The special thing about homeschooling is that you can instill your own values in your every day life, and definitely more than when the kids are in a secular school during the week. Well, that’s great, but what to do with that freedom?
Never forget the best resource to teach your kid(s) sound Islamic knowledge is to learn it yourself, find reliable scholars are in your area, and live Islam in your every day life. Some local areas have more scholars than others, obviously, but if your local area is short on scholars, become familiar with scholars available online in languages you are familiar with.
Educational Islamic resources:
Ad-Duha Institute
We use Ad-Duha for our complete Islamic curriculum. I love that their curriculum includes Qur’an, du’a memorization, tafseer, arabic, and asmaa al-husna (names of Allah). There are lots of opportunities to tie in every day life lessons through asmaa al-husna and tafseer lessons, and the student still benefits from memorization as well.
The Ad-Duha preschool curriculum largely consists of story books about manners and the relevant du’a. On top of the du’a books, they offer books on colors, shapes, numbers, and letters in both Arabic and English. I love the gentle introduction into this before their Level ALP (Kindergarten level) curriculum.
One of my favorite things about Ad-Duha is when you look at their scope and sequence, you see the end goal is for the child to be hafiz (one who has memorized the Qur’an). I hesitate in striving for memorization of Qur’an in a short amount of time, so it is comforting to see the goal is to do so in 13 years, all the while learning the tafseer. MashaAllah, I think it is the right blend of memorization and understanding.
Noor Art
Noor Art has become a common name in the American Muslim community, and for good reason. Noor Art has everything from DVDs, CDs, games, educational books and story books for kids through adults, and especially prides themselves in their educational resources. Noor Art continues to produce and provide a large number of items for the Muslim family, both entertaining and educational.
Noor Art also has one of the largest Arabic language sections I’ve seen on an English website. For those wishing to incorporate Arabic as a second (or first) language in their home, there are plenty of resources to make that more of a reality. In our home, Arabic is not a second language (yet, in sha Allah) so we enjoy the English or dual language options.
Fine Media Group
Muhammad: The Last Prophet has become a fairly popular movie in the Muslim community, but I haven’t heard a lot regarding the company that produced it overall. Our family also owns Before the Light, also made by Fine Media Group (and I have reviewed Before the Light as well) and I have been impressed with the quality, mashaAllah. I’ve found it hard to find high quality DVDs from Islamic producers, so seeing the quality of these movies brings me back to their website to find more.
How Big is Allah?
I can’t say how excited I am about this book, and hearing that Emma Apple is working on a second book now, too. I love when story books weave in science gracefully and seamlessly, and How Big is Allah? does just that. I know some have been put off by the title since we are not supposed to quantify Allah in worldly terms, but I believe this book is a gentle introduction to kids that there are some things much greater than they are, and she uses space as the avenue to get them thinking in terms that are less familiar than their every day (unless you are one of her kids, because you can tell from her Facebook updates that they are enthralled with the universe, and the wonder within it).
Learning Roots
While I don’t have any of the Learning Roots items yet, they are high on my wishlist. With their story books surrounding the prophets of Islam, Quranic puzzle, fun Qur’an memorization tools, they look like a fabulous resource for the Muslim community, in sha Allah. It can be hard to know what books are going to be really fun story books, and which ones have awkward English and jolty story telling. I love that they have videos of their products on their website to help you get a nice preview before you buy!
Creative Motivations
This is another product we don’t have, yet, but you can tell the products are high quality, and made with care. Creative Motivations has items from tracking charts, award buttons, Arabic number and letter magnets (some letter magnets with animals!), Qur’an memorization cards, and so much more. I love how colorful everything is, and it just begs to be used. In sha Allah, I see many of these items in our home in the future.
Looking for more? Follow my Islam for Kids board on Pinterest!
Follow Middle Way Mom’s board Islam: For kids on Pinterest.
What are your go-to resources for ensuring you have Islamic books, movies, CDs, games, toys, etc. in the home?
The rest of the series to check out!
- Q&A: Homeschool Scheduling (February 20, 2013)
- Q&A: Homeschool Time Management (March 7, 2013)
- Q&A: Keeping Track of Grade Level (March 18, 2013)
- Best Kids Islamic Resources (April 1, 2013)
- Q&A: Planning the High School Years (May 7, 2013)
- Q&A: What is a co-op, and why have one? (May 28, 2013)
- Q&A: Pros and Cons of Virtual School (June 10, 2013)
- Q&A - I'm not patient enough to homeschool (June 26, 2013)
- How Do You Check Academic Performance? (October 19, 2015)
This is a great list of resources. Thanks for sharing. I usually head straight to Google and type in what I’m looking for. I should probably start keeping track of which sites I use most often.
Ad-Duha took me a while to find, but when I did, it answered so many prayers, alhamdulilah! Their site is a little glitchy, but I’m so pleased with their content that I think it’s worth it to work through it.
Excellent list sis! It’s so important to have as much Islamic learning material as possible. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
Thanks! I’m glad you find it valuable!
Hi, im from india. How can i get hold of books from noor art?
It looks like http://www.islamicbookstore.com/ ships worldwide and carries many of the same books as Noorart. In sha Allah that helps!
Asalam Alaikum,
I was interested to know which particular curriculum from Ad-Duha you are using for preschool.
I have looked but I can only find the preK-K curriculum but I do not see it consisting of the books that are pictured above. Your help would be greatly appreciated.
Jzk
Karen S.
Walaykum assalam, Ad-Duha has changed their website recently, so things look a little bit different. For young preschool, use the Mini Mumin series, and for a junior Kindergarten, you could start with level ALP. Hope that helps!