Don’t know much about… ART

Pretty much zip, actually. Ted’s taken all kinds of art history and whatnot, but moi… none. Which makes art a scary thing to have to share with my children. Baking, yes. Math, yes. Geography, yes. Art – nope! (also history – shudder)

So when I found this book about Chagall in Value Village yesterday, I picked it up with curiosity:

99 cents! What a bargain!

This book is part of a series published in the 60s, 70s and 80s (several editions) of books on art for children by an artist named Ernest Raboff.

The book features full-colour reproductions of several Chagall paintings, along with extremely appealing hand-written text by Raboff on the facing page. Interspersed by snippets of sketches, the text explains Chagall’s use of colour, texture, symbolism, etc., in a way that’s easily understood by a five-t0-twelve-year-old, and consequently, even me.

Well, needless to say, me being me, I was so excited by this book that I had to go and buy six more, online: Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Renoir, Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Picasso. Not exactly $1 apiece, but not more than I would expect to pay for kids’ books. (just over $30 for all 6, which, with the $1 Value Village book added in, will make around $35 for a set of 7, or $5 apiece)

Other books in the series include Klee, Gauguin (probably for the best with all those bikini women), Raphael, Remington, Dürer, Rousseau, Toulouse-Lautrec, and somebody called Diego Rodriguez De Silva Y Velasquez. I wish there was one for Degas; though I know next to nothing about art, he is my favourite. One simply must have a favourite, even in a field where one is toally ignorant.

It seems like these books are totally out of print, though Amazon claims to have a few new copies. Pity. If you can find them online, I highly recommend them for homeschoolers or any-schoolers who want a gentle introduction to Europe’s great art history. Oooh, there’s that word again: history. Shudder.

My history phobia…. another nut to crack, for another day.

לימודי קודש/Limudei Kodesh Copywork & Activity Printables

Welcome to my Limudei Kodesh / Jewish Studies copywork and activity printables page. As of June 2013, I am slowly but surely moving all my printables over to 4shared because Google Docs / Drive is just too flaky for me. What you’ll find here: Weekly Parsha Copywork More Parsha Activities More Chumash / Tanach Activities Yom Tov Copywork & Activities Tefillah Copywork Pirkei Avos / Pirkei Avot Jewish Preschool Resources Other printables! For General Studies printables and activities, including Hebrew-English science resources and more, click here . For Miscellaneous homeschool helps and printables, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi! If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you just want to say Thank You, here’s a

Hebrew/ עברית & English General Studies Printables

For Jewish Studies, including weekly parsha resources and copywork, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi! If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you enjoy these resources, please consider buying my weekly parsha book, The Family Torah : the story of the Torah, written to be read aloud – or any of my other wonderful Jewish books for kids and families . English Worksheets & Printables: (For Hebrew, click here ) Science : Plants, Animals, Human Body Math Ambleside : Composers, Artists History Geography Language & Literature Science General Poems for Elemental Science . Original Poems written by ME, because the ones that came with Elemental Science were so awful. Three pages are included: one page with two po

Ancient Auction Secret: If Chinese auctions are racist, why do Jews love them so much?

Ah, Jews, Jews, Jews, Jews. You sure do love your Chinese auctions, don’t you? It seems that even in an era of political correctness, within certain circles, this term just will not die . And frankly, I’m mortified. I’m not Chinese, but I have family who is Chinese. Some are Korean, as well. I guess this makes us more ethnically diverse than many Jews, but I suspect most Jewish families are moving in this direction. Still. Even if we don’t know a single Chinese person, we should still stop calling it that. First of all… is it actually racist to call it a Chinese auction? I figured I’d let Chinese people decide. But when I turned to Google to find out how Chinese people feel about Chinese auctions, what I found was mostly… nothing. Silence. I did find some debate (presumably among non-Chinese people) over whether it was too far in the direction of political correctness to refer to these as a “silent auction” or (as in some parts of the States) a “tricky tray.” (Ok

Adventures in Mama-Land

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