Friday, December 13, 2013

Homeschool Hebrew


I have four happy girls now that I've finally relented and let them learn Hebrew.  We have now firmly entered into the wacky camp of what makes no sense in homeschooling.  As most of you know, I'm a traditional homeschooler, checking all the boxes and making sure all the i's are dotted and t's are crossed.  It it's useful and practical, we study it.  While I love the Hebrew language and studied it many years ago, it hardly makes the most sense for girls with a Mandarin background living in a country that increasingly speaks Spanish.  But they have BEGGED me for quite some time, and Jenny finally made the plea that she wanted to read the Bible in Hebrew. (OT)  How could I say "no" to that?! :)

So I got out my dusty old books and flashcards and brushed up a bit on my own abilities.  Unfortunately, the pace of adult books doesn't quite fit for young children, so we're awaiting our children's books for reading and writing.  In the meantime, they're doing a pretty good job on print letters:


and have even learned a few words.  The "Hu is he," "He is she," and "Me is who," doesn't really seem to stump them, but it will be fun to see my English learners find out that "Dog is fish."  :)  Print is painful in Hebrew, and I can't wait to move on to cursive script which will be much easier for them.  Sarah writes her name in Hebrew on all her papers now and is quite proud of herself.   We'll see how long their interest lasts...




Blessings,

Kim

3 comments:

  1. Speaking as a Jew :) it is well worth reading the Bible in Hebrew. A fair bit gets lost in translation, although obviously they are some way from that yet! Ultimately anything you can read in the original language you will get more out of....it's also interesting to see a very different model of how language is constructed (which of course is something they will have experienced going from Mandarin to English also).

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good point, Penny! :) It helps to put stories in their cultural context as well, and language is a big part of that. :)

      Delete
  2. Wow, I've read this post before but didn't comment! Hebrew! You are one amazing mama!

    ReplyDelete