FREE Jewish Charades Game and Jewish Memory Game for Kids!

Who doesn't love a good game of Charades? 

Here I have made the Jewish version with 3 different categories:

1- Jewish Objects

2- Jewish Actions

3- Kosher Animals

Just print it out on card stock and laminate it. Cut each card out and there you have it-

Click here to download and enjoy!

To play Jewish Memory, just print 2 copies of each paper, laminate and cut them out.

Enjoy!

Always,

Guilt Free Brownies

I've had a long weekend. A good one, but a long one. This evening, I was positively exhausted and just had no energy for the whole bedtime routine.

I decided to gather the troops about 30 minutes before bedtime and make a deal with them. If they all put on their P.J.s and brushed their teeth, they could all watch a 20 minute video.

Within minutes I had all the kids in fresh P.J.'s and sparkling teeth sitting on the couch ready for their video- they were beyond excited... a video before bed? Wooohooo! Who has the coolest mommy EVER???

So I pressed play, grabbed the last piece of brownies left over from Shabbos and topped it with nice big scoop of vanilla ice cream. I tip-toed onto the back porch to watch the sun set and listen to the outside world mellow down. I had my feet up, my head back and not a pang of guilt could be felt anywhere.

No guilt for letting my kids watch a video before bed. No guilt for eating the brownies and ice cream. No guilt for not reading to them.

Because its okay. Its okay to take a step back when you feel you really need it. Its okay to treat ourselves out to a sunset once in a while. It was a blissful 20 minutes, whereby I returned to the living room feeling pretty good (still tired) but quite happy to tuck each munchkin into bed, say Shema and give them each a great big snuggle before lights out.

So heres to taking those few moments when we feel we really need them. Our kids will be fine. In fact, if we treat ourselves to these little moments, our kids will benefit from having happy mommies, not exhausted mommies who cant wait to get them into bed quick enough.

Wishing you all a wonderful week,

Always,

Jewish Headbanz Game!

We have the game Headbanz which my kids LOVE--- they play it EVERY Shabbos and just can't get enough of it. They often have friends over to play so I figured, why not make a Jewish version!

Each child has a plastic head band that they wear and attach a card with a picture to it that only the other players can see. Each child has 60 seconds to ask yes or no questions about what their card is... "is it a place? is it a food? is it an animal? is it big? is it small? etc."

Its a fabulous game, so here is a Jewish version for you to enjoy~ Just print it out on card stock or regular paper and laminate it. Cut them out and there you have your cards.

Click Here to download Jewish Headbanz

Have a wonderful Shabbos!

Always,

Moshiach and the Beis Hamikdash

As Rosh Chodesh Av approaches, we enter the 9 days and then Tisha B'Av. This is a really great time to explore the Beis Hamikdash and the idea of the coming of Moshiach, and I really need to thank my friend Sarah for inspiring me to write this post.

Although learning about the Beis Hamikdash can seem far fetched for the kids, with the Karbanos and all, it can become very real if discussed in a very real way...

Print out pictures from the internet and sit together and talk about the details of how it was built...

{source}

Here is a really great video put together by the Preschool at Yeshiva where you can get some great ideas on teaching your kids about the Beis Hamikdash. Click Here to see it.

Here are some great products to use in learning about the Beis Hamikdash

And here are a few activities that we have done in the past in connection to the Beis Hamikdash...

Build the Kotel out of blocks, talk about how it is the last part of the Beis Hamikdash that is standing, how holy it is and how people from all over the world go to daven there.  You can also make the Shulchan and put little breads in it to get a visual idea of what it looked like.

Draw and color the Menorah in Gold to show what the actual Menorah in the Beis Hamikdash looked like.

Build a Kotel out of Legos and make a Minyan davening there. Notice the little Kipas my little guy made :) 

Teaching kids about the coming of Moshiach can be really exciting...

Here are some great books about Mitzvos and on how the world will be when Moshiach comes...

And encourage them to do lots of Mitzvos to make it actually happen! 

Give lots of Tzedaka every day...

Be kind to others... make a friendship craft...

Show them how special it is to wear their "Jewish Uniforms" which shows the world how proud they are to be Jewish... 

You can make Mitzvah charts with stickers etc. and each time you see your child doing a mitzvah, acknowledge it, make it so exciting that it makes them so excited to keep doing more.

I hope you are all enjoying your summer~

Have a fabulous week!

Always, 

July and August Summer Calendar and Idea's

So far, we are having a really enjoyable and relaxing summer. With 2 more months ahead of us, I thought it would be fun to make a summer calendar- you can use it as a monthly or weekly calendar and either fill in the blanks or use the picture activities included in the file to stick on the designated days.

The kids have a blast planning out all the fun things to do that week~

I laminated each calendar as well as the activities and use rubber cement to stick each activity onto each day.

Click Here to download the file and  happy Summer planning!

Have a wonderful week,

Always,

20 FREE Fun Summer Activites

Believe it or not, it's the simple things in life that make kids happy.

Here are 20 Free Fun Activities to do this Summer...

 Have fun and enjoy!

Always,

Sweet Book Review and Davening Chart

I was recently given the pleasure of review two very wonderful Jewish childrens' books. 

The Tattered Prayer Book  is a gentle introduction to the Holocaust for children ages 6-10. Ruthie discovers a secret about her father, while looking through a box of mementos from the ‘old country.’ As her father tells his surprising story, Ruthie learns a piece of her father’s story, a slice of Jewish history and the circumstances under which the family fled Nazi Germany.  

The illustrations in this book are beautiful and it really gives the child a very gentle yet clear view of the difficulty during those times. It is not written from a religious perspective, but I found it really beautiful how once the father starts telling his daughter about this Siddur that he rescued from a burnt Shul you can feel the love that he once had for his precious heritage. You can purchase this book here.

Shabbat in the Playroom is a really sweet little story about Shira who's family is not religious. She learns all about Shabbat at school and asks her parents if they can celebrate Shabbat at home, to which they respond that they are too busy. 

Shira then decides to celebrate Shabbat with her dolls in her playroom and creates an entire Shabbat table using all her toys. When her parents see this, they realize how much this means to her and begin to celebrate Shabbat.

The only issue I had with this book was that she made Yalmukahs out of napkins for her dolls and she used one for herself. My kids didn't really notice it as it could look like a doily that some women use when lighting Shabbat candles, but I thought it would be important to mention that. You can purchase this book here.

*****

Another thing I wanted to mention was something I started doing with my kids that is working out really well.

While I really don't believe in rewarding kids for doing things that they should be doing (learning, davening) I found that they are sometimes 'less enthusiastic' about davening so I wanted to do something that doesn't give immediate reward, but enough of an incentive that they get a little more excited to do it. Here's what I came up with:

During davening, I give out these raffle tickets to the kids who are looking inside their Siddur and singing nicely and clearly. Even my 4 year who doesn't know most of the tefilos likes to sit in and pretend he's saying the words now that he can get raffle tickets.

After we finish davening, everyone writes their names on their tickets and we have a raffle where a different kid picks the name out of Daddy's hat every day. 

Each child has their own Raffle chart like the one below and each time they win a raffle, they stick their winning ticket onto their chart. Once they fill in all 10 boxes with winning raffle tickets, they get a prize. Although they know this may take a while, they really love the excitement of doing the raffle every morning.

This is more of a summer thing that I am sure will ultimately lose its momentum, but we will keep doing it as long as the kids are enjoying it! You can Click Here to download a Pdf of these charts to print out for yourself. I laminated both of them and the kids use dry erase markers to write their names on their tickets.

Hope you are ready for a fabulous summer~

Have a wonderful week,

Always,