Tag: Kids

Story of Prophet Adam (pbuh) for Kids Aged 3+ (Free Download)

My daughter’s around that age now (3.5 years) where we can start introducing religious conepts. There is nothing good out there for 3-4 year olds to introduce religion to them. Most good stuff is geared towards 7+ years.

So I decided to do my own book for her age using Google Slides. I’ve read enough non-religious books to her for her level to understand how to write one for myself. I know what vocabulary and sentence structures she recognizes. I’m starting with the Story of Adam to introduce Allah as the Creator of everything and connect it to the story of Adam and then us.

The key thing is to turn it into a dialogue so every slide comes with a question that the reader asks the child to remphasize a concept in the discussion before moving to the next slide. I used a book written for older kids as a template. I’m basically dumbing it down for 3-4 year olds. For catchy pictures, I used Google images to find cartoon images related to the discussion in each slide.

I’ve been reading it to my daughter for the past few days and she really likes it! So I guess it is a success alhamdulillah! Now, I am sharing it here for other parents who may be interested as well. A few suggestions before giving you the download link (it’s free!):

I wrote this story with my 3.5 yrs old in mind. Your kid(s) might be at a higher/lower level. You can either run it as a powerpoint presentation directly from the link (preferred) or download it as a pdf and get it printed. If you want to customize it yourself and gear it more towards your own child’s needs, if my version is not doing it for your kid, then you can download it as a powerpoint presentation and just edit it yourself using Microsoft powerpoint. You know your kids better anyone else. Think about how you can retell the story in a way so that your kid(s) will get the themes presented. (If you run it directly from the site, it flips screens which is a cool feature that my kid loves and kind of brings the story to life.)

Under every slide, I have a section called “Question”. This is for you, the parent, to discuss each slide with your kid before moving to the next one. The point of this dialogue is to re-emphasize the message in their mind and make sure they understand the story. Don’t spend too long on it otherwise your kid(s) might get bored and frustrated. Just move them along the story as best you can while having a short dialogue with them about the theme(s) being discussed in every slide.

You don’t have to pose the questions the way I did. You can customize it in whatever way suits your kid(s) needs. Some of this is trial and error. Just try it and if it works, then great, otherwise, try some other way to ask it.

Ideally, I am trying to do this story with my kid at most once a day and at least once a week. My goal is to go over it with her enough times so that she can retell it in her own words. When the picture from any of the slides come up, she should be able to summarize that section for me the best she can at her level. Even if she doesn’t get all of it but she should be able to get the gist of it. This is just my own way to measure how well she is succeeding in understanding the story, you can do your own way.

Finally, please provide me some feedback after and how it went. I’d love to make more resources for parents to bring their kids closer to the deen insha’Allah if this one is received well.

DOWNLOAD THE STORY OF ADAM (PBUH) FOR KIDS

You can also view the book on YouTube below because I converted it to a short YouTube video.

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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:

Small Size Cuts
Large Size Cuts

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

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