"This second!"

From the next room, I heard my second- and fourth graders reading something.

 

"Do not eat. Throw away this second!"

 

It sounded a bit familiar... most of it at least. Sure enough, they were looking at a little packet of silicone gel... you know those packets that come in every other product, from vitamins to shoes... to prevent damage from moisture...

 

DO NOT

EAT.

THROW

AWAY.

DESICCANT.

off topic

I recently discovered this AMAZING site, israel21c.com. They highlight Israeli news in technology and international do-gooding. I'm guessing the site might be government-funded hasbara; if it is, good for them. Well presented, great reading, great stuff.

 

Israel's top 45 greatest inventions of all time | ISRAEL21c

The top 12 ways Israel feeds the world | ISRAEL21c

Israel to build model farm in South Sudan | ISRAEL21c

 

 

And while I have your attention, check out this article, the title says it all really but the article explains how it actually went; still pretty darn ridiculous, worth reading.

UN: Return Golan Residents to Syrian Slaughterhouse "Forthwith" « Commentary Magazine

 

authors & books

Here's a list I sent to a friend, "young adult" books and authors that I've particularly liked, off the top of my head.
    Karen Hesse, Brooklyn Bridge or anything  else -- she's something special.
    Sharon Creech --  many good books, all worth reading. (Except Bloomability, unless I just didn't get it.) She has a really nice upbeat writing  style, really enjoyable, besides for the great  content.
    Laura Amy Schlitz, A Drowned Maiden's  Hair -- offbeat but fabulous! It was her first book; see if she's written  anything else since.
    Jan Siebold, My Nights at  the Improv or anything else. As I recall, all I found were two thin books  that left me wishing for more.
    Katherine Paterson  -- some of her (many) books are better than others but all are well written and worth a try. Tell me some titles, I'll tell you which I  liked.
    Jean Craighead George, My Side of the  Mountain. I think the boys will enjoy this one as well. Some sequels and  other books, but I don't remember if they were as  good.
    Gary Paulsen -- outdoorsy boy books. Some of them were very good as I recall, others simply  adventury but nothing special to me. Tell me what you see and I'll tell you if  I remember it.   
    (I think there  was another author named Paulsen, or something similar, that I really liked as  well.)
    Gary Schmidt -- The Wednesday Wars  was excellent. I seem to remember there were some other good books as well,  although I found First Boy disappointing .
    Linda Sue  Park -- good author with stories based on her Korean heritage. A Single Shard is by far her  best, but her other stuff is good too.
    Richard Peck  -- I happen to own The Teacher's Funeral and it's great. Author of A  Long Way From Chicago... great laughs, good stories. He does have some  silly books in the mix, though... tell me what you  see.
    John D. Fitzgerald, the Great Brain books -- I  liked them very much but don't remember if you did. His genius brother, Tom,  was expert at (among other things) taking advantage of people... very  entertaining, unless you find yourself hating his  guts!
    Andrew Clement -- author of Frindle --  he's written a bunch of books since then, all light and easy reading, and  surprisingly original content. Good stuff.
    Mary  Norton, author of The Borrowers. Did you know there were several more  Borrowers books? Check them out when you're in the  mood.
    Mark Twain -- I don't believe you've read  Pudd'nhead Wilson -- fiction, very different, very good -- or  Innocents Abroad -- nonfiction, fascinating, a memoir of his travels,  including a visit to the Holy Land in the nineteenth century. Check it  out.
    Jean Fritz -- lots of well written history,  great nonfiction books that are truly fun to read. Her autobiography is  excellent as well -- an American kid growing up in China before  communism.

Thinking about Yerushalayim

Here we are in the Three Weeks of mourning over the destruction of the Beis Hamikdash -- both Holy Temples in Jerusalem -- one 2000 years ago, one 500 years before that. This is a time to be thinking about Jerusalem, and what better way than with some great crafts!

1. Jerusalem watercolor collage in 3D

 

 

This watercolor collage Jerusalem was the first watercolor collage my daughters and I did together. (The shiny glare you see is the plastic covering I added for hanging in the Succah.) You can read about this project's beginnings here and its completion here.

For a similar project, a tissue paper collage on glass, visit creativejewishmom.com.

2. Jerusalem Kirigami

 

Kirigami means folding and cutting paper to get beautiful airy results; it's a Japanese art, like origami. You generally need to use an exacto blade so this is not for young kids; but for anyone who is old enough, it's an easy and beautiful craft. Check it out! Click here for some photos and here for the pattern.

3. Jerusalem sand jar

 

 

Another stunningly beautiful project from creativejewishmom.com. I liked the idea of the tall skinny glass jar -- it gives you more room for larger amounts of sand, and much prettier results than the teeny decorative containers the kids usually make this in. You complete the sand jar first, then draw your Jerusalem scene with permanent markers on the sand background.

birthday blintz bread

Blintz cheese recipe:

 

One 1-lb container whipped cottage cheese (or farmer cheese)

1 tsp cinnamon

2 tablespoons sugar

Mix well.

 

That's it! Basically it's blintz filling with no eggs or added liquid.

If too dry and stiff, stir in a bit of milk.

 

Serve with w.w. crackers. Or spread on bread, then cut bread into four triangles -- this is called Blintz Bread.

 

Seriously, they love it. I served this for supper for my twins' birthday! For extra fanciness you can add an extra sprinkle of cinnamon on top. See picture, attached.

 

Funny fried eggs? When making a large number of eggs, instead of beating them in a bowl I put them in an empty juice bottle and shake shake shake. It works great, it's easy, and there's no dirty bowl to wash. The kids find it funny as it is still something new; I've only been doing it since Pesach. (Necessity was the mother of this invention; I was stuck without a Pesachdik mixing bowl and needed to make breakfast.)

 

The pepper initials may not look like a full serving of veggies, but there's more there than meets the eye. Several kids sat behind me as I carved, nabbing the extra bits as fast as I could put them down. I think Michelle Obama should be mighty proud of my birthday party, eh?

girl cheese

"Who wants grilled cheese for lunch?"

 

Giggles. "I want boy cheese!" "I want girl cheese, not boy cheese!"

 

So all the girls had girl cheese for lunch!

 

(I wanted to make "boy cheese" with a bowtie at the neck... but when it came down to it, none of the girls chose boy cheese.)

flat baby doll tutorial - part 1

 

Before you begin, you might want to check out these links:

Painted background: How to paint a sky

How to draw a baby: Adar clown Picture Pie

How strollers work: JugglingFrogs stroller tutorial

 

Use three 6" paper plates to design your baby's body. Leave one plate whole for the torso, cut one in half for the legs, and cut one into eight equal wedges. Lay out the pieces like this:

 

 

Trace this shape onto a large sheet of cardboard. Consider this traced shape your starting point as you draw a more pudgy, baby-like shape. 

 

Cut out the cardboard baby. Squint at it from various angles; if you aren't perfectly satisfied yet, cut and paste bits of cardboard as needed.

 

Trace onto fabric, adding a good inch all around. (If you are using non-brand-new fabric, position the cardboard strategically so that, for example, stains are either trimmed away or positioned for easy hiding, and preexisting seams come out in acceptable locations, such as at the ankles.) Cut out fabric.

 

Fold fabric onto cardboard and secure with tape or hot glue. Do this step slowly and carefully.

 

 

A bib may be cut from a fancy paper napkin, and is useful for hiding stains (shh!). Other cute options include buttons, pockets, and embroidered initials.

3D twins poster -

Another siyum sign, only not a project for a school night! This one took an hour of Friday (not my hour -- just the kids painting the background) plus nearly all of Sunday. I've resolved to spend more of my fun time with family and friends, rather than in virtual reality (including OEDILF) or off on my own, so this project was definitely supremely worthy of replacing the Sunday speed-limerick contest!

 

We'd had enough of blue skies, so this is a grassy green background. (2 Tbsp dish soap, 2 Tbsp water, 8 drops green food coloring, 2 drops yellow food coloring. Thanks again, Amy Dacyczyn.) Daughter very decidedly wanted baby twins Yaakov and Esav in a double carriage. Making it 3D was my cockamamie idea. I still can't believe it's real. Thanks to Carolyn of JugglingFrogs for planting the idea in my head; who would have thought I could actually create a double carriage?

 

Click on the images to see them larger and to read their text.

pantry organization idea!

I like to stock up on non-perishables when they go on sale, but keeping them organized is a real challenge. Tin cans in particular seem (seemed!) impossible to keep organized; they all look alike from almost any direction! I've been fumbling with this problem for years and never had a satisfactory solution until now.

 

I cut four dividers from an empty grocery box -- using the wide side panels of the box, and cutting each one in two. I did not cut off the top or bottom flaps. The cans sit on the bottom flaps, which helps the dividers stay in place.

 

Here is the result. I love it! It's like having four drawers for cans, only they're all resizable. Best of all, the kids can now pack away groceries without messing up too badly. I think I might label the rest of the pantry as well.

 

bubble letters tutorial - fruit store sign

This is from last summer.

 

 

I wish I could say the girls made it, but it wouldn't be exactly true. I taught them how to make the lettering but I also ended up doing the entire lettering. However, the fruit was almost entirely their work.

 

I showed them first how to make a big arc across the page by swinging your arm like a compass with your elbow staying put. (Is there a simpler way to describe it?) Then we planned where to place each letter... I got their input re how much width to allow for each letter. I made the bubble letters by tracing a bottle cover for the round corners and then drawing lines by eye to connect those round corners. The kids outlined the letters in marker and later colored them in crayon.

 

I told them we'd draw five smiling fruits possibly holding hands. I chose the cover of a big yogurt to estimate the size of the fruits. The girls positioned and then traced the cover lightly in pencil five times. Then they drew each fruit. (I pointed out first that they should think about how the shapes and colors would look together, before deciding where to put what.) It was E's idea to trace a bottle cover for each grape (the same cover I'd used for the bubble letters) -- I was so proud! I had a bit of input in drawing the fruit (the pomegranate's crown and the dimple-stem of the orange) but the smiley faces are totally theirs. I knew they could do cuter smiles than I could but I was blown away by the actual cuteness of the finished product!

 

Anyhow I let them finish coloring the whole thing that night although it was really time for bed. No time for a background, although I'm not sure what kind of background would look good anyway. What do you think?

9th birthday Picture Pie birdies

I've been looking for these round paper doilies for a while but for some reason all the stores I visited seemed to be out of them. Suddenly this week there they were -- at half price! Two cents per doily. (The store is ABC Discount, if I have any local readers.) Just in time for the twinkies' ninth birthday. Personally I prefer the cleaner, simpler hole-punched look, but this super-ornate pastelly style is exactly my kids' taste.

 

It was a family project and worked very well. We already had the blue sky. We'd put doilies all over the birthday table for decoration, so I just gathered all the doilies, cut them into fractions, and stuck a bit of fun-tack (the blue stuff) onto each piece of doily. I also drew suggested Picture Pie arrangements on small paper plates, and invited the kids to choose. First in pjs was first in line for Picture Pie!

the Four Questions junior edition - Yiddish and English

Here is the "Four Questions" song I made up some years ago for my then-two-year-old. The tune is "For He's A Jolly Good Fellow," first part of the tune only. Any kid who can already talk can learn to complete each line. (Except 'vegetables' - a mental block for my son!)

 

First the Yiddish, the way we sing it:

 

א גאנץ יאר עסט מען חמץ

פסח עסט מען מצה

vegetables א גאנץ יאר עסט מען

פסח עסט מען מרור

 

א גאנץ יאר טינקט מען נישט איין

(waggle finger or shake head)

פסח טינקט מען צוויי מאל

(hold up two fingers)

א גאנץ יאר זיצט מען גלייך

(soldier-straight)

פסח זיצט מען אנגעליינט

(tip over dangerously toward one side)

 

And the English, which I just made up now, but it seems to work fine with the tune:

 

All year round we eat Chametz --

Pesach, only Matzah.

All year round we eat vegetables --

Pesach night, it's Maror.

 

All year round, we never dip --

(waggle finger or shake head)

Pesach we dip TWO times.

(hold up two fingers)

All year round, we sit up straight --

(soldier-straight)

Pesach we recline.

(tip over dangerously toward one side)

 

That's it! I find even the bigger kids like this easy song better than the longer chant they memorize in school.

 

Once your child knows the song, you can add the traditional sing-song introduction, "Mah nishtanah, why is Pesach night so different?" "?מה נשתנה, פארוואס איז די נאכט פון פסח אנדעריש פון א גאנץ יאר" or your preferred wording.

daisy-chain bracelet tutorial

 

Study the picture; it's a lot simpler than the directions sound!
 
My (quite patient) first graders were able to get the hang of it after the first flower or two. If your child finds it too complicated and needs tons of help, keep in mind that you can tweak the project to make a simpler bracelet, with only one flower in the middle. (I have some vague plans of doing exactly that, maybe on wire, for Shavuos napkin rings.)
 
1. String two green (spacer) beads.

2. String four pink (petal) beads, then one yellow (center) bead. (Or whatever colors you like!)

3. Go back through the first pink bead. (I said go BACK because you need to go through it from the opposite direction this time. The string should make a raindrop shape, not a circle shape.)

4. String two more pink beads.

5. Go back through the fourth pink bead (from step 2), again making a raindrop shape.

6. Pull the string tight and admire your flower! (The string going through the flower should be the shape of the letter S, no tangles. If you don't have a flower yet, you probably have either a tangle, or a circle instead of a raindrop shape! Check and correct. Your second flower will go faster, I promise.)

7. String two more green beads. Now decide if you want to do flowers all around, or just finish beading your bracelet the ordinary way!

 

Note: we used pony beads, kiddie style. More experienced and dextrous crafters can use tiny seed beads -- how gorgeous would that be! Either way, I hope you will send me a picture of your masterpiece.

Picture Pie - fancy mama bird and babies

This is Picture Pie done with 6" paper plates. I used an ordinary hole puncher to punch a pattern around a couple of plates, first a circle of evenly spaced holes and then another circle of nibbles along the edge. Very easy, and I really like the way it makes the paper plates match better with the delicate watercolor sky.

the cutest little Tightwad Gazette king

I couldn't find the costume I made several years ago in honor of our then-present and future curly-haired toddlers. (You may see it by googling "site:coolest-homemade-costume.com popcorn chavi" only without the quotations.) I was quite disappointed, especially since it was already Purim eve when this became apparent and I did not have time to start making a costume.

Oh well. I went about my business, packing mishloach manos plates (post to come soon), while thinking about my princeling and his perfectly popcorn-like curls. I remembered how perfect he looked at my brother's wedding, wearing a black velvet outfit, and every curl carefully in place. I thought of the King Achashverosh costume in my mother's stash, which she'd made to fit a long-ago fourth grader.

Then I thought of the purple flash I'd hardly registered while rummaging through my craft supplies bin earlier in the day. It was the skin of a purple umbrella. I'd saved it because the Tightwad Gazette once mentioned you could make a child's poncho from a dead and boneless umbrella.

At 2 am, my plates all wrapped and stacked, I dug out the crumpled purple umbrella skin, plus a sheet of almost-pristine gold cardboard I'd saved from another year's unfinished Succos school project. Then I dug out the iron. (That part was hard LOL.) I pressed the purple flat; it was a perfect circle, regally shimmering. I dug out my son's black velvet outfit (received from a friend whose child had outgrown it, wouldn't you know) and safety-pinned the cape to the shoulders of his shirt.

Then I sketched a zigzag line across the cardboard and cut out two crown halves, and taped them together. I tried the crown on his sleeping head.

It was 2:20 and we had a costume. I love it!!

Purim costume princess crown

I made this crown (2 of them actually) when the Purim store had nothing good for the right price. I had copper wire left over from a light fixture we'd had installed. I have a stockpile of beads. Starting in the middle of the wire, I put a bead on and then twisted the wire below the bead, then added anotehr bead and another twist. About 4-5 inches away, I did the same thing all over again: bead, twist, bead, twist. Did it twice more, smoothed the curves between the peaks, then twisted it onto an elastic headband. It was not at all hard to make, and was very durable and incredibly comfortable.

limerick definition

There's a toddler I know (little girlie)

Whose hair is delightfully curly.

Bouncy ringlets like springs

Dance along as she sings,

Spins, and waltzes. (Her pink dress is twirly!)

 

definition by Chavi Beck, oedilf.com

How to paint a sky

How to paint a sky!

Just keep all the strokes going in one direction.

 

(As always, click on the picture to enlarge it.)

easy felt tissue pouch

The decorations I chose were the only complicated part; after attaching them, it took no time to sew a rectangle of felt into a pouch.

Picture Pie clown

Happy Chodesh Adar!

Just wanted to share this fun clown, who at this writing is hanging in my front room over the couch (since Sunday). I'm supposed to make her some "mishenichnas" balloons to juggle but somehow (odd?) have not yet found the time. Cute or what? This is picture pie in big; the girls traced 6" paper plates on oaktag and cut out the circles. Fun!

hamantashen

fun!

(The little girl with the necklace is a neighbor's kid.)

mazel tov siyum poster - Vayeira/ Akeidas Yitzchak

A siyum sign made on a school night!

I love this watercolor trick. Cut a simple shape out of painted card instead of construction paper, and your project looks like a million dollars. For the record, I drew the shapes, but E did the painting and the cutting out.

The blue sky paint is actually homemade paint: equal parts dish soap and water, plus several drops of food coloring. Mix it well, then consider it slightly less washable than Crayola. This batch is over a year old; it had dried to a hard jelly, but was easily resuscitated with a bit of water and stirring. Painting with cotton balls saves tons of time.

The 3D stickers came in handy again as well. And let it be known to all that regular writing, when done with a flat-edged marker held at a steady angle, works well as calligraphy.

Said Abraham, "Lord, here I am."
God said, "Burn me a corban: no lamb,
But sweet Isaac, your son."
With the deed all but done,
An angel said, "Look! Here's a ram!"

-- by Janet McConnaughey, oedilf.com