This article is written to address some of the questions that have arisen regarding homeschooling the younger Jewish children around pre-K and K. There are so many good quality reading materials that are colorful and inviting read-alouds for parents to their young children.
With liberalized state laws across the country, a growing number of Jewish families, including many in urban centers like New York City, have turned in the last decade to homeschooling, a movement usually associated with rural, fundamentalist Christians. No official statistics on the number of Jewish homeschoolers are available, but the figure is surely in the “thousands,” including a many religiously observant families--young Lubavitch couples serving as emissaries in isolated areas were homeschool pioneers--and a rising percentage of non-Orthodox households.
This group is for Sonlight curriculum-users who are actively homeschooling/ home-educating from a Jewish or Messianic perspective, and those who are interested in learning more about Messianic Judaism, and how it relates to parenting and specifically to home-educating their children.
Akhlah, the Jewish children's learning network, is an important resource created to provide Jewish children and their families access to the prayers, stories and rituals that have bound Jews together around the world and through the ages. Akhlah is specifically designed for the youngest and least knowledgeable among us, while maintaining scrupulous attention to the details of the subject matter.
The San Diego Jewish Homeschoolers Group in sunny California provides a strong growing network of homeschooling support and resources for Jewish homeschoolers in or around the San Diego area. They welcome all levels of Jewish observance and all levels of teaching philosophy (structured, relaxed, classical, etc.).
This website is offered by a Jewish vegetarian homeschooling family. You'll enjoy reading about their experiences and how they combine their faith and homeschooling.
Chabad Shluchim living in remote places or cities where there is no Jewish school, have long contended with schooling their children at home or parting with them at young ages, so they can get a traditional education. A newly developed online school now gives these children the benefit of a classroom situation where they daily interact with classmates--children of other shluchim, and a teacher, at home.
Looking for an alternative to overcrowded classrooms, dwindling per-student funding, metal detectors and mediocre curricula--not to mention social pressures, conflicting values and prohibitive private school costs--a growing number of parents are opting out of the American education system. They're taking the biblical imperative more literally than ever and educating their children at home. Once the bastion of fundamentalist Christians, home schooling is attracting a growing number of Jews.
Behrman House Publishers is recognized for its distinguished Jewish educational materials used in schools throughout North America and in English-speaking countries around the world.
The striking contrast in the grandchildren of Abraham may not have been due to a difference in their temperaments, but to mistakes that were made in their upbringing.
Babaga Newz features online games for Jewish children, along with ideas for family activies, Jewish holiday craft projects, recipes, and more.
Tara Publications offers JewishMusic.com, with a wide selction of recorded Jewish music, along with videos and sheet music. It was founded in Cedarhurst, LI in 1971 by Velvel Pasternak, a noted musicologist, The goal of the company was the publication, preservation and dissemination of the heritage of Jewish music.
Kosherhomeschool.org is devoted to providing information and networking to Jewish homeschooling families worldwide. At kosherhomeschool.org, they hope to address the special needs of Jewish homeschoolers as they strive to provide a superior education in Judaic Studies (l'mudei kodesh) as well as Secular studies (l'mudei chol).
Chinuch At Home offers Jewish educational resources for paents, teachers and homeschoolers.
This is a collection of printable worksheets designed for teaching young Jewish children.
For over 75 years KTAV Publishing House has been a trusted name in quality Judaica, offering a large variety of Jewish educational and scholarly books, gifts, and resources.
This articles details many of the reasons Jewish families choose to educated their children at home, including being able to teach the Torah in the context of daily life, for religious reasons, and concerns over the academic and social quality of schools.
The Shluchim Online School offers distance learning for Jewish families.
The Pedagogic Center is a specialist unit within the Department for Jewish Education, JAFI. It offers professional support and development services to the Department's educational divisions and geographical desks, as well as to Jewish educators and lay leaders world-wide in both formal and informal education. They cover resources in formal and informal Jewish education, with a particular emphasis on materials for youth, students, adults and the educators themselves
Chevra was formed in September 1998 as an online support community for Jewish homeschoolers of all varieties. It tends to be a very chatty place where they discuss Jewish observance, homeschooling, family life, outside interests, and (the favorite topic) why the laundry never seems to get done. If you are looking for a group that discusses only homeschooling and Judaic resources, you may very well be disappointed in Chevra's free-wheeling discussions of everything under the sun, but there is lots of great information here.
Torah Aura Productions offers educational materials for Jewish schools and families. Started in 1981, Torah Aura Productions is one of the world's most innovative creators of educational Judaica.