cross vine, spring bloomer
At breakfast, we looked out the window and discovered that the wild crossvine had bloomed (Bignonia capreolata). Every spring it crawls up through the evil winter creeper (a euonymous that would encase the house if I let it) and over the redneck wire fence that divides our property from the neighbors’. We abandoned our gluten-free, Marmite-covered toast and ran outside to see it. Continue reading
Posted in Jewish Identity, Jewish parenting, Nature
Tagged flowers, nature, wildflowers
This article supplements my Kveller.com piece about making Shavuot Mt. Sinai Muffins with kids.
And hey, the Jerusalem Post picked it up on JPost Weekly Schmooze!
Mt. Sinai Muffin, Jordan almond Tablets, coconut grass, Twizzler slice flowers and a few Lego Israelites
Edible Crafts are one of my favorite ways to prepare for and celebrate a holiday with kids. Shavuot has built-in festive foods like cheesecake and blintzes and all things dairy—great things to make with children. But, they take time. Of course, traditional baking and mixing and whatnot with kids are core identity-building components. No argument here. But what if you are short on time, yet want to make something Jewish, thematic, edible, fun and fast?
Below are edible options both fast and slow, plus a Suggested Reading List for Shavout-y picture books.
FAST: The sweetest thing about Mt. Sinai Muffins is how versatile they can be: homemade or storebought, regular or miniature, cupcakes or muffins.
And you can decorate them as plain or fancy as you wish. See the Kveller article for tips about making your mountains grassy or rocky or snowy, and for repurposing tiny edibles as stone Tablets. Keep the relative sizes of the mountain and the Tablets in mind.
Suggestions for edible Ten Commandment Tablets
My favorites are the Jordan almonds with the first ten letters of the Hebrew alphabet, each of which represents one of the Ten Commandments. Continue reading
Posted in Edible Craft, Jewish parenting, Shavuot
Tagged candy, edible craft, Edible pen, Hebrew, Lego, Shavuot
This simple paper-folding craft is a fun way to prepare for and celebrate Shavuot, the holiday that commemorates the giving of the Ten Commandments, and by extension the whole Torah.
Ten Commandments Origami
With your help, even a young child can fold and decorate the “Tablets.” The finished product can stand up on a table or lie flat as a card.
The PDF template below has a “granite” background and two rows of Hebrew letters that will end up in the right place when folded. What’s with the letters? A common visual representation of the Ten Commandments uses the first ten letters of the Hebrew alphabet to symbolize the mitzvot (commandments). There’s a vertical row of five letters on each tablet, each one serving its ancient double-time as a number: aleph for one, bet for two, gimmel for three, and so on.
What exactly are the Ten Commandments? Well, here in the Bible Belt they are yard art (painted limestone, usually) and driveway signage (corrugated fiberglass), but they sure won’t be in Hebrew. No, really, see this link at MyJewishLearning or take a look at the Suggested Picture Book list below. If you and your child read about the Ten Commandments before you start crafting, you’ll create a more meaningful context.
Just print the template, fold as directed, and let your child fill the outlined Hebrew letters with colored pencil, crayon or marker. After you fold the first one, you’ll be better able to help your child with the next. Mail one to Bubbie, if you are lucky enough to have a Bubbie. I already sent one to ours, and she, ever the educator, said it needed pictorial representations of each mitzvot. However, I leave it to you to come up with o.5″ icons that convey “do not murder” and so on. My job is done.
Printing hint: To avoid a white border around your granite background, program your printer borderless, bleed to edge, no page scaling, or customize with zero margins. If border-avoidance gives you fits, download PDF2, which has letters only (no background).
Feel free to skip the template and let your child draw or rubber-stamp the Hebrew letters. But first, make plain paper look stony by laying it on a flat, textured surface (like a sidewalk or a piece of sandpaper) and do an unwrapped-crayon rubbing. Continue reading
Posted in Jewish parenting, Shavuot
Tagged craft, Hebrew, origami, Shavuot, Tablets, Ten Commandments, Torah
Lego Mezuzah. A Simple Version
(Update: a revised version is now here under my Jewish LEGO page)
I’m a big fan of making mezuzah cases with kids, and especially out of found materials. In my house, Lego qualify as found material, as they are found under every large piece of furniture.
Making a ritual object out of repurposed materials with your kid is fun and Jewish (two words we like to link as often as possible), useful and meaningful. In the case of a mezuzah (pun intended), we can touch the container every time we enter a room, which gives us a physical connection to the Sh’ma prayer inside and the parent-child crafted case outside. Of course, we make sure the case is mounted low enough for kids to reach, too. (And the observant among us would have a kosher mezuzah higher up on the doorframe already. For mezuzah rules, see here.)
Other materials great for making mezuzah cases are: dental floss containers, toothbrush tubes, fat straws (from bubble tea), half a walnut shell, toothpaste boxes, plastic tubing and pretty much anything longer than it is wide and that will still fit on a doorpost. Laurie Bellet, author of The Reluctant Artist, posted a great idea at the Torah Aura blog about making cases from dried-out markers.
Do see my Kveller.com article about making training scrolls (as in “not kosher” scrolls) with kids and about making mezuzah cases from used glue stick containers and empty matchboxes.
But why Lego? Why not? Lego are fantastically fun building materials. And if you love Lego, you and your kid can happily fiddle with a pile of assorted bricks and come up with all sorts of designs.
The basic requirements are that the case is: big enough to hold a scroll, has a way to open and close to insert the scroll, and has a flat back for mounting to doorpost with tape.
The flat plate base, upside down
The rest is left up to the imagination. My dream is to create a big letter Shin(the traditional decoration for any case) on the front using the tiny, single-knob round pieces, but I have so far been unable to meet this challenge.
A stylized Lego Shin
To make a three-legged Shin requires five horizontal rows of knobs, and my flat plate is only four rows wide. I made a sample Shin (at left) which could easily attach it to the front of my mezuzah, but the thick profile (I don’t have the right kind of flat plates) would protrude too far into the doorway. Continue reading
Dollhouse Purim teaparty
Kveller.com published my article on Converting Toys to Judaism. Do please read it at Kveller.com and leave a comment if you have ideas to share.
What does converting toys mean, exactly? It means we can use all the toys we already have, Jewishly. From Lego to play kitchens to Barbies to bath toys.
Here are a few more ideas and pictures I couldn’t include in the article, plus a few quotes.
“A Jewish toy is a toy that can accessorize a Jewish story.”
Torah and Bible stories, midrashim, folktales, holiday stories and the latest PJ Library selection can all be re-enacted or embellished Continue reading
Posted in Jewish Identity, Jewish parenting, Jewish Toys
Tagged Duplo, jewish toys, Lego, Passover, Playmobil, purim, sukkot, toys
Grating horseradish root for Chain. No, the goggles don't help.
Passover has passed.
Did you buy a big ol’ horseradish root at the grocery store for Maror this year?
Did you toss it on the compost heap yet?
Well, run right out and pull it back off. You can use it to grow a new one for next year’s seder. Even a small piece should take root just fine. Your kid can help you, and then proudly claim ownership at Passover.
HOW WE CAN USE IT WITH KIDS
Horseradish satisfies two places on a seder plate: Maror and Chazeret. Traditionally, a piece of the whole root is best for the Maror, while the Chazeret can be an “adulterated” version of horseradish (see next paragraph) or a bitter lettuce like Romaine. Chazeret is fine to use for the Korech step of the seder (aka the Hillel sandwich).
A much more satisfying way to refer to adulterated Maror is chrain. Chrain/chrein is Russian for horseradish, but it means the grated kind. Use it plain as a condiment or add vinegar or beet juice. I prefer the plain, as vinegar seems to turn it a weird shade of turquoise at the edges. Either way, the potency is fleeting, so don’t plan on Continue reading
Posted in Activity, Jewish Identity, Jewish parenting, Passover
Tagged activity, gardening, Maror, Passover, seder, seder plate
Origami basket for Purim Mishloach Manot
Just about any origami box, bag, envelope or basket can be a Mishloach Manot container, but this one is actually easy enough that little kids can make it.
Remember the origami paper cup pattern? It’s pretty common in schools and scouts and whatnot. This is it, plus a stapled handle. (The cup can actually hold water, as long as you don’t need it to hold water for very long…)
The presence of staples immediately disqualifies this basket from pure origami, but kids don’t really care and neither do I. Continue reading
Edible Mishkan - Tabernacle
Last week’s Parsha was Vayakel, the one where the Israelites build the Mishkan, the Tabernacle in the wilderness. So, for a Shabbat activity at synagogue, I created an Edible Mishkan. Each kid 2nd grade and up made a personal, edible Mishkan.
Many liberties have been taken with materials, but it was a sweet little project.
Everything is kosher. My store was out of Jelly Belly gummy bears, or they would be sitting on the ark as chubby cherubim.
The cute labels are from a lesson plan called “Cut and Paste Mishkan,” submitted by J. MacLeod at the Hebrew day school education site Chinuch.org. I used the labels only. The edible idea is mine.
The footprint of the Mishkan was a big piece of red construction paper with smaller blue origami box as the Holy of Holies. Kids were given labels and supplies and had to create the ark, the golden basin, the copper altar, the golden altar and the shulcan (the table for the 12 loaves of show bread)
My favorite part was handing them the tube of red food gel after they assembled their copper altar with the unfortunate cow (animal cracker) poised at the top for sacrifice.
A mini Reese cup in golden foil would have been a perfect basin, but to avoid nut products I used a Rolo.
The menorah was just a double-sided cardstock picture, because making one out of candy or snacks to this scale proved to be beyond me. I’ve used shoelace licorice and pretzel sticks to make menorahs plenty of times, but not this small. If anyone can think of a way to make an edible menorah about an inch or two tall, holler.
Oh, and the incense atop the golden altar (two caramel cubes, stacked) was a chocolate chip, chocolate being one of the best smells in the world.
Making edible Jewish crafts is a fun and tasty way to enrich a lesson.
More to come, including a forthcoming book.
The Ark, with jellybean cherubim
Shulchan with Show Bread (puffed rice)
Edible Mishkan: one version
Posted in Edible Craft, Jewish parenting, Shabbat
Tagged Edible Jewish Craft, Mishkan, Tabernacle, Teruma, Vayakel
Mishloach Manot
Whether or not you do Valentine’s Day at your house, there is a world of half-price Valentine candy in shops right now, and some of it can work just dandy for the next Jewish holiday, Purim. Kisses, especially. Because of the chocolate preferences of certain grandmothers in our family, our Purim Mishloach Manot baskets always include Hershey’s kisses. Valentine kisses are usually robed in red: simple, bright, fun red. Without the outer packaging, red kisses are deliciously generic and ready for conversion. And of course, they are kosher. (So are Tootsie Rolls, by the way, and I Continue reading
Posted in Edible Craft, Jewish Identity, Jewish parenting, Purim
Tagged candy, kosher, Mishloach Manot, mitzvah, purim, Shalach Manos
Seder plate at Target: cheap and cute
At Target yesterday I found an endcap full of seder dishes. This discrepant event was so discrepant I almost didn’t believe it. Five bucks for a large, melamine seder plate with shallow depressions for each symbol, and with the English and Hebrew name for each.
Hebrew at Target?
And for $1.99 you can get a coordinating square matzah plate with just the three little Hebrew letters that spell matzah.
So very surprised and happy. Maybe melamine isn’t the earth’s friendliest material, but I am overlooking this fact in favor of the bigger fact that Target is selling dishes for my holiday.
Maybe this is a yearly occurrence where you come from, but not around here.
Todah rabah, Target.
Posted in Jewish Identity, Jewish parenting, Passover
Tagged Hebrew, matzah, Passover, seder, seder plate
Matchbox Mezuzah
Here’s another easy mezuzah for kids to make, but this one is genuinely pretty. We used a photocopied klaf (parchment) inside the matchbox and mounted it low enough for a preschooler to actually reach.
My three-year old made this with his dad’s help, which would not have been much help, so I believe any kid can create a sweet mezuzah with these materials. The kicker is the lovely, golden Shaddai sticker (the shin with the crown), which makes the whole thing look and feel legit. The stickers come in a sheet of 48 from Benny’s Educational Toys, and the blank matchbooks come from Oriental Trading.
I must mention that playing with matchboxes is irresistible for any age, so this is a particularly hands-on craft. I organized a Matchbox Mezuzah group project for a Shema workshop last weekend at our synagogue and the parents were just as pleased to open and close and open and close the boxes….
Need:
Tape (I used blue painter’s tape)
Blank white matchbox (or used ones if you’ve got them)
Craft sticks (I used the broad, tongue-depressor size that comes in colors)
Tissue paper squares (cut from gift wrap)
Liquid starch (or white glue) in a small bowl or jar lid
Small brush
Shema scroll (see previous post: Glue Stick Mezuzah for ideas about this)
The only trick is to make sure you don’t starch the matchbox shut. If you do, you can run a sharp knife through the seams after all is dry.
Posted in Crafts, Jewish Identity, Jewish parenting, Mezuzah
A Glue Stick Mezuzah
Here’s a new use for an empty glue stick tube: a mezuzah case. If you collect a bunch, you have a cost-free craft for a whole class.
Glue Sticks don’t last very long. Manufacturers seem to keep shrinking the volume of glue without shrinking the actual container, and the glue has a fairly short shelf life (about two years). Thus, empty glue stick containers multiply, especially at a school.
A mezuzah is really the scroll inside of a mezuzah case: a klaf, or piece of kosher parchment upon which a sofer—scribe—has written (special ink, special quill) the first two passages of the Shema, Judaism’s central prayer.* The Shema is comprised of key verses from Deuteronomy (6:9 and 11:13-21), and begins, “Hear, Oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.”
Mezuzah literally means “doorpost,” and it is on our doorposts that Jews are obliged to mount a mezuzah. Doing so is a mitzvah—a commandment—and, what a coincidence, it is a biblical commandment found in the Shema itself: “you shall inscribe them [these words] on the doorposts of your home.”
So, every Jewish home, or to be more inclusive, every home in which someone identifies as Jewish, needs a mezuzah on the doorposts. Home in Hebew is bayit, and the home of a mezuzah—the case—is called a beit mezuzah, or mezuzah home. A beit mezuzah can be made out of just about any material that protects the scroll, and in every price range. This one comes in sticky plastic and is free.
Making a mezuzah case as pretty as you are able can actually Continue reading
Posted in Crafts, Jewish Identity, Jewish parenting, Mezuzah
Bedtime Sh'ma Coloring Book with your child's photo
InterfaithFamily.com (which is a great site, by the way, full of info and ideas and community) just posted an article about making bedtime Jewish written by Chief Education Officer Karen Kushner, with a link to a free pdf booklet: “Goodnight, Sleep Tight: Jewish Rituals for Your Interfaith Family.”
I am delighted Jewish bedtime is getting attention. Transforming the nightly routine into something Jewish is easy: just add a new element or two–something that feels comfortable and genuine. Whether a family is interfaith or not: it doesn’t matter: what matters is that at least one parent is committed to making every day (and night) more Jewish.
Please see the Jewish Bedtime page at JewishEveryday.com (home of Bible Belt Balabusta) for a detailed breakdown of every step of a typical bedtime progression, with plenty of suggestions about how to inject a bit of Jewishness.
Just a few of the suggestions:
Posted in Activity, Jewish Identity, Jewish parenting
Tagged bathtime, bedtime, books, Jewish music, jewish toys, sh'ma, shema, stencils, toys
Origami Dreidel station at the Chanukah Carnival
This is a classic design, and fairly easy to teach to little kids. It comes from Florence Temko’s book Jewish Origami (still in print).
You’ll need a square of any size paper. To teach kids, it will be easier to have a pretty large square: at least 9 by 9 if you are cutting down from a regular sheet of construction paper. Even better if you have big origami paper that is white on one side.
I used large rubber stamps for the Nun, Gimmel, Hey and Shin, and let the kids choose which letter they wanted on the body of the dreidel. You can use stickers, foam stickers, stamps made from other materials (potatoes, which would be appropriate during latke season), stencils, foam aleph-bet puzzle pieces or just free-hand it.
No matter what method, please include a visual guide showing each letter and the name of the letter. I also included what each letter stands for.
We loved making these so much we tried it with napkins and even one square of toilet paper.
The dreidels make great Hanukkah cards (unless created from toilet paper), either on their own or glued to a folded piece of paper, or you can string them as a garland as suggested on the cover of Temko’s book. We’ve also used them as placecards at dinner and as gift tags.
Temko’s design is also available online from the Origami Swami, who claims permission to present.
Posted in Crafts, Jewish Identity, Jewish parenting
Tagged carnival, Chanuka, craft, dreidel, Hanukkah, Hebrew, origami
If I’d known royal icing was so easy, I’d have made it long before now. Two ingredients (plus color) make a gloppy paste easily scooped and squirted onto the baked good of choice, and later, after it dries, it becomes a beautifully smooth concrete. The perfect medium with which to anchor these little Hebrew letters made from a candy mold. The mold is the entire aleph-bet, which means I have to make each batch of nun, gimmel, hey and shin one at a time. Time is the operative word.
Dreidel cookies
But gosh, they’re pretty.
And here, see the little gift plates for a bake sale.
I will not detail the hours I spent trying to package these cookies to maintain optimum visibility while affording some protection from curious and hasty shoppers. I will say that cut-up cereal boxes, shipping boxes, wrapping paper, bubble wrap, packing tape and hanukkah napkins were all tried and discarded. Continue reading
Posted in Edible Craft, Hanukkah, Jewish Identity, Jewish parenting
Tagged chanukah, cookies, Hanukkah, Hebrew letters
We made the Temple out of Duplos and experimented with different menorahs. Not hanukkiyot (hanukkah menorahs), but 7-branched menorahs like what was supposed to be in the Temple in the Hanukkah story.
Here are some examples:
Lego menorah with Lite Brite flames
Turning legos upside-down reveals the little spacer holes just right for “flames.” Had I owned enough of those teeny one-unit, columnar pieces, they could have been flames and the menorah would have been “pure” lego. But yard sales dictate what legos we own, so I made do with Lite Brite pegs. Tried red Battleship pegs, too, but Lite Brite pegs have graduated thickness and can fit into the upside-down lego holes a bit better.
Building upside-down was a pleasant challenge.
Made three sizes, overall:
Posted in Hanukkah, Jewish Identity, Jewish parenting
Tagged Chanuka, craft, Duplos, Hanukkah, hanukkiah, Lego, menorah
we made them out of clay
We sing the song every year:
Dreidel, dreidel, dreidel, I made it out of clay, and when it’s dry and ready, then dreidel I shall play.
Posted in Hanukkah, Jewish Identity, Jewish parenting
A Duplo Temple and a jar of olives.
Guidelines for Hanukkah Parent visits: where are they?
All over the country, volunteer parents are visiting their child’s classrooms and representing the entire Jewish people in 15 minutes or less.
In the spirit of “sharing traditions,” we bring a book, maybe some dreidels, some gelt (its never too early to jump-start a child’s association of Jews and money…see below), and a menorah. Hands-on parents bring all this stuff, and we check if we are allowed to actually light the menorah (and if we are allowed to keep the candles burning or blow them out far, far from the smoke detector).
Out of the dozens of books I’ve accumulated the last 16 years, plus the books I see at shul and in the library and in the bookstore (that just closed forever), why is it I can’t find a single one I LIKE? Continue reading
Posted in Hanukkah, Jewish kids in nonJewish school, Jewish parenting
Tagged Chanuka, classroom, Hanukkah, hanukkiah, menorah, olive oil, picture books
Edible sukkah with simple, cereal "fruit"
In the interest of those who are in charge of a “Make Your Own Edible Sukkah” project, I offer this record. Learn from my experience, and add to it, if you can.
If your project is not conducted in a kosher building, you needn’t pay so much attention. For you awaits a world of candy, a universe of sugary confection in endless variety.
For the rest of us, alas, a ghetto of fruit gums. And it is for the rest of us that I type my notes; for the folks creating edible sukkahs in a kosher building and, even more restrictive, in a kosher building during the first two days of Sukkot, when “work” is not permitted.
Building a kosher sukkah on a holiday is easy and not so easy.
Finding kosher graham crackers is easy. Just keep in mind that some still come in perforated rectangles Continue reading
Posted in Edible Craft, Jewish Identity, Jewish parenting, Sukkot
I just read about the death of the 39 year-old security guard at Washington’s Holocaust Memorial Museum, and about the white supremacist who shot him.
My daughter was at that museum just weeks ago, on her rite-of-passage Eighth Grade Trip to Washington.
And just days ago the Tennessee State Senate, my State Senate, passed with a vote of 21-9 the infamous “Bar Bill,” allowing handguns in restaurants with bars.
Next up for vote, any day now, is the bill that will allow guns in our national, state, and local parks.
And suddenly I feel much, much less safe here. I really, truly do not understand these things.
Next time I take a wildflower walk or eat at the Trattoria I may have more to fear than a fellow walker who asks me what church I go to.
my Tumblr pics
