Daughter hates reading hebrew

amother

Mon, Nov 15 2021, 1:18 pm

My daughter is in second grade and reading on a fifth grade level. She is very smart and does very well in all english subjects. But she doesn't like hebrew. She can read hebrew but she dreads doing it, and the school is complaining she is reading slower than her peers. They want her to get a tutor which I will be doing. But I'm looking for ways to motivate her. I think she doesn't enjoy it because it's gibberish to her. She taught herself to read english at a young age and continues to advance because she enjoys learning about new things and reading interesting stories. Does anyone have any recommendations on how I can make hebrew reading just as enjoyable for her?

amother

Oak

Mon, Nov 15 2021, 1:26 pm

When my daughter first began having to do kriyah regularly in kindergarten, she hated kriyah and complained about how boring it was. I think you are right, it was because it was gibberish to her, while English reading was much more fun. But my daughter absolutely loves learning millim, dikduk, and translating from the Chumash. After that part of the curriculum kicked in, I stopped hearing her complain about kriyah.

Is your daughter's school only working with her on kriyah right now? Maybe learning more Hebrew shorashim, prefixes, and suffixes would make it less gibberish for her.

mha3484

Mon, Nov 15 2021, 1:28 pm

I have this issue with my 1st grader. I think success breeds confidence. The more comfortable she gets with hebrew reading and understanding, the more motivated she will be.

Last edited by mha3484 on Mon, Nov 15 2021, 1:29 pm; edited 1 time in total

amother

Daylily

Mon, Nov 15 2021, 1:29 pm

One of the things I’ve done is to transliterate an English story and have the child read it.

Or take a Jewish story and put all appropriate words into Hebrew letters (names, challah, Shabbos, etc.)

Another idea is to play a tape of Hebrew davening or Torah reading and have her follow along inside with her finger. Randomly stop the tape and if her finger is on the right word she gets a point.

jfk92

Mon, Nov 15 2021, 1:32 pm

Buy her hebrew little kids books. So she'll practice reading those at home because they interest her- and match pace in school.

amother

Mon, Nov 15 2021, 1:33 pm

amother [ Oak ] wrote:

They are working on Chumash and shorashim too. She does enjoy that more but still reads at a pace that they consider too slow

amother

Mon, Nov 15 2021, 1:38 pm

jfk92 wrote:

Buy her hebrew little kids books. So she'll practice reading those at home because they interest her- and match pace in school.

Where can I get those? Do you have links?

amother

Firethorn

Mon, Nov 15 2021, 3:19 pm

Don't get her a kriyah book; get her story books. Would YOU be interested in reading ah, oh, eh, ba, boh, beh? Of course not.

amother

Mon, Nov 15 2021, 3:44 pm

amother [ Firethorn ] wrote:

Don't get her a kriyah book; get her story books. Would YOU be interested in reading ah, oh, eh, ba, boh, beh? Of course not.

Where can I get story books?

amother

Daylily

Mon, Nov 15 2021, 3:49 pm

amother [ Firethorn ] wrote:

Don't get her a kriyah book; get her story books. Would YOU be interested in reading ah, oh, eh, ba, boh, beh? Of course not.

A lot of kids don’t understand Hebrew story books either. It’s not much of an improvement over ah eh.

singleagain

Mon, Nov 15 2021, 3:52 pm

https://www.israelbookshop.com......html

I remember we had this book when. I was a kid. I googled and found this website. Might help