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Elementary Hebrew?


Squawky Acres
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My husband is teaching the children Hebrew, and wanted me to ask the Hive if you are teaching this and if you know of any helpful resources.  He has found some books from Behrman House Publishing, and seems to be doing quite well with them.  The children know the alphabet, some words, and are able to read and sound things out.

 

I am teaching them Latin with Song School Latin, which they find more exciting; so he was wondering if there was anything similar for Hebrew that might help maintain student interest.

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My oldest two now take daily Hebrew immersion classes at a local day school and have long since surpassed me.  However, we did Hebrew at home for grades 1-3 for my oldest and grade 1 for the middle one.  Unfortunately, there really isn't much out there, especially for non-fluent teachers.  I used Shalom Ivrit from Behrman House with my oldest son and liked it well enough.  Torah Aura also puts out some nice publications, and Handwriting Without Tears has a Hebrew script practice book.  

 

Songs are also good -- we have a bunch of Hebrew song CDs, and IIRC Shalom Ivrit I has an accompanying CD.  There are a lot of Israeli children's TV shows on youtube -- check out Rechov Sumsum (Sesame Street), and my kids find Rinat v'Yoyo (Rinat and YoYo) a bit easier to understand than some others.  Amazon sells a couple of Rechov Sumsum DVDs with subtitles, actually, nice for learning.  

 

Hope this helps, I'll post again if I think of anything else.  

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We are currently finishing up Shalom Uvrachah and the HWT Hebrew Script book with my DS6. My plan is to do Shalom Ivrit, with the Prayer Companion, and the Alef Bet Quest Script writing workbook next. After that, I am not sure where to go. So, I am listening in.

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We are currently finishing up Shalom Uvrachah and the HWT Hebrew Script book with my DS6. My plan is to do Shalom Ivrit, with the Prayer Companion, and the Alef Bet Quest Script writing workbook next. After that, I am not sure where to go. So, I am listening in.

 

I remember that you had a recent thread about Hebrew resources.  Were they materials that were only available to schools and not for homeschoolers?

 

 

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I remember that you had a recent thread about Hebrew resources.  Were they materials that were only available to schools and not for homeschoolers?

 

Yes, the materials are Tal AM and Tal Sela, and, for the older kids, the NETA-CET program. You need to go through a training program for both, and they currently only sell their materials to schools. I'm trying to see what I can piece together via Ebay and Amazon resellers, but the stock of resale materials is quite limited.

 

I did speak to a rabbi this morning at the Consortium of Jewish Day Schools, and surprisingly, he agreed to sell me their Chumash materials after I pleaded my case for why we are homeschooling vs. sending the kids to our local day schools. 

 

So, I am still figuring out where we will go after Shalom Ivrit, but I think some combination of dikduk and Chumash materials will be on the horizon. I will post some materials later; I have to pick up my little at present.  

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Wow, that Hebrew through Movement looks fun!  We will have to give that a try.

 

SeaConquest, my kids use Tal Am at school and it is a great program.  It integrates Torah, holidays, values education, and language learning all together.  However, as you probably know, it is ivrit b'ivrit (Hebrew in Hebrew) and assumes a native or near-native level teacher.  I have some knowledge of Hebrew but I can't even make out the directions for half of the worksheets.  If you are not near-native level yourself I would consider looking for a tutor at some point.  (I'm also happy to chat about our part-time arrangement with the day school -- my kids are homeschooled but attend just for Hebrew and Judaics)

 

The supplementary readers that go along with the main curriculum are wonderful, though, and if you can get hold of some of them they would be great reading practice, even for beginners. 

 

The URJ also puts out a day school program -- Chaverim b'Ivrit. They too do not sell to individuals but my synagogue's religious school director was happy to order me a copy of one of the volumes.  Unfortunately, it is also not usable unless your own Hebrew is very good -- directions, teacher's instructions, are all in Hebrew.  (The religious school director also let me go through her curriculum closet and borrow whatever I wanted, which was extremely helpful.)  

 
 
 
 
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Wow, that Hebrew through Movement looks fun!  We will have to give that a try.

 

SeaConquest, my kids use Tal Am at school and it is a great program.  It integrates Torah, holidays, values education, and language learning all together.  However, as you probably know, it is ivrit b'ivrit (Hebrew in Hebrew) and assumes a native or near-native level teacher.  I have some knowledge of Hebrew but I can't even make out the directions for half of the worksheets.  If you are not near-native level yourself I would consider looking for a tutor at some point.  (I'm also happy to chat about our part-time arrangement with the day school -- my kids are homeschooled but attend just for Hebrew and Judaics)

 

The supplementary readers that go along with the main curriculum are wonderful, though, and if you can get hold of some of them they would be great reading practice, even for beginners. 

 

The URJ also puts out a day school program -- Chaverim b'Ivrit. They too do not sell to individuals but my synagogue's religious school director was happy to order me a copy of one of the volumes.  Unfortunately, it is also not usable unless your own Hebrew is very good -- directions, teacher's instructions, are all in Hebrew.  (The religious school director also let me go through her curriculum closet and borrow whatever I wanted, which was extremely helpful.)  

 

 

I spoke with the folks at Tam AM, and this was the response:

 

"Tal AM's policy is to sell to individuals only library books, CD's, CDR's, guided readers but not workbooks." 

 

I am fine with just getting the supplementary items.

 

I am also ordering readers from the Nitzanim series (http://shop.seferisrael.com/books/nitzanim-series/nitzanim-level-1.html) and from the Sha'ah Shel Menuchah series (which they sell through Mekor Judaica online).

 

For grammar, I am ordering Lashon HaTorah and Yesodot Halashon (also from Mekor Judaica).

 

For Chumash, I am ordering Bright Beginnings (on Amazon) and L'Havin U'Lehaskil (from COJDS). We will probably also add the Chayeinu books for general Judaic topics (you can order them from Judaica World).

 

I really have no idea how this is all going to work out, whether it is overkill, or whether I'm missing something, but that's where I am at the moment with my research. I have to be honest -- this is the area of homeschooling where I feel the least confident in my ability to teach, and I am pretty much the blind leading the blind giving out any recommendations to others. :) I did join Yael's Yahoo and FB groups for Orthodox Homeschooling (even though I am not frum), as I prefer to use more traditional resources. I want to at least attempt to give my boys the kind of chinuch in limudei chodesh that I never received.

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The URJ also puts out a day school program -- Chaverim b'Ivrit. They too do not sell to individuals but my synagogue's religious school director was happy to order me a copy of one of the volumes.  Unfortunately, it is also not usable unless your own Hebrew is very good -- directions, teacher's instructions, are all in Hebrew.  (The religious school director also let me go through her curriculum closet and borrow whatever I wanted, which was extremely helpful.)  

 

The author of Chaverim b'Ivrit also wrote some Hebrew books for children who immigrated to Israel from grades 2 (or so) until about grade 5 called Hakol Chadash. They are really great and are available on myhebrewbooks.com.

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Updating: I just received Book 1 of Bright Beginnings, which covers Parshat Lech-Lecha, and it seems very incremental and user-friendly. I am excited to use this book for beginning Chumash. For background, I am learning along with my son. We currently have the same level of Hebrew. So, as a novice teacher, this book is very encouraging for me.

 

I will update when I get some of the other books as well. I hope this is helpful. :)

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Just to update again, I received the materials from Mekor Judaica, and Lashon Hatorah seems the most user-friendly for dikduk if taught by a non-native speaker. I purchased several other books, but, for now, they all intimidate me. My initial impression is that Bright Beginnings and Lashon Hatorah will be the easiest to implement.

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Yes, the materials are Tal AM and Tal Sela, and, for the older kids, the NETA-CET program. You need to go through a training program for both, and they currently only sell their materials to schools. I'm trying to see what I can piece together via Ebay and Amazon resellers, but the stock of resale materials is quite limited.

 

I did speak to a rabbi this morning at the Consortium of Jewish Day Schools, and surprisingly, he agreed to sell me their Chumash materials after I pleaded my case for why we are homeschooling vs. sending the kids to our local day schools. 

 

So, I am still figuring out where we will go after Shalom Ivrit, but I think some combination of dikduk and Chumash materials will be on the horizon. I will post some materials later; I have to pick up my little at present.  

 

I think I spoke to the same guy,and after the same conversation, he agreed to sell me the same (he did not remember me from when he was a principal of my dd's school and its better that way, if you get my drift). anyway, I was very impressed with that curriculum (lhavin ulehaskil if we're talking about the same one) at first, but it was not so fun to use. my kids find it very tedious and the teachers manual doesnt exactly feel like its helping me much. It states the obvious and then still leaves me feeling like I'm flying by the seat of my pants sometimes. I'm not sure I will continue with it. If you'd like to have a look at mine before you order lmk and I will try to send you some pics. alternatively, with some (lots!) of patience you can find good chumash workbooks on chinuch.org for free.

My dd's school used tal am for one year, she learned so much it was incredible! but then they stopped and moved to something else, alot less incredible.

 

I'm looking for a good hebrew curric too, so am paying attention here!

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Guest crewchik

Hi, I am new to this board...was homeschooling for a while, but now am just supplementing as we are living overseas and the school here is excellent :-)  Anyway, my DS is 6 and we began online hebrew school this year as there are no synagogues where we live.  He is moving right along learning his aleph bet and the classes are tailored to different age groups.  Since its my first time posting, don't know if I'm allowed to give the website out, but its jewishonlineschool.com  

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