Online Quran classes: what actually happens in them?

Most parents booking Quran classes online have only seen it taught in a mosque, in a group, with a teacher sitting in front of the room. One-to-one online is a different thing, and it is worth knowing what it looks like before you judge the first lesson.

What happens in a lesson

• The child reads. Most of the lesson is your child reading aloud, not the teacher talking. If that is reversed, something is wrong.
• The teacher corrects as they go. Not at the end. A mistake left to the end of a page is a mistake practised twenty times.
• A portion is set. Short and specific — these lines, this many times — rather than "practise at home".
• You are told where they are. Which page, which surah, what is coming next.

What order does it go in?

Qaida, then Nazra, then Tajweed, with Hifz alongside for a child who wants it. Skipping the Qaida is the most common mistake, and it is why so many children can recite a few surahs from memory and cannot read a line they have not heard before.

• Qaida. The letters, their sounds and how they join. Everything after this depends on it.
• Nazra. Reading from the mushaf itself, with somebody listening and correcting.
• Tajweed. The rules that decide how it sounds — makharij, the rules of noon and meem, the madd.
• Hifz. Memorising, with revision built into every lesson rather than left to the child.

How do I know if my child is actually progressing?

Ask them to read a page they have not been taught. That is the only test that matters, and it is the one a child who has been coached through memorised pages will fail. A child who has really learned the Qaida can read anything, slowly.

• They can read a line they have never seen, even if slowly.
• The same mistakes are not still there a month later.
• They can tell you what they are working on this week.
• They are not dreading the lesson.

Does it matter if the teacher is male or female?

It matters to many families, and it should be your choice rather than a request you have to make awkwardly. Ask before you book, not after. We ask you at the booking and it costs nothing either way.