How to Teach Kids the Arabic Alphabet in Three Easy Steps

Do you want to know how to teach your kids the Arabic alphabet without hiring a professional? Then this article is for you. It’s very simple and I’ll explain in this article how you can do it in your own home just like I did with my 4 year old. It does not require a professional!

What is the Best Age for Kids to Start?

First, let’s discuss the age because parents wonder about this. At what age should you begin teaching your kids the Arabic alphabet? The answer is that it depends on the child. Some kids can begin grasping the letters as early as 3 while others need to be older. Many parents usually begin introducing letters around 4.5 years of age. This is the age I suggest as well.

Step 1: Print out the letters

At this stage, kids want to do things hands on and want tangible objects to hold and touch. Therefore, we suggest you print out the Arabic letters on construction paper and cut them individually out.

Here are some examples:

For your convenience, I have prepared a PDF so that you can download the small size letters from here and print them out. I use the small size but you can find the large ones online as well if that is easier for your child to grasp.

Step 2: Introduce letters

After you have cut them out, then start by introducing one letter a week. Show it to them and repeat it over and over again and make them repeat it back to you. Don’t spend too long on it but just a few minutes a day.

I also suggest that you write each new letter at least 2-3 times a week on a piece of paper in a large font and have your child either color or paint it during the week. This will help with retention. I did this with my daughter every time she learned a new letter and it worked really well! You can download the color sheet from here as a guide. You will take each new letter and write it the same way on a piece of paper but on a larger scale so that your child can color or paint it.

Here is an example of what I did with my daughter

Please ignore the little nose she made for the letter ث (tha) 🙂

Within a week, you’re child should be able to identify the letter and know it. Some kids do pick it up faster than others, in which case, you can increase to two or more letters a week. Every child is different so just keep a close eye on your own child’s capability and pace.

The objective is to make them master the letters. Every time you show them a learned letter, they should be able to say it on their own without hesitation. This is when you know that they have truly grasped it.

You also want to make sure at this step that your child pronounces the letters correctly. Here is a short video that I stitched together that teaches you how to correctly pronounce each Arabic letter:

Step 3: Test them

Every 2-3 days, you must test your child by showing them random letters that they have already learned to see if they can identify them on their own without hesitation. If they forget or hesitate, then you need to work on that letter more by repeating the process in step 2.

At least 5 days a week, you must test them on all of the letters that they have already learned. So you’re method should look something like this:

1. Bring out all of the cut out letters that they have already learned
2. Spread them out on the floor
3. Either ask the child to identify the letters on their own or randomly pick one and ask the child to identify it
4. If the child is able to identify a letter correctly, then remove that letter from the floor and put it on the side
5. If the child is unable to identify a letter or does it incorrectly, then this means that this is his/her weak letter and you need to repeat step 2 for that letter.

For some letters, you may have multiple weeks spent on it because the child may just not be able to absorb a certain letter. Maybe it looks too similar to another or the child finds the shape too complicated. Whatever the case, this is normal so there is no need to become frustrated. Just be patient with him/her and keep working on it. They will eventually get it insha’Allah!

If you take the above steps, then after a few weeks your child should have a strong grasp of all the Arabic letters and you can now move onto the next step, which is introducing the letters in a joined construction.

I hope to go over those steps in a future article insha’Allah!

Here is a short video I prepared on the topic