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

featured!

I've been featured on creativejewishmom.com! How cool is that! Thanks so much Sara.

And if you've clicked over from there, I hope you'll find it worth the click. Comments are welcome and for that matter are highly valued!

Chanukah sign 3D

Today's watercolor/ paper sculpture Chanukah sign! (It sure is nice to be crafting again.)

I gave each kid a sheet of card stock (off white; must buy a pack of bright white!) and a pencil. I also passed around a selection of circular containers and bottle caps, explaining that you choose one of those circles and then aim to make your picture that size (instead of spending forever on a masterpiece menorah and then realizing it came out tiny).

(Almost) Everyone did the drawing on one side of the page and the painting on the other side, then cut out their creations once everything had mostly dried.

Re the paint, I once bought a 4-pack of mini watercolor sets in the 99c store. (Each set is 2" by 2" and has 5 colors.) It's very convenient to have multiple paint sets; the less passing of supplies, the less chance of major spills. I also put water (small amounts) into three heavy glass mugs, rather than spilly plastic bowls. The painting was done with cotton cosmetic pads simply because I didn't feel like digging out the paintbrushes, but let me tell you the pads sure saved time! Also there was no changing colors so the water didn't get dirty. All in all it was the neatest painting project I've ever seen. (Plus, card stock scraps don't fly all over the place the way plain paper would.)

E (8) made the jolly dancing latkes and R (6) made their pot!

F (8) made the coppery-orange menorah!

R made that adorable orange man with his huge jug of oil!

B (4) made the frying pan at the bottom, and the pink latkes in it!

Mommy made the giant candles and drew the oil jugs!

F, E and I stuck everything together (with thick 3D foam stickers)!

Everyone had a great day! Hope you do too!

giant quilling for kids

1. Cut color paper into 1/2 inch strips. (You may use outdated school notices for this, or even plain white paper for that matter. Color is fun but not required. Or you could get really gorgeous and use watercolors and even glitter on white card stock... OK I'll stop right there!)

2a. EITHER squeeze some white glue onto a plastic plate and teach your kids how to use glue. ("You just TOUCH your fingertip to the puddle of glue." Admire the smallness of everyone's fingertip glue dots.)

2b. OR hand out glue sticks for everyone. If you have enough. Even neater!

3. Apply glue to one end of a strip.

4. Close the strip into a circle. (A circle, not a leaf shape. That means you have to tuck the end under, not just fold the strip in half.) Repeat steps 3-4 on several more strips.

5. When you have seven circles and the glue on most of them is dry, start gluing the circles together into a flower. Wow! How beautiful!

6. Kids who still have some zitzfleish left may make green leaves (yes, a leaf shape this time, not a circle) and glue them on, tucked in between petals of the flower.

7. When everything is totally dry, attach a 6" piece of thread (or clear fishing line if you are really fancy) and find somewhere to hang the masterpiece.

 

My three year old made this pink flower for our succah, with intensive guidance. You cannot imagine how proud she was and still is:

 

 

Here's another view... The yellow flower was made by my four-year-old, with a little less guidance.

 

 

And this butterfly was designed and made by my eight-year-old daughter, with no help.

 

 

giant-quilled shivas haminim

Check out my succah project! (Took me a while to get the blog post ready but here it is!)

 

I think of this as large-scale quilling because as with quilling, you use strips of paper to create beautiful airy light-and-shadow pictures. The difference is that these strips are half an inch wide rather than 1/8" (or thereabouts). Everything is just bigger and looser -- thus easier to handle, particularly with junior assistants -- and you get bigger results. 

 

Thanks to Sara at www.creativejewishmom.com for the inspiration/technique. I love this so much.

 

 

I made these shivas haminim* from ordinary card stock, and used scotch tape rather than glue to stick everything together. That was a good move as the tape (at least when I used plenty) stuck to itself whereas glue (at least regular white glue) would have dissolved completely in the rain. As it is, after a couple of good hard storms all of the fruits looked a little stretched out of shape. If anybody knows of some way to waterproof cardstock, please tell me!

 

*Shivas haminim = the seven species -- that's the seven kinds of fruit (well, wheat and barley plus five fruits!) that the Torah lists as specialties of the Land of Israel. They're a common succah motif.

Fw: washer necklaces.JPG

And this one looks even simpler and (if possible) cuter. Metal washers, painted as desired, then hung on cord with a cute bead to hold it in place. Can't imagine why we haven't done this yet.

 

acreativeprincess.blogspot.com

 

butterfly bookmark idea

Here's a project I found online somewhere (in different places) that we haven't done yet but hope to try: String beads on wire, then tie on several ribbons and knot their other ends. Beautiful bookmarks! Or necklaces if desired!

 

   

 

3D Jerusalem project, complete!

This is what I made with my kids, actually started as a home-daycamp project several years ago, but finally finished this year for Succos! The girls (then age 4-6) cut out and watercolored the shapes, I cut windows and doors, then we laid out and glued it together with little cardboard springs for 3D effect! I totally need to post it to chinuch.org.

 

 

Purim pics

Here are my mishloach manos pics. I wish I had more. The cookie puppets varied widely in cuteness; this photo does not show the cutest ones, but I guess it's a fair average. I've been mentally working on this puppet show idea for at least a year, possibly two. 

The limerick verses read:

    Good guys, evil men, clueless kings:
    This play has each one of those things.
        As the story unfolds,
        Here's a secret it holds: 
    Someone hidden is pulling the strings.

    As we celebrate Purim each year, 
    This great lesson becomes crystal clear.
        The quick tempo quickens -- 
        The puppet-plot thickens -- 
    He's hiding; remember He's near!

Also included for your viewing pleasure: a certain chubby little guy of whom I am a huge fan!

lingy dingy

Duckling holding a toy telephone:

"Lingy dingy, hello dolly!"

 

Come to think of it, when's the last time you heard a telephone actually go "ding-a-ling"?