Read is a product by the company Learning Roots, a publisher for Islamic educational material for young children. The book, Read, is a step-by-step guide to having children learn to read the Qur'an and is a suitable product for homeschooling families who wish to infuse the Qur'an into their homeschool. The book itself is very concise, encouraging children to grasp each concept of reading quickly and efficiently, before moving on to the next level. At the back of the book, parents will find a sticker sheet that awards readers on their accomplishments in making it through each level.
Learning the Qur'an Step by Step
Read first introduces the Arabic alphabet and focuses on alphabet recognition. The first page displays the entire Arabic alphabet that children would have to commit to memory. On the next page, children are then taught to recognize the letters when linked in sentences, as many of the Arabic characters take different form when they are written out in sentences.
Read then moves on to learning the formation of short vowels, through the use of the harakat, symbols above, below and ahead of the letters, effectively creating the basic vowel sounds of "a", "ee" and "oo". Once this is done, the book provides a page for practice.
Four other core concepts when reading the Qur'an are introduced, including double harakats, called tanwin, long vowels, the combination of harakats and "conflicting" vowel sounds, and the linking of two or more alphabet sounds, through the concepts of shaddah and madd.
Who Would like to use Read
Learning Roots has categorized roots under their Primary Level of products, indicating that Read is suitable for children at primary school level (6-11 years of age) - those who are comfortable with learning how to read in a systematic manner. Read does not have many practice sheets, thus it is more suited to those who are able to retain the letters and sounds without much repetition.
Read is also more suitable for students who are being taught or supervised by a teacher who is already familiar with the Arabic alphabet as the product does not provide transliteration of the Arabic pronunciation. Thus for homeschooling families, at least one parent should be able to already read the Qur'an in order to incorporate Read into their homeschool curriculum.
Read as a Core Curriculum for Learning to Read the Qur'an
Read can be used as a core product for learning to read the Qur'an. However, age appropriateness is advised due to the conciseness of the practices. Although the pages are of high quality material, the pages can still tear and need to be handled with care. Nevertheless, Read is a good product to have as part of an Islamic curriculum.
Maria Zain - Maria is a wife, mother, coffee addict, homeschooler and writer - not in that particular order. On most days, all roles get muddled up ...
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