Ours doesn't. Everyone but us is in day school. :)

At this level (early elementary), you don't really need to distinguish between biblical and modern Hebrew. Biblical grammar is more complicated, but the vocabulary used is only one-fifth of that of modern Hebrew. If you learn modern Hebrew, you will definitely be able to understand biblical Hebrew. The language was basically on a 2500-year "time out" as a spoken language until it was recently revived, so the differences are not nearly as dramatic as, say, between classical and modern Greek which was spoken (and evolving) all along. The Shy Publications books are entirely in Hebrew, so if a parent does not know any Hebrew it would probably be pretty tricky. Behrman House publications have all the directions (and teacher guides) in English, so they would probably be much easier for a non-Hebrew speaker. My more limited experience with those books is that the beginner books are primarily directed at the once-a-week upper elementary Sunday school crowd. Some of the books still work fine for the younger kids, and Behrman has lots of sample pages to download (if I remember right) so you can take a peek to see if it's a good fit. Otyot Step by Step is by Esty Wolf and is available at feldheim.com The directions are in English, but it doesn't tell you what the sound of the letter actually is or what the name of the letter is, so you would have to find that somewhere else. That's pretty easy to find, and the books are really great. We also play with the letters a lot "off the books" doing letter hunts around the house; tagging things that begin with alef in the house; making alef bet shapes with our bodies; pretty much the kinds of activities you might do while learning the alphabet. My 3-1/2-year-old LOVES doing these books and we're about half-way through now. Here's the Sha'ah shel menuchah book: http://www.mekorjudaica.com/store/detail.asp?ProdID=24967 There isn't anywhere to download some sample pages, unfortunately. That one is entirely in Hebrew though. Good luck!

For learning the alef bet, we love Otyot Step-by-Step. After alef bet, we used the Kindergarten book from Sha'ah shel menuchah by Menuchah Fuchs. Now we're using the Migdalor program from Shy Publications: http://www.shypub.com/shop/pc/viewCategories.asp?idCategory=27 It's pretty much a Hebrew phonics program. We love it. My daughter is 5-1/2 and we're sailing through it at a comfy pace (about 1 page per day). In addition, we use Shalom Ivrit (just started Book 2) and Rosetta Stone for conversational Hebrew.

Fun pens and paper. Movie tickets (well, probably ticket in most places these days!). Chocolate.

How about making a donation in honor of the teacher to a scholarship fund at a local music school or somewhere like that? That would have thrilled me to pieces as a (mostly) former music teacher. Or if you'd rather purchase something, how about an itunes gift certificate or a gift certificate to a local cd shop? I charge/d in the same price range you're talking about. I was always very happy with just the gesture. $10 was very nice. I also treasured handmade cards by my students. Once a parent wrote me a very, very lovely letter, outlining all the things that made her glad I was teaching her daughter. That was the best gift of all, that feeling of appreciation and really "getting it." :)

I haven't seen volume 2, so I don't know. Right now, I just wouldn't want to devote that much time to geography. Our Jewish studies entail about 75 minutes/day of "book learning" and secular studies (reading/writing/math) take 45 minutes. Then we do science, geography, nature study, readlouds, art, music... I find it's plenty for us! :) In first grade, I can see us maybe doing it weekly, but I'm pretty sure we won't have time to do more than that.

My kids are 5, 3, 2, and 1. We pretty much learn 10:00-1:00, year-round on the days DH is at work. We take a week off here and there as we need it (like when the weather gets really nice!!!). Monday afternoons I teach a music and art class (2:30-5:00) to my daughter (and her younger sibs) and two of her friends (Kindergarten). It's GREAT! One of the friends usually stays for extra playtime and/or dinner and/or slumber party. Tuesday and Thursday afternoons we have swimming lessons. I teach 2.25 hours of piano lessons on Tuesdays and DH takes them to swimming. Wednesdays I leave open. We take the whole day for a field trip if I feel we've been pretty industrious. Friday afternoons they get to watch a "treat movie" (the rest of the week when I'm fixing dinner they watch "protein movies" AKA science, reading, Hebrew, torah dvds) while I get ready for shabbat (Jewish sabbath). We also have playdates here and there. Our schedule feels pleasant and relaxed, and I love learning year-round.

My kids are 5, 3, 2, and 1 and they have a GREAT TIME rolling around together. Not much fighting or anything. The 5-year-old just adores her 1-year-old brother. I've enjoyed having them so close together. Compact chaos. The only sad part is thinking of them all leaving the house at nearly the same time! :( Years away, thank goodness.

In my imagination (my oldest is in Kindergarten!)... preschool (and the rest of their lives!), Hebrew (in preschool we do about 30 minutes/day of formal instruction; in Kindergarten now we're doing about 60 minutes/day since it's really the foundation of their Jewish studies; my kids learn their alef bet before their alphabet!) 4th grade, Spanish 7th grade, student choice (Yiddish, Ladino, or another modern language) maybe start another in high school if they're really into it! :)

My K'er is really enjoying A Child's Geography. I'm stretching it out through the whole year, so we're only using it 2-3x/month.

Thank you!!!! We love anything that David Attenborough narrates. I just ordered it from the library! :001_smile:

Does anyone know of any dvds about mice?? We're interested in learning about wild mice, not pets, and we'd like something in the middle school to adult range, but really any age range is fine. I've come up with nothing online. Thanks!

We classify our movie watching (we don't watch tv at all, except when I watch the late-night news) into protein and treat movies. A protein movie is pretty much non-fiction documentaries, a Jewish dvd, or anything else that could be called educational. A treat movie is something that is purely for entertainment, but we are also pretty selective (er, snobbish???? :D) about that. During the week they can watch 30-45 minutes of a protein dvd while papa works out and I make dinner. On Saturday nights they can choose a treat movie while papa and I clean up around the house, and on Sunday nights we all watch a family movie, which could be a protein or a treat movie. TV? Bleah. I don't think we'll even get one of those new digital adaptor boxes for ours.

We're orthodox Jews, and I think I'm going to gloss over most of Greek and Roman mythology/religion until the second time through ancient history. Just some general understanding of that they did not have Jewish beliefs in one G-d, and that actually the Greeks and Romans were (most often) enemies of the Jewish people. I want to look at all of history through the lens of torah, but especially in these earliest years (our oldest is 5-1/2).

I LOVE the ergo, and wish I'd bought it with kid #1. I can put my 3-1/2-year-old, 2-1/2-year-old or 13-month-old in it without re-adjusting. Not the 5-1/2-year-old, though! :) It's extremely comfortable and I do not get tired at all if I have any of the 3 younger kids in it.

Secular studies: reading (100 Easy Lessons), writing (Handwriting Without Tears), math (finished K Saxon, now doing Kindergarten B - LOVE it!), readalouds (reading the whole Little House series + non-fiction about the ocean), geography 1-2x/wk, studying deep ocean life (her choice), 1-2 art projects/wk + free art time every day, swimming lessons, music (I'm a "retired" music teacher, so I have two of my daughter's friends + my three other kids do a music class 1x/wk, just for free - great for daughter, great for her friends!) Religious studies: tefillah (prayer), torah study, ethical studies, Hebrew (Migdalor for phonics; Rosetta Stone), halacha (Jewish law) and daily Jewish folk tale I know it sounds like a lot, but the book learning only takes about 90 minutes/day. The rest is up and out of our seats. :)

I second the Bob's (insert favorite number)-grain cereal in bread. It's fantastic. Another great alternative is cracked wheat. :)

Do you mean a children's torah??????

With the Peripole/Angel recorders you do occasionally get a bum recorder, but generally the upper range is just fine. And for $5-7 it can't be beat. Most recorders that cheap are GARBAGE (as in I don't know how a student can stand to play them or a parent to listen to them). The Angels are very sweet-sounding. The Stanesby Jr. is absolutely the best available plastic recorder, but I don't think it's 10x better. Also, just as an aside, most inexpensive wooden sopranos are also not worth buying. A $5 Angel will be much more pleasing. You have to get a fairly nice wooden instrument before it surpasses the quality of a good plastic instrument. German fingering does make it easy to play the lowest F on the soprano, but it also causes several other notes to not be that well in tune (notes that if you're only going to play very simple melodies you might never get to). Baroque fingering is definitely the way to go, and not that difficult. I taught school music classes for years, and my music degree is in recorder... :)

We find plenty on ebay. I never pay more than I would pay in the used clothing store, so no more than $8 for tops, no more than $10 for a dress. I always look at the auctions that are ending in a few hours. You can get some great deals!! I've gotten my daughter nice dresses for $3-4 sometimes.

We've used Scholastic's Human Body - Easy How-to's for Making 20 Models, Manipulatives, and Mini-books That Will Wow Kids About the Incredible Human Body. The projects are pretty fun! The book says it's for grades 2-4, but it's easily adapted to older and younger children. The price on the back of the book says $10.95.

Our schedule is, if papa's working, we're learning. :) During some of the Jewish festival weeks we'll take a little more time off for more recreational activities, but basically that's what we do year-round.

CRACKING UP!!! In my message above I wrote B-E-R-E-I-S-H-I-T and when it posted it changed the last part into asterisks. Oh, what a way to end the evening, LOL. :)

We're using Shalom Uvrachah and Rosetta Stone for oral/modern Hebrew (oldest is 5), and it's taught by three puppets - Tzemi the sheep, Zeevi the wolf, and Bar Haachbar (like in the book!). We're most interested in their biblical Hebrew skills, though. I'm hoping to start reading Berei**** in the original at the end of 1st grade. For alef beis, we used a book called Shaarei Alef Beis. Nothing fancy, but the book looks old-fashioned and very grown up. :) We also look for letters in the siddur (prayerbook) to find the tefillos we do every morning. We have also used Judaica Press's Sha'ah shel menucha. We finished the Kindergarten level and will start 1st grade after the chagim. After that, we might use a new series called the Migdalor Program by Shy Publishing Corporation. They also have many good chumash and mishnah workbooks. Morah Moriah has many wonderful online downloads that we've purchased too. If you have contacts at a day school that uses the Tal Am program, that's a very good, very complete resource. For beginning reader books I got the Nitzanim series. It's leveled readers, maybe 5 books at each level. They're inexpensive but hard to find. I can't remember offhand where I got them. Chinuch.org has many, many resources including lots of Hebrew. That's free to use. Many teachers have contributed their lessons to it. Great resource. We use something from there nearly daily, including a complete rigorous Kindergarten curriculum that I downloaded which we are pretty much following. We also have cds of torah stories in Hebrew, and another book by Behrman. I think it's called Tall Tales in Biblical Hebrew or something like that. Stories like The Boy Who Cried Wolf and the Three Little Pigs in biblical Hebrew. It's really great! Other stuff too, but that's what comes to mind! :)

I had 100 EZ lessons lying around and although I wasn't exactly planning on using it, the stories really hit my 5-year-old's funny bone and she LOVES the book. She picks it up just for fun. We're half-way through and it's been great. So, we just do it because it works great for her! :)