Touching Base

Unfortunately, I am too busy to blog about anything of substance.  Have begun a several times per week yoga class which is taking up a lot of time and am elbow-deep in Sunday school related activities.  Have to rouse the parents of my students to help plan a Chanukah party.  I sent an email out with some suggestions of activities for the kids, depending on what the parents want to do:

- We could pre-bake cookies cut out in Chanukah shapes, and have the kids decorate them.

- Latkes with apple sauce - best to have parents make them and kids bring them in.

- Play the dreidel game with chocolate gelt for those who win. (and plenty of extra for those who don't)

- Make their own menorahs - - I have books with ideas in them.  They do require materials such as blocks of wood, thread spools, nuts and bolts, paint, plastic cups, colored sand, etc.  It would be work, but they are a nice keepsake remembrance. (I still have the ones my kids made)

- Something a bit easier is to make Chanukah decorations.  For example, they place their hands, palm side down, with thumbs touching, on a poster board.  Their hands are outlined with a marker.  They can use the outline to make a picture of a menorah and make flames with glue and glitter, etc.

- Sponge painted Chanukah wrapping paper

- They could make Chanukah picture frames as gifts for family.  Glue tongue depressors or popsicle sticks together, mount on cardboard and decorate.

-They could make coupon books for family: Back massage, wash dishes, offer an hour of play with a younger sibling, etc.

At back to school day, one of the concerns the parents had was that their kids get to know one another better, because for most of them, Hebrew school is the only opportunity they have to make Jewish friends.  So, last week I had them all write down different things about themselves on index cards - hobbies, favorite books, TV shows, favorite foods, etc etc.  I took a picture of each student with a digital camera and will print them out and make a big poster with their name, their index cards of information, and their picture. This way, they can browse and look for others who have similar interests, likes and dislikes. But the poster won't make itself...do I have enough ink in my printer...? 

The two and a half hours a week they spend with me is very short.  Not much time to do all the things I'd like to do.  This week, I will do a brief run through of the exodus from Egypt (we will revisit it at Passover and pay it the justice it deserves), an end to wandering, settling in the land of Israel, an into to the concept of Prophets and Judges, and the story of Deborah and the role of women during biblical times. 

Plus, we are making Tzedakah boxes in preparation for our next unit:  Tikkun Olam/Mitzvot.

No way I will get to it all, but we are running behind schedule because they decided to stick a Mitzvah Mania program mittendrin (in the middle of everything) a couple of weeks ago.  It was a terrific program, but we lost a week, and now Chanukah is approaching and so, we're doing the Evelyn Woodstein speed method of Torah study until we catch up. No time for any kind of reinforcement of lessons.  Just throw it out there and hope it sticks.  Not the way I like to do things, but there's no choice at the moment. 

I am making study guides and giving them to the kids to put into a notebook.  Maybe I will have them use their notebooks to pick through for ideas in order to write epic poems explaining "everything I've learned so far" when we have a moment to breathe - hopefully we will have a moment to breathe somewhere down the line...

And my house somehow became a mess over Thanksgiving, and I have to balance the checkbook oh, and I just remembered a very important phone call I forgot to make. Yikes.

Better run.