A child works through the Noorani Qaida in a fixed order: single letters, then letters joined into words, then the short vowel marks, then the long ones, then sukoon, shaddah and tanween, and finally connected reading. Each stage uses only what the stage before taught, which is why skipping ahead does not save time.
The order, and why it is that order
1. The letters on their own
Twenty-eight letters, each with its own sound. Slow, repetitive, and the stage parents most often want to rush. It is also the stage that decides how the child will sound in five years.
2. Letters joined
The same letter looks different at the start, middle and end of a word. A child who learnt the letters by their shape alone gets stuck here and has to go back.
3. Short vowels
Fatha, kasra and damma. The first point where letters become syllables and the page starts to sound like reading.
4. Long vowels and madd
Holding a sound for its full length. Children usually find this easy and enjoyable, which is a useful break after stage two.
5. Sukoon, shaddah, tanween
The marks that change the weight of a letter. This is where Tajweed quietly begins, though nobody calls it that yet.
6. Connected reading
Whole lines, then short surahs. By now the child is reading rather than decoding, and the Qaida is nearly done.
Which stages are slow on purpose
Stages one and two take longer than the rest put together, for most children. That is not a problem with the teacher or the child. Everything after them is fast precisely because they were slow.
If a child is moving a page a week through the whole book at an even pace, that usually means the early pages were not finished, only passed.
How to tell real progress from page-turning
- Ask your child to read a page from three weeks ago. If it is still fluent, the pages were learnt.
- Listen for guessing. A child who pauses and then says a whole word quickly is remembering the word, not reading it.
- A good lesson revises the last page before starting the new one, every single time.
- Nobody should move on because the month has ended.
What a parent can do without knowing Arabic
You do not need to read the page to be useful. Sit near enough to hear the lesson once a week. Ask the teacher, at the end, which page your child is on and whether the last one is solid. Two questions, thirty seconds, and you will know more about the progress than most parents do.
Related
What is Noorani Qaida?
The short answer, for a parent starting out.
How long does Noorani Qaida take?
An honest timeline.
Noorani Qaida classes for kids
How the course runs here.