With two boys and English as my main language, developing my children’s interest in the Arabic language wasn’t going to be easy. I want my children to be able to read the Quran and have a strong connection with it, whether or not they understand it, so I got hold of one of those books that sets out the Arabic alphabet, and then moves on to show how the letters join and then adds on vowel signs.
I tried going through this book with my eldest son, and he’d never last more than two minutes. So I made him some cards – some squares of card folded in half so they could stand up with one letter on each card. We pretended the cards were trains and he was engaged! Each train had a passenger whose name began with the letter on the card. So we managed the alphabet, but how to manage the letter joins?
I played around with a few ideas, and as my son grew up a little, I found that his attention span grew too, so I tried to make more cards, but this time with the letter joins on too. We tried playing snap with them. The concept was easy to grasp and it went down really well with both him and his younger brother, so I decided to get some printers involved and share Arabic Alphabet Snap with others too. And with that, Iqra Games was born.
Iqra Games is here to make learning Arabic fun and easy for children. Our products are designed for both parents who are confident with using Arabic as well as those who are still developing their Arabic. Our rules and instructions are presented in English, and the Arabic is taught and practised through the games, allowing children to absorb the language through activities they enjoy.