resources for hebrew?

Boker Tov, Tina!(Good morning)

We use  the modern Hebrew Behrman House workbooks. http://behrman.powerwebbook.com/catalog.cfm?CatPos=354I can’t recommend them enough. We have used them from the beginning so my dd has is in her 3rd year and my son in his 4th. They also offer wonderful customer service. I talked to them about developing materials for the homeschool market and the guy I talked to said they were in the process. They also have adult resources. My only frustration is the lack of available Hebrew Readers. Maybe they don’t exist…We have our prayer books and I found a dual-language student Tanakh at First Fruits of Zion that they can use later; http://ffoz.com/index.php?target=products&product_id=272     but other than a couple of things at the site, I can’t find any anywhere. There’s an Israeli Bookstore online, from NY, but I’d like what they use in Israel to teach, (kind of the equivalent of our English readers here) but can’t locate any.

The order we used is:

Let’s Disover the ALef Bet;  Shalom Alef Bet;  Shalom Alef Bet;  Shalom Uvrachah (has a CD-rom with it) and Shalom Ivrit Level 1, with the prayer companion (we are Messianic Jews, so I want the Prayer companion) and music CD. I didn’t have to use any teacher’s guide until the last one. There’s also another cd-rom that’s part of a different series (Alef Bet Quest) since it’s fun reinforcement and he hears Isreali pronunciations’ also a Script (Hebrew cursive) writing book; since one doesn’t write in the block style, just reads it, I want them to be able to write in the script, too.

A side resource they enjoy for identifying regular, everyda items is “Let’s Learn Hebrew Picture Dictionary”http://www.amazon.com/Lets-Learn-Hebrew-Picture-Dictionary/dp/0071408258/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1272195881&sr=8-1-spell

I am interested in Rosetta Stone later, as it doesn’t go into proper grammer and such, but since they aren’t immersed in it daily, that’s how I would provide it. Another immersion opportunity is with a narrated Hebrew BIble (MP3) and products that are the Psalms read in Hebrew (Psalms of the Heart and Psamls CDs). Those will be be future purchases for me.

We are also interested in Biblical Hebrew, as I want my children to be able to read and study the original texts (I see my son being able to do this the most) but I’m sorry I don’t have any resources to offer in that area.

Shalom!

Rachel

Thank you for the great list.  My husband has been slowly teaching our children Hebrew, but we want something a bit more structured now.  I do have a question, which I hope is not offensive, but which of the programs mentioned is the least religious?  We want our kids to speak modern Hebrew and read the Bible (Biblical Hebrew) but we are not Jewish.  While we have no problem learning about the culture and religion I’d prefer a program that didn’t focus exclusively on it.  It would be fine with us if we studied a few prayers here and there and learned religious words, but I’d rather it wasn’t the only way they learned.  I hope that makes sense and doesn’t sound awful.

While my husband is fluent I am not.  I need a program that I can learn along with the kids and one that I can teach them myself.  He’s had a lot of success reading regular children’s books to them and throwing in a Hebrew word here and there.  They have learned quite a bit that way.

Thanks so much for the great resources you’ve listed.

Heather

Heather,

It’s not an offensive question.

Behrman House teaches symbols, traditions and culture through the books. It’s basic stuff, not overtly religious, but it’s our lifestyle, too so it’s reinforcement for  my children. Learning Hebew will enrich your Christain walk, as you learn the context and lifestyle of The Messiah and how he lived. There are a couple of other choices with a Christian or Messianic bent which may be a better fit and I am familiar with by name, but not used personally:

Hebrew for Christians:http://www.hebrew4christians.com/

Easy Hebrew, the homeschool version; has been HIGHLY recommended and recommended by the Old Schoolhouse:  http://homeschool.easyhebrew.com/                                                                                            

Hebrew World:http://www.hebrewworld.com/hebrewworld.html

I hope that helps some. May you be Blessed in your endeavor!

Shalom,

Rachel

we use Behrman House and I love their resources.  My DH and I use those along with our children and also use The First Hebrew Primer: The Adult Beginner’s Path to Biblical Hebrew, although I will say that it moved quite fast for us in the beginning and we had to repeat chapters to get it all.  I would love to use this w/ our children but they are still young (9 & 7) and The First Hebrew Primer really gets too deep into grammar and such for their age, so we’ll use it w/ them in the future.

My family attends a Messianic Jewish congregation and everyone is encouraged to learn biblical Hebrew and biblical Greek, from 3-93, so we all know that we know what our bibles say.  In our classes, adults use the children’s primers too, Behrman House has some really good ones, and I wouldn’t feel bad about using them either.  Hebrew is totally different and has a totally different alphabet, it is not the same thing as learning Italian or Spanish.

Like Rachel said, define your goals.  For my family, knowing what the inspired Word of God says, without having to go through the opinion of a translator is paramount to us, so we are learning Biblical Hebrew.  We are open to Modern Hebrew, but its not on the radar right now.  And as for learning some of the Hebrew prayers, they are beautiful, and its so nice to learn the prayers that our Messiah would have said when He broke bread… its good stuff.  😉

Oh, and as for Hebrew movies, we don’t own any.  I don’t know the ages of your children, but there are Hebrew videos out there, a friend of mine has several of the Shalom Sesame (Hebrew version of Sesame Street) that she said was a fun way to learn Hebrew, she and her 9 yr old enjoyed them along w/ her 3 yr old.

HTH,

Ginnie