Happy, happy, FINAL alef-bais song!

I finally came up with the PERFECT choice for our last alef-bais song (no, I have no idea what we’ll be learning next!).

Yes, we have done one letter, and one song, every week since September… and this week, we finally got to TAV. Here are all our songs, an entire alef-bais’s worth:

· Alef-Bais song (to the TalAm Ariot tune here)

· Baruch HaMakom

· Gam zu l’Tovah

· David Melech Yisrael

· Hoshia es amecha

· Vesamachta B’chagecha (near Sukkos)

· Yerushalayim shel Zahav

· Ches – the only one I couldn’t think of a song for!!!

Two days later, Feb 3 update: DOH! I just thought of one... Chaverim Kol Yisrael, if I could have found a likeable, singable tune. I don't remember if I thought of this at the time but dismissed it because I don't like any of the versions I've heard...

· Tov l’Hodos Lashem (Carlbach, tune here)

· Yevarech es bais Yisrael

· Ki mitzion,

· L’shana ha’ba-ah

· Mikimi

· Ner Li (near Chanukah)

· Siman siman tov

· Oseh shalom

· Pischu Li (to l’shana habaah tune)

· uTzemichas keren

· Kol dodi

· Rosh, ktafayim (yes, head & shoulders in Hebrew)

· Shabbos, Shabbos, yom menucha

· And finally, this week… HaTikvah

I realize this is a totally mixed bag, and I wonder if I’m totally messing up my kids exposing them to such eclectic influences.

I mean, I don’t even know if they ever sing HaTikvah at Elisheva’s school, but they for sure don’t at YM’s school. Would anybody there even know the words? But somehow, I don’t think it’s right for Jewish children to grow up not knowing it, especially if they hope to end up living there someday.

I also realize I’ve totally messed up the Ashkenaz/Sefard thing. We are learning Alef Bais, calling it Alef Bais, but yes, when I sing HaTikvah, I sing “lihyot am chofshi.” Not “liyois.”

Naomi insists on pronouncing everything as Sefardi as she knows how, but doesn’t quite realize that in doing so, she abnegates one of her absolutely favourite letters – what we have referred to all along as the sav.

Even Gavriel Zev is now in on the action. He’ll walk around all week telling me, “Kids say? Kids say?”

What he means is, the kids at shul, and the leaders of the kids’ program, all say “Shabbat.” He likes to hear me say it both ways. So I smile and say, “that’s right, the kids say Shabbat… and I say Shabbos.”

As for what these messed-up homeschooled kids will grow up saying, it’s anybody’s guess.

But the good news is, we’re almost done, and yes, now that we’ve done all the letters Naomi Rivka is kinda-sorta reading… in Hebrew. Teaching Hebrew reading is like teaching, I don’t know, teaching a hungry person how to eat. It just makes sense; there’s only one way to do it, so you just go ahead and do it that way.