Homeschool Chumash: Caught on Video!

Here’s Naomi Rivka working through two pessukim of Lech Lecha in her Bright Beginnings workbook.

The first one is Passuk 12, which we've been working on since just after Pesach. 

Our step-by-step method is: 

• First, vocabulary - using homemade cut-ups, examine some of the new or tricky words. 
• Second, read the passuk in the workbook, line by line, in Hebrew and English. 
• Third, line by line in Hebrew only. 
• Finally, close the book and say the entire passuk from memory.  When we are first starting a passuk, we don't do it from memory, but instead, say it 3 times together without looking at the book.

We repeat this procedure for the last SIX pessukim we have learned, finishing with the most recent passuk.  So, for example, we’re now on Passuk 13, so we learn 7-13.  For a while, we were doing all of them, from 1-whatever, but it got to be too much for her.  I told her that once a MONTH, ie the first time we do chumash after Rosh Chodesh, we will review all the pessukim we have learned in Lech Lecha.

Also, whenever we sit down to learn chumash, we also work on exercises in our Bright Beginnings Workbook OR in Rabbi Winder’s Lashon HaTorah Alef.  Bright Beginnings comes with flashcards, and we also occasionally review those, though most of them are too easy for Naomi (we moved the super-easy ones into an “easy” pile, and only review the hard ones regularly).

Sometimes, I feel discouraged that we have been at this since July – ten months! – and we’re only on Passuk 13.  I mean, that’s just a little over 1 passuk a month.  But then, I also feel encouraged that she seems to know them so well.

Also, our lives have been so hectic lately that we are lucky if we get to chumash twice a week.  Sometimes, it’s only once.

This is on top of our regular Hebrew stuff, by the way, which I try to get to twice a week (but realistically, sometimes only once).  We have moved into our new workbook, Shalom Ivrit 2, to somewhat mixed reviews.  I chose Book 2 because Book 1 looked far too basic.  The first story was a bit long.  Repetitious, so it’s easy enough to read, but it looks daunting to see a page of text.  However, the story/question format is good, and Naomi was able to work through many of the questions after the story without help once she got started (code for “got past crying” :-( ).

I hope to alternate readings and work in this book with continuing readings in Yesh Lanu Llama.

And get back to Rosetta Stone again someday… maybe.

Ah, if only there were 25 hours in the day… doesn’t it seem like one extra hour would make a HUGE difference?  I think the secret lies in waking up an hour earlier, but this has never, ever worked for me.  Perhaps I’ll try again, though, as I also believe Naomi is fresher and works faster in the morning.  By afternoon, she’s resentful of having to sit and do still MORE school.