Adventures in Mama-Land

Do you do book reports with your kids?  Have you found a great way to help them reflect on what they’ve read?  This step is important because otherwise (if they’re anything like me and my children), they’ll just gobble down the book and move on, without much reflection. (I know, I said I wasn’t going to be posting here much, but right now I have a restless, not-really-sick kid home from school, so I put her to work writing a book review!) First of all, what’s the difference? Okay, I’m not sure exactly what the difference is, except that a review implies that you’re throwing in a little of your own opinion.  “Report” sounds objective, like a dry listing of the book’s features, as if it were a notable geographic feature:  a desert, or an ocean.  You wouldn’t “review” a desert, you would “report” on it.  Okay, actually, with the Internet, people review everything from national parks to public bathrooms and I wouldn’t be surprised if you could find reviews ...

I’ve broken this complex story down into 3 sections so that you don’t have to do the whole story at once.  Eeach section can be read and narrated back, and the child can even draw an illustration for each section.  You can do this at the same time, one after another, or on different days/times, depending on the child’s patience and ability. This story actually from my Shavuos lapbook , so I figure many people may not have seen it yet.  I believe I adapted it (it doesn’t read like my own writing), but I’m not sure exactly from where.  Of course, you don’t have to read my exact version, but you can.  :-) (also, there are a couple of errors in the lapbook version which I have corrected here) Pronunciation:  Ruth is pronounced “Rus” by Ashkenaz Jews and “Rut” by those who use Sefardi pronunciations.  I have written it as “Ruth” here; use whatever pronunciation you prefer.  “Bais Lechem” is pronounced “Beit Lechem” in the Sefardi pronunciation, but...

I love Naomi Rivka’s take on the concepts in these parshiyos, which are all about our efforts and how Hashem listens and answers our tefillos if we make an effort.  Which translates, in Naomi’s imagination, into “better hairdo.” PANEL 1 - Two girls are sharing their most fervent hopes and dreams:  Girl #1 (hair in a bun):  “Isabell, I wish for your hair to be in a bun, not on your shoulder!” Girl #2 (hair curly and loose):  “Yes, Laura….  I wish rain in Israel!” PANEL 2 – the same two girls, standing in the rain: Girl #1 (hair in a bun):  “My wish came true!” Girl #2 (hair in a bun):  <<silence>> Something in me finds this utterly hilarious, encapsulating perfectly the concept that Hashem answers prayers… and that the most important, most urgent prayer is for Good Hair.  Girl #2 doesn’t need to say anything – standing in the rain, hair in a bun, she is perfectly, perfectly content.  What more of a bracha could she ne...

First Gavriel Zev’s.  We seem to have arrived at a happy place where he will dictate while I type.  At the end, I made a game of it, so when he said “Now, print it out,” I typed “Now, print it out.”  And then, when he said, “Erase that,” I typed, “Erase that.”  After much giggling and fooling around and erasing, I printed it out.  He cut it, pasted it onto the blank page, then did the rest by hand. What blew me away is the fact that it wasn’t crumpled.  When he undertakes an art or craft project, there’s about a 75% chance that it will not meet his bizarrely high standards (apparently, nobody has told this kid he’s only 5!) and he gets frustrated and rips and/or crumples it.  I have begun a campaign to encourage him to a) work in pencil, b) cross things out if they come out wrong, and c) live with mistakes, because we all make them.  All with mixed results so far – perhaps the crumpling ratio is down to around 60%? Anyway, he was pleased enough ...

While it seems to be a public holiday in some parts, around here, with two MORE field trips this week (sigh), we can’t really spare any time, so we’re hard at work – for a change. These are the kids’ narrations for this painting, Mary Cassatt’s The Boating Party .  I typed them, so it went quickly. Gavriel Zev’s (his “sketch” of this painting is at right): In the painting, I saw the sea was a little bit green. Two people were on a boat – just plain people, skinny people. One was a man and one was a woman. There was a baby, too. There was a city in the background and some was trees. I liked the painting because there was a lot of particular things. I didn’t like the people very much – they looked a little bit bad (like they weren’t well drawn). And Naomi Rivka’s – I typed hers, then had her copy out the shortest sentence, in keeping with the Well-Trained Mind approach to easing them into their own creative writing, using short passsages from their own narration (in addition to ...

Blah.  This is for Mary Cassatt’s Children at the Shore: In the back there’s an ocean and in it there are 3 boats. On the shore, there are 2 children who look very fat. After this painting, their parents are going to come in one of the boats and take them for a boat ride. I don’t like this painting because the kind I do like is very, very bright and no dark. On one of the girls, there is a ribbon on her hat; the other girl doesn’t have a hat or a ribbon. In the painting, some of the boats are sailing and some of them are just coasting. The girls are digging with a shovel and buckets. Me, prompting… What kind of person do you think WOULD enjoy this painting, even though you don’t? I think Mary Cassatt would like this painting but I don’t like it – maybe her friends would, too. So much for Mary Cassatt being a good, approachable “first artist” for kids.  :-/ (we have studied her before… but Naomi Rivka’s mostly in a contrary mood at the moment and would say she doesn’t like...

I haven’t posted many of these lately, but we’re still doing them.  Naomi’s illustrations are more of the stick-person variety than the detailed scenarios she was sketching before, but they are still cheerful and fun.  Today, she wanted to write her own narration – I wouldn’t let her for the main narration (you can see my lousy handwriting down below), but she added her own caption on the left-hand side.  (the baby carriage floating over the king’s Torah isn’t really floating – it’s in the background ) She got the thing about needing “three things – a chumash, a gemara and a mishna” is from My First Parsha Reader, which said every Jewish home needs these things as part of the mitzvah of writing a sefer Torah.  And then Naomi started correcting me and said, “Every sentence must begin with a capital letter [I write in all-caps, but make the first letter bigger]… and end with a pyramid .”  She meant period, but I drew a little pyramid over the period after Mish...

“I did a great narration!” And he really did.  For him, after we’ve read the parsha summary (usually, on Fridays, we just read the little ones in My First Parsha Reader), I have him draw his picture while Naomi’s telling me her narration.  Then, he tells me what’s in his picture, and I write the “caption.” Here’s what it says: “He (one of the guys) is walking because his bag is really heavy – he brought lots of stuff!  Enemies will chase people out of their house.  The enemies will only come if the Jewish people don’t keep the Torah.  One enemy is getting closer to the person!  The end.”  (he asked me to write that at the end) Now, I’m not sure I love how simplistic this understanding is – but on the other hand, I suppose the essence of this week’s parsha is the idea of reward and punishment, and I really think he got that much.  He just happens to be a 4-year-old boy (4 for two more weeks) who thinks the punishment is way cooler than the re...

Naomi’s narration: “Looking at this painting... it looks like cheese because it's all yellow, and it's autumn, and some people are having a picnic and there's a town in the background and children playing and someone going fishing.  The people are poor people [peasants] and the people come from Ireland.  Some men are cutting down the wheat and the wheat looks like tents.  I do not like this painting because it's all yellow!  I prefer paintings with bright colours:  pink, purple, green, blue, red, turquoise and orange.” This is not exactly up to our usual standards, but it’s a start.  We’re both t rying to get back into the swing of things, which is surprisingly tough right now considering that, theoretically, we learn all through the summer.  (I have no idea how she decided that the people were Irish, but I suppose peasants look like peasants all the world over…) Here’s how we do picture study narration: After a few minutes of guided picture study,...

Looking at my spreadsheet, it’s hard to believe that I have organized FIFTEEN homeschool field trips this year – that’s more than 1 a month.  Indeed, there are two this month – one this week and another next week.  Here’s a complete list, while I’m feeling braggy:       Humber Arboretum - Fall Animal Tracks nature program NFB – Claymation animation program FREE Four Seasons Centre Concert November 1st:  Reeds & Keys (we didn’t even end up going to this one!) Royal Winter Fair (this was really just a group ticket order; we didn’t go together) FREE Four Seasons Centre Concert January 12th:  Peggy Baker Dance Company FREE Roy Thomson Hall Bach Children’s Chorus NFB – Pixilation animation program Toronto Symphony Orchestra Junior Concert FREE Roy Thomson Hall Orpheus Choir NFB – Pixilation animation program (we didn’t go… because once was enough) Bruce’s Mill Maple Syrup Trip Humber Arboretum – The Huron People spring nature program (th...

We are just moving into this geography book, A Child’s Geography Book 1: Explore His Earth , by Ann Voscamp (not to be confused with the much older V.M. Hillyer book of the same title) which looks fantastic and fun except for the typical homeschool-curriculum abundance of exclamation points, and perhaps, as with our science curriculum , the occasional Jesus reference.  (though I think that’s more of an issue in Book 2: Explore the Holy Land ) Anyway, we’ve been working on building the papier-mache globe project that wraps up the first lesson.  Then, we’ll hopefully ramp up to a regular program of reading and narrating, just as we’re doing in science and history.  (though at this rate, by the time it actually FEELS “regular,” it’ll be Pesach and time to interrupt everything again! :-o) To make our geography work look substantially different from what we’re using for history and science narrations , I played around with the antique-postcard format suggested by the author...

I don’t think I have ever been grateful to no-show guests…! We’ve been doing a casual, every-other-Friday get-together with three other Jewish homeschool families (which is just about all of us here!).   Not really structured enough to be called a co-op, but a bit more substantial than a playdate. Anyway, this week was my turn, so – being the way I am, which is not organized , as such, but not wanting to be run out of activities with other people’s kids sitting staring at me - I worked out a whole routine:  davening, parsha / parsha craft, baking with kids, Shabbos party with songs and challah.  The baking was a challenge because one of the mamas is gluten-free at the moment, but I found an interesting rice kugel recipe I wanted to try.  I also had Ted buy a Lenchner frozen challah, which everybody loves for Shabbos party. And yes, I stayed up late last night designing a fun parsha craft…this awesome little froggy!  With real jumpy legs and a mini-songb...

Three new printables this week, free and fun! 1) Parsha Worksheets.  First, for Parshas Vaeira, a 3-page printable that includes a one-page overview of the parsha story (same as the one I wrote last year ), a narration / illustration page for the child to complete with or without help, and a cute mini-book (taken from the Pesach lapbook) with a song for learning the Ten Makkos / Ten Plagues (to the tune of “This Old Man”) in Hebrew or English, which can be cut out and pasted onto the narration page as a keepsake and memory aid. 2) Letter Gimel Cut/Paste.  Second, this is part of Gavriel Zev’s alef bais explorations now that we’re up to gimel, a simple sheet that lets kids decide if an object is “gadol” (which starts with gimel) or “katan”.  I made this for Naomi Rivka, but Gavriel Zev loves cutting and pasting so much…! 3) Canadian Currency Posters.  I almost forgot!  These Canadian currency posters appeared here during Chanukah last year, but I have upd...