Helping Them “Own It”

If you haven’t been in a Limudei Kodesh (Judaic Studies) classroom in the past decade or two, you will, in all likelihood be extraordinarily impressed with the quality of the education today’s children are getting.

The Rebbeim and Moros are better trained and more professional than ever before, rote learning is increasingly being replaced with engaging, educationally sound lessons, and most children are genuinely happy to be learning in their classrooms.

As recently as a decade ago, we at Project YES wrote a series of columns about frustrated children who never “got” Chumash and Gemara due to a lack of Hebrew and Aramaic language skills in Mishpacha Magazine: It Doesn't Start in Tenth Grade, Training Wheels, and Exit Interviews. Today it is almost a given in the vast majority of our schools that language skills will be taught.

For the past five years, we have been working on developing user-friendly, vibrant, creative and fun workbooks to empower our teachers by providing them with basic skills based materials. This program is meticulously designed to enable students to decode words and easily recognize the most common Sharashim found in Chumash. Much effort was expended to design a logical, clear and precise layout. New concepts are systematically introduced and reviewed assuring comprehensive mastery of these crucial translating skills.

It is with overwhelming gratitude to Hashem, that we inform you of the release of the Second Edition of our Bright Beginnings Chumash Book Volume One.

This edition comes with a new, 47-page, Hachana L'Chumash section which gives children priceless pre-Chumash learning tools, enabling them to independently recognize and translate a significant portion of the text immediately. The program empowers the teacher to focus on comprehension of the Pesukim, as he/she will only need to review the technical language skills rather than introduce them for the very first time.

For more information, click here for a 10-minute instructional videoan 11-page sample of the original Bright Beginnings Volume One Chumash Workbook, and a 5-minute introduction video and a 5-page sample of Bright Beginnings Volume Two. Reviewing these will help you understand the educational philosophy that drove the creation of these workbooks.

But Al Regel Achas, (on one foot); it is all about having the children “own it” – namely having them become independent learners who have a working knowledge of Hebrew language that is so critical to success in Limudei Kodesh (Judaic Studies).

Are these workbooks for you? Well, ask yourself:

• Are you the parent of a preschooler who wants to give your son/daughter the priceless Hebrew language skills that are so important to success in school (just think of how much better kids from Eretz Yisroel who speak Ivrit do in Chumash and Navi)?

• Do you have a child who is floundering in Limudei Kodesh (Judaic Studies) because he/she just can’t seem to get his/her hands around the Hebrew language?

• Are you a chozer b’teshuvah who would love to be more fluent in Lashon Kodesh/Chumash or a frum-from-birth adult who learned by rote in your formative years, and are still struggling to read/understand Hebrew language text?

• Are you involved in the leadership of a Cheder or day school and would like a comprehensive, easy to follow program for your students to assure the uniform mastery of the basic language skills needed for understanding Chumash?

If any of the above (or all of the above) applies to you, please have a look at our Bright Beginnings Homepage for more information.

The first volume is priced at $18.00 for individuals and $15.00 for group sales of 10 or more workbooks, and the second volume is $20.00 for individual books and $17.00 for group sales.

We are also offering both workbooks for $35.00 and $30.00 for group sales.

Please drop us a line at bbchumash@gmail.com with any questions you may have or to order the workbook(s).

It is our hope and prayer that these workbooks will help all our sons and daughters become self-confident, committed and lifelong Limudei Kodesh learners.

All the best,

Rabbi Yakov Horowitz

Dean, Yeshiva Darchei Noam of Monsey

Director, Project YES