Taking a break

I'm due any day now, so will be taking a blogging break for a bit but will be back as soon as I can:)

Wishing all a wonderful, happy, healthy and sweet new year~

Yonah and the Whale Activity Book and Activities

This is a fun story to get into with the muchkins- there is a lot to do in regards to learning about the story as well as whales and the idea of Teshuvah.

Here is a Story and Activity Book I made about Yonah for Preschoolers-

The Story of Yonah and the Whale Activity Book

More to come~

Parshah Links, Books and Goodies

We are all going to be teaching Parshah to our little ones this year, so I have gathered up a few Parshah resources (thanks Elizabeth for the inspiration!) that I use or will be using with my Preschoolers...

I have a FABULOUS set of "My first Parshah Reader" by R. Weissman. It is very easy reading and pictures on each page and my kids LOVE it!

There is also a great website, http://parshaprojects.blogspot.com/ which has fun Parshah projects...

These are the sites that I visit the most and recommend-

Torah Tots

Akhlah

Chabad Kids

Chinuch.org

The Perpetual Preschool

These are two Jewish curriculum Books that I have wich include great great ideas for Holidays and the Jewish year in general- also HIGHLY recommended and WORTH the investment!

Curriculum of the Arts

Plan to Product

And throughout the year as we make our own Parshah Projects and activities, we will post them for all to see and use~

Yom Kippur Activity Pack for Preschoolers and Toddlers

I am workin gon a bunch of activity packs for the little Tykes for the month of Tishrei. Here is the Yom Kippur Actvity Pack for Preschoolers and Toddlers- hope it comes in handy~

Yom Kippur Activity Pack for Preschoolers and Toddlers

Rosh Hashanah Activity Pack

I made a few fun worksheets and put them together for my Little Einstein (Preschool age) and Munchkin (toddler)-

Feel free to download either or both and either print the entire package or just a few worksheets you think your little tykes will enjoy!

Rosh Hashanah Activity Pack for Preschoolers

Rosh Hashanah Activity Pack for Toddlers

Here is our Jewish Studies Weekly Routine

I did this for myself, to get a little clarity on what I need to do with the Little Tykes over the next few weeks.

This is just for Tishrei and not exactly a calendar, more of a schedule to follow. Note how there are no specific time slots- we kind of do things when the moments seem right (early in the morning, later afternoon)

Here it is:

and here is the PDF version

And these are some of the books, CD's and DVD's that we use in each subject that I highly recommend since my kids love love love them!

Alef Bet:

Parshah:

Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot and Simchat Torah:

As we do each activity or project I will post more details about each one.

Hope its helpful or inspiring! More details to follow~

Establishing a Jewish Homeschool Routine

While my oldest is not even 5 yet, I really am trying to implement some sort of system/routine that the kids can expect daily.

I have been following a Homeschool blog (not Jewish) and her organization skills are just awesome. She has some of the most fabulous ideas, some that work for us, some that don't- but check it out, I am sure you will find something that works for you- http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/

Jolanthe (the blog creator) has a "workbox system" which I absolutely love and think will work really well with my little tykes- and so she has made labels, which I will use accordingly (whatever our family does) and have made my own Jewish labels, which you are welcome to print out and use for your family if it works for you-

Here is the PDF version

And here is one more link to some regular labels that Jolanthe has made- http://homeschoolcreations.blogspot.com/search/label/Workboxes

I have received a few requests as to our daily homeschool routine which I will post when I get a chance.

Right now it is geared toward Preschool age and as they get older and learn more, the labels will increase.

Wishing all a wonderful day!

High Holidays Prep

So this week is Rosh Chodesh Elul, giving us one month before the High Holidays-

Seems like enough time to prep the little tykes, no? But we all know how things go, so I pulled up a link from a blog I created last year with a few cute ideas to do with your munchkins...

We will do some of the same activities over the month, but will throw in some new ideas too (which will post as we go along), so enjoy what we did last year and if it looks like it will work for you and yours, then enjoy:)

Click Here to Check it out!

Valedictorian Speaks Out Against Schooling in Graduation Speech- great speech!

A friend of mine posted this link on my facebook page- such a humbling interesting speech and honest point of view- thought I would share it- enjoy:)

Jewish Preschool Activity Worksheets

While I truly believe that Preschoolers learn the best through play, there are some preschoolers out there who take the more academic route (my Little Einstein:) and actually LOVE doing worksheets- not all the time, but there are so many activity books out there for preschoolers but I couldn't find any Jewish Preschool Activity books so decided to make a few worksheets of my own- which worked out GREAT-and i based them all on the activities from the regular activity books, just used Alef Bet, Jewish concepts and Jewish pictures...

I printed them and put them in a binder and my Little Einstein loves his own little Jewish Activity Book!

So here they are, hope they are helpful to you-

Alef Bet WorkSheets

Balloon Match

Match the Picture to the Hebrew Letter

2 pages- match the Hebrew Letter to the Picture

Similar Letters- Match the letters to each other

Space Themed Alef Bet Worksheets (a a few others, custom made for my Little Einstein who loves anything Rockets, Astronauts etc!):

Match the Hebrew letter to the correct one in the Rocket

Match the Hebrew letter to the correct one in the Rocket Page 2

Match the Alef Bet stars to each other

Match the Alef Bet stars to each other Page 2

A Jewish Boys Uniform

Rocket Maze

More Advanced Alef Bet Worksheets- Circle the word that begins with:

Alef-Hey

Vav-Yud

Kaf- Samech

Ayin-Reish

Shin-Final Mem

Brachot worksheets:

Bracha: Hamotzi

Bracha: Mezonot

Bracha: HaEitz

Bracha: Adama

Circle the Kosher Animals

Circle the Kosher Animals #2

Cut out and stick all the KOSHER animals in the barn

Meat and Milk: Take a blue piece of paper and red piece of paper- cut out the meat products and stick them on the red paper, cut out the dairy products and stick them on the blue

Preschool Math with Jewish Pictures Worksheets:

Cut out the pictures and put them in size order - laminate the little cards to make them last longer!

Some more size order pictures

Number recognition: match the number to the correct amount of objects #1-6

Number recognition: match the number to the correct amount of objects #7-12

Circle the number of objects in each picture

Draw an X on the largest object, Circle the SAME objects

Draw an X on the largest object, Circle the SAME objects Page 2

I hope this is helpful to any Jewish Homeschooling Mama's out there for their preschoolers!

Souper Suppers and Keeping the Munchkins busy

Ok, I will admit, my kids are all picky eaters- except Munchkin- she LOVES veges, we're talking broccoli, cucumbers, tomatoes and more...

But the others- nope. Nothing doing.

So I got myself 2 cookbooks which I have listed below: The Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious and from there, I got tons of great ideas how to hide great food in my kids favorite foods. In fact, I actually started a blog, but just couldn't keep up with it- but here it is, just a couple of ideas that I've done and worked like a charm- http://hidden-treasures-for-kids.blogspot.com/

And I try make a different vege soup with dinner every night so I know that they are getting a nice full serving of veges every day. I never use soup cubes, just plane old salt'n pepper with whatever veges I throw in there and puree. And they love Osem Soup Croutons that we find at the local Safeway supermarket (for a ridiculous price but I tell my hubby that its worth it if it gets the kids to eat the soup:)

And our cleaning help and babysitter both quit so this week has been so challenging... but thanks to a few great new toys that our good friends gave us (they are moving to Israel and getting rid of everything) the tots have been busy and happy which means mommy is happy too:)

I posted the toys that they gave us and highly recommend them-

Okay, my feet are up and I'm off to watch my Grey's Anatomy reruns (my hubby bought me the entire set!!!- yes, I am a total sucker for this show)

Here's to a great week and getting ready for the upcoming school year~