Yahadus Curriculum Book 1

Madah and Ahavah
Living Lessons' flagship Yahadus curriculum gives a strong overview of the entire Torah over five years (fourth through eighth grade) with the mitzvos as a framework.

Each year, students learn approximately 120 Mitzvos, and the curriculum adjusts in content, language and design to suit the target age level.

The Rambam's order of the mitzvos, organized by subject, has been used, with rare exceptions. This logical sequence makes it much easier for children to connect to and retain the information.

The curriculum starts in fourth grade with the mitzvos of Sefer Madda, and ends with Sefer Shoftim in eighth grade. There is one student textbook for each year. Four volumes are now available, with the fifth and final volume coming soon b'ezras Hashem. The textbooks are sturdy and designed to last for a number of years by the students in each grade.

A two-part Teacher s Guide, as well as a workbook with activities is available for the students to use.

While every school is constantly challenged to squeeze in everything they want to teach into their limited time resources - as they should be - this curriculum is a tremendous asset, as it can change the approach of the teachers and students to the entire learning process.

The curriculum also covers many aspects of any Jewish Studies curriculum, being that it goes through all 613 mitzvos, and thus may free up some of the time needed for them.

It is designed to use approximately 90 minutes per week.

The curriculum is built with much flexibility in the time it will use:

It can be taught either in varying timeframes (1 - 2 longer sessions per week, or 3 - 4 shorter ones.)

Much of the information is optional and the layout is designed to allow it to easily be included or omitted in classroom instruction based on time allowances.

It reads easily and is visually attractive enough for students to take home and prepare varying amounts of the text before class.

Living Lessons is a grass-roots effort to create high-quality Torah learning materials for children. Benefiting from the latest educational methods, and without compromising our rich Mesorah, a group of dedicated individuals have undertaken the monumental task of preparing materials to make Torah engaging, meaningful and exciting to learn and teach.

The first result of the this effort is the state-of-the-art Yahadus curriculum, designed by a team of Mechanchim and Mechanchos, Rabbonim, researchers, writers, designers, parents, and children. Other exciting projects are underway. Stay tuned for updates!