names and rashi

so we are in the generations of adam. i like it because it's very repetitive. chana is getting good at the verbs that keep coming up. i am still reviewing the words on our list every day: bilti, lachen, and sign. i added on "yemei" because chana keeps forgeting it's "days of" and i added "ishto" because i keep getting annoyed that she can't remember it's "his wife." i have to keep saying "what is the vav at the end." then "the taf is a substitute for ה" and then maybe she gets it. now it's coming more quickly.

we are onto our second rashi. i taught her וגו' is etc which i knew she'd get a big kick out of, which she did. for 2 or 3 days we've been working on pronouncing the words correctly. she mostly gets the letter right (we started with rashi letter flashcards, and there are about 5 somewhat tough ones and 6 pretty confusing ones, and the rest are obvious). after a few weeks of that, she knew the letters. the big challenge is reading without nekudos. since she isn't really able to. (sarah is fairly abysmal at that, so i hope to ramp that up for chana's education). whereas with sarah, i always had her dissecting the rashi herself and translate it (which often caused me the same problem i was having with chana, which was she would lose the thread of the whole in the nitty gritty of translation), i had an epiphany this morning that the reason i did that was because i had this fantasy that the student should be capable of doing every step of the process herself (which is somewhat absurd, considering i had to hold her hand the whole time and even doing it herself, there was a lot she didn't get). now i'm more laid back about that, and i'm inclined to give her the answers and i'm working a little more on chazara. so i will translate it for her (though the first attempt, i do want the student to break it down into its components and try to translate), and then we will go over it a bunch of times until she reads it correctly (something i didn't really work on with sarah) and until she can translate it somewhat smoothly (which sarah wasn't willing to do after breaking her teeth on it by herself). so to sum up, the changes i'm making: 1. more help in translating 2. chazara a number of times of pronunciation and 3. chazara in translation.

chana fought me on the idea of doing 6 pesukim today, even though she's been doing that much AND these were easy! i keep reminding myself it took a month of tantrums to get her to serve herself her own cereal.