5 Resources to help your Arabic Bi-Lingual Kids
Growing up as a second generation immigrant in the West, I found it extremely challenging to really connect with my Arabic mother-tongue.
Every Saturday, my mum would have to drag us by our teeth to attend the dreaded Arabic school. From a young age, I found Arabic text books and story books to be quite heavy and dense. From a design perspective, the materials were not child-friendly, let alone for the non-native Arabic speakers. I really felt a huge disengagement with my Arabic journey as opposed to learning from and reading English books.
Fifteen years on, a non-Arab husband and two kids later and I’m trying to find fun and interactive ways to build my children’s confidence in their first? second? or third? language and drag my husband along the journey.
Here are five resources that I've been using to help me guide my kids' Arabic learning journey.
ArabicSeeds
Arabic Seeds is a membership-based resource website. Honestly it’s pretty amazing. Emilie Lafage, the founder of Arabic Seeds (and non-native Arabic speaker). created a range of resources; activities, worksheets and reading materials to aid non-Arabic speakers with speaking the language. What’s great about Arabic Seeds is that the resources grow as your child's (or your) ability to learn Arabic does.
DesiDoll
Arabic alphabet sound puzzle
I bought this for Laila when she was around one years old and she really loved playing with it. We love that it plays the sounds of the letters to help kids (and adults) familiarise and practice along. It’s a great tool especially for non-native Arabic speakers.
https://desidollcompany.com/product/arabic-alphabet-sound-puzzle/
The Usborne
First thousand words in Arabic
A very nostalgic “Look & Find” Usborne book that took me back to my childhood. This book is filled with a range of illustrated scenarios along with a list of items in Arabic that you and your child can sit and find. It is Fusha based and frankly I’ve learnt a lot of random words that I didn't know previously!
https://amzn.to/3kTFRMv
Shakoo Maku TV
Whilst some parents may protest at the idea of screen time (no judgement here), we find YouTube to be a real lifesaver at times. Shortly after Laila was born our lovely friends in New Zealand released an amazingly fun YouTube channel (and now on Spotify) specialising in translating English nursery rhymes into Arabic, specifically Iraqi Arabic, which was great for us. Our daughter loved it and so did we. It's fun, interactive and dance worthy.
https://bit.ly/3DwE0Ex
What's That? Maa Haatha?
We love supporting independent business, so when I discovered Emma Apples’ work years ago I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy of her book.
The book is extremely child-friendly, it is repetition-based so helps the child to engage and familiarise with sentences.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/p/21046667144
And lastly, whilst I have your attention my own book!
Count with me ١،٢،٣
Arabic Number Book
One of the many reasons why I set out to write and illustrate my own book was to create clean, simple and good quality books for young children. Specifically those who come from a multilingual household like mine. Not only is the book great for young readers but it’s proven to engage the adults in learning and pronouncing the words out loud with the child. I know a few family members that swear by it.
Use discount code ‘BLOG” for 5% off your next purchase! :)