Adventures in Mama-Land

  So did I mention we’re homeschooling again? At least for the summer.  Does that make me the kind of wannabe / poseur I hate?  Or an earnest parent trying hard to make something work during weird, transitional times… I’m not sure what the answer is, but I thought I’d share a quick update on how things are going this summer with our “homeschooling / summerschooling” plans.  (It was originally going to be quick – sorry!!) It remains to be seen whether we’re going to do this long-term.  But the truth is, it feels very good.  Very, very good. In some areas, we’re picking up exactly where we left off.  But mostly, things slipped a lot during the year.  The only area in which both kids are further ahead (besides Hebrew!) is math. I had a few clear criteria before we started:

(Or, how I secretly want to continue homeschooling once we arrive in Israel… but you knew that already, didn’t you?) I wasn’t sure where to post this, and actually began posting it to my aliyah blog , but decided it was more homeschooly, so now I’m switching it to here. Homeschooling is legal in Israel, but we have already decided we cannot do it – and, more importantly, that it’s in the kids’ best interests to go to school.  I posted about this before (apparently in July 2011, so we’re probably due for an update) but I will sum up the 3 main reasons: Socialization – not in general, because homeschooled kids DO socialize, but they will need to make friends fast and although there are chugim (extra-curricular activities), youth groups, shul, and homeschooler get-togethers,  school is the best way to do that. Language – I want them to learn Hebrew immediately.  School is perhaps a brutal way to do that, but it’s fast and everybody says they become fluent within months...

Despite the temperatures and humidity today, the show goes on through the summer, mostly, with liberal breaks for camp, cottage, playdates, etc.  Here’s Naomi grinning over her Hebrew book.  That’s because it’s super-super- easy .  I mentioned we were switching from Migdalor 2 to Shalom Ivrit 2… well, we DID, and it was going fine, in my opinion.  But Naomi felt overwhelmed; I have no idea why.  Just as had happened in Migdalor, even though the vocabulary was all familiar, and even though she could read it just fine, she’d end up crying. So I marched out to the store and bought Shalom Ivrit 1.  It’s basic, but not babyish, with a clean, modern feel to it.  Here’s what she was “working” on today. Now, I know and you know (because I’ve told you!) that she’s well beyond this type of vocabulary and grammar stuff.  But she loves it.  And now, every time I pull out Book 1 instead of Book 2, she’s surprised and delighted anew.  I think sh...

Gavriel Zev is greatly enjoying our weekly alef-bais “studies.”  I wasn’t originally planning a handwriting component, but his handwriting in English is coming along by leaps and bounds, so I have decided to bring in Hebrew handwriting as well. I was about to create something myself, but then I found two sites with helpful alef-bais printables: From Israel:  letter-by-letter vocabulary sheets (click the letter you want and a .doc file will download) Christian Hebrew alphabet tracing pages (individual PDFs with a cute picture and tracing outlines for each letter) Now, when I say “helpful,” both sites offer separate files for each letter and the tracing pages include script and Rashi fonts, which we don’t need at all.  So after I downloaded all of these (hint: if you’re using Firefox, consider a tool called “ DownThemAll! ” that grabs every link on a page super-quickly for you!) I removed the pages I didn’t want and consolidated each set into a single PDF file (one fo...

Yes, we really DID do school this week.  In fact, because we were still in the break between Parks & Rec 9-week sessions, we probably did MORE school than we usually do, and certainly more than we will accomplish next week. However… I mentioned that I’ve been sick and miserable;  I actually woke up voiceless on Tuesday and wasn’t able to speak at all until Friday morning.  So our emphasis this week was on subjects that teach themselves, anything that comes in audiobook form, and anything I could teach in a whisper. A couple of highlights: LATIN!  The kids are both loving our Song School Latin program.  We’re in Week 6, and so far, this program is so light it doesn’t really feel like school.  They both beg to do more than one song a week, but I figure we’ll pace ourselves and it’s great keeping it light and easy.     Here they are singing this week’s song with the help of these puppets.  The puppets are in the back of the book, but ...

* If you’re just here for the free supplement, scroll down to the end for more information.  I want to chat for a while with my regular readers first! Okay, okay, I know I haven’t mentioned Latin on here, even though it is one of the most exciting things to happen in our little homeschool over the last couple of months. To back up just a little:  I have no idea why I caved.  Elisheva was pushing me to teach Naomi a language – my protestations that Hebrew IS a language went unheard.  She does NOT approve of Hebrew as a second language.  She wanted me to do French, but I had seen this program and thought it was super-cute, and I figure Latin is kind of like meta-French.  Once you know Latin, French comes easily… right? Anyway, it was a flimsy reason to adopt an extra school subject, but the Song School Latin curriculum is SUPER light, and we’re really, really enjoying it so far.  I won’t say “loving it,” because my sister Abigail is back, and she kn...

For Jewish Studies, including weekly parsha resources and copywork, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi!  If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you enjoy these resources, please consider buying my weekly parsha book, The Family Torah :  the story of the Torah, written to be read aloud – or any of my other wonderful Jewish books for kids and families . English Worksheets & Printables: (For Hebrew, click here ) Science :  Plants, Animals, Human Body Math   Ambleside :  Composers, Artists History Geography Language & Literature     Science General Poems for Elemental Science .  Original Poems written by ME, because the ones that came with Elemental Science were so awful....