Friday, August 17, 2012

chumash unschooling beginning methodology

As i discussed here, I used to go through the R' Winder Lashon HaTorah books and then begin chumash once the child had a sense of prefixes and suffixes.  I hope to possibly unschool the R' Winder books (though that might be a bit of a challenge, but the kids always enjoyed them and to a large degree Chana did unschool them because I basically let her go at her pace and she often requested to do it), but there is a good chance that Elazar will start being interested in the pesukim before he has made significant inroads in R' Winder.  I have been interested in leining for a long time (years), and I began to really study it when I noticed that Elazar responds to tunes. 

So if Elazar should ask me to read him some chumash, I will open up to the first pasuk, lein it with him a couple of times, and explain it.  I'll do that either for as long as he is interested, or until he has a basic grasp of the pasuk.

This is different from how I taught chumash in the past, where I focused on them translating, figuring the best way to learn it is by doing it.  (This also provoked many complaints and tears).  So now, I'm going to just tell him the information, keep it pleasant, and (theoretically) have confidence that when he wants the skills, he will concentrate on them and acquire them.

2 comments:

  1. Interesting! I have been sharing your posts with a friend who is unschooling and wondering how to do it for limudei kodesh.

    Also, I'm putting together a linky-based roundup of Jewish homeschooling blogs... I'd be honoured if you'd join, and it might help others find you as well. Thanks!

    (p.s. I should add my one small kvetch, which is that it has so far taken me 4 tries and I have been unable to read the ReCaptcha image that it forces me to descramble in order to comment... off to try again)

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