Adventures in Mama-Land

Jewish princesses may be the stuff of legend, but it’s not always the GOOD kind of legend. If you’re a Jewish parent, especially if you have girls, you know about the constant search for great stories of role models from the Torah and Tanach.  And since girls love princesses, it would be a wonderful bonus if there were any really awesome Jewish princesses. And there ARE – that’s the amazing part.  Like Ruth / Rus / Rut – whatever you call her. I’ve wanted to write a Jewish fairy tale for years and years.  A friend mentioned it a long time ago – so long ago that I’ve forgotten who, or else I would definitely give them credit.  And the character of Ruth is just such a tremendous role model in so many ways (all the incredibly scandalous backstory aside – though it’s fascinating stuff if you want to study this megillah on a more adult level). I created a couple of different iterations of the story over the years, but I was never completely satisfied with it.  ...

The biggest musical sensation here in Israel this winter / spring is a small and strange song called “Geshem, Geshem,” written by Jihan Jaber, an Israeli Arab Hebrew teacher who wanted to give her students an easy, fun way to learn Hebrew. And if she can use it to teach kids Hebrew… why can’t you? GZ is totally into the darbuka, a simple little drum that apparently he’s been learning in music class at school.  This is the original and easiest accompaniment for this song (see video below), but really, whatever percussion instrument you have will do. I’ve created a cute little mini-book that you can print, staple, and read / sing with kids. There’s also a completely blank version so kids can add their own illustrations before cutting out the individual pages.  I’ve moved the text a little here so there’s as much room for creativity as possible on each page:

I’ve been fiddling around for years with the idea of a “princess story” around the story of Megillas Rus.  I actually wrote one and made it available here about six years ago , but I wasn’t happy with it. This version, The Humble Princess Ruth , is a little closer to what I want to tell.  It’s shorter and I think a little more interesting.  It’s a tough story to retell.  I’ve taken some authorial license here: added some details, left out some others.  And I still don’t love the title!  If you have a better one, LET me know!!!  Why, oh, why, am I so bad at titles??? Download the story here:  LINK DELETED – SORRY, PLEASE FIND THE STORY, REVISED AND IMPROVED, OVER HERE ON AMAZON INSTEAD! Humble Princess: A story of Ruth – now available in print and Kindle! The 4shared site is a little spammy – don’t click on the BIG word “download,” but rather, on the small download button: I’d love your feedback on this story, either in the comments or di...

Yes, Chanukah is sneaking up on us SOOoooon! It’s early this year, so I wanted to jump right in and share this list of resources that I’ve created and shared.  Some are geared towards homeschoolers, but most are great for any family to share. Most are free, but my books (print & Kindle) and lapbooks are not.  I hope you’ll check them all out!   If you find something useful, leave a comment or share the link to this page to help others out. FREE Resources & Ideas for Chanukah learning & fun for the whole family: Chanukah Family Song Book (with links to tunes!) Chanukah copywork and Activity Pack Chanukah Family Science Project:  Oil, Water, Fire & Ice “Parsha” Poem for Chanukah (to read aloud together) Menorah in a Box (original craft idea) Chodesh Kislev (craft idea) Melted Wax & Oil “stained glass” Painting (craft idea) Nine Cool Lessons in Chanukah Fun Colouring Book (by me, and it’s free to download!) (see more pictures ...

Nearly 3 years ago, with great trepidation, I released my first printable that wasn’t free:  a Book of Centuries.  More heavily influenced by Charlotte Mason then than I am now, I wanted my kids to do this instead of a timeline because a) our house is tiny, b) our walls are cluttered, and c) I knew it would take us a looooong time to work on. Have you ever seen what happens to a piece of paper after it’s been clinging to the walls for a matter of years???  In my house, at least, it would be in illegible tatters. Anyway, I found lots of versions around, some free, some paid, but most of them had some sort of religious orientation – which is great; frankly, I wanted a religious orientation.  They just weren’t MY religious orientation.  I wanted a book that would show what Jews were doing around the time that various periods of civilization – the Renaissance, say, or the Industrial Revolution – were taking place.  Oh, yeah, and I wanted, hmm, no, NEEDED to s...

Somebody at the homeschool conference (maybe it was Rabbi Dr. Pinchas Hayman ? but I’d hate to misquote somebody) pointed out that learning Parsha with Onkelos ( Onkelos was a well-known convert most famous for his “Targum” or translation of the Torah into Aramaic) makes an excellent introduction to Aramaic, ideal for developing skills and vocabulary that can later be used in Mishna and Gemara (Talmud). To test this theory, I have created a 1-page supplement for my weekly Parsha Skills Worksheets , with the same verse broken down three ways:  in Hebrew, in Aramaic, and in English.  There’s also a little “vocabulary” bubble at the top-right corner, with a few new words introduced each week. I’ve done two of these so far, for this week and next:  Korach and Chukas.  Sneak previews:   These were a bit harder than my usual stuff because my knowledge of Aramaic is hovering right around zilch.  If you spot a mistake, please let me know gently.  :-) ...

Doing this early because a) we’re going away, and b) it’s not too hard to do these when I’m on a roll.  Next week’s 6-page workbook focuses on the following Hebrew / English words: הִכָּה- hit יָד - hand סֶּלַע - rock רוּם  - raise מַטֵּה – stick, staff פַּעַם - time (but not telling time!) יָצָא - come out שָׁתָה - drink Grammar notes include suffixes for gender and possession (I describe it in a kid-friendly way, I promise!) and the “ayim” plural for twos. Here’s a sneak preview: As always, if you use these and they work, or don’t work, please let me know how I can make them even better.  And since I am not a professional, please let me know if you spot any booboos – I promise I won’t hold it against you. To download these and hundreds of other free Limudei Kodesh (Jewish) printables – including weekly parsha copywork and holiday resources, click here .  (search for “parsha skills”) For General Studies printables, including science, art and music resourc...

This week’s 6 pages of worksheets focus on the following Hebrew / English words: פָּתַח - opened פֶּה - mouth בָּלַע - swallowed אָדָּם - man, person קרַֹח - Korach רְכוּשׁ - possession, stuff אֵת - [not in English!] אֲשֶּׁר - that,which Points of grammar include feminine prefixes / suffixes and the role of the preposition אֵת.  (In case you didn’t know, it “introduces a semantically definite direct object” – yeah, that didn’t help me, either.)  Here’s a sneak preview: As always, if you use these and they work, or don’t work, please let me know how I can make them even better!  Oh, and since I’m not a grammarian or anything close, please let me know if you spot any booboos.  Yes, it’s been known to happen, even to the best of us. To download these and hundreds of other Limudei Kodesh (Jewish) printables – including weekly parsha copywork and holiday resources, click here .  (search for “parsha skills”) For General Studies printables, including science, a...

Haven’t done one of these in a good while, but at least I have come up with a catchy name for them:  Parsha Skills Worksheets (click to see previous worksheets). My goal with these is to introduce some basic Chumash vocabulary and grammar (to kids AND their parents!), reinforce it through fun activities, and give kids the confidence to read/write an actual passuk from each weekly parsha.  Somebody at the Torah Home Ed Conference mentioned dictation, and although I hadn’t given it much thought in connection with these, it seems like a fairly natural progression, so I have added a note at the end of the last page, following the “spelling test” (which is in itself a form of dictation):  If student is very comfortable with the vocabulary, dictate the copywork verse to him/her. Read it aloud twice first, very slowly. Then, let the student write (on a lined page) as much as he/she remembers. Praise the student for effort, not exact duplication of the passuk. By the way, I ...

I thought it would be cool to help build Hebrew vocabulary through learning Hebrew folksongs.  I picked three that seem “important” to me and put together a few activities to reinforce the vocabulary taught in each one. Though there is a line-by-line translation provided for each song (along with a link to hear the song), these do assume some knowledge of Hebrew, or at least, access to a decent dictionary. Part I:  Menorah v’Anfei Zayit  (3 pages) /  מנורה וענפי זית    Part II:  Eretz Yisrael Sheli (7 pages) / ארץ ישראל שלי To download these and hundreds of other General Studies printables, including science, art and music resources in Hebrew and English, Ambleside, composer and artist resources, click here .  (give me a few minutes to post the link… :-) ) For Limudei Kodesh (Jewish) printables – including weekly parsha copywork and holiday resources, click here .

If you’ve always wanted to study Pirkei Avos with your kids but never knew where to start, I’ve put together a collection of activities for a range of ages, along with a general introduction to teaching Pirkei Avos, which may or may not be helpful (can you tell I’m feeling both humble and overwhelmed these days?).  This only covers 3 mishnayos (short excerpts) from Perek 4 (Chapter 4), so it’s not at ALL comprehensive, and it isn’t meant to be.  This is really just a sample to give folks an idea of the sorts of things you can do to engage your kids in both the text and the ideas behind Pirkei Avos.  I incorporated a few ideas from chinuch.org along with some thoughts of my own.  I was asked to put this together for a binder of “lesson plans” being assembled for the upcoming Torah Home Education Conference, about which I am feeling somewhat bittersweet, since it’s my last time attending.  I really hope that the rest of the lesson plans they are more, well, pla...

Hand-drawn by my friend Shira, these are ten simple masks (only 4 shown here) that you can print out and have your kids colour.  (the tunes I mentioned are not printable, but you can scroll down to find links) She plans to have hers laminated once they’re coloured, and then the kids can keep them from one seder to the next (a good use for lamination, in my opinion, as opposed to many of those throwaway projects you wish were not encased in plastic. To download these and hundreds of other Limudei Kodesh (Jewish) printables – including weekly parsha copywork and holiday resources, click here .  (search for “masks”) For General Studies printables, including science, art and music resources in Hebrew and English, Ambleside, composer and artist resources, click here . These masks bear an eerie similarity to the colourful foam masks we actually do use already, which are sort of like these, but a bit different…  and I do have to add here – I don’t feel we NEED these at th...

My gift to you… just like the ones I did last year for Chanukah and for Shavuos ! This one has a five senses theme… with the usual sweet, sticky ending, of course. To receive a free PDF of this very simple print-cut-staple easy reader for Pesach, featuring all the usual cute “borrowed” Internet graphics you have come to love from my printables, please email me directly at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, and I’ll pass it along!  You can also just leave a comment here with your email address – I won’t publish your address. Sorry, it’s not direct-downloadable this time. That’s my gift to myself: a few times a year, I like to meet you, and find out who’s reading and using these things. (Just wanted to add:  I won't collect your name or email address in a mailing list or anything.  I just honestly like to know who's reading and using this stuff, because usually, all I get are download statistics) To download hundreds of other Limudei Kodesh (Jewish) printables – includ...

For more information about these, please click here . Meanwhile, I have uploaded the new workbook for Yisro and will do the same for Mishpatim later on today (done!). Here are samples from Yisro: And from Mishpatim: As before, this is a work in progress at a busy time.  That means I’m very distracted and I want to know if I’ve made mistakes.  I’d even love just a quick note to let me know how old your child(ren) is/are and which bits are most helpful. To download these and hundreds of other Limudei Kodesh (Jewish) printables – including weekly parsha copywork and holiday resources, click here .  (search for “workbooks”) For General Studies printables, including science, art and music resources in Hebrew and English, Ambleside, composer and artist resources, click here .