Your Guide to Navigating the Coronavirus Lockdown with Kids - Maktabatee

Your Guide to Navigating the Coronavirus Lockdown with Kids

How do we deal with a prolonged “shutdown” of normal activity in light of a pandemic like the Coronavirus? That is a question parents the world over are grappling with right now. With little time to plan or prepare, we are entering uncharted territory. For many of us, access to unlimited online resources that are being widely shared on social media can be overwhelming. For many, the idea of trying to homeschool one or more children while “teleworking” or managing a home is daunting at best.

Here are five ways you can make the most of this time with your kids at home (and naturally, use Arabic along the way):

 

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Arabic Children's Books At Your Local Library - Maktabatee

Arabic Children's Books At Your Local Library

For parents of multilingual children, libraries can be a great resource, although non-English titles in North American libraries can be limited. But that's changing, as librarians are becoming more attuned to their community's needs and the increasing diversity of cultures and languages spoken across the US and Canada.  
Arabic children's books are increasingly making an appearance, much to the delight of parents on the hunt for resources to reinforce their children's understanding of Arabic. While some libraries do a great job of advertising these diverse titles, many community members still don't know they have access to multilingual books.

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Five Mistakes Parents Make When Teaching Kids Arabic - Maktabatee

Five Mistakes Parents Make When Teaching Kids Arabic

When it comes to teaching one’s children Arabic, in a non-Arabic speaking country, and in the face of technology and shortened attention spans, there’s not much in the way of “past experience.” Yes, many of our parents had to teach us Arabic too, but for most, it was their dominant language as immigrants to the US or Canada. For second or third generation Arab-Americans, that is not the case. So the challenge is even more daunting but the desire to maintain one’s connection to their heritage, faith, and culture is strong enough to motivate many of us to stick to it. 

We asked ourselves and other parents teaching their kids Arabic about the mistakes they made in their journey and we found several common answers. Here are the top five mistakes parents make when teaching their kids Arabic, and ways to avoid them (if you’re new to this) or fix them (if you’ve already made some). 

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Your Guide To 13 Arabic Summer Camps in the USA - Maktabatee

Your Guide To 13 Arabic Summer Camps in the USA

If you’ve planned for summer camps before, you know that the time, effort, and investment you make can be a big one. It takes weeks on end to figure out where your kids will go and what camps you want them to enjoy during their summer break. We also know how important the summer can be in continuing kids’ education and is a perfect time for students to continue reading, learning, and exploring. We’re in the midst of summer planning now, and we know many of you are too. Since we couldn’t find a list of Arabic camps in our area, we made one ourselves! Some are more Arabic-focused than others, but everyone on this list has at a minimum an Arabic language component. So, if you’re looking for an Arabic summer camp for this year, check these out! If you have others to add, please comment below and let us know or email us at info@maktabatee.com. Happy camping!

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How to Start an Arabic Storytime in Your Community - Maktabatee

How to Start an Arabic Storytime in Your Community

When we launched Maktabatee in April 2016, we knew that we wanted books that could be read in this context, that would allow children to see the beauty of Arabic storytelling, away from some of the old school story lines and graphics that we were used to. Since then, we’ve heard from many community members who are hosting similar programs in their schools and libraries. If you don’t have one in your area, why not start one yourself? If you’ve thought about it, but are not sure where to start, we broke it down for you into five steps, drawing on our own experience as well as tips we gathered from talking to others who have been involved in starting or organizing an Arabic story time in their community.

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Arabic music for kids

How to Boost Arabic Learning by Playing a Tune

Arabic music has always been a part of my life—it was the way my parents entertained us in the car on road trips before iPads and car DVDs became popular, and one way we learned a lot about our religion, culture, and heritage. On our annual summer trip to Jordan, our aunts and great aunts would commonly bust out with a tabla and start a dance party in the kitchen while washing dishes, or even sing together cultural songs in preparation for a wedding or graduation party.

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How to Use the Arabic Letter Connector - Maktabatee

How to Use the Arabic Letter Connector

Our goal at Maktabatee is to provide you with a toolbox of resources to make Arabic learning fun and accessible. Versatile, interactive, and innovative, the Arabic Letter Connector is the newest tool to be added to the Maktabatee collection. It is made up of 104 magnetic Arabic letters and accent marks and includes a magnetic board that allows Arabic learners to put the letters together to form words. 

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Parents' Corner: How One Dad Makes Arabic Learning Fun - Maktabatee

Parents' Corner: How One Dad Makes Arabic Learning Fun

I have one underlying theory to how I teach my son Arabic: make him associate Arabic with fun things. My own experience with Arabic growing up was miserable, making me associate the language with painful and boring lessons and constant failure on my part to fully understand. The little I do remember from my childhood Arabic is the fun stuff, and eight years of private school lessons have been blissfully blocked out. 

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Spring Into Arabic Scavenger Hunt - Maktabatee

Spring Into Arabic Scavenger Hunt

Spring is here! While some of us may still have snow on the ground from last week’s storm, we can confidently say we’re all ready for some warmth, sunshine, and the great outdoors! In a few weeks, school children here will be off for a week for spring break, with lots of energy to burn and time to kill.

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