Years ago I focused on teaching my son how to read and write English. We started using Starfall and I had my son use the website for 20 minutes per day while I cooked and cleaned around the home. It was truly exciting to see how quickly he was picking up new words and learning how to read.
By the end of the first year I began to teach my son Arabic. I used my laptop monitor as a light box to allow my son to trace each of the Arabic words. We used to carefully place the printer paper onto the screen, and he would use the pencil to draw over the Arabic words which I had prepared using Microsoft PowerPoint. Alhamdulillah.
After he traced each of the words, we would transliterate each letter so that he could eventually learn to recognize each one. It took him one month to be able to learn how to read the letters using this technique.
Over time I have added more to my son's curriculum. I have been able to do this by focusing on increasing his vocabulary by reading books we borrowed from the local public library. We never read the same book twice, and we always read books at least 15-20 minutes a day. Sometimes we read up to an hour before bed. Sometimes we read the Qur'an, and other times we sat side by side in the fading sunlight reading chapter books together.
It came to the point where my son was reading chapter books by himself and progressed to reading at a twelfth grade reading level by the time he was seven years old.
In my family reading is important because if you can read, you can read to learn. You can read anything and know how to look up unknown words. I encourage my son to Google unfamiliar words using his laptop.
By the end of the first year I began to teach my son Arabic. I used my laptop monitor as a light box to allow my son to trace each of the Arabic words. We used to carefully place the printer paper onto the screen, and he would use the pencil to draw over the Arabic words which I had prepared using Microsoft PowerPoint. Alhamdulillah.
After he traced each of the words, we would transliterate each letter so that he could eventually learn to recognize each one. It took him one month to be able to learn how to read the letters using this technique.
Over time I have added more to my son's curriculum. I have been able to do this by focusing on increasing his vocabulary by reading books we borrowed from the local public library. We never read the same book twice, and we always read books at least 15-20 minutes a day. Sometimes we read up to an hour before bed. Sometimes we read the Qur'an, and other times we sat side by side in the fading sunlight reading chapter books together.
It came to the point where my son was reading chapter books by himself and progressed to reading at a twelfth grade reading level by the time he was seven years old.
In my family reading is important because if you can read, you can read to learn. You can read anything and know how to look up unknown words. I encourage my son to Google unfamiliar words using his laptop.
Over time, I have found that any subject can be broken down in to small lessons so that my son can grasp each of the concepts. In addition, I teach my son based on his learning style so we are building his knowledge like bricks on a home.
Alhamdulillah, now it has now been four years since we started. My son is now 8 1/2 and I am hoping to finish our pre-algebra this year. Insha'allah.