I need to create:
1. Urdu foam letters that are safe for a toddler.
2. my own board books
3. burn CDs with Urdu children’s songs.
Can someone tell me how to find the materials, and easy ways to get these things done in minimal time?
Creating my own Urdu materials
Shabana Mir's blog: Koonj - the crane 
U check teh facebook inbox yes?
you know, I will search, there is a company that makes puzzles in arabic, they might make them in urdu too.
I’ve seen lots of online stuff for arabic but i haven’t seen that for udru but i’m sure it’s out there. I should look into it too. Do a search for urdu + homeschooling or urdu + flashcards etc and you’ll find stuff i’m sure.
http://www.schoolsnetwork.org.uk/uploads/documents/education_127715.doc
Here you go! Then trace onto the foam or felt works good too and cut out…
jeez, how many comments can i leave?
http://mqup.mcgill.ca/files/urdu/
these look good too! See now you got me searching.
hey koonj,
i have a relative who’s mother in law has created urdu educational TV programmes (half hour things) for her grandkids here in the US, b/c she’s worried they won’t learn Urdu… apparently she’s being courted by US tv networks now! If you’re interested, I will ask her about where to get hold of her stuff and let you know…
hope your family and you are doing well!
I knew I just had to post it on my blog, and 3 hours later, I’d have a treasure of ideas. Thanks, all!
a., please do let me know if those programmes are available. Right now, all Raihana has is – um – b/w Bollywood songs.
Wayfarer, thanks for those links. I knew the Canadians and the British have come up with more stuff, but the key is to find them.
aisha, puzzles in Urdu would be great – please do let me know if you find any. I do find that Arabic materials are far more widely available than Urdu, of course.
In case any of you is interested, here are some more materials available in Karachi: http://www.trconline.org/trcweb/trc/our_products.asp
I can volunteer to sing to Raihana in my awful croaky voice
“aao bachoon sair kerayeen tum ko Pakistan ki, jiss ki khaatir hum ney di qurbani lakhoon jaan ki”
or
“moorni o moorni, o butla o morni, moor beycharay sey tum ney kutti kyoon ker li, o morni”
I know loads more, my mom used to sing them to me and my brother
mayya, email some to me when you can?
I have sent an equiry to my relative…will let you know if she can get her hands on it.
BTW have you tried getting those old ‘casette kahanis’? I used to love them as a child… and I still remember the voices! Qazi Wajid and all those other actors.
I second the casette kahanis. My childhood just came back to me. They did wonders for my Urdu and they were also VERY entertaining. I had only a few and I would listen to them over and over and over again.
I wonder if they’re releasing them as mp3s now? Heh.
Thank you for the cassette kahani idea! I must say I never listened to any. I’d love to find some. Let me see if my very busy family can track them down in Lahore.
I found cassette kahani in realplayer here
http://www.paki.com/cassatekahani/
(when I grow up I’ll burn my own kahanis)
but I also found it available here
http://www.dukandar.com/kahani.html
except it’s a whopping $60.
Hope my family can find cassette kahani in CDs.
ooh, i loved the tarzan ones! I remember feeling so tragic when Tarzan and Jane lost their baby… One of my favourites was “Zindagi ki dor” – they had a pari in there, whose voice I will never forget…
Acha, if you like you can ‘rip’ the realplayer files with a programme called “audacity”. It will take some doing though, so if your parents can get them back home that will be much easier! But if not, you can either plonk Raihana in front of the laptop (she is a child of the internet era afterall) or burn them for playing anywhere…
On the dukandar website you pointed out, they also have a volume of sohail rana’s songs, for about 8 bucks… But why is everything in casette format???
Salams, for board books, from the top of my head, i imagine the cardboard from cereal boxes would be good enough and not too hard to cut. print out what you want, paste onto cereal cardboard, write in the Urdu, color if you didn’t print in color, and then laminate. I use clear contact paper to laminate, comes as a long roll, you can find it in the kitchen area of the store where it comes in all kinds of colors and patterns, people use it to line kitchen cabinets, but choose the clear one. Laminate both sides, cut out, and punch three holes in the side with hole punch. Then thread some yarn through the holes. You can find some printable books online, print, cover the english with a white piece of paper, then write in the Urdu by hand. or leave the english and write the urdu on a white sticker label and stick above the english. Or just print out random pictures, shapes,etc like a carrot for a book about vegetables, color, write the urdu, laminate. If you don’t want to do the yarn thing or you want to also be able to use them like flashcards, you could just punch one hole out in the corner and then get those metal spring ring clasps that open and close and put through the hole.
Happy Urdu material making 🙂
It’s a sad thing when a child cannot understand/speak to their own grandparents, cousins, etc.
peace,
Sorry, very little help here. You can go to a Michael’s or a teacher store (the one here does have a branch in Alpharetta, I think, dunno how close that is to you) and get the firm foam that has magnetic backing, then draw and cut out. I see a version of that suggestion above. But I have to say, for Urdu books I’m using a resource you posted on your old blog, over in the UK.
BUT. Go you! I’m following and cheering your efforts. Let me know what you find, my assistant seems to think I have an anti-Urdu bias (not at all the case as you know, just focusing on Arabic as the common muslim language tie), and I’d love to bring in things that she can use and also reassure her that the kids will be exposed to Urdu as well.
peace
TwennyTwo
Hey Koonj,
heard back from my cousin about those programmes – she says the DVDs aren’t out yet, but should be pretty soon and she’ll keep me posted. So I’ll let you know as and when. How’s the craftwork coming along?
i have seen this site http://www.urduforkids.com, i think it will also be helpful for u.
hey every one..
i found this page while searching for urdu material for my kids.. i am also making some books for them, i have them uploaded at my website, please check them out.
@a.
please do tell me as well, when the dvds are going to be out.. i will be really grateful,
Also, for all the links above … JazakAllah khair… i am sure going to use these.
FTK.
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Have the Urdu CDs by the grandma been out? It’s 2010 now and the post was of 2007.
http://mqup.mcgill.ca/files/urdu/ is a good resource. Worth checking.