Tarbuton - Hebrew - Israel - Culture - Community

This program is an unbelievable effort from the Jewish Agency for Israel. The program was developed in Jerusalem and intended to provide pre-schools with a complete program of Ivrit B’Ivrit in their curriculum complete with storybooks, floor mats, puppets, activities, teacher’s guides and yes even training.

Visit their web site to learn more about the program. Chalav U’Dvash on the web

What I love about this idea, though I don’t have any personal experience with it yet, is that it is a good happy medium between a full immersion program - 9-1 - 5 days per week and nothing. The program recommends 3 times per week, 45 minutes each time. While I’m a huge believer in 5 days for this age group, I think most schools could take on this program and benefit. I’m hoping that one of our local San Diego schools will pick it up and run with it. This is exactly what parents like us want for our kids at the right age.

This shop is run out of San Francisco, CA and Orly is very sweet, she stocks great books and while her selection isn’t as large as Sifrutake she has many nice things. She is also great to work with.

http://www.orlysbookstore.com/catalog/

I love her site because she very often includes text from the book in her description of the book so you can decide if you like the story before you buy it.

Looking to buy some Hebrew books for the kids? Music for you? Sifrutake has several location on the East coast and they keep a large variety of books for children and more on site. Visit: http://www.sifrutake.com

I use them frequently for my own purchases, and highly recommend them to work with if you have a group or class you run as well. They offer nice discounts for volume purchases and the staff there are warm, responsive and overall terrific to work with.

This site makes what looks like 100’s of children’s hebrew books available in pdf format for download for free. The books are sweet stories, there are often times very nice illustrations as well. You have to weigh the costs of print cartridges I guess against cost of new books. But, its definitely worth a look.

http://sefer-li.net/

There are also a number of books that have been translated from Spanish, Polish, Italian and English into Hebrew which is nice if you are looking for a book you are familiar with. The site is in Hebrew so you will have a hard time navigating it without being able to read and understand Hebrew.

This site sells storybooks, CDs and more for parents and teachers to use to teach children Ivrit. I don’t know much about the materials themselves though I support anyone claiming that their materials make learning Hebrew fun and Exciting.

They have a great activity page with downloadable pages for free - I really liked the color by letter. My 4 yr old enjoyed it a lot.
http://sarahdavid.com/activitycenter/activitycenter.htm

When I wanted to improve my own Hebrew, I turned to an online program, Hebrew Online, run out of Israel. The teachers were terrific, the program is solid. The program is synchronous learning: you log into the class at a designated time at your PC, the other classmates do as well from around the world. The instructor can be heard live, you respond live, and class is as if it were live: you will read, you will converse, you will be called on. http://www.hebrewonline.com

Class material is relevant. Articles from the paper are used, songs, classic stories. The teacher uses a powerpoint like screen in the classroom software to share slides when needed. Follow up homework is provided to help reinforce new vocabulary. Conversation is a key componant of the class as well to get you speaking and not just reading or writing.

I really enjoyed this experience. They are a class act. You take an online test to determine your level. That is followed up by a phone call from them to confirm what they think is the right level for you. They then place you in a class.

You have to pay for the full session which feels like a lot of $$. However, during my session it amounted to about $25/class which is reasonable for good instruction.

This group meets on Thursdays at 10:00 am and is for babies to pre-school age. (Disclaimer: this group is one of mine as well) The meetings are play time for the kids, relaxing time for the Moms. A traditional playgroup, just with conversation in Hebrew. We have Mom’s Night Out and family events as well. Meetings are held in member homes and/or local parks.

You can join the yahoo group to get reminders of the meeting and locations. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kishkushim/

The group has women from all over the County, Encinitas, Carmel Valley, La Jolla/UTC and more. Its a wonderful group of women and a great place to get advice on parenting, doctors, etc. We’ve even had a few women join us early when they’re pregnant.

This is a program that was started in 1/06 (disclaimer: this is the program I run) for pre-schoolers ages 3-6. The program is taught ivrit b’ivrit by two excellent local pre-school teachers. Its fun, age appropriate songs, dance, games and art. The program is available twice/week in the late afternoons and meets in Sorrento Valley.

More here.  

http://www.keflisandiego.org lists also a variety of other programs for Israelis in San Diego. 

This group was founded a few years ago and the young Israelis who run the group and its activities are energetic and fun. They are doing their best to service the community with activities for older kids. The programs are run in English. But, my hope is that they’ll work with us to create Hebrew speaking programs as well.

http://www.sdyoungjudaea.org/

There are a lot of Israeli families participating in these groups City wide. The focus is a fun, often outdoors, celebration of Israel and its a great way for 3rd-12th graders to learn about Jewish and Israeli culture with friends.

For better or worse, right now, the only option for Hebrew speaking activities for families in an organized fashion with counselors, etc. for older kids you have to drive up to Orange County to this active Tsofim group.

http://www.shevettapuz.org/

I’m hoping at some point we’ll be able to get something similar off the ground either with Young Judea in San Diego or with a Tsofim group of our own. Please let me know if you’re interested in helping with that.

This group is maintained I believe by someone in UTC living near what people call the “Kibbutz” in town, though I’m not 100% sure. A great way to connect with Israelis in San Diego.

http://groups.google.com/group/San-Diego-Israel