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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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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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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Wild About Arabic Animal Books - Maktabatee

Wild About Arabic Animal Books

What child doesn’t love caring for a furry pet, visiting the zoo, or watching their favorite animal themed cartoon shows? In fact, if you think about it, so many children’s television characters are animals.  Our children’s love for animals is innate, somehow developing at such an early age, even without any pets around. 

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