Limudei kodesh curriculum for kitah aleph

amother

Wed, Mar 30 2011, 5:24 am

Hi,
I am not a homeschooler, but I am concerned that my son's kiruv school limudi kodesh curriculum is weak compared to that of a standard MO school/mamlachti data state school (we live in EY).

He has a class in parshat hashavua (1 hour/week) and a kabalat shabbat class on Friday mornings. They daven each morning and bentch after lunch, but I just found out recently that they only say the first bracha of bentching. They don't use the Hebrew calendar at all, so there is no mention of Rosh Hodesh, etc. They learn brachot for foods, although at every school function we have been to so far, there has never been any group brachot, washing, or bentching. They recently had a mesibat siddur, so I expect they will soon learn a bit more when it comes to davening.

To me , this sounds rather weak, but then again, I am a BT, so maybe I am just nervous about this topic because I never know if I am doing everything "correctly" with him at home.

Can someone share with me their kitah aleph limudei kodesh curriculum, as well as any tips for resources that I can use to supplement his studies?

Your help is much appreciated.

Mommy3.5

Wed, Mar 30 2011, 8:26 pm

amother wrote:

In the US it is quite standard for the boys to only say the first bracha in benching until they are really reading.

An hour of parsha, doesn't seem like much, based on what my first grade son brings home as parsha work, I would say they do at least 2-3 hours worth of parsha a week. Not all schools teach parsha as thoroughly as my kids school, my brother is only a bit older, and doesn't learn as in depth as my sons.

They don't teach about rosh chodesh and holidays? that seems to be pretty important to me. My kids from 5/6 pre1a, learn very in depth in these subjects.

RachelEve14

Wed, Mar 30 2011, 11:27 pm

Wow, this is kitah aleph?

My kids are in a mamlacti dati Torani school. They have mishna, run by the chodesh calender, do the whole benching. Not sure what they do with davaning, but they davan from a siddur since a few weeks ago, and they are having their misibat chumash IY"H on Friday. They learn a lot on Parsha. I'd have to look at their schedule to see exactly, but they have a lot more than you are describing.

FWIW, even though my kids are in a MMD / Torani I've heard the MMD in our city is similar in terms of the curriculum.

shalhevet

Thu, Mar 31 2011, 12:59 am

amother wrote:

That sounds okay. In school there is less of an emphasis on parsha than in gan. In kitta aleph, the emphasis is on reading and writing so they will have the tools to learn. After they can read the emphasis is on chumash (and later navi too) rather than parsha. My dds (BY) have a chumash class every day (except the teacher's free day when they learn biurei tefila) plus navi, dinim etc. In kitta aleph they often learned a topic with different things around it - eg now they would learn Pesach including halachos, about the seder etc.

The boys (cheder) learn chumash almost all morning.

Quote:

They daven each morning and bentch after lunch, but I just found out recently that they only say the first bracha of bentching.

That's okay, I think.

Quote:

They don't use the Hebrew calendar at all, so there is no mention of Rosh Hodesh, etc.

Unacceptable.

Quote:

They learn brachot for foods, although at every school function we have been to so far, there has never been any group brachot, washing, or bentching.

This to me is a problem of a kiruv school. In frum (chareidi) schools they assume the children know what bracha to make on what. Even in gan chova they are already learning more complex halachos, like amen chatufa, yetoma, order of brachos etc. I don't think they ever learned to make a haadoma on a tomato after the age of 2 - all the children know from home.

Quote:

They recently had a mesibat siddur, so I expect they will soon learn a bit more when it comes to davening.

I wouldn't worry about the pace of davenning at this age. Find out what they daven in 4th grade, and when (especially for boys) they are already davenning everything (should be by 10/11).

HTH

amother

Thu, Mar 31 2011, 1:56 am

OP here.

Re: Bentching: He knows the full bentching from gan (regular mamlachti gan) and home. In school he only says the first part b/c that's all the teacher tells them to say.

RachelEve14: I am not concerned that he does not learn Mishna in kitah aleph. I would rather he have a firm grounding in Torah/pshat before moving on to texts derived from the primary sources. My concern is that he's not getting enough of that.

Shalhevet: The thing is, they learn what brachot to make on diff foods. In school, they expect the children to wash/bentch, or say brachot for diff foods. But for school events involving parents, it doesn't seem to be enforced. I think they don't want the parenst to feel pushed into doing anything. We had a student-parent event last month at which they served a light dinner. There were rolls and cheeses and vegetable and spreads. I made sure our family washed & bentched, but there was no gentle suggestion from the teachers to do so. A similar scenario occurred at the lunch served at the mesibat suddur. It just felt weird.

Re: Chagim: They learn a bit about each holiday in the weeks preceeding it, so it's not like it is ignored altogether. For example, before Purim they went through Megillat Esther, not reading it word for word, but reviewing the contents scene by scene and adding some of the more colorful midrashim.

I think they want to introduce everything concerning Yahadut in a very gentle manner, so as not to be overbearing. I suppose don't mind a little firmer approach.