to myself; then I read these to the kids over and over and over. At that young age they were fine with the repetition, and just like in English you make a game out of it where you have them start reading some of the words to you, or trying to find things in the picture that are in the text, etc. I think my Arabic improved as much as theirs did...

 

We had some Arabic videos we played a lot for the kids, now I don't even remember them all, a couple of favorite series were Ibn al-Baar -- they speak in fus-ha -- and Ashbaal (Muslim scouts). I didn't understand everything, neither did the kids, but we kept watching and picking out whatever we could.

 

There also used to be Jumpstart computer games in Arabic, I don't know whether these are still available; they covered I think up to first grade? I think we had preschool and KG levels. Those were good too.

 

If I can think of anything else I'll let you know, but these are the things that come to mind at the moment... hth!

[Guest lightmom]

For myself and for my six-year-old daughter, we've really benefited from Alif Arabic's individual, personalized instruction over skype (alifarabic.com). They have teachers who are trained in teaching children. It can be hit or miss with instructors, but the administration is very professional and will let you try different instructors until you find a right fit. Price is reasonable and curriculum is flexible to accommodate individual needs. My daughter learned to read and write Arabic in the last year with an alif arabic instructor.

 

Our first language at home is classical Arabic, so I also take lessons myself to keep my language sharp and expand my children's vocabulary.

[Bayt ul-Hikmah]

if you want free arabic readers there is this http://omarmariam.irsyad.sg/web/volume1.asp they have 3 levels and there are 7 to 8 books in each level they are good for practice.

 

Thank you for this link!! They look like they'd be very easy to use when beginning to read aloud with the kids.

[Roadrunner]

I have a Master's degree in Arabic, but in the program I attended learning Arabic was all about using it as a research language, not as a spoken language. So I had trouble with day-to-day Arabic in the beginning. Here's some things I did:

 

Made signs around the house writing the names in Arabic.

 

For myself, vocab lists or flash cards that I kept on my person so I could flip through them whenever I had a spare moment (like sitting and waiting in a car).

 

I bought a bunch of those beginner Arabic dictionary books, like they have in English, with pictures of things and the Arabic word underneath; I'd sit with the kids and ask them to show me different things I'd name in Arabic.

 

I found a set of graded readers, the first level was really simple - like 2-10 words on a page with pictures. I read through them myself first (with a dictionary, lol) and made sure I understood all the words and the meaning, practiced reading them aloud to myself; then I read these to the kids over and over and over. At that young age they were fine with the repetition, and just like in English you make a game out of it where you have them start reading some of the words to you, or trying to find things in the picture that are in the text, etc. I think my Arabic improved as much as theirs did...

 

We had some Arabic videos we played a lot for the kids, now I don't even remember them all, a couple of favorite series were Ibn al-Baar -- they speak in fus-ha -- and Ashbaal (Muslim scouts). I didn't understand everything, neither did the kids, but we kept watching and picking out whatever we could.

 

There also used to be Jumpstart computer games in Arabic, I don't know whether these are still available; they covered I think up to first grade? I think we had preschool and KG levels. Those were good too.

 

If I can think of anything else I'll let you know, but these are the things that come to mind at the moment... hth!

 

Do most curriculum's teach Modern Standard Arabic? Also, if we wanted to teach kids classical Arabic so they can read poetry and literature, should we take a different approach? If we teach Modern Standard Arabic, can the kids still read classical literature? I am asking this because I know languages are different. My native language changed, but not enough, so I can still read without a problem literature written in the 4th century. Is that true with Arabic?

[Kate in Arabia]

Do most curriculum's teach Modern Standard Arabic? Also, if we wanted to teach kids classical Arabic so they can read poetry and literature, should we take a different approach? If we teach Modern Standard Arabic, can the kids still read classical literature? I am asking this because I know languages are different. My native language changed, but not enough, so I can still read without a problem literature written in the 4th century. Is that true with Arabic?

I see what you're getting at here.. like I am able to read Middle English with some help (e.g., Canterbury Tales), but not Old English. I think it's similar in Arabic, although the actual forms of words changed less than the contextual meanings. There are dictionaries specific for Classical Arabic (not Modern Standard), but I've never seen a curriculum for that. I took a graduate class in pre-Islamic poetry, that was the first I had experienced something specifically targeted for "older" Arabic. But works like Alf Layla wa Layla (1001 Nights), or medieval travelogues.. even the classical works of Islamic studies... I think can be managed with a basis in Modern Standard.

 

Pretty much all curricula I've seen for kids have either been Modern Standard or Qur'anic Arabic. There have been slight variations in vocabulary depending on the country of origin of the books, but I have not seen an elementary level curriculum in regional dialects, only at the university level.

[Kate in Arabia]

Another thing I did was to try and learn common phrases one at a time, gradually, and add them into my everyday interaction with the kids. If you can discipline yourself to add in a new phrase, say, every week or so and use it consistently, you can really pick up a lot of basic conversation that way. I remember one of the early ones I did was "put on your shoes", lol. When you think about it, especially with younger kids, we really do repeat a lot of the same phrases.

[JadeOrchidSong]

you can download the madinah books, the videos bill mentioned and worksheets to go with the videos from here for freehttp://www.lqtoronto.com/downloads.html they are the same as the ones on youtube the company that produces them made them available for free online. i am a convert myself and am working through book 1 myself. i find these really good. my husband speaks arabic and he thinks its very well fleshed. for kids though i don't know how it would work lol mine is almost 3 so i am a year out from homeschooling though. i plan to use ad-duha for quranic arabic and i love arabic(husband will teach or translate) but if i find something better lol ..... ooh if you want free arabic readers there is this http://omarmariam.irsyad.sg/web/volume1.asp they have 3 levels and there are 7 to 8 books in each level they are good for practice.

I have been wanting to learn some Arabic myself. thanks for the info.

[Roadrunner]

I see what you're getting at here.. like I am able to read Middle English with some help (e.g., Canterbury Tales), but not Old English. I think it's similar in Arabic, although the actual forms of words changed less than the contextual meanings. There are dictionaries specific for Classical Arabic (not Modern Standard), but I've never seen a curriculum for that. I took a graduate class in pre-Islamic poetry, that was the first I had experienced something specifically targeted for "older" Arabic. But works like Alf Layla wa Layla (1001 Nights), or medieval travelogues.. even the classical works of Islamic studies... I think can be managed with a basis in Modern Standard.

 

Pretty much all curricula I've seen for kids have either been Modern Standard or Qur'anic Arabic. There have been slight variations in vocabulary depending on the country of origin of the books, but I have not seen an elementary level curriculum in regional dialects, only at the university level.

 

Thank you!

[EmmaNZ]

Thanks so much everybody. This is really helpful.

[stripe]

Wow! I missed these! Thank you all.

[nov05mama]

:bigear:

[Embassy]

I'm using a combination of Alif Baa and Arabian Sinbad in a non-Muslim household with no native Arabic speakers around. Right now my kids watch an Arabian Sinbad episode every school day, spend one day a week on the Arabian Sinbad CD-ROM games, and 4 days on Alif Baa.

[UmmAbduRahman]

I'm trying to decide between Gateway to Arabic and Madinah Arabic Reader.

 

I've used V. AbdurRahim's 3-book Madinah series and it was excellent, but I think better for older kids. You also have to have learned to read Arabic before starting. From what I see the Madinah Arabic Reader series is the same. Gateway to Arabic looks like it teaches the alphabet at the beginning.

 

I'm also considering Rosetta Stone Arabic Homeschool edition. It's on sale with the Homeschool Buyer's Co-Op until this weekend. I know many people have problems with RS's methodology, but DS loved the demos he did and I think it would encourage him to practice what we're learning through the books. Even though it's expensive it's still cheaper than paying monthly for Alif Arabic and Studio Arabiya (which I've heard are great, by the way).

[umsami]

Great thread! Thanks!

 

We're actually doing Qur'anic Arabic (learning to read mainly) in a Weekend Islamic School--and work on Egyptian Arabic with this British course called Michel Thomas.

 

We do Sindebad (can't help but write it that way) in spurts. Have had it a few years and the kids know all of them and love them.

 

Right now, I want my kids to learn enough Egypitan Arabic so that DH will start speaking to them in Arabic. He goes through phases.... like nothing for months and then all of a sudden Arabic for an hour....and then nothing. He was surprised that their Arabic teacher at Weekend school said they had "American" accents. Of course they do! :)

[Guest almah]

I'm new to the forum and this is my first post.

We started with Gateway to Arabic with my 6yr daughter & also we use Berlitz 1000 Arabic words.

[garddwr]

I'm new to the forum and this is my first post.

We started with Gateway to Arabic with my 6yr daughter & also we use Berlitz 1000 Arabic words.

 

Welcome to the forum, Almah! I'm just looking into Gateway to Arabic for my 8 year old. We're working on slowly learning the alphabet right now.