every day a little more

yesterday we did rashis and planned to start vayechi at night.  but i went out with the boys and didn't get back til 9pm, and chana didn't feel like starting.  so i said she has 15 min in the morning to decompress and then we would start.

however, by the time chana came down this morning, aharon was back asleep and jack wasn't awake yet, and i was enjoying my little peace and quiet of the day.  so i didn't press her.  then aharon woke up, then jack woke up (yes, you read that correctly--aharon woke up from his morning nap before jack woke up for the morning), and then things were busy.  so it was after noon before we got to chumash.

but that's ok because it's the week before pesach so i don't have much to do.

anyway, we sat down to vayechi and chana looked for sheni.  it seemed manageable, so she looked for shlishi.  it seemed manageable, so she looked for revi'i.  chamishi finally seemed long to her, so she was brimming with energy and announced she'd be doing through revi'i. 
i've been around the chumash block a few times, and privately hoped we'd make it uneventfully to sheni.  but hey, i'm not going to be the discouraging voice.

chana had a couple of good questions.  she asked the famous: how did yaakov not know who yosef's sons were?  (particularly as we just did the rashi that efraim was learning with yaakov.)  (based on those rashis, chana wondered if yaakov preferred efraim because he had a relationship with him.  i ventured that efraim was on a higher level.  chana said that menashe was working with yosef as a translator.)

chana also envisioned yaakov not feeling well, then being strong enough to sit up in bed.  she kind of acted it out.  yaakov was creaky and aged, and moved with great effort. 

she did indeed run out of steam by the end or rishon.  but she asked to do sheni and possibly shlishi tonight. 

i underlined a couple of rashis and we did them outside (she also asked: why didn't yaakov bury rachel in chevron if it was so close?) but we didn't do them inside and we didn't review the ones in vayigash.  i am not so impressed with chana's entire grasp of vayigash or the rashis.  i do not feel this is because of chana, but rather in the way i chose to do it regarding speed and lack of chazara.  i think it is important to note that students often "don't succeed" because of the way it's been taught, not because of a lack in the student.

i was pleasantly surprised that chana remembered the shoresh "kavar" bury in all its forms today.

i pulled out the map of the nachalos of the shevatim from the stone tanach at one point because yaakov was telling yosef that these 2 sons would be like his sons, and any future sons would be included in their nachala.  i showed her that yosef didn't have a portion, and that efraim and menashe were like the other shevatim.  we pored over the map for a little bit.  chana noticed that menashe had 2 portions and that levi had none (pretty sharp, chan!).  i flipped to the levite cities map and showed her all their cities.  she asked why they were with everybody else.  i said she'll find out in this parsha.

we also found chevron on the map, and chana said that rachel was the only one not buried there, and she asked why.  unfortunately, beis lechem was not on the map and we didn't go all the way upstairs to look at the map there, nor did i get up and cross the room and take the map book off the shelf. 

maps

so today we had very little time before the US history movie club. 20 minutes. maybe a bit less. so we orally reviewed the pesukim, and i showed her the map and told her the 4 kings were from the north, and they attacked all the tribes on the way down, and circled back. then when we did the pesukim inside, i had her identify each thing on the map (btw, chori is NOT the same as horite in chana's mind). so tomorrow we will do the 5 kings coming to meet the 4 kings. she doesn't know who is going to win yet... or what this has to do with avram...

in the car i discussed rashi's comments about the names of the kings. she enjoyed that. and i think she enjoyed it more doing it outside the text because she wasn't bogged down with reading and translating.

tomorrow is science museum, so it looks like chumash is going to slow down a bit the rest of this week.

so chana agreed to do rishon and sheni, and i wanted her to do one of them pasuk-by-pasuk, and one of them to just review the hard words. chana started off saying she would do everything pasuk by pasuk, because it is easier to remember the words in context. but then she actually started, got stumped on a word, and changed her mind. so we ended up doing both aliyas by targeting major words, except for a few pesukim here and there where i wanted her to do the whole thing.

she was in a good mood except towards the end. i felt that she should take a break, and she wanted to finish. so the last few pesukim in shlishi she screamed her way through. despite that, she did a decent job translating. (when i said "nice job" she didn't believe me, because she had been shrieking. i told her that despite the shrieking, she translated well.)

then she got upset because i still wanted her to do the 4 pesukim from revii from yesterday, plus one new pasuk, plus 2 rashis. so she lay on the floor for 10 minutes crying. and saying "this is not a break." i am not sure why she was so opposed to the idea of a break today. it's funny because often she wants to take a 10 minute break after every pasuk.

she got through the pesukim fine, and the new pasuk. i brought down the atlas (aharoni and avi-yonah bible atlas) and i looked up the map of the 4 kings/5kings battle, but haven't shown it to her yet because she is so resistant to maps. tomorrow. then we did the 2 rashis amidst great yelling.

tomorrow i want to do some of the rashis on the names of the 5 kings. i think she'll get a kick out of the puns.

at one point she asked, what were avram and sarai doing during all this? (there were 12 yrs service and 13 yrs rebellion). i explained avram was in chevron with his mizbeach, and then the story pauses and tells this story.
i think she'll be suprised when lot gets captured and the stories come together. i think because she for some reason can't keep sedom in her head, she doesn't realize that this is relevant to the lot avram story. i hope she puts it together and enjoys it.

why doesn't she like maps?

so we did the new pesukim, and oddly, chana is reluctant to look at maps to get a visual idea of where avram lived and where lot lived. i feel like the map is helpful, and she just doesn't care. but i dragged out the maps and we looked, and then i found another map online with sodom. they are all near the dead sea, and chana remembers going there when we visited israel, so that was exciting.

she asked if lot was going to turn bad. and i said, we will see!!

we still have a rashi to do, and then i'd like to review sheni today.

i found a website that showed excavation of cities that are believed to be sodom and evidence of ash, an earthquake, and skeletons of people fleeing. it's a christian website.