Between the age of 9 and 12 years old, kids gain a whole lot of independence – they start doing homework independently, developing independent interests, and best of all – reading independently. Studies have shown that attitudes to reading change very little in grades 1-3 and in grades 5-6, but the time when attitudes to reading can change the most is around grade 4 (or around 9 years old). This change in attitude is believed to stem from access to, and effective use of, non-classroom reading. So the more access your child has at this time to Arabic materials that they enjoy reading, the more likely they are to become lifelong readers! 

		Essential Skills to Cover
		Reading & Writing Now that your child is becoming a more confident and fluent reader, it’s a good idea to mix up your reading strategies a little – reading aloud together at times, allowing them to read quietly at others. By age 9 (or grade 4), your child will likely begin self-correcting as they read a passage or a book. If he/she makes a mistake while reading together, wait quietly while they re-read a word and correct themselves rather than offering a correction right away. This age is also where many readers gain the ability to skim through a passage and look for specific information. 9 year olds should also progress their writing skills to longer sentences, writing very basic short stories or dialogues, and should work on writing short passages by sound (traditionally, teachers/parents would dictate a passage to their students, but it may be more fun to break down a familiar song and write it out – or translate a favorite audiobook into written text). By age 10 (or grade 5), your child should become a faster reader when reading alone or out loud. This is also the time when the grammatical concepts learned from reading should start to appear in your child’s own writing – using conjunctions to write longer sentences, using grammatical progression such as ‘awalan, thoma, akheeran’, etc.
Arab Map Activity
More activities coming soon!

• By the time your child is 11 to 12 years old (grade 6 and upwards), he/she will have become fairly independent learners. At this age, kids should be choosing almost all of their non-classroom reading materials themselves. 6^th grade is a great time to discover a book series; the first book in a series often hooks readers into reading the books that follow, and the familiarity that comes with consistently reading one author’s style builds confidence quickly. Don’t ignore non-fiction; if your child is fascinated by dinosaurs, science, nature or other countries, suggesting a non-fiction book on a subject they are passionate about gives them great incentive to read.

Grammar and Language Instruction

• 9 year olds (or 4^th graders) should review the grammatical topics introduced in our 2^nd and 3^rd grade section, ensuring that they have mastered those basics. Typical 4^th grade programs will also teach proper use of adjectives, the unpronounced sun letter ‘lam’ (alshamseya), conjunctions such as ‘qabla an, baada thalek, baynama, fe thalek alwaqt’.
• 10 year olds (or 5^th graders) should learn vocative terms like ‘ya, aayuha’. 5^th grade is also the time that most curriculums teach students derivation – learning new words by adding affixes to a basic form the student is already familiar with (e.g. yafham and afham can be derived from f-h-m).
• 11 and 12 year olds (grade 6 and upwards) often find that traditional Arabic curriculums become much more ‘formal’ at this level – teaching proper grammatical names, emphasizing recognition of the different types of Arabic sentences, and concepts like ‘ina and her sisters, kana and her sisters’. Parents who teach their children Arabic overseas find that it gets hardest at this time – when the move to high school leaves less time for Arabic studies. To ensure continued growth in Arabic, make sure your son/daughter continues to read engaging Arabic materials and work on creating Arabic writing opportunities that they will enjoy. Join an online Arabic forum where your family can read and write about issues they are passionate about, or subscribe to an Arabic magazine with age-appropriate material that will keep them reading. Textbooks and ‘required reading’ may not cut it anymore, but there is a world of fun and interesting Arabic material out there waiting for you! 

Keeping it Fun

• Does your son/daughter have cousins who speak, read and write Arabic? Encourage them to exchange letters, postcards or the occasional greeting card on special occasions. It’s a great way for them to learn to express themselves in Arabic, and receiving an Arabic letter written just for them is a great reason to master their reading skills!
• To build fluency in reading, ask your child to read a story to a younger sibling or cousin. Playing the role of the grown up and occasionally assuming that ‘story time’ responsibility will help build a love of reading, especially when they can see how much their storytelling is enjoyed by a younger child.
• Make a scrapbook or yearbook of fun events. This is a great activity for kids of any age, and can even become a fun group/family project! Document activities, memories, trips, funny stories and special occasions with an Arabic scrapbook. You can break the project up into different categories like ‘travel, birthdays, favorite moments’, have fun writing up captions and maybe even have the participants each write an ‘about me’ page. This makes for a great keepsake when it’s done!
• Kids have big imaginations. Tap into that creativity and create your very own comic book, complete with superheroes and adventurous storylines. If the activity is a hit, why not create an entire comic book series?!

Kalila & Dimna DVDs	Little Philosopher Series	Princess Tales