Arab parents in US turning to homeschooling as a way to preserve culture 

LOS ANGELES: Arab families in the US are turning to homeschooling to help their children develop a stronger connection to their family’s culture, parents have told Arab News.

Homeschooling serves as a way to cultivate a closer family bond and foster a confident and distinct identity, they said.

“My daughter is 4 years old and she can already read (a few) Arabic words, and my son is in second grade, but he is doing the Arabic curriculum for third grade,” Seera Akra, a homeschooling mother, said.

“He can speak Arabic like, and sometimes even better than, Arabs living in the Arab world,” she added.

Akra admitted it was not easy to educate her children given her work schedule, but said she split the teaching duties between herself, the children’s father and their grandmother, adding that she sometimes needs the assistance of a private teacher “to be able to give them the right education.” 

Homeschooling can also encompass the option of enrolling in tuition-free private schools that offer a comprehensive American curriculum alongside the Arabic language, Islamic studies, and Quranic studies.

These schools actively seek to foster a sense of community that embraces Arab values and traditions, an educator told Arab News.

“We use a curriculum made here in the US because this is easy for the kids living here and it teaches them the vocabulary they need in their daily life,” Salwa Zeyada, director of Arabic Departments and Religious Studies at Core Academy, said.

The reason Arabic is taught, she explained, is to help kids better connect to their Arab roots and communicate in the language their families speak. 

Both Arabic-teaching schools and homeschooling parents said the Arabic language is at the core of their efforts, serving as the primary conduit for establishing a genuine connection to all the elements that constitute the Arab world.

“Teaching my kids at home does not mean they do not get to mingle with other cultures as well. They get more time to do extracurricular activities, which helps them understand other cultures, other languages, and that’s something I definitely do care about,” Akra said.