I have excellent skills. I went to an elementary school that did Ivrit b'Ivrit. From kindergarten to 8th grade, our limudei kodesh teachers did not speak English to us. In fact, I believe the principal specifically hired teachers with poor English. At least, they always told us they didn't speak English. I went to a rigorous high school and was in Honors classes. For one test, we had as many as 50 rashis, Ibn Ezras, Rambans etc to know inside. (For comparison, my daughter, in a rigorous high school non-Honors, has about a dozen. Probably the honors classes are similar to mine.) I feel comfortable opening a mikraos gedolos and looking inside.
With all of my wonderful education that we all who are homeschooling are desirous of giving to our children, so they don't have to crack open an artscroll, today I opened the artscroll Rashi to deal with the mishkan. And it is glorious. The picture of the menorah is so clear. Chana was not that interested, since I had kept muddling through it when we were doing it and she didn't want to hear about it anymore. ("I KNOW about the goblets and the buttons and the flowers. You showed me so many times already!") But I really hadn't understood exactly what the pesukim were saying about the different locations of each. It just seems so much clearer with Rashi laying out the details, and artscroll translating Rashi so beautifully. I opened it to deal with the planks. I will be using it for the rest of our pesukim on the mishkan. And hopefully with the boys in the future.
Purpose
I am planning to try to blog our daily chumash struggles, triumphs and activities. For grandparents, it will keep you updated on chumash progress. For parents (that's you, Ari) it will facilitate our parent-teacher conferences and give you a chance to input your opinion on how you want things handled. For friends interested in education of elementary school age children for chumash, well, there might be some of that.
How This Began
I am an Orthodox Jew and I've been homeschooling for fourteen years. Teaching chumash is one of the most important subjects, and one of the most challenging. We care so much that our children love Torah. v'shinantam l'vanecha. We want so badly for them to have the skills and the ability. Skills work is a particular challenge for homeschoolers, who have not accepted boredom as a fact of school. Or should I say it is a challenge for the mom/teacher...
My oldest "graduated" homeschool (her choice) and is in high school. When I started, I was teaching chumash to a 3rd grader, with a toddler and an infant for company. We now have one chumash learner, one preschooler, a toddler and an infant.
I largely "unschool" and when I started this blog, I was reading Alfie Kohn. Many of my posts explored this. Although I currently am not brave enough to unschool chumash, I am seriously thinking about it for the boys.
My oldest "graduated" homeschool (her choice) and is in high school. When I started, I was teaching chumash to a 3rd grader, with a toddler and an infant for company. We now have one chumash learner, one preschooler, a toddler and an infant.
I largely "unschool" and when I started this blog, I was reading Alfie Kohn. Many of my posts explored this. Although I currently am not brave enough to unschool chumash, I am seriously thinking about it for the boys.
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