Pashto

Pashto is an Iranian language (related to Persian/Dari, distantly to Kurdish) spoken by Pashtuns across Afghanistan and Pakistan. It uses a modified Arabic script with several letters unique to Pashto, has a complex sound system that includes retroflex consonants unusual for English speakers, and has a rich oral tradition — poetry, proverbs, and storytelling are central to how the language is transmitted.

For K-12 families this almost always comes up as a heritage language. The published curriculum landscape is sparse: a few children's primers (often imported from Pakistan or produced by diaspora organizations), some Quranic Arabic materials that overlap on script, and increasingly some YouTube channels and apps aimed at diaspora kids. Expect to assemble rather than purchase, and to lean heavily on family and community as the main input source.

Spoken Pashto and written Pashto are best taught as two tracks. Speaking comes from the people in the kid's life — parents, grandparents, the family WhatsApp group, weekly visits to the masjid or community center. If at all possible, designate Pashto as the home language for one parent or one meal, and protect it from English creep, which is the universal heritage-language failure mode.

The script is a separate project. Start it around age 6 or 7, after a year or two of solid spoken exposure, and treat it like learning to read all over again — daily five-minute sessions tracing letters, then short syllables, then real words. Quranic Arabic instruction can run in parallel and reinforces the alphabet, though the languages diverge quickly past the letters. Imported children's books from Pakistan, Pashto cartoons on YouTube, and folk songs and Landay poetry as the child gets older give the language somewhere to live beyond grammar.