What My Children Learned Today

Geocaching doesn’t work. We went straight to the exact coordinates, I swear! I have a witness; I went with a friend who found out about this cache and everything (screenshot at left indicating that, according to my Playbook, we were within inches of the cache). For a first foray, it sure was discouraging. I figured geocaching was the ultimate in Homeschool Coolery, though describing it to the kids was kind of odd: “we search for a small, disappointing treasure… and then leave it where it is!”
Kite-flying doesn’t work. Actually, this wasn’t a first; I have taught them this lesson a couple of times, I believe. Every fall, I think, “Let’s go fly kites!” I get all excited and build it up and build it up and then finally get outdoors with a kite and… nothing. Boom. No kite-flying. Sort of like science experiments… they works for other people, but not for us. Although today we had friends along and their mama tried and mainly failed to fly a kite as well. So now they know for sure that any kite-flying they see online or in pictures is simply special effects, Photoshop and camera wizardry.
If you play with water, you will get wet. This one’s a good lesson, actually. I have told them many times, this long chilly spring, that it’s too early in the season to play with water; that they’ll just get soaked and then be chilly and miserable. Today, they ventured into the water-play area and found out for themselves. Hurrah!
Asking permission doesn’t work. After picking up my mother’s CSA vegetables at Mega Synagogue Down the Street, we decided to go in and look around. Me, to security guard: "The children are interested in seeing the main sanctuary. Could we go in for a minute to take a look?" Guard: "Well... that's not common." [Huh? who says that??? My first thought when he used the word “common” was - “Asperger’s”] Me: "I'm aware of that." Him: (pause) "How long would you be in there for?" Me: "Just a couple of minutes, um, to look around." Him: "I'll have to check." (gets up, goes and checks) Him: "No, you can't go in... the president is... " (mumble) Me: "Um, okay," turning to leave. "You know, that doesn't seem like a very welcoming policy." Him: (silence)

Wheeeeee! They shoulda called it FUNday… instead of plain old “Tyoozdee”…

Comments

לימודי קודש/Limudei Kodesh Copywork & Activity Printables

Welcome to my Limudei Kodesh / Jewish Studies copywork and activity printables page. As of June 2013, I am slowly but surely moving all my printables over to 4shared because Google Docs / Drive is just too flaky for me. What you’ll find here: Weekly Parsha Copywork More Parsha Activities More Chumash / Tanach Activities Yom Tov Copywork & Activities Tefillah Copywork Pirkei Avos / Pirkei Avot Jewish Preschool Resources Other printables! For General Studies printables and activities, including Hebrew-English science resources and more, click here . For Miscellaneous homeschool helps and printables, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi! If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you just want to say Thank You, here’s a

Hebrew/ עברית & English General Studies Printables

For Jewish Studies, including weekly parsha resources and copywork, click here . If you use any of my worksheets, activities or printables, please leave a comment or email me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com, to link to your blog, to tell me what you’re doing with it, or just to say hi! If you want to use them in a school, camp or co-op setting, please email me (remove the X’s) for rates. If you enjoy these resources, please consider buying my weekly parsha book, The Family Torah : the story of the Torah, written to be read aloud – or any of my other wonderful Jewish books for kids and families . English Worksheets & Printables: (For Hebrew, click here ) Science : Plants, Animals, Human Body Math Ambleside : Composers, Artists History Geography Language & Literature Science General Poems for Elemental Science . Original Poems written by ME, because the ones that came with Elemental Science were so awful. Three pages are included: one page with two po

What do we tell our kids about Chabad and “Yechi”?

If I start by saying I really like Chabad, and adore the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, z"l, well... maybe you already know where I'm headed. Naomi Rivka has been asking lately what I think about Chabad. She asks, in part, because she already knows how I feel. She already knows I’m bothered, though to her, it’s mostly about “liking” and “not liking.” I wish things were that simple. Our little neighbourhood in Israel has a significant Chabad presence, and Chabad conducts fairly significant outreach within the community. Which sounds nice until you realize that this is a religious neighbourhood, closed on Shabbos, where some huge percentage of people are shomer mitzvos. Sure, it’s mostly religious Zionist, and there are a range of observances, for sure, but we’re pretty much all religious here in some way or another. So at that point, this isn’t outreach but inreach . Convincing people who are religious to be… what? A lot of Chabad’s efforts here are focused on kids, including a

Adventures in Mama-Land

Search This Blog