florida 3

florida 2

florida 1

we forgot our camera at home, so there's too many photos that we missed already. aviyah has a love affair with papa. she wakes up first thing in the morning and asks for papa already!

our whole family was here for the first few days, and aviyah got to spend time and really meet sydney. shayna plays with her really really well. i think shayna loves having a big sister, but i think she loves playing with aviyah and sydney kind of like she has a little sister.

jordyn can read now, and she even reads some of aviyah's books to her. it's pretty cool.

it can also be hard, too. when you are at home, if aviyah is fussy about something it's easier to try to slow down and understand. we know to do that here, too, but it's always a little bit tougher when you're out somewhere and people are watching or other kids are involved or other things are going on. i think aviyah does a pretty good job overall. she can deifnitely slow down and listen, and she can definitely understand to share and not to steal. but, it definitely takes a minute sometimes to explain. i think, for me, the thing is is that i don't want to negotiate under fire, 1, so i want her to calm down. and, i also want her to understand that getting all fiery and upset doesn't help us. we can calm down, and then we can move on and that means still being able to play and eat.

i think she's generally gotten it overall, mostly for a while. for example, she always passes her bottle to us when she's done, no matter where she is, because she knows that it's not nice to drop it or throw it. she passes her food to us (even if she's started chewing it) if she doesn't want it anymore because she knows that we don't throw or spit our food. and, she can largely say please and thank you.

two big things she has trouble with still are sharing mommy and daddy with others. i think she's getting a bit better the more she sees it, but she still is bothered some when she sees us hugging on somebody else. and 2, she always wants her toy the minute somebody else plays with it. it can be laying there, you know, and then boom, if somebody else wants to play with it, she goes for it. so we're working on those things.

i definitely think, though, it's important to intervene and try to teach her. i know as she gets a little older it's important to let her work some of the things out, but first, i think we want to give her a base to understand the right way to go about it. sometimes i see parents just kind of let their kids go, and it's okay mostly, but i don't know, i guess it's hard to say.

i feel like one thing we're really trying to have her work on, too, is her words. i think when she does get frustrated, some of her frustration is that her mind is ahead of her language and she wants to express herself. i know school's been helping her, and we're trying to help to to get her used to using her words. for sure, she's getting more. i hope i'm able to stay ahead of her!

אַמְבַּטְיָה

aviyah's learning so much in school, and she loves it there. she's for sure really excited to see us when we come to pick us up, but she wants us to stay _there_ with her. i think she's perfectly ready now to play with others, and the learning she's getting there is really good.

she's definitely trying to use more words, but she's maybe a bit behind with her speaking. it's so hard to say. she has some languages going on, and they do say, short term, children with more than one language will take a bit to use their words. i'm a little nervous sometimes. i guess it's easier to be easy going when she's hitting all her milestones, you know? but, still, i feel okay that she's okay, and i'm comfortable that she's doing her thing.

today, at shul, she played with a young girl, shoshie. shoshie's about 7, and she is good with aviyah. aviyah was following her around and playing with her like crazy. it was the first time i've really seen her play so well another child. she was all about her. usually, she goes nutso to see the torah. she wants to hug it and kiss it and kiss it again. she kissed it the first time around. but before the second time, she started playing with shoshie, and when the torah came the second time, and i asked her if she wanted to see the torah, she said no, she wanted to stay with shoshie.

צורות

here are pictures from the unit on shapes.
הינה תמונות מהשעורים על צורות.

five senses

chai tots just finished their unit on the five senses. they helped the children understand all of the different things they can touch, see, hear, smell, and taste!

did you just roll your eyes at me?

i don't know how it started, but i rolled my eyes from side to side this evening, and aviyah went nutso for it. i'm sure she's seen it before, but maybe she never understood, i'm not sure. anyway, she couldn't get enough of it. she tried to figure out how to do it, but she can't do it yet, it's so funny. she tries and she closes her eyes, but she hasn't put it all together.

(i'm sorry that my filming is not that good.)

tekmology

recently, i was named to a national commission for reading. it sounds pretty fancy, but i'm sure that we're not super super important. the commission studies recent research on reading and tries to produce advisories and guidelines for field teachers and teaching education programs. the last commission recently received word that a major publisher will publish their recent research for release in early 2008.

at my first meeting, we tried to respond to the keynote speaker's call for applied technology in our classrooms. she explained that our students learn to read and write in diverse media and our teaching and our learning should reflect their new abilities, interests, and needs.

i'm into technology, for sure. (i love my ipod!) i have used a computer since forever, i started my family into blogs, i can still help people with their computer problems, and i even can explain some pretty arcane stuff, sometimes. but, i'm definitely not a full fledged geek. and i tried to be clear to the commission that field teachers don't have any use for technology that doesn't help us get somewhere important. i don't want to bring a computer into my room so i can say we did something on the computer.

that said, i've tried recently to bring in two ideas that i think are really gonna work in the classroom. first, i've worked with a group of class leaders to develop a weblog to begin posting writer's notebook entries. the nice thing about the webiste, though, is that students can bring in all sorts of the media they want to be about and think about and talk about. and, i think it's really important that the students can write and comment and share discussion about the things that they're all thinking about. it gets them to publish in a way. . . to think about what they're writing and to open their ideas and themselves up into a conversation, and i'm excited for it to happen.

also, i started to read the television show "heroes" with my classes. i can be a pretty strict teacher, but i also believe students understand that i like to have fun with them as themselves. i feel like "heroes" allows us to work on the reading skills we've been learning in our books, but it allows them to acquire and practice the strategies on something they find really engaging and interesting.

i'm trying to get the students to understand that we read everywhere: we read books, but we also read people and movies and situations and television shows and settings in our lives. when we ask questions and make predictions and inferences and make connections to help us understand our books, we use the same strategies to analyze and understand our own lives. we don't read to say we read. . . we read because it helps us understand ourselves and our world.

i tell them reading has no meaning to say you have read this book or that. it isn't important to read romeo and juliet to say that you have read shakespeare. it is important, though, to think about and wonder about and know about love and jealousy and honor and loyalty and family. it is important in our lives to know these feeling and these ideas and to make our lives more full and more round. there is meaning in reading, and there is meaning for our reading in our lives. and, i believe, the only reason for students to be interested in reading is because it will deepen and change and enlighten our own ideas about our lives now.

eclectica

sometimes, aviyah chooses the craziest combinations. she wants to wear her short shorts outside in the winter or her winter hat inside the apartment. we can coax her out of it if we have to go outside, but inside we let her follow her muse. : )

learning hebrew 1 (resources)

when i started graduate social work school at the university of michigan, i applied for a dual degree program in judaic studies. the judaic studies degree required language proficiency in hebrew in order to complete research on primary texts.

while modern hebrew _is_ different than biblical hebrew, i thought that if i learned to be proficient in modern hebrew, i could learn the specific conventions of biblical hebrew alongside my research. in my study, i had to search around a bit to find programs and dictionaries and websites that could help me learn.

i certainly still make a lot of mistakes in my hebrew, but i do feel like all of the things below helped me in different ways. when i first got started, i searched so many websites, but it was difficult to find an easy to understand guide to learning hebrew. if you're interested in finding resources to help learn beginner and intermediate hebrew, i've listed my resources below.


I. online dictionaries

morfix

morfix is the best and most accurate online dictionary for actual words in conversation. it includes nikud (points) for all words, and it suggest all close alternatives if you've misspelled a word. morfix can also reverse a word search, and i often recycle the listed alternatives in hebrew to find a more precise meaning. morfix gives the traditional 3rd person past form as the definition for all verbs. unfortunately, morfix has a tough time with phrase or colloquial searches.

i crosscheck all searches with both lingvosoft and morfix. when i find consensus between the two dictionaries, i can feel confident this is the correct word to use.

lingvosoft

lingvosoft develops and sells language learning and language translation software for more than 30 languages. they also offer a free online dictionary that i use daily. while morfix is the best native dictionary for actual conversation, lingvosoft provides a wider range of words that includes more literary and biblical terms. lingvosoft also provides the full infinitive of each verb, as well as words connected by root or idiom.

babylon

when i need to look up an idiom or colloquial phrase that does not come up in lingvosoft or morfix, i use milon. it has almost always included obscure or challenging phrases the other dictionaries have not. milon is the online dictionary component of babylon software, used in ectaco pocket hebrew translators. however, milon does not use nikudim, which makes pronunciation a bit more difficult for a novice learner.

hebrew-verbs

hebrew-verbs.com is part of an online effort to support hebrew language learning for olim, or new immigrants. on the connected site, you can find structured vocabulary lists, as well as other hebrew language resources. it's very difficult to work through the dictionary, but i do use the verb list as a final resource on the most common verb to use. additionally, the website can list every form and tense for each verb listed. sometimes, i even just use the website as an online flashcard program. it's kind of like an online companion to 501 Hebrew Verbs.


II. language learning programs

ulpan

ulpan is the traditional israeli program to help any level hebrew learner. some students are frustrated because it includes too much conversation, and other students are frustrated because it has too much structure. for me, i thought that ulpan was the only and best way to start language learning, and it was the best way to make sure i kept moving forward in the right way. all of my individual study helped me learn more words, but only ulpan helped me understand how the language worked and how to learn new tenses or noun structures.

every ulpan teacher was always extraordinarily helpful, and i always took at least one major step forward in each level. the one drawback: they're expensive!

ulpan a: summer 2004 (conservative yeshiva - jerusalem)
ulpan a+: summer 2005 (jts - manhattan)
ulpan b: summer 2006 (jcc - manhattan)
ulpan c: fall 2007 (psjc - brooklyn)

pimsleur hebrew I and II

pimsleur and rosetta stone are the two most expensive language programs on the market. it's possible to find pimsleur's torrents online, but i felt badly so i purchased the software from an online store at a discount. i've found that as an intermediate learner i knew almost all of the vocabulary on the sets. however, i've still found the lessons incredibly helpful. the structure or repitition of the lessons really does work, and they gradually stretch you to use new phrases in longer sentences with more difficulty vocabulary over time.

pimsleur uses colloquial pronunciations which you can trust will be understood on the street. the tapes, though, are not designed to give you a comprehensive vocabulary. it is specifically designed to get you up and moving into conversation. it does not cover how or why the language works the way it does.

that said, i think it's the perfect compliment to the other programs i use to learn. it still helps to pracitice listening to the hebrew as well. i absolutely recommend pimsleur, and i'm disappointed to have to wait until at least december '08 for pimsleur hebrew III. (update: version III release date postponed until june.)

rosetta stone

rosetta stone was the first program i bought to help learn hebrew after i completed my first ulpans. it's amazing to help promote vocabulary. you learn to associate new hebrew words with pictures, so you can avoid translating the word back into english to understand. i've found that words learned in rosetta stone that have practical context have stuck really well; where there is little practical context for me to use, i have not kept the words as well.

there is an intense learning curve, though. i don't believe that an absolute beginner user would benefit from buying the program. but, if you have a general understanding of how the language is structured, the system really works. it continues to help me add new words and to help me correct pronunciations or conjugations of existing words. i absolutely strongly recommend the program, although it can get a bit "gamey". resist the urge to play the game to win. i try to guess each panel before they're said, and i also repeat each panel after the speaker announces the statement.

before you know it!

BYKI begins as a free download program to help you build first vocabulary. the deluxe program includes full lists organized by categories, and it also allows you to develop, adapt, or edit your own lists using hebrew letters. BYKI uses a special algorithm to help you learn and memorize new vocabulary words. for example, when you miss a word early on, the program remembers to bring that word back at different intervals to help you acquire its meaning.

i don't think that memorization is the best way to learn a new language, but it absolutely helped me get a memory of new words that i could then try and use. because i speak out loud consistently, i was then able to practice those words and the words made their way into my working vocabulary. as of now, i've worked up to about 400 verbs, 300 adjectives, and more than 500 other words. yay! (update: 700 verbs, 400 adjectives, and more than 1000 other words.) (update 2: they have released a version 4. version 4 allows export to excel and word which helps building words lists for online/iphone flash applications.)


III. online learning programs (text based)

milingua
milingua is a pay site that includes beginner, intermediate, and advanced units. the package also includes verb tables, a hebrew dictionary, and easy short texts. i'm not sure the fee was completely worth it. that said, there's been some really good tips and words and phrases that i've brought into my conversation, and i think they've really helped.

foundation stone

i didn't review the former version of foundation stone because i found it way too confusing and not very helpful. recently, they released a revamped 4.0 version, and it includes much more helpful word lists and super cool audio files for learners. the interface is still a little complicated to use and the word lists are not as expansive as i'd like. however, i believe that you can add to them as you like. more to come here. . .

iFlipr

i recently bought the new iphone, and i have been dying for a native iphone hebrew flashcard application. it's not quite here yet, although byki has released a spanish and french version. (they've limited the add on feature, so it's impossible to use with hebrew.) also, many of the free and open flashcard programs do not support hebrew language. the iphone often reverses the order of the letter and mixes up the nikud.

iflipr does work well. the only problem is that you have to take a few steps to transport the lists you have on your computer to on online database to your iphone. it's great once you get it loaded, though.

1) create list in desktop flashcard program (such as byki)

2) export list to microsoft excel (or other database program: csv or tsv)

3) copy list, create list, or edit list on iflip website

4) click download in iflipr iphone appliction

5) sync decks from your online account to your iphone


IV. online learning programs (audio)

iTunes

there are a good deal of israeli musicians on itunes, now, including classic and traditional artists. a good way to sample a wide variety of music is to test track on user created mixes. there are also two new podcasts listed on itunes to help study and learn hebrew on your digital music players:

learn hebrewpod and
hebrew podcasts

both programs are free downloads from the itunes music store, and both programs offer paid subscriptions to additional online content. i believe both websites include additional activities on the core lesson, although i have not used their online lessons. the hebrew podcasts actually started quite recently, so i had moved a good deal ahead of where both lessons begin. at the same time, the podcasts are always getting a bit more advanced and all past lessons are easily retrievable when you subscribe to the programs.

each program starts each lesson with a partner dialogue and then breaks down the dialogue in both hebrew and english afterwards. each program then repeats the complete dialogue again at the end to help reinforce your learning. i feel like learn hebrew now! is a little bit more advanced than hebrewpod. in the end, i found pimsleur much much more helpful for my language learning, and i often found myself hoping that they would just use the pimsleur method. at the same time, pimsleur is also quite a good deal more expensive - these are pretty good options for free!

vocabulearn

i purchased vocabulearn as a digital audiobook from itunes. (i linked it, here, to amazon, only because it's easier for me to figure out how to do that.) vocabulearn presents a long series of words to help build et otzar ha-milim (your vocabulary!). the program is a bit awkward because it is really just a long list of words in a line, but it is helpful to discover new words. in addition, it gives both the masculine and the feminine version of adjectives, as well as the verb infinitive. i find the verb infinitive much more useful that the shoresh, or verb root. the language is organized by the verb roots, but it was a bit more complicated for me to figure out the root system until later. vocabulearn was quite cheap, and i still listen to it from time to time to even help review words i know.

IV. learning language texts

ivrit min ha-hatchala

hebrew from scratch is the most used textbook in current ulpan classes for new learners, including new olim to israel. and it is an excellent textbook for guided study in class. lessons include a variety of angles, such as grammar, conversation, and slang around common themes you will need in real life, like food, family, and vacations.

the books are primarily written in hebrew, so it is helpful to immerse yourself in the language. in addition, the series also offers a helpful series of audio cd's to help improve your listening skills. however, i found these books to be really really hard to learn from without a learning group or ulpan class.

ivrit shalav

i started this series on level gimmel, or level 3, so i cannot speak to the first two books. this book is designed specifically for american students. that means, that exercises and activities are most like the way we learned second languages in school. there are dialogues and crosswords and passages. it also means that the directions are largely written in english. i thought this book was awesome to use for self study, picking up and putting down and picking up again a bit later to help practice. there are three books in the full series, as well as a fourth book, a modern hebrew reader, which is great for more advanced but still leveled reading.


501 hebrew verbs

this book is a very popular book for ehinning and intermediate hebrew students. it provides a comprehensive verb table for most common hebrew verbs. this means the book lists past, present, and future tenses for the individual verbs. the book also gives the governing preposition, connected phrases, and sample sentences that show the verbs in context. you can search for words by the english verb or by the hebrew root.

Hebrew Verb Tables

hebrew verb tables has a more comprehensive list of verbs that 501 hebrew verbs; however, verbs are linked to groups or families of verbs with similar patterns. as you become familiar with hebrew, you will start to see that there are patterns and systems that govern grammar and conjugation. it can be helpful to see words in common groups, , but it can also be challenging to figure out the exact conjugation. my general rule is that if a word isn't listed in this book, it probably isn't used colloquially.

easy hebrew newspapers

there are three easy hebrew newspapers with current news and events: sha'ar la-matchil, yanshuf, and bereshit. bereshit is advanced beginner level, yanshuf is intermediate level, and shaar l'matchil is advanced intermediate to beginner advanced level. each newspaper has the option to purchase the newspaper with or without supplemental audio. i felt that the articles and audio were interesting because they identified current events and ideas that made it easy to connect, too. at the same time, i cancelled my subscription to bereshit/yanshuf because it was just too expensive for the content. while it was helpful to read and listen and practice, much of this kind of content can be also found in other books and program for far less money.

it's important to note that sha'ar recently expanded their options to include a far cheaper digital version of their newspaper. the newspaper includes audio supplements for only $6 per month or $60 for the whole year. this is a much more reasonable and sensible idea. they only allow you to store 4 issues at a time; however, you can also save the papers as a .pdf document forever, and you can record the audio to store on your ipod. i highly recommend this program. the real challenge, though, is that it's quite advanced even for an intermediate learner.

children's books

picture books were incredibly helpful for me. the books tell simple stories that readers can follow in context of illustrations. i was lucky to be able to buy books from an israeli based bookstore here in brooklyn (sifrutake), but you can also find a range of sites online, including steimatsky, orly's, blue white direct, and even צומת, the largest israeli bookstore.

here's a bunch of books aviyah and i loved:

tiras cham
barakevet yoshevet arnevet
ma'aseh b'chamishah balonim
mitz petel
dondon ha-abir
chanan ha-ganan
tuq tuq tuq
ain arayot k'aleh
ata k'var gadol
olivia
sidra dora
sidra kor'im im dora
sidra yuli
sidra or shoelet. . .

to disney children's books. . . (available only in israel, published by ידיעות אחרונות)

to young adult literature. . .

Hugo Cabaret
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
The Alchemist
Twilight
Harry Potter
Eragon


V. online video

heveinu shalom aleichem

the stanford hebrew language webpage hosts a variety of resources, including student produced films. the most valuable link is to "heveinu shalom aleichem", a series of instructional videos to help olim learn modern spoken hebrew. the series is seriously dated, the acting is corny, and the storylines are awful. that said, it was incredibly helpful for me because it helped me practice hebrew listening. i speak hebrew everyday out loud. however, because my daughter is young, i rarely get consistent practice listening to hebrew. so, my spoken hebrew is far more advanced than my listening. "heveinu" helps me adjust to hebrew pace and cadence and helps me practice my accent listening to native israeli speakers.

youtube

youtube has a great selection of hebrew videos, including uploaded rehov sumsum (sesame street) clips and disney videos translated and dubbed into hebrew. my daughter can't get over watching clips from melekh ha-aryot (lion king)! you can also find all major songs from any disney film, including beauty and the beast, the little mermaid, and aladdin. it's been very helpful to search for and print out the lyrics to translate back into english. the words in the disney films can sometimes be literary, but i've definitely learned key words from hakuna matata. in fact, i'm pretty sure that aviyah thinks hakuna matata is a (wonderful) hebrew phrase.

online television

there are also a host of israel television and radio broadcasts you can access online. these are the real deal websites that israelis use to access news stories, music clips, and television clips. caution: they're native speakers speaking hebrew for native speakers so it's fast and complicated. one big help: subtitles on the mabat link!

• mabat
• iba
• knesset
• muzika 24
• mako
• reshet
• yes!
• hop! (tin tv)

disney movies
dora the explorer

after i started speaking more fluently, i purchased single dvd's in hebrew. i purchased online steimatskyusa.com and also from tzomet sfarim in israel. there is a large selection of israeli television shows that children love, but it was easier for me to connect with american shows and movies. i have linked to a few clips from the dora television series, and you can also find some nice hebrew dubbed torrents online. if you download a bit torrent application, you can visit any of a series of torrent websites that offer around 7-10 disney and pixar movies. the torrents should be helpful for you to review movies before you decide to purchase them. however, i recommend purchasing the original movies. (the originals include english and hebrew subtitles, which are extremely helpful for me.)

new pictures from school

chanukiah

אומנה

aviyah tried to draw a baby's face. she always asks us to draw a parpar and also mommy and daddy. today, she wanted to try to draw a baby on her own. it was definitely modern art. she finds realism so, well, restrictive.

painter

aviyah made her first newsletter at school. last week was her first full week at chai tots. i think she liked it, but i also think the transition is a little bit difficult too. i remember that she had some difficulties adjusting when laura first started babysitting, also. i think that she's a little bit better this time around, but she's a little up and down sometimes. it makes it a little harder too because it's so cold out and it gets so dark outside earlier.

i think she's doing well overall, but the one thing that i think about a lot is i'd like her to be a little bit more independent. i don't know how much is her personality, how much is because we're out during the day, or how much is because of what we do or don't do in general. it's really nice that she really really loves us, and she's definitely able to go and play with others, but she always like somebody around. maybe that's totally natural, i don't know. it's hard to say, but sometimes i see other toddlers and they're bouncing all around. she could really sit on our lap the whole day and read books and sing songs.

i think it's okay, but i also want to be sure that she's on the right track. maybe it's just that you always feel a little pressure as a parent about everything. this kid does this, this kid doens't do that. i don't know, it's hard to say. i felt like we'd knocked out a lot of the whining and then it's a little bit back again.

we'll see what happens. samantha has her last two weeks of the semester now. she'll be a little crazy with stuff going on, but then she'll be back, and i think that will be really nice for everybody, too.

florida