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Get 20% off Torah Adventure: Shemos!

Torah Adventure: Shemos

Did you enjoy the first volume of Torah Adventure? Can you believe that this is the last week?

Volume 2, Torah Adventure: Shemos, is almost ready for purchase.

Imagine a rich, gentle Jewish curriculum that is designed to help your young children grow and thrive. A curriculum where every week you’ll cover the Torah portion of the week, while learning about Judaism and the great wide world and building lifelong memories. That curriculum is here, and the Ani VeAmi Torah Adventure: Preschool and Kindergarten Curriculum Guide is ready to take you and your child on a wonderful adventure of learning!

Get 20% off Torah Adventure: Shemos when you email a testimonial about Torah Adventure: Bereishis to admin@ani-ve-ami.com. Tell us what you especially enjoyed about Torah Adventure and feel free to include pictures!

Looking forward to continuing the adventure with your family!

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Jewish homeschooled teens and young adults speak

Hear from Jewish homeschooled teens and young adults from all over the world in a live Zoom meeting this Sunday, November 22nd, at 10 a.m. PST/11 a.m. MST/12 p.m. CST/1 p.m. EST/8 p.m. Israel time. Please register to attend!

Looking for Chanuka books for your family? Here are some recommendations for you at Torah through Literature. Some of these, and more, are listed in our curriculum in the Talmud Time Period.

Ani VeAmi, curriculum guides, kindergarten, parsha, preschool

Now available! Torah Adventure: Preschool and Kindergarten Curriculum Guide, Volume 1: Bereishis/Genesis

You asked, we answered! Torah Adventures: Preschool and Kindergarten Curriculum Guide incorporates your requests and suggestions and is now available for purchase. You can download a free sample and take a look.

Imagine a rich, gentle Jewish curriculum that is designed to help your young children grow and thrive. A curriculum where every week you’ll cover the Torah portion of the week, while learning about Judaism and the great wide world and building lifelong memories. That curriculum is here, and the Ani VeAmi Torah Adventure: Preschool and Kindergarten Curriculum Guide is ready to take you and your child on a wonderful adventure of learning!

Torah Adventure is a year-round curriculum for preschool and kindergarten. It is centered around the weekly parsha but bridges the gap between Torah and secular subjects to create an integrated learning experience. This curriculum is good for families starting on their Jewish education journey, as well as families that are well versed in Judaism and Torah studies. Each week includes:

This year-round curriculum for preschool and kindergarten is centered around the weekly parsha.  Each week includes:

  • Weekly Torah portion/Parsha
  • Mitzvah or character trait of the week
  • Coloring or activity page
  • Jewish literature
  • Crafts
  • Science
  • Social studies
  • Math
  • Music
  • Story and parsha questions for the Shabbos table

Recommended materials need to be purchased separately. Some are available online free of charge.

about Ani ve-ami, Jewish Homeschooling

Info Webinar and Other Resources for New Jewish Homeschoolers!

Homeschooling for the first time and feeling overwhelmed? Ani VeAmi is here to help!

Join us for a live webinar, Jewish Homeschooling: The How To, on Sunday, September 6th at 10 a.m. PST/11 a.m. MST/12 p.m. CST/1 p.m. EST/8 p.m. Israel time. In this webinar, you will learn:

  • Where to begin homeschooling your Jewish children
  • How to homeschool for Jewish studies, what that involves and what resources are available
  • How to integrate Jewish and secular studies, creating a wholesome homeschooling evironment and saving yourself time
  • How to use the Ani VeAmi website and curriculum guides to create a customized curriculum for your family

If the timing doesn’t work you, you’ll be able to view the recording soon after the live webinar. Just make sure to sign up so you get access to the links.

While you’re waiting for the webinar, you can read our FAQ for Jewish Homeschoolers, which answers the most common questions new Jewish homeschoolers ask us.

And if you’d like more support, we have several options for you on our New to Jewish Homeschooling page, including standard and premium consultations with our team.

Hope you have an amazing homeschooling year! We are thrilled to be of assistance as you embark on this wonderful journey.

about Ani ve-ami, Jewish Homeschooling

Preschool and Kindergarten Parsha Currilum Guide is now available!

The first installment of the Preschool and Kindergarten Parsha Curriculum Guide is now available as a PDF download!

Chock-full of book recommendations, activity pages, crafts, science experiments, and hands on math, this year-round preschool and kindergarten curriculum guide is structured around the weekly parsha. Each week includes:

  • Parsha
  • Mitzvah or middah of the week
  • Coloring or activity page
  • Jewish literature
  • Crafts
  • Science
  • Social studies
  • Math
  • Music

Recommended materials need to be purchased separately. Some are available online free of charge.

The current installment covers the second half of the Book of Devarim/Deuteronomy, starting with parshas Ki Seitzeh. When you buy it at half the price of a full volume, you get the first half of the Book of Devarim/Deuteronomy as a free gift when it becomes available.

Look out for the next installments in the near future, G-d willing.

Jewish Homeschooling

The Jewish Homeschool Advantage

New to homeschooling? Feeling stressed and overwhelmed? We are here to offer some encouragement and inspiration!

If you’d never imagined yourself homeschooling, but the school you’d put your hopes on is no longer a viable option in this worldwide crisis, give yourself time to acknowledge and embrace your understandable disappointment.

Once you come to terms with the fact that, ready or not, you’ll be homeschooling, you might be pleasantly surprised to discover that homeschooling offers many advantages to your family. We’d like to point out some of them.

The Jewish Advantage

As homeschoolers, we live Judaism rather than just learn about it. Homeschooling gives us the opportunity to teach our children the live and vibrant version of Judaism, not just the dry textbook one. It’s not an academic subject to study, but a way of life that is absorbed by our children through our home atmosphere and our own enthusiasm for Jewish learning and practice. At home, Judaism is experiential, and we create positive associations, and many fond memories, when we prepare for Shabbos or a Jewish holiday together as a family. To this day, my children think that Pesach preparations are fun. They’ve developed an emotional connection to all aspects of Judaism.

The Relationship Advantage

Homeschooling gives us an opportunity to bond as a family, to build close and meaningful relationships among family members. Homeschooled siblings tend to have closer relationships than siblings who spend their days apart at school. We get to know each other and learn to appreciate each other. Parents have a more influential role in their children’s lives and are able to transmit their deepest values in pleasant ways. The home atmosphere is more peaceful and relaxed.

The Educational Advantage

Homeschooling fosters love of learning. Children retain their natural curiosity and are free to explore and follow their interests. When children are interested in a subject, they learn a lot more about it than they would have learned in school. They also learn how to learn and where to find information they are seeking. These are life skills that will benefit them throughout life.

The Individualization Advantage

At home, each child can learn in the way that works best for them. The curriculum can be customized to meet the child’s learning needs and pace. It can be adjusted to capitalize on the child’s strengths and to best address their weaknesses. Instead of being tied to a specific grade level, a child could work on higher grade levels in some subjects and on lower grade levels in others. If a previously selected curriculum ends up not working for the child, you can switch to a different one. There is a lot more flexibility at home than at school.

The Emotional Advantage

At home, there is no bullying or any other school-related drama and trauma. The children are free to be themselves, to get to know themselves and to get comfortable with who they are. They can succeed without feeling pressured, and they can learn from their mistakes, as we all inevitably do, without damage to their self-esteem or self-confidence. They can acknowledge their weaknesses and shortcomings without fear of social repercussions. They can work on themselves, and grow and improve, in a positive and loving environment.

Feeling better about homeschooling? Hear from real live homeschoolers at our Inspiration for New Jewish Homeschoolers page.

Looking for more hand holding? Need help with curriculum and planning your year? Book a private consultation.

about special needs, Jewish Homeschooling

Homeschooling a Child with Dyslexia

When one of my children was eight years old, she was diagnosed with severe to profound dyslexia. The person who tested her suggested that I lower my expectations, focus on the basics of English reading, and give up on Hebrew altogether. Fortunately, we had already been homeschooling all of our children, which gave this child the optimal environment to learn at her own pace and in her own way. Now she is in high school and, thank G-d, doing well academically. She especially enjoys Judaic studies and is able to study Hebrew texts in the original.

Many parents of children with learning differences find that their children thrive when homeschooling. Without the pressure of school and the need to conform to a standardized curriculum, children with dyslexia defy all expectations and, in the long term, are no less successful than typical learners.

Here is what I learned in my experience of homeschooling two children with dyslexia.

First off, a dyslexia diagnosis is not a tragedy. Your child is not defective and does not need to be fixed. He or she just learns in a different way. It’s not better or worse. It’s different. In fact, Drs. Brock and Fernette Eide wrote a book entitled The Dyslexic Advantage, where they argue that dyslexia is not a disability but a unique learning style that creates certain advantages in school, at work, and at home.

Once your child is all grown up, nobody will care when they learned to read. It makes no difference long term, as long as the child is given the space to be themselves and learn in their own way. My completely unprofessional opinion is that the worst consequence of dyslexia is not the learning issues themselves, but the reaction of the people surrounding the child. When people constantly comment, with a deep sigh, that this child is 7, or 8, or 9, or 10, and is still not reading, that’s what hurts the child. Not only in terms of self-esteem, but in terms of motivation. If the rest of the world feels that they’re not measuring up, then they’ll internalize this attitude and believe that they’re not capable. And then they’ll stop trying. And then it will be much harder to get them beyond kindergarten reading level. Kids learn to read when they believe they can learn. Instead of bemoaning dyslexia or comparing their reading progress to other children their age, it’s very important to explain to these kids that they will get there eventually, just in their own way and at their own pace.

That’s probably the most important point, more important than which reading program you use. Normalize the child’s experience. Put them in touch with others, especially adults, with dyslexia, who can reassure them that they’ll do just fine. Tell them about famous people with dyslexia who were tremendously successful. Talk to them about the advantages of dyslexia that can help them succeed in life. Note that in order for your words of encouragement to reach your child’s heart you must truly believe in them yourself. If you still feel that dyslexia is a tragedy, you might want to read some relevant books, like The Dyslexic Advantage mentioned above.

Next in importance: capitalize on the child’s strengths. Reading and spelling do not define your child. There is a lot more to your child than their learning difference. Get to know them and truly appreciate them for the amazing young people they are. Point out their strengths, give the child time and space to pursue their talents, encourage them to spend time on the things they are good at. That will build up their confidence and resilience and give them the strength to tackle those areas where they are struggling.

A word of caution: do not praise your child for succeeding in pursuits that you do not truly value, especially in contrast to their difficulties with something that is more important to you. Do not tell them that even though they are struggling with reading they are good at cooking, unless you truly value cooking as much as you value reading. Be sincere in expressing your appreciation for what your child does well. If you can’t think of anything your child is good at that is at least as valuable to you as reading and spelling then perhaps you should spend more time with your child and discover aspects of them that you’d previously missed.

Next: exercise patience. No matter which program you choose, it might take a looong time for the child to get to grade level in reading and spelling, even if they are above grade level in other subjects. Find other ways for the child to get access to other subjects and things they’re interested in. This could be audiobooks, videos, hands on activities, and my personal favorite: read aloud to your child.

That should be a point on its own: in order for your child to be motivated to learn to read, they need to love books. They develop this love by spending much time with parents and siblings listening to books read to them. They must be good books, engaging enough so that the child can’t wait to listen to the next chapter.

Another advantage of reading aloud and audiobooks is that the child develops an advanced vocabulary, which makes it easier for them later on to recognize words they read.

Next: look into underlying issues of your child’s struggles and address them if necessary. Test the child’s hearing. If hearing is fine but the child still has trouble distinguishing between different sounds, speech therapy could make a big difference. Also test the child’s vision. If vision is fine, but the child sees letters as wiggling bouncing, they may benefit from vision therapy. Also look into symbol processing and see if your child could use extra help with that.

Finally, which reading program is best? There is no one answer. Each child is different, and choosing the right program often involves trial and error. And more patience. In my experience, more important than the program is the child’s readiness for it. Learning to read proceeds in a certain sequence. As long as you’re doing the right things — talking about sounds and syllables, rhyming, and other pre-reading stuff — you’re on the right track.

For the daughter I mentioned above, we hired a tutor who worked with her twice a week using the Orton Gillingham approach. For another child with dyslexia, we were fortunate enough to get a free trial of CAPIT Reading, developed by fellow Jewish homeschoolers Tzippy and Eyal Rav-Noy. It was still in the development stage then, and we got lots of support from Tzippy and Eyal. They’ve been very helpful and encouraging. Their website is capitlearning.com

But really, all these programs just give the kids the tools. It’s up to them to pick up a book and put these tools to good use. And for that they need motivation and self-confidence, as I mentioned above. My daughter is now reading the same thick books for pleasure as her non-dyslexic siblings. She came so far because she was very motivated and worked hard on her own.

Jewish Homeschooling

Update — More User-Friendly Tanach Curriculum Guide

We’ve made the Tanach Curriculum Guide easier to use! The Jewish literature, music, and art for each month are now all linked online on their respective pages. If you bought the paperback version of the curriculum, you no longer need to retype the long URLs into your browser. Just go to these pages!

Jewish literature for the Tanach Curriculum Guide

Music for the Tanach Curriculum Guide

Art for the Tanach Curriculum

In addition, The Return and Other Stories by Yehudis Litvak, used in the Tanach Curriculum Guide, is now available in two formats: PDF and Amazon Kindle.

Hope these updates will help you in your homeschooling! As usual, we welcome your feedback. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to enhance your family’s homeschooling journey!

Jewish Homeschooling

What’s New for the New Year

With the approach of Rosh Hashana, we reflect on our accomplishments of the past year and resolve to accomplish even more in the coming year. At Ani VeAmi, at this time of introspection we’ve put much thought into homeschooling our own children. We’ve designed the kind of curriculum that we’ve always wanted to use with our families, and last year, we successfully used it in our homes. This year, we strove to improve on last year’s successes.

To this end, we recently redesigned the first level of our history curriculum, the Tanakh era, and added another level, the Talmud era. We’ve also added the Talmud Curriculum Guide, with pre-planned materials for each week of the school year, in the same format as the Tanach Curriculum Guide. We are delighted to share this year’s new additions with all of you, and we hope your family enjoys them as much as ours have.

Other updates:

We’ve added a video Welcome Tour to our website that will, hopefully, make it easier for you to navigate the curriculum and use it as best fits your family’s needs.

We’ve partnered with Cheder at Home to provide you with video reviews of our recommended products and to let you know about their other informative videos.

We’ve also partnered with Charlotte Mason Plenary and hope to soon bring you custom plans for your family. If you need additional help in making Ani VeAmi work for you, private consultations with our own Amy Bodkin are available through Charlotte Mason Plenary. Amy is a treasure trove of homeschooling information for all families, and she is especially passionate about customizing the curriculum for children with special needs.

We hope these new additions will enhance your homeschooling experience this year. We wish you much success in this precious endeavor! Shana tova from all of us at Ani VeAmi!

Back to School Giveaway, Jewish Homeschooling

Barbara Diamond Goldin’s Family Book of Midrash Giveaway!

This week’s giveaway is the book The Family Book of Midrash: 52 Jewish Stories from the Sages by Barbara Diamond Goldin. It’s a collection of beautifully retold classic stories from the Talmud and Midrash. The stories introduce children to a wide range of Biblical and Talmudic personalities. While dialog and historically appropriate details are added to the stories, the author stays very close to the original sources, which are cited after each story. Clearly, a tremendous amount of reseach went into this book, and we are grateful to the author for her generosity in sharing this wonderful book with us. This book will be included in the Ani Ve-Ami curriculum, in the Talmud time period.

A table of contents and a sample are available on Amazon at the link below:

To enter the giveaway, please do one or more of the following. You may have up to six entries.

  1. Visit Barbara Diamond Goldin’s website and comment on this post about which of her books you’d like to read.
  2. Like Ani Ve-Ami on Facebook and comment on this post to let us know
  3. Subscribe to Ani Ve-Ami and comment on this post to let us know
  4. Join Ani Ve-Ami group on Facebook and comment on this post to let us know
  5. Share this giveaway on any social media platform and comment on this post to let us know where you shared it
  6. Let us know in a comment on this post what your favorite part of Ani Ve-Ami has been so far

Good luck!