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Showing posts with the label First Language Lessons

What we’re doing for school this summer.

  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:

If wishes were fishes…

(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...

Two more for Superman Sam…

Please daven for Shmuel Asher ben haRav Pesah Esther . With the photos we sent the other day , I had Ted draw a cartoon of Sam himself in superhero getup.  I think it turned out great!  Of course, Ted had no idea why I wanted to take a picture of the picture, given that it was printed from the very computer where I now sit and type this. But to me, there’s something REAL about a photograph that you don’t get from a JPG. So here it is – real as all get out.  I packed the cartoon between two pieces of cardstock for safekeeping, then got scared that they’d think it was JUST blank cardstock, so I wrote “open me” or something stupid on both sides of the cardstock.  Wish I’d included a frame, but that would cost way too much to mail. And THEN… well, I opened up First Language Lessons , our grammar book, and in a perfect confluence of the stars, our “lesson” for the day was to address an envelope!  How perfect is that ?  However, Naomi refused to use the WI po...

Our Week in Homeschooling: 13 Teves, 5772

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 ...

Homeschool Diary: October 7 / 9 Tishrei, 5772

This is probably our last “normal” school week for a couple of weeks because of Sukkos next week and all our fun exciting Chol HaMoed (holiday) activities.  NOT that it was a normal week… do we ever really have one of those?  Does anybody? Here’s what we’ve been up to this week! We sure DO love chumash!  Elisheva created this picture while she was waiting for Naomi Rivka to go get dressed when we finished up our work for today. Naomi can now read pessukim (verses) 1-4 of Lech Lecha (in case you don’t know what this is… Bereishis/Genesis, Chapter 12; it’s known as “Lech Lecha” after the first two significant Hebrew words; oh, and in case you didn’t know, “chumash” = Torah = pentateuch = five books of Moses). She has mastered 18 of the Bright Beginnings flashcards, and I just added 6 more, bringing us up to 24 words in her “official” Torah vocabulary.  Unofficially, she probably knows quite a few more, but I like doing them systematically with the flashcards. Hmm...

Our Day in the Arts

Today we (belatedly) wrapped up our 3-month “study” of Mozart, which consisted of listening to his music (off and on; with a 3-week interruption in August); reading and listening to whatever we could about him, including this free printable Mozart mini-book I made from an old public domain etext. Here are a few other recommended Mozart resources: While listening to Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, I read Naomi the biography of Mozart from the Making Music Fun site.  I was a bit disappointed by her narration, because she really didn’t seem to remember as much about him as she has from other composers.  But I think many of the important facts are in there, somewhere.  (this lovely narration page is also available as a free download ) (Naomi was very distracted during her narration by the fact that the bio mentions that he “Mozart died at 35 years of age” but doesn’t explain how he died, so I think this was preoccupying her rather than the facts of his life.) (Wikipedia says it ...

Busy Week!

We cut and cut and cut and cut and pasted…   (I discovered this cool cut-apart skeleton in the sample pages for Pandia Press’s Real Science Odyssey, Life (Level 1).  You can download the full sample here , if you’re interested.  See below for why I was looking at science curricula (hint:  I bought a new one, but in the end, it wasn’t RSO). We drew… (ugh, the strange-looking BOY made from the word “boy” in Draw Write Now, Book 1 – I have been dreading this lesson for months, but at least it’s over now and we can move past it) We learned Chumash…  (see how much she HATES colouring things in???)  (but she does enjoy colouring the “leftover” words with a rainbow pattern even though it takes forever sometimes for her to fill them in).  The book she’s using is Bright Beginnings.   …And SO much more! We are doing and ENJOYING the following Evan-Moor daily worksheets, which I print off from TeacherFileBox:  Daily Science, Daily 6-Trait Writin...