Homeschooling Torah is a wonderful Torah Observant Curriculum that I started this 2014-15 school year with my 3 yr old boy. It is an amazing program that goes all the way up to high school. I only have one child so for now I am using the Preschool Member section. The following is taken directly from their wesbsite about the preschool curriculum
Preschool
We have three goals in providing lesson plans for children who are aged 5 and younger:
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To train them in orderliness, respect for others, self control, and biblical character – These character qualities form the foundation of everything else in life. The books of Deuteronomy and Proverbs are emphasized, and plenty of advice and help for parents is included in the lesson plans.
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To give them special time with Mom – Little ones can get left out when life gets busy. Our plans will remind you of priorities of motherhood. You’ll enjoy spending time doing activities with your children, and you’ll cultivate special memories while feeling good that you remembered to teach them important skills and life lessons from Scripture.
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To help mothers feel less overwhelmed – You don’t have to do everything we recommend, but you’ll probably enjoy having “check boxes” of the common sense things you want to remember with your preschoolers. We even remind you of character qualities you can develop in your own life, such as joy, peace, and contentment.
Our lesson plans are based on 5 activities we recommend for preschoolers each day. Please note that we believe in short, easy lessons.
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Learning Time — We’ll give you short and pleasurable ideas for basic life skills that all preschoolers should learn, from Scripture memory work, ABCs, 123s, telling time, manners, and more.
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Creative Time — We’ll recommend fun table-time activities your preschoolers can work on by themselves, with you or an older sibling in the room.
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Building Time — We’ll suggest hands-on playtime activities that will help your preschoolers develop self-control, imagination, and attention-building skills.
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Outside Time — We’ll recommend ways to encourage your preschoolers to play outside, weather permitting, or at least to get up and moving inside.
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Rest Time — We’ll give gentle ideas for ways your youngest children can rest, relax, and get away from the over-stimulation that often occurs in a busy, homeschooling household.
I want to walk you thru what this program looks like in my home with one child. Every home will differ and that is ok. That is what is beautiful about Homeschooling Torah, there is a together school portion as well, where all ages can participate. I have really enjoyed the Torah Portion Crafts and links already provided for that weeks Parashah. I also use a lot of outside sources and personal educational toys I have that are not recommended thru HT.
I have a big passion for teaching my child and utilizing educational toys and resources to accomplish this.
I will first show you how I set myself up and how I got organized with it.
Familiarize yourself with links at HT.
Once you are a member, take the time to familiarize yourself with all the links and subjects you will be using at home. Once you figured out what you are using and not using it will be easier than to just start off printing everything. Once I have done that I start planning with 4-8 weeks in advance of printouts so I am not doing it every single week. Also, I dont want to get to far ahead of myself either.
Figure out what to Print
For my son I have decided to use:
1. Torah Potions
2. Crafts
3. Preschool Lessons
4. Arthimetic for K and 1st Grade
5. Science for Littles
6. Chores
I did not use the phonics section because I already have a program I have been using since he was 2 and I did not want to switch. I am currently using Hooked on Phonics and Books I bought from Usborne Books that are a fantastic addition to any program!
Printing and Binders
I have Five Binders for him.
1. The Main Binder where I will separate the weeks by Torah Portions and then add the crafts, preschool lessons, arthimetic, and science for each week. I went to the $1 store and bought packs of tab sheets to separate 52 weeks by Torah Portion.
2. A Binder for quiet time. This binder is where at the end of the day he will write or draw what he learned throughout the day or whatever he wants to draw and write about. All it is is loose pieces of white paper puched with holes and added to the binder.
3. A binder for reading Phonics (I use "Hooked on Phonics" and many phonics books from Usborne Books)
4. Preschool Prep Letter Sound Binder or Letter of the Week Binder or a Binder for the pages in HT that is provided for tracing and handwriting. (This can be included in Main Binder as well).
5. Shabbat and Feast Day Binder. This Binder I put in all activities and keep a main copy here for each feast day so I can pull it out again in the future. There are songs, games, activites, lap books, etc that go in here.
Print all of these with 4-8 weeks ahead of time and organize the binders by week according to the Torah Portion.
*** I use a Clear Protective Sheet for his math sheets, if I want him to redo it, we can just dry erase it and do it over, vs me printing out more paper. If you need to show the childs work for the State or evaluations, take pictures of it and keep it in a file folder.
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Deut 6:6-7
6 These words, which I am ordering you today, are to be on your heart; 7 and you are to teach them carefully to your children. You are to talk about them when you sit at home, when you are traveling on the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
Hang up the Shema somewhere in your home.
We molded clay and let it set. Used a cloths pin and drew a face.. gave him a blanket and put him on a bed of moss.
Little Science - Hearing & Sounds
Gallery of Torah Portion & Craft Photos
I laminated a sheet with different shapes and He recognizes most of the shapes now
To the Left: I have an abacus we made from scratch with beads, pipe cleaners, popsicle sticks and hot glue. To the Right: You can see the tabs listed by Torah Portion Reading and the first Torah Portion Craft for Noach.
Shemot - Torah Portion Sheet
Preschool Week 5 Planner
Craft Instructions for the week
Pharoh's Dream Coloring Pages
Beg Math Sheet
I use this Clear Sheet Protector for most of the work, since I may repeat some of the work later on or with any future children. I don't want to have to print it again.
My 3 1/2 yr old is drawing a picture of Yonah in the Hot Sun, with the Tree to Cool him off and of course the Whale. He remembered all of this from the Yonah Story.
I drew the basket, and he drew Baby Moishe with the leaves and blanket.
This is Hooked on Phonics, but Homeschooling Torah has a great phonics program, I started hooked on phonics before I started HT.
I also started this before using HT. I printed out any sheets that correspond to each letter ahead of time and put them here to do with him.
an example. page with circles for the letters, I created letters on bottle caps. and he has to match it on the page.
I created Tabs, with each Feast Day and one for Shabbat. All Activities and songs, sheets, anything pertaining to Feast Days go in here to use for future years and children.
Lap Top Folder, about Passover.
Shavuot example. Counting the Omer
Yom HaKippurim sheets
Sukkot Songs, and a misc coloring sheet for the Menorah.