Hebrew Folksongs Curriculum (mini unit study)

I thought it would be cool to help build Hebrew vocabulary through learning Hebrew folksongs.  I picked three that seem “important” to me and put together a few activities to reinforce the vocabulary taught in each one.

Though there is a line-by-line translation provided for each song (along with a link to hear the song), these do assume some knowledge of Hebrew, or at least, access to a decent dictionary.

Part I:  Menorah v’Anfei Zayit  (3 pages) /  מנורה וענפי זית   

Part II:  Eretz Yisrael Sheli (7 pages) / ארץ ישראל שלי

• To download these and hundreds of other General Studies printables, including science, art and music resources in Hebrew and English, Ambleside, composer and artist resources, click here.  (give me a few minutes to post the link… :-) )
• For Limudei Kodesh (Jewish) printables – including weekly parsha copywork and holiday resources, click here.

The story of Rus and Naomi – narratable version (in 3 parts)

I’ve broken this complex story down into 3 sections so that you don’t have to do the whole story at once.  Eeach section can be read and narrated back, and the child can even draw an illustration for each section.  You can do this at the same time, one after another, or on different days/times, depending on the child’s patience and ability.

This story actually from my Shavuos lapbook, so I figure many people may not have seen it yet.  I believe I adapted it (it doesn’t read like my own writing), but I’m not sure exactly from where.  Of course, you don’t have to read my exact version, but you can.  :-)

(also, there are a couple of errors in the lapbook version which I have corrected here)

Pronunciation:  Ruth is pronounced “Rus” by Ashkenaz Jews and “Rut” by those who use Sefardi pronunciations.  I have written it as “Ruth” here; use whatever pronunciation you prefer.  “Bais Lechem” is pronounced “Beit Lechem” in the Sefardi pronunciation, but I have left it as Bais Lechem because “Bethlehem” sounds very non-Jewish to my ears…

Section 1: Read this section, then and have the child narrate back whatever he/she remembers.

The Megillah of Ruth begins with a famine in Eretz Yisrael. Elimelech and his wife Naomi and their two sons, Machlon and Kilion, left Bais Lechem to live in Moav.

Elimelech fled from Bais Lechem not because he was hungry — he had more food than he needed. He was very wealthy. He was afraid that poor and hungry people would come knocking on his door for help. But Hashem expects wealthy people to help poor people, and Elimelech was punished for not doing that: he died in Moav, leaving his righteous wife Naomi a widow.

His two sons Machlon and Kilion married Moavi princesses, Ruth and Orpah, but then the brothers also died, leaving three widows.

Having lost her family and her fortune, the righteous Naomi set out back to Bais Lechem. She kissed her daughters-in-law Ruth and Orpah goodbye. Orpah went back to Moav, but Ruth clung to Naomi with a fierce loyalty, saying: Wherever you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; your people are my people and your G-d is my G-d; where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried (1:16-17). Naomi and Ruth went back to Bais Lechem, where they strugged, living in poverty.

Section 2: Read this section, then and have the child narrate back whatever he/she remembers.

Young, vigorous Ruth cared for the sad, bitter Naomi.  Every day, she went out begging and scrounging in the fields, gathering leftover grain and whatever she could get to eat. There, she met Boaz, whose wife had just died. Boaz saw Ruth gathering fallen sheaves in the field, and he admired her honesty and modesty, not to mention her devotion to Naomi, his relative.

Naomi hoped that Boaz would fall in love with Ruth and “redeem” her in marriage.  If she could have a child, perhaps Machlon's memory would live on. But then, after a while, the harvest was over and it didn’t seem like Boaz was going to take the first step by asking Ruth to marry him.

Naomi feared that since Boaz had not offered when Ruth was near, he was never going to think of marrying her once she was out of sight. But why would the wealthy Boaz marry a poor Moavi girl, even if she had once been a princess? Naomi could not simply ask him to redeem and marry this girl!

Section 3: Read this section, then and have the child narrate back whatever he/she remembers.

Naomi realized that she must be bold, or Boaz would simply forget Ruth and marry someone else. She decided that the best way – though it was daring and uncommon — was for Ruth herself to approach Boaz privately and remind him of his responsibility to the family of his dead uncle, Elimelech. She hoped that when Boaz saw how sincere Ruth was, his compassion for her tragedy would surface. And it did.

But Boaz said there was another, closer relative who had to be given the chance to marry Ruth first before he could marry her. They asked the man – the megillah does not say his name – and he said “no, I don’t want to marry Ruth” – so she was free at last to marry Boaz!

Boaz did marry Ruth and they conceived a baby, who was also called “Naomi’s son” because she’d helped bring Boaz and Ruth together. That baby was Oved, father of Yishai, the father of David HaMelech, the first king of the royal family of Israel—the House of David from which Moshiach will eventually come to return Israel to its greatest glory.

Happy Shavuos!

Am I the only one who finds this hilarious?

I realize they probably weren’t thinking when they populated the “Country” drop-down box, and just threw in a standard list of options.  But really… I can’t be the only person surprised that there are no results.

(there are a few in Karmiel, by the way… that’s what I was really looking for, before getting sidetracked.  :-))

Getting ready… (Shavuos Lapbook)

In case you’re new around here, Shavuos (Ashkenaz) = Shavuot (Sefard) = the Jewish Feast of Weeks = the Jewish Festival of Firstfruits.  So there you are.*

I’m so crazy-busy getting the parsha book ready in time for the Torah Home Education Conference that I will not be creating anything new for Shavuos this year.  BUT… in anticipation of one of those rare calm, “normal” weeks, and lacking a colour cartridge in the printer at the moment, I ran off the bits and pieces for the Shavuos lapbook over at Staples today while I was printing the parsha book.

I did it in colour, and I think everything looks fabulous; it’s a bit thicker and shinier paper than I usually use, as well.  I do regret that I can’t use coloured paper for some of the mini-books, but I think it’ll looks just fine.  Just like we did before Pesach, I’ll split up the mini-books so Naomi Rivka does some and Gavriel Zev does some.

Oh - I also bought some glue sticks at Staples, and some of the nice colourful Dollarama file folders.  No Dollarama glue sticks – they’re stinky!  (and they dry out fast)

A few other resources from previous years:

• My FREE Shavuos lapbook – same as the link above; worth watching for the video where Naomi Rivka “presents” the entire lapbook!
• Free printable mini-book:  On Shavuos. (that’s a preview; email me for a PDF copy at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com)
• Cute stand-up toilet-paper (l'havdil!) tube craft
• Same lapbook, 2 years ago
• A poem for Shavuos by me!
• Bigger-kids story about Ruth (Rus) and Naomi:  Previews here, email me if you want a copy (Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com).

Can you tell I love Shavuos?  So what are you doing to get your kids ready???

* Christians may know this festival as Pentecost, which is celebrated on the 50th day after Easter, in the same way that we observe it on the 50th day after the first day of Pesach.  There are many parallels between the Christian Pentecost and Shavuos, not least of which is the spiritual fulfillment of the physical freedom gained at the earlier festival.  Christians celebrate this as the time the “Holy Spirit” descended upon the disciples, while Jews celebrate this as the date when the Torah (our ultimate source of spiritual enlightenment and conduit to Hashem) was given.  Perplexingly, many “Hebrew” Christians perplexingly celebrate a different holiday called “Firstfruits” around Pesach time.  I guess they feel the Torah isn’t clear, but I’m not aware of actual Jews ever celebrating “Firstfruits” and “Shavuos/Shavuot” on separate dates.

Whoah… I’ve read way too much on this subject.  Just click the links and enjoy!!!

Where would you rather be…

…on a beautiful spring day when the sun beckons? 

Trying to strike a balance here, but some spring days, it’s really, really hard.  I should point out that she was only experiencing a “moment” of misery, that lasted, tops, five minutes.  Still.  Do I ever feel like a tyrant when we can hear the birdies cheeping in the background and the schoolwork looms ahead…

I just looked at the timestamps to check that these were indeed taken the same day and should also point out that the tree one was taken two hours before the school one.  That was probably a mistake – getting school “done” first thing usually works around here. I was probably exhausted and lazily having breakfast, enjoying the peace in the house while the kiddies played outside. 

But I should learn:  it’s always harder to call them back in from fun than to release them to have fun after schoolwork is finished.

And I should also point out that she went on to do several other subjects quite happily, including a most successful FLL (First Language Lessons, Book 2) lesson in which we were practicing writing addresses and titles of address and she was inspired to draw these three matching postcards for three beloved relatives.  We were going to send them to any old relatives, but luckily, I remembered in time that Mother’s Day is important to her grandmother.  So we sent them to the two grandmothers and her aunt in Ottawa, who’s also a mama of four. 

Oh, and then we had playtime in the park with friends, and then the kids tagged along to Ted’s pottery class, which is a very rare but amazing occurrence.  So I promise the day actually ended very, VERY well, despite this inauspicious beginning…

How do you deal with beautiful weather when there’s work to be done???

Hilarious girl-style narration – Behar-Bechukosai

I love Naomi Rivka’s take on the concepts in these parshiyos, which are all about our efforts and how Hashem listens and answers our tefillos if we make an effort.  Which translates, in Naomi’s imagination, into “better hairdo.”

PANEL 1 - Two girls are sharing their most fervent hopes and dreams: 

Girl #1 (hair in a bun):  “Isabell, I wish for your hair to be in a bun, not on your shoulder!”

Girl #2 (hair curly and loose):  “Yes, Laura….  I wish rain in Israel!”

PANEL 2 – the same two girls, standing in the rain:

Girl #1 (hair in a bun):  “My wish came true!”

Girl #2 (hair in a bun):  <<silence>>

Something in me finds this utterly hilarious, encapsulating perfectly the concept that Hashem answers prayers… and that the most important, most urgent prayer is for Good Hair.  Girl #2 doesn’t need to say anything – standing in the rain, hair in a bun, she is perfectly, perfectly content.  What more of a bracha could she need?

 

The “Shaboss” Queen most certainly would approve!

If it looks like a book, and quacks like a book…

… it’s a book!

Well, a very, VERY preliminary draft of a book.  And yes, it’s taken about two weeks longer to get to this point than I was hoping.  This delay will ultimately benefit you, my readers; I promise!  I finally whipped it into shape enough that I printed a draft at Staples (coil-bound, for easy correction… which is good, cuz I’ve already spotted some errors).  Drat, forgot to buy a red pencil – that’s what it REALLY needs.

But if I say so myself, it’s looking very much like… a book.  :-)

Here are some sneaky sneak previews.  If you were aghast at the parsha narrations I have provided here over the years, rest assured that the quality of the writing is WAaaaay better in this print version.  I am often appalled but am forcing myself not to be ashamed or to scrap anything unless it’s absolutely unsalvageable. 

   

A few things I have tried to do better in the print version:

• Fewer exclamation marks!
• Uniform and consistent use of present tense for the entire narrative – except in the two parshiyos which deal with tzara’as, where I think it’s too confusing, so I will probably switch it back.
• Art stolen shamelessly from my husband Ted’s wonderful parsha cartoons.  Not in their original context, which he probably hates, but his cartoons are generally Not For Kids.
• Generous whitespace, headers, etc. (ie making it look less like a MESS!)
• Consistent styles for text, headers, etc. (ie making it look more like a book!)
• Separate glossaries for Hebrew words / Hebrew names

I’m still desperately looking for proofreaders – each proofreader gets to carefully scan HALF the book (= approx 100 pages of text).  Online friends will be rewarded with a FREE Jewish lapbook of their choice.  Toronto friends get two challahs, their choice of seeds – or a lapbook, whatever you prefer.  :-)

Pretty please…?  Anyone want to take on a project for 1-2 hours to help out?  Proofers will get full credit in the “hakaras hatov” page which is still lacking from this draft edition.  Also accepting suggestions for what to call this thing.  Working title is “The Weekly Torah,” but really, anything else would probably be better and catchier.

How’s it looking from where you sit…???

Where we’re at with Hebrew (GZ’s new workbooks)!

Do you have a Hebrew workbook you love???  I’d love to hear what you’re using in the comments… I’m always excited to find more excellent resources that work for homeschooling families!

It’s not what I ordered, but I’m happy to have chosen a Hebrew book which I think will be a good next-step for Gavriel Zev.

For the last few months, we’ve been working our way through Shalom Alef-Bet, from Behrman House, which

worked fine, along with a bunch of sample pages from Journeys Through the Alef-Bet, by Torah Aura, which I liked very much (download a free 30-page sample here, though the link isn’t working for me at the moment; maybe they take their site down for Shabbos).

The next-up Torah Aura book that seemed most in line with the methods and “feel” of Journeys Through the Alef-Bet is one called Tiyulim (journeys, in Hebrew; the link is NOT to the one I bought – see more below).  They offer four variations:  print and script, home and classroom.  The classroom books are more lesson-oriented, with a mix of reading and writing, while the home books are mostly review-oriented, with one page per classroom lesson offering a “taste” of reading and writing.

These books are probably intended for kids who are a bit older than GZ, but I think it’s appropriate because he’s such a good reader.  He doesn’t like materials that seem babyish simply because they’re geared towards beginning readers, and I think these books will strike the best balance.

It was a tough call, which of the four to buy (home print, home script, classroom print, classroom script), but eventually, given the level he’s at right now, I chose the classroom print version.  Then, Torah Aura accidentally shipped me the home print workbook.  I asked if they wanted it back, but they said I could keep it… .so now we’ll actually have both workbooks, just in case we want to bounce back and forth.  We tried the first page today, and it went well.

In addition to the classroom and home workbooks, there’s also a textbook (shown at right and linked throughout, since Amazon doesn’t seem to carry the workbooks), which I didn’t buy.  I don’t think we need that much reinforcement, given that he’s already been through the alef-bais a couple of times.  I like the look of it, though, and so would he, if I’d gotten it.

Again:  since Amazon doesn’t seem to carry either the classroom or home workbooks, all the links in this post go straight to the textbook.  When I get a chance, hopefully next week, I’ll post interior pictures of the two workbooks.  And links to sample pages so you can see more if you’re interested.

As for where else we are with Hebrew…

For Hebrew reading practice with both kids, we’re doing speed drills using an old kids’ book a friend gave me many years ago (like 15 years?), which was purchased for her sons in yeshiva.  It has pages and pages of consonant and vowel combinations, and I like that almost all are actual, real words they’ll eventually encounter in tefillah and chumash.  Maybe I’ll post a shot of that book as well.

Using Susan Wise Bauer’s “nibbled to death by ducks” strategy, we do two one-minute speed drills a day – that’s it.  I pick a page, start the clock, and they read for one minute.  I mark the spot they got to and, at a later date, they try to beat their own “record.”  And then we do it one more time.  Two pages, two minutes and they’re done.  BUT the catch is that I try to never miss a day – so five or six days a week, we are at it; two minutes at a time.

This is probably similar to the Aleph Champ philosophy I wrote about a while ago, I suppose, but as I said, they’re practicing mainly on real words, and I don’t need to buy anything for them to do it, because I already had the book.  Oh, and I don’t give out medals for speed.  :-)  (hopefully, seeing their own progress is its own reward)

For Naomi Rivka, the speed drill is in addition to her work in Shalom Ivrit 2 and Bright Beginnings chumash.  We alternate those, one day one and the next day, the other, but only twice a week for each.

Now that GZ’s workbook is here, he will do that in addition to his speed drills, probably three times a week, though he’s not averse to four.  I would like to give him a bit of an edge if I can, given that he’s going into kindergarten in Israel, where most of the kids will NOT be reading.

Are you still in the thick of your schooling year, or starting to wind things down before the summer…?

Two guest posts BY ME! (hope you’ll come over and see me…)

Haven’t been posting here much, so I’m linking up to two guest posts I have written for other people’s blogs (or collective blogs) in the last few days, so you know that I’m still out here, writing up a storm… and NOT packing, which is what I probably should be doing.

First, this guest post at the fabulous Birkat Chaverim blog (much too shmancy for me, usually!) about Teaching Pirke Avos (okay, Avot).

And then there’s this one, about preparing the kids for our coming aliyah, hosted on the Homeschool Horizons blog, a collaborative bloggy reinvention of a belly-up Canadian print publication.  Because it’s a mostly Christian site, I have used mainly English terms here.  Still – it’s all true, every word.

Enjoy!!!

Murderousl’y bad (grammar)

Argh.  I don’t even know why I let this into my home.  Oh, yeah, I do remember… it was a lot of toilet paper, for not very much money.  But hello??? 

“Kitten’y”?

Did somebody look at the word “kitteny” and say, “it just looks like it’s missing… something.”  And then, that something happens to be a punctuation mark which actually has a totally different meaning.

Well.  That feels good to get off my chest.  I could go on and on.  But aren’t you grateful that I won’t?