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!

Announcements, Jewish Homeschooling

Special Needs Conference Workshop!

I am excited to announce that I will be speaking at the Charlotte Mason Online Conference on the topic of Special Needs this week! The conference is online and only $15!! You will also have lifetime access to the workshops! It appears that it is a Christian run conference; however, both Rachel Lebowitz, of A Charlotte Mason Plenary, and myself will be speaking….so those are at least two workshops, I know you will enjoy!

about Ani ve-ami, Jewish Homeschooling

Talmud/Late Ancient Period is UP!!

The Talmud/Late Ancient Period is up as well as the Talmud Curriculum Guide and several other updates! Check out a video tour of the website to learn how you can make the most of what is available so far! As always, please feel free to let us know if there are any broken links, books that are no longer available at a reasonable price, questions you may have, what you think of the updates, etc! We are so excited to share with you all what we have been working on this past year! AND…there are more exciting things to come this year!!

Back to School Giveaway, Jewish Homeschooling

Tools for Torah Chumash WINNER!

Mazel Tov Brittney Thompson! Brittney is now the proud owner of the Tools for Torah Chumash Guide!! Please email us at aniveami@gmail.com or Facebook message us with your mailing address so we can get them sent out to you!! Thank you Tools for Torah for participating with us in this series of giveaways! We have more giveaways planned for the future, so if you didn’t win one this time…perhaps you will next time!

Jewish Homeschooling

Tools for Torah Siddurim WINNERS!

Mazel Tov Jessica Goldstein and Ahava Manning! Jessica is now the proud owner of the Tools for Torah Ashkenazi Siddurim Guide, and Ahava is now the proud owner of the Tools for Torah Sephardic Siddurim Guide!! Please email us at aniveami@gmail.com or Facebook message us with your mailing address so we can get them sent out to you!! Thank you Tools for Torah for participating with us in this series of giveaways! Be looking for the Talmud/Late Ancient Time Period this Sunday as well as some organizational changes on the website!

Back to School Giveaway, Jewish Homeschooling

Tools for Torah Giveaway Part 3!

This week we finish our 3 part giveaway with Tools for Torah and our LAST Back to School Giveaway! Chana from Cheder at Home has a great video sharing a little about these guides!

In order to win a set of Chumash Guides, you may enter several ways for more chances to win!

You have until Shabbos/Shabbat to enter the giveaway up to 7 times! We will announcing the winner Sunday as well as releasing the Talmud Time Period and some improvements to the website!