Parsha for Toddlers!

I hope I didn’t post about this before… but I’m getting old, so bear with me if I have already.

I’ve been searching for a long time for GOOD English-language parsha resources for young children, partly for my own kids and partly for this weekly Shabbos party I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to get off the ground for a few weeks (how do you say “discouraged” in Hebrew?).

Finally, a couple of weeks ago, discovered a site called Torat Imecha (which used to be the name of a ladies’ parsha sheet) that offers a series of little 8-page “books” on each parsha.

The booklets are perfectly geared to the 2-5 year-old crowd, with colour photos (there’s also a black and white version) and text that puts everyday family situations any kid can relate to into the context of the actions and intentions of Hashem and B’nei Yisrael in the Torah.

For example, in Parshas Pinchas, a girl doesn’t want to go to preschool and leave her dolls behind; just as Moshe didn’t want to leave Bnei Yisrael behind without a leader. (the girl chooses her brother Noam; Moshe chose Yehoshua, and the rest is history)

Other than certain Sefardi terms (“Beit Hamikdash”), I have not found anything in these booklets that I could not read to my kids verbatim. The illustrations are cute and the text is straightforward and easy to read; the English is clear and avoids unbearable cutesiness and frumminess (“listen, kinderlach…”).

Naomi especially likes the fact that the girl is named Temima; she has a friend with that name and it’s not a very common one here. And the hashkafa (religious outlook) is very much in line with our own, though since this is geared towards toddlers and preschoolers, that’s probably not a big issue.

I’ve only seen a few so far, but I was so exhilerated by the two samples at the author’s site that I decided to splurge and spend $5 (US, via PayPal) for a weekly email subscription that covers the entire book of Shemos (Shemot). No idea what we’ll do after that, but in the meantime, our second one just arrived via email and it’s great.

For now, the search is over…

Comments

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

What do we tell our kids about Chabad and “Yechi”?

If I start by saying I really like Chabad, and adore the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, z"l, well... maybe you already know where I'm headed. Naomi Rivka has been asking lately what I think about Chabad. She asks, in part, because she already knows how I feel. She already knows I’m bothered, though to her, it’s mostly about “liking” and “not liking.” I wish things were that simple. Our little neighbourhood in Israel has a significant Chabad presence, and Chabad conducts fairly significant outreach within the community. Which sounds nice until you realize that this is a religious neighbourhood, closed on Shabbos, where some huge percentage of people are shomer mitzvos. Sure, it’s mostly religious Zionist, and there are a range of observances, for sure, but we’re pretty much all religious here in some way or another. So at that point, this isn’t outreach but inreach . Convincing people who are religious to be… what? A lot of Chabad’s efforts here are focused on kids, including a

Adventures in Mama-Land

Search This Blog