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اردو (Urdu)
This week’s post is an Urdu loving mama’s beautiful attempt at making custom Urdu alphabet flash cards for her daughter. These are physical flash cards. I have posted on digital Boom cards earlier. (click to see that post)
By: Noor ul Ain
I am not an artist, nor a linguistic. I am a desi mom wanting to pass on the gift of Urdu language to my children.
I was gifted a qalam and ink by our blogger- QA and it had been lying at the bottom of an “arts and craft box”.
My daughter, just shy of two, is quickly picking up English alphabets. I scratched my head on how to make sure she is getting just as much exposure to Urdu.
Quest for Urdu flash cards
I searched on amazon for Urdu books. Unfortunately for Urdu beginners, I did not find any flash cards.
In contrast, she has tons of books in English that she enjoys. She also has toys that play English alphabet songs. She has English flash cards in paper and cloth (from her teething days). Pitifully, her collection of Urdu books is non-existent and the only alphabet book is an Arabic book.
Coming up with my plan
I finally decided to make some. Handmade flashcards would still be better than nothing.
Urdu Calligraphy is done using a special bamboo pen called a qalam. It has an angled edge so you need to practice before you can use it.
I looked at a couple of You tube videos on how to hold a qalam. Here is a video that explains that in Urdu.
After a bit of practice, off I was making my own free hand cards.
Supplies
Blank flash cards
I ordered this set of blank flash cards. (affiliate link). Here is another one with colored flash cards.
Since I could not find any set of flash cards less than a 100 cards, I am now scratching my brain on how to use the rest… Already added Urdu numbers 1- 10.
Qalam to write with
Qalam is a special tool with a flat end cut at an angle that is used for Urdu and Arabic calligraphy. It is made out of different materials, traditionally, bamboo and reed.
Here is an affiliate link for one on Amazon. If you want to try making one yourself as a fun activity, scroll below to see a video that shows how you can make one. One stake can make like 6 to 8 pens.
You can get bamboo from the garden center of most hardware stores such as Home Depot or Lowe’s. Here is an affiliate link.
Ink
You can use any dark ink, but there is a special way to prep it. It helps with creating a more uniform color.I did not prep mine but you can learn to do it from the video below.
Here is a link to the ink, and you can watch this video to find out how to use it for calligraphy and how to make the bamboo qalam.
Few months later…
My daughter was intrigued with them and enjoyed looking them over and over again for the first few days. It helped her pick up and reinforce a couple of words e.g. ل م، However, given a 2 year old attention span, now it is lying discarded along with some other alphabet flash cards.
It is a good resource to have on hand as she grows older.
For starters, it helped pique her interest in the Urdu alphabet.I have been showing her how to write a few of the letters she knows on her whiteboard/chalkboard.
I have also had a request to make another set for a relative.
Make them bilingual
Seeing her initial level of interest my nanny asked me to add the spelling/ pronunciations in English to the flash cards. That is a great way to enhance the learning process.
Still, there are some letters e.g. ت that cannot be pronounced in English properly. But I tried my best to add the phonetic component as shown below.
Next is to draw/ paint some object pictures on the other side.
Please share your ideas on making Urdu Flash cards.
Read this in:
اردو (Urdu)
