Adventures in Mama-Land

Want to see something cool? Both of my kids’ schools are making a huge deal out of something I’ve literally never noticed.  The name of the current Hebrew month, Kislev (כסלו), can be divided - with only a little wizardry - into two separate words:  kis (כיס/pocket) and lev (לב/heart).  (That’s the wizardry – the “vav” is swapped out for a “vais”/”vet”.) So GZ brought home this “mitzvah note” project from Kitah Alef (Grade One), where we have to use this month fill up his “pocket” with love and nachas. Which I think is just an absolutely terrific excuse to praise a kid who’s three months into his first real year of school and hovering halfway between feeling confident because he knows the routines and feeling like he’s drowning in the despair that comes from realizing there are so many months (and years) still to go. Very cool.  Why didn’t they do this at either of my kids’ Jewish schools back in Canada?  No idea. A good friend of mine growing up, who mov...

I’ve spent years creating picture books, stories and curriculum materials on every possible Jewish theme.  But when I sat down to write my first chapter book for slightly older readers, I surprised myself: It turns out it’s all about Christmas. It’s called No Santa! , and there’s a picture of the jolly guy himself right there on the cover – chased by a menorah. Why did I write this book?  Why davka (specifically) about Christmas? Because Christmas just is .  Even for Jewish kids, if they’re growing up in North America (or any country other than Israel), it’s not possible to avoid it or sidestep it.  And many kids, even if they are Jewish, grow up celebrating it in some way. Oh, we never SAID we were “celebrating Christmas” when we were growing up.  My parents would never have allowed that.  We never had a tree – that was waaaay over the line.  But we had stockings.  Beautiful felt stockings, hand-decorated in red and green and sequins....

Something about this just tickled me… maybe it’s late and I’m tired. This is also sort of a test post.  Haven’t been over here much lately because we’ve been BUSY with the project of a lifetime.  Come visit me sometime over at my for-now Israeli home… Adventures in Aliyahland ! (I do anticipate keeping this blog and posting to it once our life becomes less about aliyah and more about, well, day-to-day life.  We’ll see.)

My annual, non-comprehensive but hopefully fun and well-rounded, roundup of What There Is For You Online.  Enjoy! From Chinuch.org So!  With 40+ pages of Chanukah stuff on Chinuch.org, how do you know what’s good?  I have no idea, but here’s some of what appealed to me as I waded through those 40+ pages tonight (true confession:  I stopped after page 36):   Dreidel Tally Graphing Sheet Chanukah Matching Game (very simple memory game – I just wasted the last of my printer ink printing these ones out…) “My Menorah” Hebrew Song – cute and simple original song to the tune of LaKova Sheli  (but you have to know Hebrew) Simple preschool crafts: Six Interactive Chanukah Crafts A cute Chanukah Scavenger Hunt which would be good for a party, co-op, or anywhere you want a bunch of kids running around (not here, please!) Very sweet present-passing group game where kids sit in a circle, learn right from left, hear the Chanukah story AND get to keep their pr...

Yup, you heard me right.  I don’t hate Chanukah.  I don’t hate Christmas.  I don’t hate Los Posadas, or Kwanzaa, or Diwali, or anything else that people celebrate at this time of year. But I can’t stand the “genericization” of this whole bloody month, as you’ll know if you’ve been reading here for more than about ten minutes (sorry to any long-term readers who’ve heard it all before!). Look, it’s Chanukah right now.  I know that, and I guess – reluctantly – I like it.  And next week, it will be over, and I would ask that you pretty please not continue to acknowledge it or celebrate it in any way until next year at this time.  But no… and it’s particularly poignant in years like this one, where, because of the way the calendars line up, schools and the community around us will continue to “celebrate” Chanukah on our behalf at least until December 25th, if not right on through the entire month. And here’s how they do it: Yay!  A funny animated winte...

GZ was in the mood for schoolie while Naomi was working today, and I was racking my brain when I remembered this “Berenstain Bears” Menorah/Dreidel cutting and pasting activity I did with them last year.  It’s been so long that neither of them actually remembered doing it at ALL. You can find this and a few more Chanukah activities at this page . I don’t remember why I made this Berenstain Bears when I don’t like them or the books at ALL.  I think I just wanted a family where they would instantly recognize the characters and their relative sizes/ages.  There are a few ways you can use this sheet.  For older kids, you can just do it with drawing lines from each family member to his/her respective menorah and dreidel. Anyway, I folded a piece of construction paper into fourths to give one distinct area for each family member, and then let GZ have a blast (really, truly, he was humming and happy and asked to do it AGAIN when he was finished).  (I said no; maybe ...

Don't you hate it when a really traumatic, life-changing, howling on the sidewalk in front of the house type injury turns out to look like a great big NOTHING when you try to take a picture of it??? Perhaps this is Hashem’s way of punishing me for going out with my mother last night to see the lights… including this incredible display where they are collecting money for Sick Kids hospital (yes, we gave, and by we , I mean, we put in some of my mother’s money, because I left my wallet at home). Because then we got home, got out of the car, I let Naomi out, grabbed her carseat and slammed the door… on my fingertip.  Which was just about the most intensely painful thing I can remember, including breaking my ankle. I ran up the driveway and wept, just howled, until I was too cold and had to move inside, where I ran it under cold water, howling and crying and snotting everywhere. It still hurts – a lot.  Trust me when I say no photo can do it justice.   It looks lik...

As a special Chanukah gift to you – and here, I’m using the term “gift” rather loosely – I decided to just go ahead and draw the artwork myself!  Well, okay, also because nobody in my family would help me. Click for printable PDF version . Copywork, yom tov, and parsha activities – updated weekly! Little Yossi looked up at his Abba and sighed, “I love my menorah – it fills me with pride; But tell me, dear Abba, I know that you’ll know, Where did we learn how to light it just so?” “Why, what do you mean?” asked his father, so near, “Tell me what’s troubling you, Yossi, my dear.” And he filled up the holders with water and oil, Making sure none spilled onto the tinfoil. “I read,” said Yossi, “on Shavuos we stood, By the face of the mountain and saw it was good; On Sukkos, we camped out in fragile huts, And on Purim we sing – there’s no ands, ifs or buts. “But I never did see, in the Torah I’ve read, Just where “we must light a menorah” is said; Which parsha tells us, and w...

Our annual Xmas packages… same as last year, only for the bread, I just baked an “ordinary” challah, which the big kids thought was kind of mundane, but frankly, I think it’s Good Bread – so there. Cutting out the first gingerbread cookies of the season… both kids had a great time stamping 5 hearts into this flower pattern, which turned out to be more efficient, dough-wise, than any other configuration I have ever come up with.  The recipe isn’t fancy, but it tastes nice and the molasses does a cool foaming thing on the stove that is really fun if you’re mixing it up with children.  It rolls out beautifully immediately but also refrigerates beautifully.  What more could a girl ask??? Oh, and the cookies are extra-yummy alongside the first shortbread of the season!   Naomi Rivka and Gavriel Zev decorated the cards (Sara helped)… Here are Naomi’s – no idea what that head-thing is on the person in the “Uncle Bobby” card: And here are Gavriel Zev’s – he’s go...

Night owl poll below!!!  (owl image by Elisheva)   After I've made latkes for our family party for at least the last 10 years, if not 15, my mother turns to me yesterday and says, "I'll make them... you don't make LATKES." Apparently, including any veggies other than potatoes, even a trace, has disqualified – in my mother’s eyes – a lifetime of latke servitude.  (for more sad fun with me and my mother and parties click here ) So I’m curious about whether I’m alone as the Lone Latke Adventurer here in my world.  Here are the criteria, in my mind, for what qualifies you for which category: You’re a PURIST if, in your world, latkes (or levivot, if you’re an Israeli purist) are made exclusively of potatoes (does NOT include sweet potatoes), eggs, salt, pepper, oil, and perhaps a bissel flour.  (edited to include ONIONS – they must have onions!) Purist variant #1:  The potatoes should preferably be grated, ideally with knuckle-blood mixed in to prove it...

A bit of explanation... an ABC story, in ASL, is an artform where a story is told with each word taking the handshape of the next letter. Like making up a story in alphabetical order ("a bad cat ditched every frugal dog"), but with way more freedom of expression in the handshapes of the letters, it's a cross between storytelling and dance. Can you find all the handshapes??? I love it when my fascination with Judaism and my fascination with ASL intersect!!!  If you do, too, be sure to check out all of JewishDeafMM ’s videos for parsha, holiday thoughts, and more.

I know I have a lot of Christian readers; maybe you trust me by now, and will listen, and be interested.  Because this is the time of year, well, between Xmas and Easter, when y’all get religion for a while, as opposed to year-‘round like us (cue laughter here – I’m joking), and when you get reflective – by which I mean just a bit angry – about the role of Pharisees in the life and death of your messiah. The Pharisees get a crazily bad rap, despite being the spiritual ancestors of modern Judaism.  Did you know that the Sadducees, who were the only mainstream alternative around the dawn of Christianity, actually believed… that thing about “an eye for an eye”? – we mean it literally, so hand your corneas over! the soul is not immortal; there is no afterlife! there are no rewards or penalties after death! there is no resurrection of the dead! They also believed something akin to the sola scriptura doctrine of Protestant Christianity – nothing comes between you and the T...

* If you’re just here for the free supplement, scroll down to the end for more information.  I want to chat for a while with my regular readers first! Okay, okay, I know I haven’t mentioned Latin on here, even though it is one of the most exciting things to happen in our little homeschool over the last couple of months. To back up just a little:  I have no idea why I caved.  Elisheva was pushing me to teach Naomi a language – my protestations that Hebrew IS a language went unheard.  She does NOT approve of Hebrew as a second language.  She wanted me to do French, but I had seen this program and thought it was super-cute, and I figure Latin is kind of like meta-French.  Once you know Latin, French comes easily… right? Anyway, it was a flimsy reason to adopt an extra school subject, but the Song School Latin curriculum is SUPER light, and we’re really, really enjoying it so far.  I won’t say “loving it,” because my sister Abigail is back, and she kn...