Before Swords & Butterflies, founder Besim Bruncaj was a designer and marketing consultant in Amman, Jordan, where he has lived since 2007. He and his wife, a Quran and Arabic teacher from Jordan, balanced work and family to provide their children with a good education. Life was stable yet challenging, with constant pressure to meet both professional and educational demands.

COVID-19 disrupted his children’s schooling, prompting Besim and his wife to start homeschooling. They needed a curriculum that resonated with their children, imparting Islamic values effectively while maintaining high standards with minimal prep work.

Finding such curriculum seemed daunting. Besim’s business was affected by COVID-19, and he had to teach English and math due to his wife’s limited proficiency. Before moving to Jordan, he had taught Social Studies at an Islamic school in the US and knew the effort required for curriculum development.

For Western Muslims, it’s challenging to balance secular academics with religious values, ensuring students memorize the Quran, learn the deen well, and are equipped to face future trials. Unfortunately, existing Islamic books for the early years required substantial parental involvement and/or lacked clear progression from one grade to another.

This immense task made him question whether he had the bandwidth to successfully educate his children.

Shortly after, a friend of his was visiting. He is an American convert who works as a teacher at a school in Kuwait. He introduced Besim to the 19th century McGuffey Readers, classic texts with a structured, moral approach to English and education.

Serendipitously, Besim realized he had McGuffey Readers at home. These short, concise lessons focused on mastery and clear progression, filled with moral guidance and references to Biblical passages about previous prophets, an overlap lacking in modern, secular ELA books.

Besim began teaching his children using these readers and was impressed by their rapid growth in reading and comprehension. One brilliant aspect of the first McGuffey Readers was that his children were memorizing entire lessons without being asked to.

Unfortunately, these passages were often quaint vignettes into 19th-century Midwestern farm life. A thought then came to his mind, “What if someone could create something similar, but with passages that are far more beneficial for Muslim kids to take with them throughout their lives?”

Besim created an initial Islamic reader, gradually building vocabulary, especially in the first half of the book where vocabulary was limited. He ensured that each lesson was engaging and unique, maintaining his children’s interest while providing a solid educational foundation. He tested these drafts internally with his children, making iterative improvements based on their responses.

These lessons sparked meaningful conversations about Allah and His Prophet, enriching their understanding and love for their faith. His children enjoyed and benefited from the lessons, which encouraged him to refine and expand the curriculum to create a comprehensive educational experience

Besim shared drafts with educators, who encouraged him to complete and print the books for the wider community. Although the feedback was positive, one steady critique emerged: the books advanced too quickly from KG to near Grade 3 level. In the 15 months since he started writing his eldest had progressed nearly four grades.

He realized he was trying to cover too much material in one book. He decided to split the single reader concept into four distinct books to maintain the breadth he was seeking for his kids. At each level he would make the following core readers:

This allowed him to build up each discipline slowly but it also meant redoing everything from scratch and delaying completion by over a year.

After another year of writing, Besim used his 20+ years of design experience to craft each page beautifully and inspiringly. He carefully edited them as he taught his third and fourth child, sometimes spending a few days on a single page.

It was a slow process. But, it was worth it.

His kids loved the books even more than the McGuffey ones. They memorized Islamic lessons with little effort and often talked about them throughout the day. This deep engagement validated his hard work and confirmed the curriculum’s effectiveness.

With the curriculum ready for launch, Besim is focused on sharing it with the broader community. The books will soon go to print, and orders are being taken for the upcoming school year. We are creating an online community for schools and parents to update new materials and resources.

Swords & Butterflies blends academic rigor with deep spiritual growth for grades 1 to 6. Our goal is to build children’s mastery of English while immersing them in Islamic disciplines. Blending Charlotte Mason with other classical educational models and modern research, our lessons progress gently yet systematically.

By combining vocabulary building with rich Islamic content, children master foundational Islamic knowledge while developing their English skills. This builds confidence and instills a love for both subjects.

Swords & Butterflies combines academic excellence with deep spiritual growth. We are committed to expanding the curriculum, developing new resources, and supporting an active community of educators and parents. Join us on this journey and experience a curriculum that nurtures both mind and soul.