Adventures in Mama-Land

Are your kids bored with typical Jewish children’s books?? I know mine were! That’s actually one of the main reasons I started writing books for Jewish kids.  I was sick of stories that simply repeat the basics:  “It’s Rosh Hashanah, we dip an apple.”  “It’s Sukkos, we sit in the sukkah.”  “It’s Chanukah, we light the menorah.”  I was bored to death of these, and so were my kids, by the time they were two years old or so.  Plus – kids love to read about animals.  I really believe that animals can give us a lot of insight into ourselves and the things we do. That’s how I got the idea for my first animal book – Penguin Rosh Hashanah .  I was sitting on a train wondering what to write for Rosh Hashanah, and I suddenly had the random thought, “Penguins.”  Why penguins?  Penguins, or any animal, really, are the exact opposite of Rosh Hashanah.  And I love it.  Loved the idea of finding connections and creating a very loose, light st...

What does halacha say about vaccination?  Do people who oppose vaccination have a right (halachically) to share their views? This thing keeps rearing its head.  The other day, a Facebook friend insisted that all their "natural" lifestyle postings had been approved by two rabbis and were thus pretty much “an act of kindness” to share these views and enlighten the rest of us. These postings run along two main themes - curing yourself of cancer and avoiding vaccines. The one I want to talk about here is vaccines.  Because I believe - though I'm not a rabbi – and don’t even have the shirt to prove it! - that not only does halacha strongly support vaccines, but may in fact deem them mandatory , given the state of current medical knowledge. And if vaccines are so strongly recommended – if not mandated – by halacha… well, then, it's probably somewhat bad to go around telling people they shouldn't do it. (For an earlier post covering more of the basics of the anti-...

Spoiler alert!  If you are on our “nearest and dearest” list, please don’t scroll down to peek at the craft project revealed below.  It is currently winging its way to you in the mail.  Be patient. (Um, if you feel you are near and dear and considerable time has passed and you have NOT received your very own Craft in the mail – well, oops.  We still love you, but are far from having our act together over here on this new side of the Atlantic.  Better luck to all of us next year.) So my nanny used to get these cards.  Maybe you’ve seen them.  They were all-occasion cards with paintings on the front.  Mediocre paintings of puppies and kittens and clowns and water and boats.  And the only thing that was special about the cards was that on the back, they said they were mouth-painted by people who had no limbs. Mouth-painted.  That phrase stuck with me, maybe because everybody always told me not to put paintbrushes in my mouth.  Or m...

Look!  It’s my authentic Feiyue running shoes from China!  Not only are they tremendously geeky-looking, but also they offer a) absolutely no support of any kind, along with b) no premium features whatsoever.  So why are they my new favourite exercise shoe??? Apparently, studies into footwear and running found that the more support and features a pair of running shoes offered, the greater the likelihood that the runner would be seriously injured.  (I don’t have sources for this beyond the popular but controversial (yet well worth reading) book Born to Run .) Yes, indeed, folks.  The more bells, whistles, shock absorption, doohickeys and sponges and padding and gels and whatnot you introduce, the worse your feet and legs will feel wearing them.  In general – your personal mileage may vary. This was shocking news to me.  I have always loved the idea of big, boat-like, bouncy running shoes.  Doesn’t everybody?  Well, not a friend of mine w...

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 ...

Our little garden critters totally seem to love being around Gavriel Zev.  The snails in particular just make themselves right at home on his fingers, arms, anywhere.  And he responds with total adoration, whether it’s a worm or a bug or a snail he’s “adopting.” (p.s. and a pat on my OWN back for taking the great shot at the top, then realizing when I imported it onto the computer that his nose was totally snotty… so I fixed it!!!)  (there is a slight powderiness to his nose that was there in real life as well, and I didn’t remove that)

“LAEF MINT” = mint leaf… he wrote it all by himself, insisting he did not need help.

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...

Despite a 30% chance of rain (which, by the way, means a 70% chance of NO RAIN AT ALL), today was a PERFECT fall day.  Sunny and absolutely, flawlessly, picture-perfect.  Which is GREAT, because I picked this day over a month ago as our first field trip of the year to the Humber Arboretum .  And I invited a group which turned out to be 42 people, all-told… so I would have been extremely peeved if we’d had to trudge around in the rain and muck.  But we didn’t! The woods and meadows were definitely calling to us, and today, we answered. I love homeschool groups!  The kids’ ages ranged from a couple of months to 12 or 13, and everybody participated as much as they could.  See the range of heights?  I love it!  There’s so little cynicism in the older kids - “that’s baby stuff!”  And the littler ones are challenged – by the long walk, by the challenging material, and the questions and comments of the older ones.  Mine are the ones in the b...

(Naomi’s picture, which utterly fails to capture any sort of context or direction and as such, is kind of fascinating.)

After a year of planning and evaluating various options for Year 1, it’s finally done – our super-schmancy, fine-and-dandy Complete Jewish Homeschool Curriculum!  Sort of.  It’s an ambitious list, and I’m scared I won’t be able to do it. Points to keep in mind: I’m flexible.  If something doesn’t work, I drop it – period.  Maybe pick up something else, or maybe drop the subject if it’s not a crucial one.  I am very open to this, though I think everything I’ve chosen for the year is do-able. It LOOKS ambitious, but most of it is just extensions of what we are already doing.  Nothing here will be a big surprise if you’ve been reading this blog all along. Most lessons are VERY short!  Depending on the lesson itself and Naomi Rivka’s co-operation, an average lesson is about 10-20 minutes.  Some subjects in some weeks will really involve ZERO additional minutes; they’re just books included in our regular family reading schedule.  A ...

Michelle at Lionden Landing writes of a nature walk outing she took with her daughter and a friend where the challenge was listening to nature .  Which made me think of the little urban nature walk we took yesterday, along a route we have travelled many times, and now in three of four seasons.  As a nature walk, ours went pretty well – it was a lovely, mild-weather day.  But I realized about 3/4 of the way through what was wrong:  my running commentary.  I guess I feel the educator's burden of EDUCATING, but sometimes, that's supposed to be a passive, not active process. Michelle writes that her daughter was amazingly quiet on their “listening” hike.  “Normally…Froggy is a loud running commentary of every thing she sees, hears and feels.”  Oops.  That’s me!!! Anyway, at that point in our walk, I shut up, and resolved to talk less and listen more next time.  Nature Study Mantra: I don’t have to talk I don’t have to entertain ...