Adventures in Mama-Land

Learning the Alef-Bais… all over again!

2012-01-26T00:56:00.001-05:00

Gavriel Zev is greatly enjoying our weekly alef-bais “studies.” I wasn’t originally planning a handwriting component, but his handwriting in English is coming along by leaps and bounds, so I have decided to bring in Hebrew handwriting as well. I was about to create something myself, but then I found two sites with helpful alef-bais printables:

From Israel: letter-by-letter vocabulary sheets (click the letter you want and a .doc file will download)
Christian Hebrew alphabet tracing pages (individual PDFs with a cute picture and tracing outlines for each letter)

Now, when I say “helpful,” both sites offer separate files for each letter and the tracing pages include script and Rashi fonts, which we don’t need at all. So after I downloaded all of these (hint: if you’re using Firefox, consider a tool called “DownThemAll!” that grabs every link on a page super-quickly for you!) I removed the pages I didn’t want and consolidated each set into a single PDF file (one for the vocab sheets; one for the tracing pages) (hint: I use a free utility called PDFill for all my PDF magic) (and by the way, I don’t get a kickback for telling you about these programs!).

Note: It took me a while to comb through the various doc and pdf files, and although these are not MY files, I still have them on my hard drive. If you’re interested in a copy of either of the two PDFs I created (vocabulary and letter-tracing), which I am technically probably not authorized to distribute, drop me an email (remove the X’s if you REALLY want to reach me!) and I’ll accidentally send it along.

Once I had two PDF files with exactly what I wanted, I printed them in two different ways:

I printed the tracing pages in 2-up, double-sided booklet form to create a cute write-in booklet (ignore my woeful handwriting on the cover – but don’tcha love the pinking shears?!?). It turned out a little small… we shall see if it’s too small for GZ to write in or if he will enjoy the challenge. (If it’s too small, I’ll reprint it in full-page size.) I discovered Adobe Reader has a clever option when you go to print to change the side of the binding, so I chose “right” to make the book open the Hebrew way.
I printed the vocabulary pages 4-up on blue cardstock (to differentiate them from the Latin vocabulary that I’ve printed the same way). Adobe Reader also has a feature to print 2-up REVERSED, so you’ll notice the order of the letters is in Hebrew “reading order” – left to right and top to bottom. Hopefully, this will painlessly give both kids practice in reading the letters the Hebrew way, as will the fact that the Wiggle Worm itself goes from right to left! (by the way, printing 4-up like this has given us the most perfect Latin flashcards from these colouring pages!)

I also created a YouTube playlist of helpful alef-bais-related songs and things. They’re cute!

Our letter-song for this week (Week 4, Dalet) is “David, Melech Yisrael.” We have two tunes for this song…

First, the classic, “chai, chai, pizza pie” version… the kids like this one best:

And the one I prefer, the folky Carlebach version (no video, sorry):

I think my children hate this last one… but tough luck!

What are you loving, learning, and SINGING with your kids this week???

A Child’s Geography Book 1 FREE printable “postcard” narration page

2012-01-25T02:15:00.001-05:00

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, taking it up a notch (I think) to create this very cool page that has just enough room for a SHORT narration for each section. I’m working on getting the narrations shorter and more concise. There’s also a bigger picture-drawing section than the history and science narration pages. The earth is big, right?

The version shown here features a postage-stamp sized book cover “logo” for A Child’s Geography, but I went ahead and created a blank one (it just has a US postage stamp) for those who are using a different geography program.

Enjoy!

To download this and dozens (hundreds?) of other General Studies printables – including science, art and music resources in Hebrew and English, Ambleside, composer and artist resources, click here.
For Limudei Kodesh (Jewish Studies) activities including weekly parsha copywork and holiday resources, click here.

Grammar geeks, titter with me...

2012-01-24T11:23:00.001-05:00

Copy-editing an article about wedding programs that includes the line:

"Attractively designed in the colours of the wedding, we were immediately able to follow the order of events and identify the participants as the wedding processional began."

Spot the booboo to win a free - um - PDF of the full article, not written by me, when the paper comes out!!!

Hooked!

2012-01-24T01:05:00.001-05:00

My hobby-o-the-moment… (as of, um, midnight last night)

I come from a long line of talented crafty-knitty people… but I’ve always known I’m not one of them.

Technically, I have knitted before. Once, as a kid, I was in a yarn shop with my mother (yarn shops are one of her favourite places in the world to hang out), and the ball of ice cream perched in my cone (pralines and cream?) fell off and plopped itself in a bin of what must have been discount yarn. Thus, I ended up with my own godawful orangey acrylic yarn. At some point, one of us decided it would be good if I did something useful with it, like knit a scarf. My “scarf” grew to about an inch before I gave up.

So it is with a bit of trepidation that I embark, maybe 30 years later, on a NEW scarf… still in acrylic, because it’s all my mother would part with. But at least it feels nice, and she gave me a hook to go along with it. I love the fact that most people, if they want to try a new hobby, would have to go out and buy something. I just have to mention it to my mother and she opens her stash to me. I never even knew she crocheted; I just knew she had a bunch of hooks, but apparently, she has crocheted.

Growing up, I always thought of crochet itself as somewhat godawful, like the scratchy round cushions in my Bubby’s “den” (that’s what people of her generation called the TV room – they all had dens, like they were foxes instead of just regular Jews). Where knitting is upperclass - elegant, refined - crochet is lower-class, the thing people do when they can’t afford a second needle.

But I’ve heard it’s easy. If the Great Unwashed can do it, why then, oh why, can’t I?

So here I am, and today, thanks to this site and this video channel, I learned how to do a basic stitch. I also have a bunch of books coming from the library, but who wants to wait for books in this day and age??? The most important thing I have learned is that if you want to be a Cool Crocheter, as opposed to one of those lowest-of-the-low ones, you have GOT to get yourself a fancy hook. Mine’s in the picture above. It’s metal, with a flat bit in the centre. It’s not fancy, not at all. Oh, you can DIY, but the cool crafters Will Know.

In case you’re wondering how practical learning to crochet is in this day and age, you’ll never wonder again, because you can use it (along with a humble onion bag) to create this awesome Reusable Mesh Produce bag!

Now, I don’t want you to think I’m dissing this project, because it’s indeed very cool, but you are basically starting with a produce bag (albeit not a very reusable one) and ending with a produce bag (that can be reused until the handles fall off). To me, it looks a lot like the British “string vest” style undershirt:

So I’m thinking that you could probably just cut the bottom open if you wanted yet another use for crochet… (love the gumby hat!!!)

Ah, but I joke. It’s fun, fun, fun indeed to have a new hobby, albeit a weird one that I’m not very good at!

What’s keeping you (borderline) sane this winter?

Hey, Rob Ford! Cut THIS!

2012-01-24T00:39:00.001-05:00

Toronto’s newish Toon Town Mayor, Rob Ford, weighed in last week at 330 lbs and vowed, in a pun on his many campaign promises, to “cut the waist,” initiating a campaign and special website (paid for out of his own pocket; the city isn’t paying a dime, apparently) so you can follow his progress as he weighs in every Monday. As of today, he’s down 10 lbs… water weight, I say.

But as he challenged Torontonians to join him in losing their “waist,” he mentioned “hitting the gym,” which is a fascinating irony given that not everybody in this city has the money to join a gym in the first place, even in a season in which outdoor exercise is an iffy proposition.

But wait, you say! What about the Welcome Policy, which ensures that citizens at every income level will have access to healthy and enriching programs for themselves and their children?

Ha ha ha. You see, I signed up for my regular Tuesday-morning aerobics class, the one I’ve been taking since, oh, 2008 or so. Now, since the class is held in a rather “ghetto” neighbourhood (the city calls it a “priority” neighbourhood), the class was FREE last year and the year before and every year before that. Not only free, but they offered free childcare, which I actually used for a while until Naomi Rivka got too old. Then, along came Rob Ford, with his plan to “cut the waist,” I mean, “waste.”

At first, they said there would be a small “user fee” for the course. Fine; I can handle a user fee. When I asked three weeks before registration last year what the fee would be, nobody could tell me. Then, registration opened up and I found out: no user fee, but a $70 course fee. The aerobics class had gone from $0 to $70 overnight. For me, this was no problem, because we are pre-approved for Welcome Policy funding, and I signed up anyway, hoping a few other people would as well.

As it turned out, I didn’t get to a lot of classes last fall. The ones I did go to were sparsely-attended: maybe 5 people, instead of last year’s 30. And now, for this session, they called tonight to let me know they didn’t get enough people to go ahead with the class. Well, duh! There are a lot of numbers between $0 and $70… did they think about trying one of THOSE???

But that’s not the funny ironic part when I hear Mr. “Swanky Etobicoke Mansion” Ford saying we should all hit the gym – or whatever. Here’s that bit: although we are preapproved for Welcome Policy funding, now that they’ve informed me that my (funded) class is cancelled, I still can’t switch to another class… because the funding has already RUN OUT for this session. So I’m stuck – no class. (y’all knew already I had no class, right?)

Funding always seems to run out very quickly, like within the first couple of days of registration – in fact, I’ve been warned before to call in right away when registration opens so we don’t miss it. Now, these are not people lying and cheating to use up the funding… these are folks who are preapproved annually based on need, who are still being told that they can’t take classes, join gym programs, and so on.

Apparently, me, my family, and our economic ilk are a big part of the “waist” Mr. Ford is trying to cut.

Still, I wish him luck in his own personal weight-loss regimen if only for the humour value. In one of the funniest things I’ve seen in a long time, he’s asked Torontonians to make a pledge to charity, any charity, for each pound shed (and by the way, somebody might want to tell him that Canada switched to metric back in the ‘70s). There’s a list on his special site of the charities who will benefit from his loss which contains many smirk-worthy entries.

A few I spotted: the “Cacti Association Of Canada,” the “Endin Diabeetus Fund,” “Small Wooden Shoe” (oh – this is a legitimate theatre company!) and “Matt Foley Motivational Speaking” (apparently named for a fictitious character of the late Chris Farley, though I didn’t know this). Several gay and gay-positive causes show up on the list: the 519 Community Centre, Pride Toronto, Casey House, various AIDS beneficiaries. There’s also a pledge to “The Animal Farm,” which is probably a semi-literate reference to the animals of Riverdale Farm, one of the city’s resources that Mr. Ford would dearly love to shut down.

Oh, and someone named Sam X has pledged to support “The Idea Fund Of Sam Xu.” Let me know where to send my cheque!

(Apparently, I’m not the only one to have noticed this phenomenon… but it seems someone on Mr. Ford’s team has as well, because most of the funnier “charities” have been edited off the list… click the picture to see a bigger version. I wish I’d thought of “save the libarys”!)

We Torontonians may no longer be able to afford to stay fit and healthy, but we are rich in chuckles, and out of the depths of winter’s despair, Rob Ford has come through for us as a beacon of guiding light once again.

Chapter Books Reading…

2012-01-22T14:49:00.001-05:00

So I slipped it into this post a couple of weeks ago but nobody set off fireworks, so here it is again:

We finished The Long Winter!!! It was a very, very, VERY hard book to get through. The rollicking image of winter fun and snowball fighting on the cover is a LIE, I tell you. They’re just plain lying if they tell you this book will be any fun at all. It’s a town of barely 100 people slowly, slowly, painfully starving to death over a vicious prairie winter that lasts from, I believe, early October until May.

In fact, if you’re fascinated by such things, there’s actually an adult nonfiction book, The Long Hard Winter of 1880-81: What was it Really Like?, that sounds like it will happily fill you in on all the gruesome details.

The Laura Ingalls Wilder book itself is aimed at kids, so everything comes out fine in the end – nobody starves, and the family eats the very last of the grain basically the minute the five-months-overdue train pulls into the station. Which is quite a relief after about thirty chapters with titles like, “No food still,” “More cold” and “Another blizzard.” (I just made these up but they are representative of the actual titles, I promise.)

We only had three chapters to go, chapters we were all probably dreading, and then, mysteriously, we lost the book (which happens a lot around here). So the week I lost my voice, I cheated and found an unabridged audiobook version and let the reader finish it for us. Yay!

As we always do, we’re currently taking a break before diving into the next book, Little Town on the Prairie, to enjoy another Roald Dahl classic, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. When we’re done, I’ll pick one of the film versions for us to watch together, too.

We’ve also put our Magic Tree House books on hold, right between Day of the Dragon King and Viking Ships at Sunrise. Instead, we’re reading the first book in a much more serious series from the same author, Mary Pope Osborne, called Tales from the Odyssey – we’re currently on Book #1, The One-Eyed Giant.

There are 6 books altogether, which offer an excellent retelling of the Odyssey stories except for the fact that there are no images except a map of the Mediterranean inside the front cover and pictures of the major gods inside the back cover. (I told GZ he has to imagine what the pictures would look like inside his brain.) The series is also available as a two-book set (Book 1 and Book 2 sold separately) instead of six different books.

We are also – intermittently – diving into mythology with a smaller Greek Myths book (I gave up on D’Aulaire for the time being, though it’s a beautiful book, because the stories are long and don’t have definite starting and stopping points).

Finally, still slogging away through two more: Fifty Famous Stories Retold – we have already gone through the entire book, but the kids don’t realize it because it took so long; and Child’s History of the World, in which we just passed the Year 0, so we have now entered CE dates (which the book calls AD, but I change them as I read). We have been reading the first since last winter and the second since this past summer. I figure we’ll read Fifty Famous Stories one more time all the way through and move on to another Ambleside selection; as for the history book, I’m hoping it will take us about two years to finish, making it my most ambitious read-aloud project yet.

So there we are – our current read-alouds! (And please, PLEASE forgive the links if you find them annoying. As you know, I get most of my books free from the public library, but the linkies in posts like these go straight to Amazon, help you know exactly what I’m talking about, and actually earn me tiny bits of real-world money towards consumables and the rare must-have books I can’t get at the library. So if you’re interested, DO click the links!)

Now ask me if it gets any easier to keep on slogging away at these; no, actually, better you shouldn’t ask. There are few things I dread more than reading chapter books aloud. I’m okay with short picture books, but with chapter books, there’s the stress of “where’s the book? wasn’t it in my bedroom?” and so on, on top of keeping the thread of the plot active in my mind and theirs. I know, these sound like little and dumb things to complain about.

But, no, it doesn’t seem to be getting any easier… reading aloud is SLOW and inefficient (I’d rather be REALLY reading, quietly, to myself!) and chances are, I’ve already read whatever it is anyway. I haven’t come to love it, as snuggle-up time, like some parents do. But at least I get to brag about it on here and hope that you-all will understand that I am doing my very best with this to overcome my own lazy nature.

Click here for more about our chapter books, past, present and future.

Now that I’ve had my turn, anyone else have any chapter-book accomplishments they’d like to crow about???

Matchy, matchy… FREE Printable “Ten Plagues” / מַכּוֹת memory card game

2012-01-22T01:44:00.001-05:00

If we used Memory games more often, and they are certainly available for ALL subjects, I suspect that this would be less effective. Since we really don’t, I hope this will be a quick, enjoyable way to practice the Hebrew names of all the Makkos (plagues).

This is just your basic Memory game, with Hebrew names printed on half the cards and beautiful pictures (taken from this Makkos Matching Game resource at chinuch.org, which you might want to check out also) on the other half of the cards. There’s also a simple graphical back to print on each page which will make them feel more like “real” cards.

Warning! There is NO English on the cards… however, the names of the plagues are fairly simple, and I will translate and transliterate them here for parents who are still working on their Hebrew:

(and by the way, I had this entire post typed and was about to post it when the computer crashed – so here I am typing these all over again…!!!)

(but just to be on the safe side, I just clicked the Save button, which is what I should have done last time)

The Ten Plagues / Makkos, Transliterated and Translated:

דָּם = dam = blood
צְפַרְדֵּעַ = tsfar-day-a = frog (yup, singular!)
כִּנִּים = kee-neem = lice
עָרוֹב = a-rov = mingled, usually translated as wild animals
דֶּבֶר = de-vayr = cattle disease
שְׁחִין = shCHEEN = boils
בָּרָד = ba-rad = hail
אַרְבֶּה = ar-bay = locusts
חֹשֶׁךְ = cho-shech = darkness
מכת בְּכוֹרוֹת = makkas b’choros = striking / plague of the firstborn (the word “death” doesn’t appear in the name of the plague)

By the way, if you’re not afraid of a few Hebrew words here and there, feel free to use these helpful narrative (story-style) parsha overviews, which I created last year for this week’s parsha (and last week’s!).

Enjoy!

To print this and dozens (hundreds?) of other Limudei Kodesh (Jewish Studies) activities including weekly parsha copywork and holiday resources, click here.
For General Studies printables – including science, art and music resources in Hebrew and English, Ambleside, composer and artist resources, click here.

Mommy (me!) is (am? do? be?) Reading

2012-01-21T23:47:00.001-05:00

The nice thing about being laid up seems to be getting some reading done…

The Virgin Cure, by Ami McKay – I was nervous about this because it’s a second novel, a follow-up to the wonderful The Birth House. There was no need to fear – it’s a rollicking, grimly fascinating exploration of the seamy underbelly of late 18-th century New York City… from a writer in Nova Scotia. (the “cure” refers to the mistaken, foolish and often-desperate belief, held by all strata of society, that relations with an unspoiled young woman would cure syphilis)
The Dirty Life, by Kristin Kimball – yet another read in the garden-memoir genre that brought you Amy Stewart’s From the Ground Up, Novella Carpenter’s Farm City, Keith Stuart’s It’s a Long Road to a Tomato and who could forget Josh Kilmer-Purcell’s The Bucolic Plague. (admission: I loved the book but can never remember the title, and every time I think of it, I have to Google “gay men farming,” which I am ashamed to admit does the trick nicely every time)

(from the title, Ted was certain this book would be more exciting than it was, even though the cover PICTURE depicts a smiling woman holding a chicken… so I don’t know exactly WHAT he expected.)

Me, Myself and Bob by Phil Vischer – one of my new Kobo books, and I thought it would be just the story of the author’s faith and maybe a little backstory about his kids’ shows (VeggieTales), but there’s actually a lot of the techy-geekery in here that I love… he’s talking about using SoftImage on an Alias workstation, and I know exactly what all those things are and more. Also, as part of the backstory, his mother told him he couldn’t make Jesus a vegetable… which ruled out doing any version of the Gospels. That explains why they’ve come out with so many lovely, high-quality stories from the Tanach (Jewish Bible) instead! (the book also explains why veggies, but I won’t spoil it for you…)

We’ll see if I keep at it now that I’m feeling a bit stronger, physically, and able to run around a little bit more, or (as the case may be) sit at the computer for longer stretches without screaming out in agony due to a rampant UTI. Antibiotics good… big black-and-yellow stripey ones… mmm… antibiotics! (to my credit, or whatever, I held out for 5 days before realizing I probably wasn’t going to cure it on my own with a regimen of more sensible bedtimes…)

Cheesed!

2012-01-20T14:11:00.001-05:00

My cheesemaking kit arrived! (caveat for the kosher consumer – not everything from this site has a hechsher; please email them if you’re not sure and although I bought a kit, I actually had to order “doubles” of some of the items just to make sure everything was under hashgacha)

My first concern was our milk… the Jewy Mehadrin 1% milk we usually buy says right on it “kashered at 212 degrees,” which I’ve never understood (kashered? is it a pot? an oven? was it trayfe to begin with?). According to most experts, whatever it might mean, that kind of temperature makes the milk completely inappropriate for any kind of cheesemaking. Both because the high temperature ruins the proteins in the milk and because it’s low-fat, therefore, mostly water. And yet…

Here’s my first experiment with a quick (30-minute) mozzarella.

Heat the milk with citric acid; add rennet. Let it sit for a while, then slice. I was so impressed that this sliced up beautifully – just like in all the how-to’s I’ve been reading all week in anticipation!

Sure looks like a lot, doesn’t it? Apparently, it was all on the top. After a bit more heating and stirring, I shlurped out the cheese… not very much indeed, considering I started with 2 litres of milk!

I knew this would happen, because I’ve made paneer before, but I was expecting a bit better yield with the professional additives…

Heat it in the microwave to the proper temperature and then, well – kneading! I love kneading!!! At first, it was grainy (like small-curd cottage cheese or ricotta) and I was feeling discouraged, but then, once it hit the right temperature – it STRETCHED!! (according to this website – which isn’t kosher, by the way - it should be “almost too hot to touch,” which is a wildly varying thing depending on how much you handle hot things, and I, like most of the how-to writers, found I had to wear gloves)

With a few more trips to the microwave, it actually started forming those little strings you see in mozzarella. Eventually, it seemed as close as I was going to get to the beautiful glossy ball in the pictures, so I had Ted mix up a quickie marinade with olive oil, salt and a few herbs in a baggie, and I tossed the new mozzarella in.

I had a ton of whey left over, and most of the suggestions (add it to soups, stews, breads) for what to do with it are not all that helpful in a kosher home. Most people suggest you make ricotta (which is, after all, the Italian word for “re-cooked” whey), but when I tried, I only got about two tablespoons worth of milk solids left in the cheesecloth, and it wasn’t that flavourful. So I’ll try something different next time. (They do suggest bathing in it for glowingly beautiful skin… would that make my bathtub dairy?? Could we still use it during Pesach?)

Anyway, I took a tiny taste, and my reaction wasn’t “extraordinary,” but it was pretty good. I’m saving the rest for Shabbos, and I’ll report back then!

Postscript: Hmm… a bit bland (needs salt?) and a bit too hard. From the braided mozzarellas we’ve been able to buy here, I was expecting something a little softer. Anyway, I’ll try a different recipe next time and keep on reporting back until I’ve got it perfect. I don’t love cheese, but I do love knowing where food comes from and how it’s made. I don’t think this will become an avocation (or another blog) the way bread has, but I do find the chemistry behind it fascinating…

Our Amazing No-Show Friday!

2012-01-20T14:00:00.001-05:00

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-songbook in his mouth of our “Ten Plagues” song and “The Frog Song.”

And then, this morning, with me running around on 4 hours’ sleep… everybody cancelled.

To be fair, one mama was away in Israel, so I knew she wasn’t coming. One called beforehand to let me know that her Shabbos tasks had gotten away from her and she had to stay home. At 8 months pregnant, fair enough! The other called to say she had a migraine. Interestingly, the mama who was in Israel also called: she had to come home early because her daughter has pneumonia and their insurance is pay-up-front (plus, nobody in Israel has central heating, which apparently is hell with pneumonia… ironically, she came back to Canada for the warmth). (omg, brr)

So there was nothing for it but to do our program anyway! Here they are with the froggy craft…

While we waited for the froggies’ body paint to dry… kugel time! I doubled the recipe because I figured each family could take a “real”-sized kugel home. I don’t like it when kids come home with a muffin-sized whatever-it-is that they’ve been making. So now I had a whole pot o’ rice… so we made the whole thing anyway.

Naomi got carried away sprinkling the cinnamon. I said to sprinkle “gently,” which in my mind means “not very much.” In her mind it means, “keep sprinkling, spreading the magic like pixie dust throughout kugel-land, until mommy screams to stop.” Eek. But I think I saved it just in time. This was very quick & easy to throw together, and into the oven it went.

And here are the froggies – dry and cute together with their little tongue/songbooks.

These were actually a bit more work than I had anticipated. They would have been do-able, but chaotic, with other kids around. As it was, we just went through them step by step. But the kids actually managed to do most of the work themselves!

(Here are the steps, if you’re curious: fold plate and use X-acto knife to cut a small slit in the centre of the fold; open plate up again and paint top of plate black, leave to dry; paint white circles on the eyes with white-out and leave to dry; cut out songbook, glue together; glue songbook to tongue; paint songbook covers red and leave to dry; paint bottom of plate green (top will still be damp; that’s okay), leave to dry; quarter-fold green construction paper and staple shut, trace kids’ “W” fingers and cut out (it’s 1/4-folded, so you get 4 hands in one step!); accordion-fold the long “bouncy” rear legs and glue to feet; glue short “plain” front legs to feet; use heavy black marker to outline white eye circles and add pupils; use Aleen’s Tacky or Quick-Grab glue to attach eyes and legs to back of plate (might still be a bit damp; that’s okay). When everything is completely dry, fold plate shut again and insert songbook “tongue.” Phew!!!)

By the way, this DOES meet my main criterion for a likeable kids’ craft: you can toss it right in the composter when you’re done. Okay, all that white-out and paint and glue might not be the BEST thing for the earth… but at least there’s none of that heinous craft foam. Or craft foam STICKERS. They’re so cute, and I have probably bought them before, and the kids love using them, but… craft foam stickers are evil.

For our parsha reading, I found and blew up these little “plague” images and put them on popsicle sticks… I was planning to have the kids scramble around and find them during the parsha reading. Gavriel Zev loves anything with numbers on it, and he happily spent some time after we read the parsha just arranging these on his own.

(Here’s the image I used, but it’s kind of small, so grainy when I blew them up… I also like this one, though you’d want to crop the rings off) (oh – also the one I used didn’t have a picture for darkness, so I just pasted a pair of eyes onto a black rectangle! I may not be able to draw to save my life, but I’m Wonder Woman with cut and paste!)

We finished up a great morning with the G-dcast parsha video and, by request, the Makkos / Ten Plagues animation Naomi & I made last year (she was hoping to show this to her friends). Then, a narration / illustration!

(The illustrations were all heavily influenced by her current private-reading chapter book: Roald Dahl’s The Witches… that’s why they have extra-large nostrils and bald heads. And by the way, YES, this is something new: she is reading a chapter book BY HERSELF. I go in after naptime / quiet reading time and she gives me these little plot summaries. Awesome! I seriously never thought we’d make it to this point.)

There are so few Fridays where I am awake, showered, dressed by a reasonable hour with an actual plan of what to accomplish with the kids. So yes, we’re all disappointed; it would have been fun to have company. But it was STILL fun, and I’m surprisingly grateful to have had this opportunity to feel a bit “together” with my kids on a busy winter Friday!

Welcome, Reader #80!

2012-01-18T01:07:00.001-05:00

I rarely call attention to these little milestones, but I noticed today that sometime over the weekend, I passed 80 followers. This is very happy news!

Because now I can reveal my top-secret plan to… well, okay, I have no plan.

But I do have some nice new ruby slippers to unveil (as seen originally on my birthday wish list)! They look weird, kind of saggy-baggy, but I assure you, they are made of wool and supremely comfortable.

Nice and comfy – yay! I wanted lace-up shoes because – since reading FlyLady (hey, I said I read it, I didn’t say I live it!) – I don’t feel “together” without lace-up shoes. The truth is, the laces aren’t necessary; there’s elastic on the inside. But I do feel more organized once I’m laced up and ready to “take on the day.”

So there it is – my Deep Thought for the day. Which is… welcome, reader #80!!! (and everyone else who hasn’t been formally welcomed)

Birthday Gnocchi

2012-01-16T23:48:00.001-05:00

I get hungry just looking at these pictures! Very time-consuming to sit down and make these on Thursday night, but oooh – ever-so-rewarding to eat.

I used six whole organic baked potatoes (once baked, scoop middles out for the recipe and let the kids devour the skins with butter – zero cleanup!), plus two cups of frozen pumpkin mush, loosely following this recipe (so no cinnamon), but not quite so shmancy. Next time, I’d skip the recipe. Mix the potatoes, pumpkin, one egg, and enough flour to make it into dough. Let sit 20 minutes or so, roll into log.

Prod with a fork until they resemble mutilated marshmallow peanuts (remember marshmallow peanuts?).

Lay out on lovely tight-woven, well-floured couches (aka flour-sack towels) to let them dry a bit before boiling.

Groan, beg your loyal husband to boil and toss them in butter while you sit and play Bejeweled.

Await your birthday feast! Mmm….

Three new FREE printables this week

2012-01-16T00:32:00.001-05:00

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 updated them with a more general look and feel. They are in .docx format, so you can modify them in any way you like!

Enjoy!!!

To download the Gadol/Katan cut-paste worksheet or the Canadian currency posters, plus dozens (hundreds?) of other General Studies printables in Hebrew and English – including science, art and music resources, Ambleside composers and artists, click here and scroll down.
For parsha worksheets and other Limudei Kodesh (Jewish Studies) activities including weekly parsha copywork and holiday resources, click here.

Yummy Books for my Kobo

2012-01-15T01:15:00.001-05:00

$100 birthday gift card that I can ONLY spend on books for my Kobo (plus assorted coupon codes here and here that get me 25-30% off – oh, I just noticed they have one right on the front page, too).

What a challenge! If it was a real bookstore card, I might waste it on Melissa & Doug stuff, like the time I bought the magnetic skeleton play set – which wasn’t exactly a waste because they still love it…). This also comes at a good time, because I’m not really loving the Kobo, and I suspect that getting a few new books for it may be just the ticket, as they say.

Warning: Some of the choices here are religious-freaky-weirdo stuff, because the library doesn’t carry those. It’s kind of funny; I don’t believe in conspiracies, but if it’s a book about atheism or science or psychology or being gay or trans or polyamourous or anything of a liberalish non-traditional kind of nature, they have it in spades. But if it’s about God, faith or the Bible (or – gasp – Jesus!), they probably DON’T carry it… “Dawkins? No problem!”

(I read Dawkins’ gorgeous Magic of Reality a couple of weeks ago, but I’m still processing, and may be for a good long while…)

So forgive me if this list seems weird or eclectic. I’m trusting you not to laugh at me!

No-brainer: Amy Stewart’s gardening classic From the Ground Up. Just finished reading her Wicked Bugs over Shabbos! No idea why the library doesn’t carry this one cuz it’s not Christian, that I can tell. Anyway, now I own it… kind of.
Celia Rivenbark, We’re Just Like You, Only Prettier. Just because she makes me laugh, okay? We don’t have to be Albert Einstein, David Suzuki or Steven Hawking every single minute.
Ruth Beechick et al. Homeschooling Methods. From the editors of The Old Schoolhouse magazine, which, disappointingly, just stopped publishing a print edition. The reviews look good and it’s always helpful to expand my awareness of other homeschooling ideas beyond my own little box.
Phil Vischer. Me, Myself and Bob. From the creator of VeggieTales, a memoir of his own faith, dream, etc.
Evolving in Monkey Town. Spiritual awakening and a girl coming to grips with her own (and her town’s) fundamentalist past.
Churched: One Kid’s Journey Towards God Despite a Holy Mess. Ditto – only this one’s a boy. See, this is the kind of faith-based stuff the Toronto Public Library avoids carrying.

Here’s one I’m still debating:

Cathy Duffy’s classic 100 Top Picks for Homeschool Curriculum: Choosing the Right Curriculum and Approach for your Homeschool Style. It’s tempting, because I would like to read it, and if I buy it at the Kobo store, it will be in an easily-readable ePub format. On the other hand, it’s very hard to mark your place, flip around, or search within books on my Kobo. What to do?? (okay, I bought it)

Argh! I can’t stand the way the Kobo bookstore doesn’t let you keep anything in your cart. It is designed to let you buy ONE book at a time… which makes the promo codes difficult to use, because it’s usually one per person.

And the amazing thing is, 7 books in and I still have almost $50 left on the card. Yay!!! HB2Meeeeeee! <3

(okay, second amazing thing is, 7 books in and no trees have died; that is a cool thing, too)

Anyone else having fun feeding their electronic reading thingies…?

Happy birthday to me…

2012-01-13T11:38:00.001-05:00

Shufflin’ Off…

2012-01-09T19:45:00.001-05:00

Our day in Buffalo, just me and big girl!

What’s in Buffalo, you ask? (actually, technically, Niagara Falls, but I don’t really get where the borders are around there… we just go wherever’s closest to the border crossing)

Grits, condensed soups, and “cheez” galore!!!

Fun new discoveries!

My favourite cream at Dollar Tree:

In fact… all of Dollar Tree! OMG, the candy you can buy for $1! No wonder it’s a nation of fatsos!

The cereal aisle was a bit of a disappointment, but Kellogg’s has this new “pillows-o-chocolate” offering that seems ripped off directly from the shelves of an Israeli grocery store:

Oooh, and this Malted Milk drink mix I’ve never seen before which tastes almost like Horlicks.

Not a new discovery, but for fakin’ bacon, there’s really nothing like Bac-O’s!!!

Other “staples” that made the trip well worth the $19 we got dinged at Customs: Fleischmann’s pareve unsalted margarine (sticks!), pair of shoes for Elisheva, $2.99 classic Pyrex pie pans, $1.98 candy thermometer, and undershirts – genuine vest-type undershirts for both Naomi Rivka and Gavriel Zev; I have been searching forever and they are impossible to find here. Those came from Target (see above), where I’d never been before.

But oooh – wanty! A stop in the Coach outlet convinced me – momentarily, you understand, and I have since recovered – that I will absolutely not be able to survive a day longer without this bag:

It was on sale for something like $70, and it’s not available for less than about $125 online, so I guess it was a great deal… sigh. Nevertheless, I survived and life goes on. It was just a surreal moment for both of us, because I’m not really a “bags and shoes” kind of gal AT ALL.

Anyway, it was beautiful weather for driving and we even stopped and saw the falls (Canadian side, of course!), and the beautiful lights of Niagara Falls, and still made it home in time for wing night with my beloved and bickering family. I have been promising a mommy-big-girl trip to Buffalo for SO long, and she’s been asking for so long. So now it’s done and good times were had by all (except some minor skirmishes over who’d control the MP3 jack when).

Menu Plan Monday: 14 Tevet, 5772

2012-01-08T23:04:00.001-05:00

Why the weird dates? Click here to find out!

Welcome! We’re a homeschooling Jewish family of 6 (2 parents, 4 kids) and all our meals are kosher. Read my MPM intro here or just visit my big ol’ list of Everything We Eat. We eat mostly vegetarian, and I try to include one vegan meal every single week – on Vegan Vursday, of course!

As always when I’m feeling busy and uninspired, I think I’ll steal a page from Tiffany’s book, over at Frugal Gourmet Mom. She always has something “cooking” in the kosher yummy family food department!!! Mmm… check out Wednesdays Roasted Asian Salmon! And Tuesday’s meatballs were inspired by her too, indirectly.

Sunday (today): Wings and other meat-type substances at Mommy’s house, with a side of bicker…

Monday: Shells pasta, easy/lazy pasta meal, yum

Tuesday (Ted late): Moroccan meatballs (like these ones) with fruity couscous

Wednesday: Tiffany’s Roasted Asian Salmon with rice and stir-fry veg on the side

Thursday (Ted off, COC Noon Concert): Homemade gnocchi (like the ones I made way back when…), with butter and parsley – not exactly vegan, but YUM!

Friday (Shabbos): TBA!!!

There! I am officially back on the menu-plan Monday wagon. What’s cooking by you this week???

Story of the World – Assyrian / Ashurbanipal History Clay Model Project

2012-01-08T02:10:00.001-05:00

We read this week (well, heard in the Jim Weiss audiobook) about Ashurbanipal, the tyrant who enjoyed hunting lions in his spare time. Secretly, I wanted to make a lamassu (lamassus?), the winged-lion-man-bull guardian creature (see right) which is archetypical of this period of Mesopotamian history. BUT as you’ll see, I quickly determined that this was WAY beyond either Naomi’s or my sculpting ability, so we stuck with lions.

We did this project after Shabbos, which is just a beautiful time, when everybody is fed, rested, refreshed, slightly restless and ready for… well, we’re open to pretty much anything!

Two new or newish techniques I decided to teach her through this project. The first was that these lions were built around an armature – in this case, balls of tinfoil for the body and the head. We rolled flat “sheets” of clay which we wrapped around the balls of tinfoil. The other technique was using water to smooth the clay, which isn’t so much a technique as a necessity of sculpting with clay, but Naomi had apparently never seen this before and was fascinated by how easy it was to erase lines, booboos and imperfections just by trickling some water over her lion’s head. These lions were formed on rectangular clay bases, and should be pretty nice when dry.

She used some extra clay to make a “stamp,” similar to one we did for an earlier Mesopotamian project I apparently never blogged, where we made Sumerian seals.

More shots of Naomi’s lion (a bit hard to see because I stuck it on tinfoil so she wouldn’t glue it to the tabletop with all her water-trickling!):

My own lion – looking more like a dog than anything else… and a pretty sorry-looking dog, at that:

This project was inspired by a book I took out from the library called Step into Mesopotamia, which I also reserved under the name Passport to the Past: Mesopotamia, not realizing they are one and the same. The projects are mostly papier mache and look pretty interesting, but this is not a good time of year for papier mache around here, because it would probably go moldy before it would ever dry inside our damp wintry house.

The original lion project calls for weighted stones to be used as the base for the sculpture instead of tinfoil, but we couldn’t find any stones in the house and the tinfoil served very nicely, though these lions will not be very effective paperweights once they’re dry.

Oh – whether or not you attempt this project or something similar, if you’re studying Mesopotamia with your kids, you MUST listen to this song!

I’m a They Might Be Giants fan from waaaaay back, but this song’s reference to Mohenjo-Daro totally clinches it!

(and I just can’t wait ‘til we learn about Constantinople!)

Our Week in Homeschooling: 13 Teves, 5772

2012-01-08T01:49:00.001-05:00

Yes, we really DID do school this week. In fact, because we were still in the break between Parks & Rec 9-week sessions, we probably did MORE school than we usually do, and certainly more than we will accomplish next week.

However… I mentioned that I’ve been sick and miserable; I actually woke up voiceless on Tuesday and wasn’t able to speak at all until Friday morning. So our emphasis this week was on subjects that teach themselves, anything that comes in audiobook form, and anything I could teach in a whisper.

A couple of highlights:

LATIN! The kids are both loving our Song School Latin program. We’re in Week 6, and so far, this program is so light it doesn’t really feel like school. They both beg to do more than one song a week, but I figure we’ll pace ourselves and it’s great keeping it light and easy.

Here they are singing this week’s song with the help of these puppets. The puppets are in the back of the book, but I copied them onto cardstock for durability, and made a set for each kid. I wasn’t able to sing along, but you might hear me croaking in the background.

We actually managed to cover our regular history and then some thanks to the Story of the World audiobook. We’ve had this all along, but usually only listen to it in the car to go over material we have already learned. This week, it became our main history resource, and we managed to cover an entire chapter. Narrated by the talented Jim Weiss, this audiobook makes the characters and stories come to life.

However, I do find that – entertaining as his version is – the story doesn’t sink in for Naomi Rivka as much as it does when I am reading it myself “live”. I had to remind her of several details when going over the questions in the Activity Guide, which I rarely have to do when I have read the section in question myself.

Still, she was able to narrate the sections we “read” and we not only completed the mapwork in the Activity Guide, but she also marked the locations of Phoenicia and Carthage on the wipe-off laminated “Bible Lands Activity Maps” I bought at the beginning of the year. So far, I have only used one map from the set, a generic “middle east” map that shows almost all the areas we have learned about so far. I hope we can begin incorporating these into our studies more regularly.

Covered a bit of “canned curriculum” via the Evan-Moor TeacherFileBox website (currently 30% off at Homeschool Buyers Co-op, by the way!): Daily Science and Beginning Geography. Both are included with my subscription, so I just print off the pages I want and away we go. The geography is a good curriculum that covers the basics and a BIT more, but I don’t really love the science. I feel it talks down to kids and tends to be a bit twaddly. (“Do plants have mouths?" “Write the word OCEAN on the line below.”) They have a better science book on the site that I thought I’d like to try, Read and Understand Science, but it starts to involve so much printing it’s not really worthwhile.

All of these are in addition to two Evan-Moor selections that we are using every day and enjoying immensely: Daily Word Problems (Grade 1) and A Word a Day (Grade 3). If I didn’t have TeacherFileBox, I’d probably find a free way to incorporate a word of the day, but since I do, I like that all the work is done for me. I usually read the word to the kids over breakfast and Naomi or I write it on the whiteboard. The program includes review questions if we feel like doing them once we have learned all 4 words for the week.

The Daily Word Problems are animal-based math questions that are usually very easy and sometimes more challenging. Sometimes, they get super-hard out of the blue, which annoys me to no end. One question mentioned casually that the armspan of an animal was one-and-a-half times its height – in a grade one book which had previously not even mentioned fractions. Oy! I also don’t like the fact that all the measurement examples are in inches, feet and miles. But I like the practice with word problems, and she generally enjoys translating the questions into number sentences. At the end of the week, there’s the reward of three or four silly animal “trivia” facts, most of which she knows already, so I ham up the educational value of these facts.

The Word Problems book is in addition not only to our regular JUMP Math 2.1 book, which she’s enjoying a lot, and also to the Verbal Math Lesson book, which we continue to work through at the rate of about 20-25 problems a day.

After I blogged enthusiastically about a sample I’d looked over, they sent me a free PDF, as promised on their site, but I decided it would cost so much to print that it was worth investing in a (cheap) hard copy of the book. I’m very glad I did, though some people would probably enjoy this as an eBook they can just scroll through on their eReader, Kindle, Kobo or whatever, and take on the go. My Kobo doesn’t love PDFs, sadly, so we are enjoying this resource on paper.

Naomi generally enjoys the Verbal Math lessons tremendously, though when I had Ted take over for me one day this week, she burst into tears when he asked her to count backwards from 100 to 30. Generally, though, she hates doing “school with Abba” because she feels like she’s missing out on the tons of fun that they usually have together. So that may have been why she was crying. Certainly, she did the counting very easily once she got started.

Ted also did logic puzzles with Gavriel Zev and Naomi – Naomi worked independently on the next analogies puzzle in her First Time Analogies book, while GZ did a basic one from Color, Cut, Paste Logic. Now that his reading is so excellent, he can pretty much do these all on his own.

GZ also spent some time this week starting his new “handwriting” book – the badly-titled Get Set for School, from the Handwriting Without Tears series. I had this book for Naomi, too, but found that because she was such an eager writer, she didn’t really NEED it and I think we ended up skipping into the next book up pretty quickly. GZ needs it more and enjoyed the first couple of lessons, which were mostly “pick up the crayon and scribble” type lessons. Coincidentally, he also started working in the similarly-titled but unrelated, Get Set for the Code, Book B in the “Explode the Code primer” series. It’s nice to see that this book escalates slightly in difficulty.

I know this all sounds like a LOT of academics for a 4-year-old, but please believe me when I tell you that, all told, it’s still less than half an hour a week. Oh – but he did have one other exciting development, his brand-new Alef-Bais Wiggle Worm, which I’ve left for a blog post all by itself!!!

Because of my missing voice, I had Ted fill in for me two days running with First Language Lessons, which I am finally starting to enjoy. We’re on Lesson 50 of 100 in the book, and we’re FINALLY past the “definition of a noun” stage, which I was warned on the boards is the hardest part of the book to get through.

Yes, it’s important to know that “a noun is the name of a person, place thing or idea,” but most people would consider it torture to make your Grade One student repeat that fact three times a day for 40-some-odd lessons in a row.

The funny thing is, as painful as I found it, Naomi never EVER saw it as a chore, and would (and still does, when requested) leap up from her seat to announce the definition to the world. She also loves reciting the poetry, though the literary quality of the “poems” in this first book is not exactly of the highest calibre. Susan Wise Bauer says this is typical of the logic stage (ie Grades 1-4) - others refer to this as the “poll-parrot” stage, the age where you can fill them up with facts and they drink it all in happily.

Anyway, we’re past nouns and onto pronouns: “a pronoun is a word that takes the place of a noun.” Ted did two of the lessons for me and I really appreciated the scripted nature of the program, which meant I could just hand him the book, point at the lesson, and let him take over. He seemed vaguely amused to be teaching a grammar lesson, with probably zero background in grammar since his own grammar-school days, but the two lessons he did went very smoothly.

Other audio resources I enjoyed tremendously:

The Long Winter. We FINALLY finished this Little House book!!! Thanks to an audiobook version, though the narrator had a bit of a strange western accent.
Fifty Famous Stories Retold. We were able to continue listening to the story of Dick Whittington and his cat, thanks to this FREE LibriVox recording.
Day of the Dragon King. Another chapter book we managed to complete with the audiobook, which includes the full text of Books 9-16. I still have this out from the library, so we may continue with the audiobook version into our next book while my throat recovers.
Many, many short “old-favourite” picture books, including Miss Rumphius, Bedtime for Frances, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No-Good, Very Bad Day, Caps for Sale, The Tub People and Arnold Lobel’s Frog and Toad stories. What incredible sanity-savers for kids trapped at home by cold weather and a sick mama!!!

Whenever we “read” an audiobook this week, I would try to sit with the kids and hold the actual book, so we can still look at the pictures together. Plus, it would be WAY too convenient for me to go off and do my own thing while they were listening to the story. Sometimes I let one of the kids hold the book, though, so they can turn the pages.

We had to skip science altogether this week, because I didn’t have any audio track to go along with our main Apologia science book. Hopefully, we’ll be back on track with that this week!

Meanwhile, we rounded out our week with one of the near-the-end-of-the-book lessons from Draw Write Now. I think Naomi is really moving beyond the lessons in this first book. I may ditch the rest and move on to Book 8, which we used last week to draw the echidna we’d spotted at the zoo. It was nice to draw the bunny from two different angles, but Naomi Rivka was in a big huge hurry to run back to her room and play with her Barbies, so she only put minimal effort into these.

Here’s last week’s echidna – a bit more of an interesting project, and we were both happy that they turned out looking just the way the one at the zoo looked!

I have totally left out any mention of Jewish studies, but we actually started a new passuk last week in Chumash and managed to accomplish quite a bit in Hebrew as well. I seriously think EVERY Hebrew program out there could learn a ton from Song School Latin – why aren’t my kids begging to learn more Hebrew every single week???

But Naomi is in love with K’tav B’kalut, her new Hebrew-handwriting book, which I’d promised her we’d start in January. This is a collaborative effort between the Handwriting Without Tears lady, who doesn’t read or write Hebrew, and a Hebrew teacher who wanted a program that was centred around the same principles. This program starts as many letters as possible with the basic “reish” shape and adds from there, building vocabulary and introducing gentle copywork along the way.

I am very antsy to finish up Migdalor’s Kriyah v’Od 2. The book has been good enough, but I am very much looking forward to our new program, Shalom Ivrit 2 , and I think Naomi will enjoy it more, too. The book just has a far more contemporary, less cluttered feel.

Our other two Hebrew books continue to be an excellent fit. I’m sorry I don’t mention them more often, because I love talking about programs that work well for us, so I’ll just put in a shameless but happy plug here for L’shon HaTorah (which apparently has its own website now!) and Bright Beginnings.

I emailed a while ago to find out if they were planning any other workbooks in the Bright Beginnings series. This one covers only the first part of Lech Lecha, so is of very limited usefulness beyond this year. Here’s their reply: “the second book is in the beginning stages of production and we would hope to have it finished god willing for the coming school year.” I will follow up with them in a few months, but right now, we’re not even halfway through this book, so it’s all fine with me.

Speaking of next books, however, and bringing us full circle back to the beginning of my post… the author of Song School Latin is planning a new book for “early in 2011,” so one reason I want to pace our lessons and not do more than one a week is to give the publisher time to get the NEXT book out so we can enjoy that one for a while before I decide if we’re going to leap formally into a SERIOUS Latin program.

Until then, Vale – or, assuming I have more than one reader - Valete!

Welcome Back, Alef-Bais Wiggle Worm!!!

2012-01-08T01:46:00.001-05:00

If you’ve been with me for a while, you’ll remember way back to the fall of 2009, when I started this super-cute Alef-Bais Wiggle Worm project with Naomi Rivka. We added one letter to it each week, learning a new letter and “alef-bais song” every week and occasionally learning words or doing projects when I had the energy (another post here). At the end of our study, after 22 weeks and 22 letters, we even made a special party, an alef-bais “siyum” and a video, starring Naomi Rivka herself! (see my videos for the occasion here)

Well, that was her “official JK year,” and I figure since Gavriel Zev is now JK-age, he needs a wiggle worm of his own!

I cut out the 23 little circles plus a tail, and Ted mounted them in the same spot on the wall, by the ceiling. He didn’t realize what he was doing, but mounted them in the oddest way, so that instead of a wiggle worm, it looks more like a “zig zag worm,” but Gavriel Zev is thrilled to bits nevertheless…

This week, we officially started with Alef… appropriate for me because I lost my voice on Monday and wasn’t able to speak or make any noise, let alone sing a song to go with alef. So a silent week, for a silent letter. Hopefully, I will have my voice back to normal for this Monday when we begin with the letter Bais and the song Baruch HaMakom, a “bais” tradition going waaaaay back to YM’s JK year!

I am also looking forward to doing more kinesthetic activities this time around with GZ, because he’s so much more of a “touchy” learner. He would definitely enjoy doing plasticine letters or writing in split peas in the bottom of a basin. Naomi tends to be more visual and impatient – like me, once she “knows” something, she doesn’t like being told it again and again. GZ, on the other hand, learns quickly but still enjoys touching, touching and hearing things over and over.

So it’s the same project, but very different kids, and I’m looking forward to 22 weeks of alef-bais learning fun!

Happy Birthday, Sweet 16

2012-01-08T00:03:00.001-05:00

Almost a week old already, but I’ve been sick all week and haven’t had a chance to get pics off the camera until now.

Just what every 16-year-old girl wants… her parents riffing endlessly and tiresomely on the Harry Potter theme! First, a handpainted-by-Mommy (that would be moi) DIY puzzle - “Wish you a Very Harry Birthday!”

Baked potatoes slathered with chili, sour cream, cheese, chives (supper by special request of the birthday girl!)… slathered all over Harry’s handsome punim and served on a charming Harry n’ Pals tablecloth:

At birthday girl’s reqeust, I baked a Cherry Chip mix cake with store-bought Cream Cheese frosting (you will notice there are no pictures of Birthday Girl in this blog post… that was ALSO her very special request!).

Ted and the kiddies then embellished the cake with custom-Harry Potter-themed embellishments, such as this attractively glazed square of chocolate, and a couple of leftover Chanukah gelt pieces with colourful frosting, glaze and sprinkles.

Happy 16, sweet baby girl!!!

NEW Hebrew Calendar Lapbook: Around the Jewish Year!!!

2012-01-05T23:39:00.001-05:00

My newest lapbook project is DONE at last! Here’s a general description:

You may think the current year is 2012, but did you know that on the Jewish calendar, it's actually the year 5772? Did you know Judaism has not one, but four, special "New Years Days"? Did you know the Torah doesn't actually name the months, but only refers to them by number?
The Hebrew calendar is fascinating and meaningful for homeschoolers of any faith who are studying the origins of Hebrew civilization, the beginnings of the Jewish Bible or the modern State of Israel and Jewish People.
This lapbook is perfect for a short unit study on the Hebrew calendar. Rather than focus on a single feast or holiday, though they are mentioned, it helps reinforce the CONTEXT of the holidays within the broader Jewish culture of yesterday and today. You'll also find out your own Hebrew birthday, explore the phases of the moon, and much more!
You will probably need your own Jewish calendar resources, either books or online, but this lapbook does include a 5-page guide with tips and hints for "Teaching Around the Jewish Year", along with web links I have found helpful in my own studies.
This lapbook lets you work with your children - using texts and websites of your choice - within authentic traditions, creating a project you can both be proud to show off!

I haven’t blogged about it much, but I think the calendar is one of the most fascinating features of Judaism.

Here’s what you’ll find inside:

Months of the Year Mini-Matchbooks – this is the core of the project; 12 cute little matchbooks, one for each month, with 2 “pages” of information inside about that month.
Months of the Year Puzzle Pocket
What Month is it Now? – wheel
What Month is it Now? – fold-out mini-calendar
Seasons of Celebration Mini-Book – how the 12 months fit into the four seasons, and which holidays are celebrated in each
My Hebrew Birthday! – accordion shape book
Phases of the Moon – find out how the Hebrew date corresponds to the current moon phase!
The Number of the Year – this year is 5772… starting from…? (hint: it’s the birthday of the world!)
Months in the Torah – four “month references” to specific events directly quoted from the Torah
Welcoming a New Month – three-part flap book illustrating the three ways we herald the new month
Leap Year Fold-Out – or, in Hebrew, a “pregnant” year / שָׁנָׁה מְעֻבֶּרֶּת!
Four New Years – did you know that the Mishnah describes not one but FOUR “Jewish New Years”? These days, we only observe 2; what are the others?
Special Years Three-Flap Circle – Shemittah, Yovel, and the very rare Birkat HaChamah year…
Rosh Chodesh Long Ago Mini-Book – how was the new month observed in ancient times?
One World, Many Calendars – find out about other cultures and their calendars!
Special Dates Mini-Book – special dates from the Torah, Jewish tradition, and lots of room to write in your own.

I’m tempted to say “all this and MORE,” but really, that is all you get. Well, okay, since you insist, there’s also a nifty 5-page “Overview and Teaching Tips” guide to the Jewish Year Lapbook that should offer some guidance, web links, along with my delightfully witty banter. There are also detailed step-by-step instructions for putting the components together.

Why teach the Jewish Year? And why now?

Great unit study to fill the gap between holiday seasons!
Great for anyone, Jewish or not, religious or not, because it’s mostly cultural, with little prescriptive or religious content!
Kids coming out of Chanukah have a strong sense of Jewish identity (separateness, uniqueness, for better or for worse) – use that momentum while it’s strong to embrace a NEW Jewish subject!
The calendar is a perfect subject for kids who are interested in math and numbers, but there are tie-ins to other subjects, like history, language, even astronomy!
Oh – and don’t forget art, as you decorate your lapbook and make it utterly unique and fantastic!

Buy it right here at CurrClick!

p.s. I am gradually shifting away from my Pay-What-You-Can model, but I know all too well how scary-expensive homeschooling can be. If you see something you want but can’t pay full price, please contact me (remove the X’s first!).

Okay, seriously…?

2012-01-05T19:18:00.001-05:00

I have figured it out – at last. The question so many bar and bat mitzvah kids ask somewhat rhetorically on the bimah… “why are my parents reciting ‘baruch sheptarani’ now, instead of in a few years, when I actually reach an age when I will, in fact, be capable of taking care of myself?”

(background: “baruch sheptarani mei’ansho shel zeh” is the bracha traditionally recited by parents when a boy becomes a bar mitzvah at age 13: it means “blessed is the one who has freed me from [responsibility for punishing] this man.”)

The answer: if you tried to do it when they were 16 or 17, if you tried to actually create a meaningful ritual involving children of that age, children so near the cusp of adulthood that it aches and tugs at them every single day – they’d tell you to get lost. Only they wouldn’t say it so nicely.

They would tell you that if you were even thinking about involving them in a ritual of ANY kind, let alone something so incomprehensibly stupid as a ritual grounded in Jewish tradition, decreed by rabbis, involving historical precedent, responsibility, punishment… well, they see no reason why they need to participate. And you’d better not blog about it, either.

FREE Printable Hebrew חֲרָקִים/Insect Names & Body Parts Poster

2012-01-02T01:18:00.001-05:00

Just what the title says, because I’m tired and still sick – no intrigue with this one. We’re learning about insects, social insects and insect parts, and I really missed having a Hebrew component. These posters are NOT bilingual – I’m assuming you already know how to say bee, wasp, termite, etc., in English. :-)

The top four insects on the first page are “social insects” - חֲרָקִים חֶבְרָתִיִים – the bottom four are just regular ol’ insects. Nowhere near comprehensive; I just picked four I liked.

The body parts are similarly very straightforward. I have called the mouth a “חֶדֶק”, which is more of a “slurpy” mouth, because that’s the type of mouth that the bee depicted has. Other insects may have more of a chewy, teethy mouth. Did I mention I’m tired?

As always, if you spot a booboo in Hebrew or English, let me know. If you find a use for my stuff, let me know. I love to hear from Y-O-U!!!

To download this and dozens (hundreds?) of other General Studies printables in Hebrew and English – including science, art and music resources, Ambleside composers and artists, click here.
For Limudei Kodesh (Jewish Studies) activities including weekly parsha copywork and holiday resources, click here.

Passing Hammacher Schlemmer Thought

2011-12-29T18:31:00.001-05:00

Drooling over this Hammacher Schlemmer catalogue (which turns out to be an old one from last fall), I noticed ON THE VERY SAME PAGE ads for a “Portable Handheld Scanner” and a “Phototherapy Hairbrush.”

Now, you can’t see it clearly, but the scanner costs $99.95 compared to the hairbrush’s $199.95. And for all the proven scientific effectiveness of the phototherapy hairbrush – which, by the way, uses the same laser technology found in scanners – well, I hope you can see where I’m going with this!

That’s right: buy the scanner, use it on your hair!!!

You’re very welcome. Reading this blog just saved you $100 on this must-buy gift item; consider making a donation – we can split the difference!