Dear Fatima & All,
Since we are teaching our children Arabic as another language, even though we do not speak it ourselves, it is essential that they listen to it recited by an number of professionals from around the world. It is well documented that many children as young as 5 memorize the whole Qur'an. My husband had the privilege of meeting one such prodigy in Capetown, South Africa. She was six years old. There are many across the world that accomplish this. And one of the common denominators is that their mothers (and fathers) were enthusiastic about their teaching during the memorization process. This is what early education specialists such as Mr. Doman and Dr. Titzer, Dr. Scichida and others agree on.
As Krista, DomanMom, Plarka, Linzy, & Jennifer Joy have mentioned directly and indirectly, is that children absorb "the scriptures", among many other facts that we expose them to. As Mr. Doman points out in his book
How to Teach Your Baby to Read, that the question is not "WILL your children read?" Because children WILL learn to read when following the early education method/s of reading [mentioned in this forum], but the more appropriate question is, "WHAT will they read?"
There is a famous Arabic proverb related to memorization: "That repetition even teaches the donkey." And I cannot help but [jokingly] wonder if the Mauritanian donkeys also have the strongest memory in the world?
- Ayesha