How to teach children the Holy Quran with Love

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Are you struggling with teaching the Quran to your kids? Here is how to teach the Holy Quran at home.

Growing children who love the Quran and Sunnah, who pray five times a day is every parent’s dream. After all, we want to raise righteous, saleh children who love and understand Islam.

From teaching them the Five Pillars of Islam, to creating joy for them in Ramadan and Hajj to buying the best Islamic toys and books to starting the Arabic Alphabets, many parents find themselves in a dilemma. There are so many questions!

When it comes to teach Quran to little children, there isn’t one formula that works for all. Some families benefit by sending their child to a formal institute with a learned teacher who can give your child full attention while some parents find it helpful to just teach their child at home.

How to find time to teach your child Quran

As a mother, I know how hard it is to teach your child anything at home. Whether you have one child or more, motivating your child to read the Quran with you is hard.

They just don’t sit! Then there is the fact that we have a 100 things to do. How then can you find time to teach your child?!

I have three children at the moment and my best advise is that start by making sure your child has a good routine. For examples of routines you can see my routine for 3 year old child here. School going children’s routine and summer time routine here. Or get this complete pack of printable routine charts here.

In short, fix a time in a day when you will teach your child.

How to grow children who love the Quran

I am a strong believer that we should direct our children such that they grow up loving the Quran and Sunnah rather than be forced to study something against their will.

We can never love something we fear. Never tell children that they have to study Quran and pray or else they will go to hell. That’s plain wrong. Instead talk to them about the virtues of learning the Quran and praying five times a day.

I have three children – a 12 year old son and two younger daughters – 6 and 8 years old. The elder two are memorizing the Quran (Alhamdulillah) while the little one is close to finishing her Qaida. My son studied at Madrasah but I teach my girls at home.

I am not a perfect parent who knows everything. I am just one passionate mother in progress, trying to figure out how to raise her children under the shade of the Quran. I am sharing my tips here as a journey of what worked for me. I hope you find the solutions to your questions, if you are in a place now where I once was.

Make Quran learning fun!

When children are small 3- 6 years old, they need fun methods to learn. Try to find a teacher who understands this. Also, look at their schedule. Don’t over fill it. If things are not working out, you can devise creative methods yourself.

A few years ago, my little girls were not very happy with their teacher. Let me share with you the story and how we solved it.

There were tears – not just the kids but we the parents too. I felt like a terrible mom. Hubby and I would drive home after dropping them with guilty silence every day.

We both agreed that this is not how Quran studies should be. But we’d argue that they needed the formal training in Tajweed and correct pronunciation.

I grew up with formal Quran education here in Saudi Arabia. My parents send me to attend a Quran school and also Quran classes, not just my childhood but, even as an adult. I knew I could do this. Also, my husband had all his Islamic education at home through his mother. I knew it was do-able.

I wanted to teach my children the Qaida at home just like my mother in law had taught my husband and his siblings. I was confident that I could teach the kids, but my husband believed that it was important for children to go to a Madrasa to learn proper Tajweed. 

We argued back and forth. 

‘Do you like seeing them like this? They are going to grow up associating Quran with something forced upon them. Is this how we want to grow our children?’

Soon we decided that we’d pull them out so I could teach the girls the Qaida nooraniya myself at home.

It was the best decision ever. They literally learnt the Holy Quran from my lap.

If you have a child reluctant to learn the Quran, teach from your lap.

I sat my girls down and told them that we were worried about them. ‘It is important that you study the Quran‘ I told them. ‘But I can’t teach you the Quran until you study Qaida. How can we solve this?‘ I asked.

‘How about you sit in my lap and I read out the words. Don’t you think it will be fun to learn sitting in my lap?‘ I said slowly wondering what their response would be.’

My daughters were and 5 and 6 years old at that time. They loved our 15 minutes of reading hour. Sitting on my lap to read the Qaida was a pleasing idea to them. Mom’s little princess, in mom’s lap… all those cuddles and giggles as we read to each other… the idea appealed to them.

So that’s how we began learning the Quran – on mummy’s lap.

Everyday between 4-5pm, right after Asr, my children and I would study the Quran.

For the first 10 minutes, I would read my two pages of Quran and then who ever was ready to read her lesson, would come sit on my lap and read to me.

When she finished, the second daughter would come sit on my lap and read. After the lessons, we’d make dua, memorize 2-3 lines of a Surah and call it a successful day!

My children started to associate Quran time with love and quality one on one time with their mother. Don’t we all want our children  to grow up and associate Quran learning with a loving time like this?

If you have a child who is reluctant to learn the Qaida, I highly recommend that you consider  teaching them from your lap. 

Here are some common questions that I get regarding teaching children the Holy Quran.

At what age should I start teaching my children the Quran

I believe that there is a difference in age between learning to read the Quran and memorizing the Quran. It is just like being ready to read and being ready to write in any other language.

Your children may be ready to memorize like they memorize rhymes and songs in other languages. But learning to read the Quran will have to be when they are ready to write – ie, around 3-5 years of age.

You can start teaching a child small duas and Surahs from when they are as small as 18 months old. We had a daily schedule that included me taking them in my lap, cupping their little hands to make a Dua and then say all the night time duas and Surahs.

My husband would lie down with our son and do the same when I was expecting our babies. My son started to associate bedtime duas and his father praying with him as quality one on one time. He would proudly revise all that he had learnt through the day to him.

Listening to the Quran when you are expecting.

When I was expecting my babies, I would listen to the Quran at bedtime to fall asleep. Sometimes, I would listen to it all day during Ramadan. I would listen to Surah Yusuf, Surah Maryam, Surah YaSeen and Surah ArRehman.

When my babies were born, I found that sometimes when my children were very fussy, putting on the Quran would instantly calm them. Later on, as they grew up, I noticed that they memorized those Surahs that I had listened to often, quite fast and also they would say that those Surahs are their favorite.

Moral of the story: If you are an expectant mother, play the Quran loudly when you hear, your unborn baby is listening!

How to start teaching the Quran to beginners

Once you have made the decision to start teaching your child the Quran yourself, you may wonder how to teach it. Here is how I did it step by step:

1. Choose a Qaida for your child. It is very important to find the right kind of Qaida first. You don’t want to be changing books later. That will frustrate your child. So first, find a good book. I chose the Qaida Nooraniyyah from Madrasa Furqan because that is what my elder child was using. I have also used one from Darrussalam Bookstores. It is important to have color coded Tajweed parts to help your child so look for that.
2. Understand the method of learning. Most books these days come with a CD or an app to go along with it. If you  are using an app, help your child understand how it works and the sequence of reciting it. Spend some time learning the method that that app or CD is using.
3. Practice, practice, practice. The recommended method that almost all teachers follow is that once you are beyond the alphabet lesson and move on to the vowels, your child has to spell the word and then pronounce it clearly. Help them practice this a few times per word. When you feel they are proficient in it, move to the next word.
4. Everyday revision. Every day, they must read the lesson (or line) that they are on plus the previous lesson, before moving to the new line. So for example, say my child is on lesson 1, line 3. She will revise from the first line to her present lesson and then move on to line 4 if she has made no mistakes. This ensures that they are perfectly proficient in the current lesson. The main reason behind this is that each lesson in the Qaida builds upon skills from the previous one. If they are not perfect in what they are learning now, it will be a slow progress in future lessons.
5. Weekly Revision: At the end of every week, they must revise the last five pages. For example: If my child is on lesson 5 line 5. She will turn back five pages and revise all of it till her current lesson. This helps to ensure that their reading is faster by the time they start the Quran. 
6. Exam at the end. When you have completed the whole book, they have to revise 2-3 days and give a test of the whole book. If there are still mistakes, encourage them to practice a bit more. I know how frustrating it is for the child but you may have to use incentives and bribing to make sure they practice. We encouraged our child by holding an end of Qaida party where Grandad would be testing. She didn’t want to make mistakes in front of him.

Next steps after reading the Qaida – Hifz or Nazera?

After they have finished the Qaida, the next step is to start the Quran. Some people like their child to read the whole Quran (Nazera) while some want their child to do memorization (Hifz).

It is recommended that your child knows how to read the Quran fluently before they can memorize. This is important because it will help their pronunciation. However, I have experience that most madrasa that we enrolled in didn’t have that prerequisite for Hifz. They just directly went from Qaida Nooraniyyah to Hifz.

Whatever path you choose, remember that you will have to buy a personal Quran for your child.

Find a Quran with easy script for your child and follow the above method of reading and appropriate revision.

Should you choose a Quran teacher online or find a Madrasah?

This is a very good question. I believe the answer lies in your and your child’s routine, lifestyle and convenience.

Going to a madrasah will include commuting and taking out more time than studying at home online.

It will also depend on whether your child already goes to school or is homeschooled or if you have holidays.

I hope these tips on how to teach children the Holy Quran at home were helpful to you. A happy home is built by happy mothers. Need some ideas on how to create a nurturing home environment? Fill the form below and I will share some tips with you.

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