Muslim Homeschool: A Weekly Plan, the Curricula, and Where the Quran Fits

A Muslim homeschool teaches the same core subjects as any homeschool, reading, maths, science and history, and builds the Quran, Arabic and Islamic studies into the same week. Many families start after Fajr with a short Quran review, do the subjects that need a fresh head in the morning, and pray Dhuhr together before the afternoon.

Most mix three things: a curriculum for the core subjects, either mainstream or Islamically integrated; a daily Quran routine; and a teacher for whatever the parent cannot teach. In a home where nobody reads Arabic, that is usually Quran reading itself.

Below are a sample day, the weekly minutes each Islamic subject needs by age, the curricula and groups families use, the law in the US, England, Canada and Australia, and what Islam says about teaching your own children. If Quran reading is the part you cannot cover, our tutors teach it live during your school day from $34 a month, and you can try a lesson free first.

Print the year plan: our free Islamic homeschool curriculum (PDF) sets out Quran, Arabic and Islamic studies for ages 4 to 14, term by term, with a free printable or lesson for almost every step. It adds a week to fill in around the prayers and an end-of-year checklist. Three pages, no sign-up.

A sample day, from Fajr to the afternoon

No two homeschools run the same day, and a new baby or a family business will rearrange any timetable. This is the shape many Muslim families describe, with the prayers as the fixed points. Move the blocks around, but keep the hardest work early.

The after-Fajr block is the one worth protecting on days when everything else slips. For a child under seven it can be listening rather than reciting: a short surah played while they eat breakfast still counts, and our list of short surahs to memorise gives the usual order.

How much time the Islamic subjects need, by age

These are the weekly amounts we suggest when a homeschooling parent asks. They leave the mornings free for a full core curriculum, and they follow the lesson lengths our tutors use at each age.

Seven is the age the Prophet, peace be upon him, gave for teaching a child to pray (Abu Dawud 495), so between 7 and 10 prayer moves from copying you to being taught. A child memorising the whole Quran needs more than this table: a lesson on most days, with new lines learned in the morning. Our online hifz program sets out that week.

Teaching the Quran when you cannot read Arabic yourself

Plenty of homeschooling parents teach maths they had forgotten and history they never studied, a chapter ahead of the child. Quran reading does not work that way. A child learning to read it needs someone who hears every letter and corrects it on the spot. A parent who has never learned to read Arabic cannot do that from a book. It is the most common gap, and families fill it in one of three ways.

Whichever you choose, your part between lessons is small and needs no Arabic. Sit with the child for the ten-minute review, play the recitation of the surah they are learning, and tick off the page they finished on a Noorani Qaida progress tracker. Our guide to teaching Arabic when you do not speak it lists what a parent can check without reading a word.

Curricula and resources Muslim homeschoolers use

These are the names that come up most when Muslim homeschoolers compare notes. We read each site on 27 September 2026 and describe it only as it describes itself. None of them pays us, and we do not sell their products.

Our vocabulary pages each come with a printable too, among them the days of the week in Arabic, the Islamic months and the 99 names of Allah for kids.

A mainstream curriculum works as well. Many Muslim families use an ordinary maths and reading programme and add the Islamic subjects beside it. The brand matters less than finishing it: a plain curriculum used every day beats a beautiful one abandoned in November.

The subjects that get hard later

Primary maths and reading are within reach of most parents. Chemistry, physics and upper-level maths are usually where homeschooling parents first look for help. We teach school subjects online as well as the Quran: maths, physics, chemistry, biology, English and social studies are the ones parents ask about most, and English, German, Italian or Spanish as a language. If a subject is on your child’s timetable, ask about it.

These lessons are priced apart from the Quran lessons, because the price depends on the subject, the length of each lesson, the child’s age and their level. The first lesson is free, discounts are there if you ask, and a female tutor is available for every subject.

What the law asks where you live

Check this before you take a child out of school. We read each official page on 27 September 2026. It is a starting point rather than legal advice, and the rules change.

Finding other Muslim homeschoolers

Local groups meet for park days, shared classes and trips. The Muslim Homeschool Network has done this across Southern California since 2005. Some masjids run a homeschool group or co-op of their own, so ask at yours. Online, there are large Facebook groups for Muslim homeschoolers, and the homeschool forum on Reddit has threads where Muslim families look for others in their state. A co-op is also a good place to share the Islamic studies teaching: one parent takes the seerah, another the science.

What Islam says about teaching your children

The first words revealed to the Prophet, peace be upon him, were a command to read: ٱقْرَأْ بِٱسْمِ رَبِّكَ ٱلَّذِى خَلَقَ, “Recite in the name of your Lord who created” (96:1). The Quran teaches the believer to ask for more knowledge, وَقُل رَّبِّ زِدْنِى عِلْمًا, “and say, My Lord, increase me in knowledge” (20:114).

It also tells believers to protect themselves and their families from the Fire (66:6), which the classical commentators, Ibn Kathir among them, explain as teaching your family and bringing them up well. The Prophet said that each of you is a shepherd responsible for his flock, the man for his household and the woman for her husband’s home and children (Bukhari 893, Muslim 1829).

None of these texts says where the teaching must happen. They make it the parents’ responsibility, and homeschooling is one way of carrying it. An Islamic school is another, and so is a state school with Quran lessons in the evening.

Daytime lessons: the homeschool advantage

A child at school can only take a Quran lesson after school, which in North America is late evening for a tutor in Egypt, where most of ours are. A homeschooled child can take it at ten in the morning.

For a few weeks in spring and autumn these move by an hour, because countries change their clocks on different dates. Tell us the times that suit you and the tutor does the arithmetic.

What our lessons cost, and how to start

Quran, Tajweed, Arabic and Islamic studies lessons are $9.50 an hour, falling to $7.00 as you book more hours in a month. Monthly plans run from $34 to $84, and a second child gets 10 per cent off.

Lessons are live, one to one or in a small group if you ask, with the same tutor each week. A female tutor is available at the same price, and you can move a lesson with two hours notice. Every plan is on the pricing page, and the courses themselves are on the pages for Quran classes for kids, Arabic lessons for kids and Islamic studies.

Book the free first lesson on WhatsApp and tell us your children’s ages, what they can already read, and two or three daytime slots. The tutor spends that first lesson finding where each child really is, and starts there.

Book a free lesson on WhatsApp How the free lesson works

Homeschooling in Islam: the 7-7-7 rule, curricula and Quran at home

Does Islam encourage homeschooling?

Islam makes seeking knowledge a duty (“seeking knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim”, Ibn Majah 224) and makes parents responsible for teaching their children (Bukhari 893; Quran 66:6). It does not prefer homeschooling to a school. Home education, an Islamic school, and a state school with Quran lessons outside school hours are all ways Muslim families meet the same duty.

What is the 7-7-7 rule in Islam for parenting?

It is a popular saying, often attributed to Ali ibn Abi Talib: play with your child for the first seven years, teach and discipline them for the next seven, and be their companion for the seven after that. We have not found it with a chain of narration in the hadith collections, so treat it as advice rather than a ruling. What is authentic is the hadith that children be taught to pray at seven (Abu Dawud 495).

What is the best homeschool curriculum for Muslims?

There is no single best one. Some families use an Islamically integrated curriculum such as Allamah Education’s unit studies. Others use an ordinary maths and reading programme and add the Islamic subjects beside it, often a graded series such as Weekend Learning and a Quran teacher. Choose the one you will actually finish; for the Quran itself, you need someone who can hear your child read and correct them.

Can I teach my child the Quran at home if I cannot read Arabic?

Yes, but not from a book alone. Reading the Quran is learned aloud, with a teacher who hears each letter and corrects it. Parents who do not read Arabic use a masjid class, a teacher at home or a live online tutor, and do the short daily review with the child themselves. Nothing in that review needs you to read Arabic.

What is the hardest homeschool curriculum?

The hardest subject is usually the one the parent never learned. For many Muslim families that is Quran reading, and later secondary chemistry, physics and maths. Those are the subjects homeschooling parents most often hand to a tutor while they teach the rest themselves.

How much does an online Quran tutor cost for a homeschooled child?

With us, a monthly plan costs $34 to $84, or $9.50 an hour falling to $7.00 as you book more, and a second child gets 10 per cent off. The first lesson is free, and a homeschooled child can take lessons during the day instead of in the evening.