Summer Learning fun- Add ‘em Up!

Here’s a simple game that we like to call ‘Add ‘em up’.  If it is combined with some good natured competition, it can be a fun exercise in operational math.

The rules are very easy- each player takes turn rolling two dice and then adding those up (I prefer to use equations) on a line in their column.  On the next go around, each person continues with their turn, rolling only one die, and adding this number to the answer on the previous line.  At the end of a predetermined number of lines, the person who came out with the largest number ‘wins’.  This can be used with any sort of operation- subtraction, multiplication, division, by adjusting the rules slightly (in subtraction or division you would have to start out with a large number first) or would be great with a die that has the different operational symbols on it.  The same technique that works with reading or spelling (the more children see a word written

Pay no attention to the chipped nail polish!

correctly, the easier it is to spell that word) can work with math as well.  The more a child has to add numbers together and sees these number facts before her, the more they will lodge in their memory.

I enjoyed this article

I’m on a parenting kick on the blog lately- forgive me, lol.  But I really enjoyed this article and thought others might as well.  It basically sums up my philosophy on parenting a large family, just with concrete examples and in much loftier words than I could produce. As a general disclaimer- because I post something doesn’t mean that I agree in it’s entirety. It means that I have found some merit in its ideas. I cannot judge her for her ‘white lie’ to her kids because I admit to doing it myself on occasion. I also do not agree with how this lady handled the issue with her husband. However, as a general rule, managing a large family takes a bit of cunning, creativity and a willingness to look at your individual situation to find a solution that works for the organization as a whole. I think that the criticism she has received on the whole comes from people not understanding how difficult it really is to balance a large family with highly independent and spirited kids with a demanding job for one or both parents, or as in my case and this lady’s- school work. Take it or dismiss it as rubbish. But we all do what we can in order to keep peace and harmony in our homes as much as possible. : 

How Machiavelli Saved my Family

Virtual Ranting

I am going to post what is not considered to be a very popular viewpoint these days.  I may take some criticism over it, but it is a chance I’m willing to take.  You see, I’m tired of all this ‘kum ba yah’ stuff they spend time on teaching my kids in school.  And then they have the audacity to still expect excellence?  How do you reconcile telling kids they should believe they are no better than the next person, that they have to cooperate with mediocrity, embrace it even, that they have to accept everyone’s viewpoint even if by way of reason, they disagree with it, and then be mad when the same kids aren’t competing for grades, aren’t giving honest effort?  When we tell our kids these things, what we are in fact telling them is that our culture has no tolerance for gifted people, that we have no tolerance for standing out in a crowd, for being the best at what they do and to be proud of it.  It’s people like that that create the jobs in our country.  My daughter asked me the other day what should motivate her.  I asked if she was the top student in class and she said ‘no.’  So then I said ‘why not?’  There’s your motivation.  Be the best.  If you are not the best, then you have motivation to keep trying.  To heck with whether it wins you friends or not.  If people cannot accept you as a person, in spite of your abilities, then perhaps you need to move on. 

THIS is what we should be telling our children, if we are in fact, preparing them for the harsh future we are leaving for them.  We are turning them out into a world that is fierce with competition, one where they are not guaranteed a job after college, where only the best and brightest will succeed.  And we are teaching them no skills for dealing with this world.

Now, this doesn’t negate our human ability to be empathetic to others, to try and understand them, to do what we can to help if we are able.  What it does do is put an emphasis on the need for them to be personally responsible for what they do in life.  To succeed by their own merits and to not hinder them as society from achieving.  We can respect another’s viewpoint.  We can, as Aristotle said ‘entertain a thought without accepting it’.  But this mama is going to refute any and all attempts at lumping my children in with the whole.  It is my responsibility to give my children the tools and skills they are going to need to succeed. 

Off the proverbial soapbox for now…

Summer learning fun- Labeled Drawings

I am starting a new series on the blog all about ideas for continuing learning during the summer. These ideas can also work well for after school reinforcement as well as added into home-school curriculum. Today Little L and I did a labeled drawing. This is something I have used with my kids throughout the years to help teach sight reading, handwriting and art. Have your child sit down with their art supplies to construct a picture. When they are done, have them tell you about it. Have them identify items in the picture and then label them. Help with spelling as needed. For older kids you can get into some grammar by talking about what words are nouns and having them add a few adjectives to describe the objects or verbs to tell what the subjects are doing in the picture. For younger kids, have them name the items they have drawn and then ‘dot’ the words out for them to trace. Then go through, point to each word they have written, and let them tell you what it says. Keep their work in a notebook and go through the pages from time to time together to see if your child can still recognize the words.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Muffins

I made these this morning and they were SO GOOD.  In fact, EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY KIDS ATE THEM.   That’s 5 out of 5 children that ate them for breakfast.  I figured it would be considered a crime to not share them with everyone else.

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Muffins

1 cup of flour (all purpose, whole wheat or a 50/50 mixture)

1/2 – 3/4 cups of creamy peanut butter of your choice

1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

2 eggs

1/2 cup applesauce

1 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pure vanilla

about 1/2 cup of water

Mix it all in a bowl, spoon into muffin cups and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes or until done in center.  Makes about 14-16 muffins.

An Open Letter to the Church from My Generation

This.   This young lady gives me hope for our future.  if we could just concentrate on leaving this next generation a reasonably clean planet, a chance for a job when they leave college, stop saddling them with so much debt and just step out of the way, I have no doubt the positive impact they could make on our society.  Worth your time to read.

via An Open Letter to the Church from My Generation.

A Few Questions Answered

I get questions from time to time on how someone can be a practicing Jew and a Humanist at the same time.  I think this comes from a very deep misunderstanding of Judaism, so I thought I would write a short post about my personal experience and reasons.  You see, I wasn’t born Jewish.  I chose Judaism.  I also chose not to have a traditional religious conversion, instead choosing what our congregation calls an ‘adoption’ to Judaism.  This term is full of meaning for me because , just as a child is adopted into a new family, so have I been adopted into this big Jewish family.  Please don’t let this fool you as to my sincerity- I have studied and lived a Jewish life for the past four years.  I have put as much time and work into understanding my faith as anyone who has undergone a religious conversion. And I don’t consider myself an ‘atheist’ by its usual definition.  I have a concept of God, however this concept is more closely attuned to what Einstein once called ‘Spinoza’s God’.  I believe that there are forces in nature that work together, that are sometimes mysterious and have no current explanation.  And I think it is wonderful.  I am not one of those people who needs to have an answer for everything.  I am content with having some mystery in the world.  And this mystery to me is God.  That being said, Humanistic Judaism encompasses a broad range of beliefs.  We have plenty of atheists in our ranks and they are some of the best people I know.  The Judaism I know is big enough for everyone and each of us enhances and strengthens the whole.   But enough about how I got here and back to answering the question at hand.  Why Humanistic Judaism?  Why did I choose a mode of expressing this identity that honestly has very little to do with God but has everything to do with living a life that can respect the value of tradition and ritual?

1.  Jewish values and ethics: I’ll go ahead and clear up one issue.  I do not believe that the Torah was written by anyone other than man.  I think it is recollection of the history, stories, myths and traditions of a people- ancestors who didn’t have science and technology to explain to them the natural processes and who used stories to pass down a faith and culture that would survive millennia.   That being said, do I need to attach a supernatural definition to the things that happen around me for them to still be considered miraculous?  To me, the sheer truth of evolution- the fact that everything that is complex and wonderful  in the world exists because of small changes in chemicals adjusting to their situations and environments is in fact, miraculous.  I don’t judge those who believe that an all knowing God created everything from nothing but this explanation for me personally doesn’t hold near the wonder and awe as the former.  Who is to say that there can’t be a God- some force in the universe- that spurs all these things to happen?  Or not.  And does it really matter if we don’t know the answer?  Humanistic Judaism, with its rich liturgy and traditions, embraces the things that science is finding out everyday and doesn’t say that we have to discard them in order to be Jewish.  Many prominent Jews- Einstein and Freud among them- have held non traditional views of God and yet we revere them in our culture as important figures who have contributed greatly to society as well as the Jewish people.  Jewish values and ethics have everything to do with how we treat each other and interact with the world around us.  When we gather around the Seder table, we talk of how freedom belongs to everyone and that we should constantly work to that end.  On Yom Kippur, we reflect on those things we may have done over the past year that were less than desirable and did not live up to our ethical code and resolve to do better, literally washing away the things we are not proud of in the Tashlikh ceremony on Rosh Hashanah.  On Hanukkah, we learn that it is okay to stand up for what is right and for the freedom to be who were are and be proud of it.  Judaism has always been a faith that merits actions over belief.  We understand that belief without actions doesn’t accomplish much.  Many Jews today even view the concept of the Messiah as a call for action- that a Messianic age will come from human endeavors,  from physically being involved enough to make it happen.  I can’t think of more lofty ideas to live and pass down to my children.

2.  The Torah: I’ll say it now:  I love Torah study.  I love the study of Jewish law.  In fact, it is one of the most meaningful things about being Jewish for me.  I could study Torah and Talmud and never get enough of it.  And no, my belief that they are human in nature doesn’t do a thing to diminish this love for them.  In fact, it has enhanced my understanding of many texts that used to be ambiguous to me and given them great meaning.

Happy Hanukkah from The Cooks!

3.   Ritual and tradition:  I think we fool ourselves if we downplay the role that ritual and tradition have in adding meaning to our lives.  We do them all the time when we light candles on a birthday cake or sing ‘Happy Birthday’.   Rituals help us celebrate important events in our lives- births, marriage, even death.  They serve the purpose of uniting and connecting us around something common and help us to pass memories along to future generations.  The first year we celebrated Hanukkah instead of Christmas in our home was when I discovered that the meanings behind Jewish tradition and ritual held much more meaning to me than any of the holidays I ever celebrated before.   My husband and I have diverse families and we all celebrate each other’s holidays now and it has been wonderful for our children.  We have been able to be dedicated to raising a Jewish family but doing so in a Humanistic fashion means we don’t have to worry about boycotting those things that are important to the rest of our families.  We don’t have to avoid eating at their homes and separating ourselves from the people we love the most.  It has worked out well for us and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

4. My rabbis: I couldn’t write a post such as this and discount the role our two rabbis have had in this journey.  Rabbi Laura Baum and Rabbi Robert Barr have been instrumental in giving us a glimpse of a very big Judaism- a Judaism that allows all of us to have individual levels of belief and yet have traditions that we can all celebrate.  The hard fact is that the growth rate of Jews is in decline right now.  What many other rabbis would have dismissed and turned away, rabbis Barr and Baum saw as an opportunity- an opportunity to add people devoted to establishing a Jewish home and raising children with Jewish traditions, morals and ethics.  A household that is dedicated to telling the stories that have been instrumental in keeping Judaism alive for thousands of years.  We deny true Jewish history if we say that Judaism has remained stagnant throughout these years.  In fact, it is the ability to embrace change that has keep the Jewish people throughout the upheavals and tragedies that have befallen our long history.

So I hope this at least answers a few questions.  Feel free to pass it along if there is something you find meaningful in it.  And remember it is our differences that make us strong.