Arabic · Specialist course
Arabic lessons for kids online, built for how children actually learn
Children do not learn well from a shortened adult course. Sessions here are 30 minutes, mostly spoken, and built around games, stories and repetition rather than grammar tables.
Who this is for
Is this the right course for you?
Families raising children outside an Arabic-speaking country who want the language kept alive, and parents whose children are learning Arabic at school and falling behind.
What you cover
What the lessons cover
- The alphabet through games, songs and writing practice
- Speaking first: greetings, family, food, colours, numbers, animals
- Reading short words and simple sentences aloud
- Listening through stories and age-appropriate video
- Homework that takes ten minutes, not an hour
- Regular short progress notes for parents
Children need a different course from adults, not a shorter one. The grammar-first approach that suits a motivated adult with an exam date fails quickly with an eight-year-old, who needs to speak, hear and play with the language before being asked to analyse it.
How the lessons run
Thirty minutes, mostly spoken, heavily repetitive in the way that actually builds retention. Games, pictures, songs and short stories carry most of the vocabulary work. Writing comes in gradually and is kept short.
For families keeping a heritage language
Many of the children we teach understand a good deal of Arabic and refuse to speak it, which is one of the most common and most frustrating patterns for parents abroad. An outside tutor sidesteps the family dynamic entirely, and children who will not speak Arabic at the dinner table will often speak it happily to someone whose whole relationship with them is in Arabic.
Arabic for Children questions, answered properly
How long is a lesson for a child?
Thirty minutes, and that is deliberate. Attention for a one-to-one language lesson runs out well before an hour for most children under about eleven, and a shorter lesson twice a week produces better results than a long one once a week. Older children can move to 45 minutes when they are ready.
My child understands Arabic at home but will not speak it. Can you help?
That is a very common pattern in families abroad, and it is usually about confidence and context rather than ability. A tutor who is not a parent changes the dynamic completely — speaking Arabic becomes a normal thing you do with this person, not a family expectation. Progress is often quick because the comprehension is already there.
Do you teach Modern Standard Arabic or a dialect to children?
Whichever matches the family. If the goal is speaking to grandparents, we teach the family's dialect, because that is the language the child will actually use. If the goal is keeping up with an Arabic school curriculum, we teach Modern Standard to match what is being examined. We ask before the first lesson.
Related courses
Other Arabic courses
Modern Standard Arabic
People who need Arabic on the page rather than in the street — students, researchers, journalists, and anyone preparing for formal study or professional work in the region.
Egyptian Arabic
Learners who want a spoken dialect that will be understood from Morocco to the Gulf, and anyone living in, working in or connected to Egypt.
Levantine Arabic
Aid and development workers, journalists, researchers, and people with Syrian, Lebanese, Jordanian or Palestinian family connections.
Gulf Arabic
Professionals relocating to or already living in the Gulf, and anyone whose work, in-laws or clients are on the Arabian Peninsula.
online arabic tutor — every level and every course we teach in Arabic.
Start with a free Arabic trial lesson
You meet the tutor, they work out where you actually are, and you both decide whether to carry on. If we are not the right fit, we will say so.