A Noorani Qaida class teaches a child to read Arabic letters correctly before they open the Quran: the letter shapes, the short and long vowels, joining, and the sounds that English has no equivalent for. Taught one to one, most children finish the book in four to ten months on three or four short lessons a week. Our fees start at $39 a month for eight 30-minute lessons.
What the Qaida is for
The Noorani Qaida is the book that comes before the Quran. It is not a warm-up and it is not optional: it teaches the twenty-nine letters, the three short vowels, the long vowels, sukoon and shadda, and how letters change shape when they join. A child who skips it reads the Quran fluently-sounding and wrong, and unpicking that later takes longer than the Qaida would have.
Most of the work is in sounds English does not have. A child raised in London or Toronto has never had to tell ع from أ, or ح from ه, because nothing in their day asks them to. That is the part a teacher has to hear and correct in the moment, which is why it does not survive being taught to a room.
What a lesson actually looks like
- First 5 minutes
- Yesterday's page, read back. If it has gone, it is retaught before anything new starts.
- Next 15 minutes
- The new page. The teacher reads, the child repeats, and every wrong sound is stopped and corrected on the spot.
- Last 10 minutes
- The child reads the page alone while the teacher listens without prompting. This is the part that shows whether it has landed.
Thirty minutes, one to one, live on video. A supervisor from the academy is on the call as well.
Nothing here is recorded and nothing is shared with another child. That is the whole argument for one to one at this stage: a mistake that nobody hears is a mistake that gets practised.
How long the book takes
Four to ten months, at three or four lessons a week. The spread is wide because it depends on the child's age and on whether anyone at home can hear them read between lessons. A five-year-old starting from nothing sits at the longer end. A nine-year-old who already knows some letters often finishes inside five months.
If an academy promises six weeks, they are turning pages rather than teaching them. Ask what happens to a child who has not got a page right by the time the schedule says to move on.
What to check before enrolling anywhere
- Is it genuinely one to one, or a small group described as personal attention?
- Will it be the same teacher every week, and can you have their name before you pay?
- Is another adult from the academy on the call, and can you sit in unannounced?
- Is the fee published before you hand over a phone number?
- What happens when your child is ill — is the lesson lost or moved?
These are not our questions. They are the five that separate academies, and any academy worth enrolling with answers all five in one sentence each.
What a month costs
- 3 days a week
- 12 lessons of 30 minutes — $49 a month
- 4 days a week
- 16 lessons of 30 minutes — $59 a month
- 5 days a week
- 20 lessons of 30 minutes — $65 a month
US fees. The same plans are published in pounds, Canadian and Australian dollars, euros, dirhams and New Zealand dollars. No registration fee, no contract, no minimum term, and no card taken for the trial classes.
Three or four days a week suits the Qaida better than two. It is a memory of sound, and sound fades faster than a week.
Where to go next
Online Noorani Qaida classes
The course page: what is covered, how the lessons are arranged and who teaches them.
Online Quran classes for kids
Everything we teach children, from the first Arabic letter through to Hifz.
What a month costs
Every plan, in your own currency, with nothing withheld until you call.
Online Quran classes in the USA
Class times across every US time zone, and the fees in dollars.