This blog is filled with ideas to turn everyday moments into Jewish moments, especially for families with young children.
All in Food
Did you know that passover is also called Chag HaMatzot - The Festival of Matzah? One favorite story that my mom would tell was about a special little matzah that seemed to have a smile on his face.
From the night of our first Passover seder, and for seven days thereafter, it’s a customary tradition to put aside leavened bread, bagels and muffins, and eat matzah. Lots and lots of matzah!
Something special about Passover is that each and every food on the seder plate tells part of the Passover story. This is especially true for matzah. With only two ingredients, it’s a wonderful activity to bake your own!
Something important to the season, that often gets overlooked when we talk about spring, is soil and mud. We kind of love mud in our family!
Spring (Aviv in Hebrew) has always been my favorite season. In Judaism, spring is the season of life, victory and optimism. If there was ever a time and place to celebrate spring, it is now! We have a wonderful round-up of activities! So let’s go celebrate spring!
It seems like the world could use some extra warm hugs and healing right now. We have a tradition in our home that when we’re feeling under the weather, we make, what our Nana Shirley calls, “liquid gold,” or chicken soup!
Something I love about their tradition is the recipe was found on the very last page of her daughter’s most-loved Jewish children’s book, The Better-Than-Best Purim, by Naomi Howland.
One of the mitzvot (commandments) of Purim is to have a feast with family and friends! When celebrating with small friends, I love making “No Bake” Hamantaschen
Today is my favorite Shabbat of the year - Shabbat Shira (Shabbat of Song). On this special Shabbat, we honor birds and celebrate their songs. We’re decorating birdhouses for this wonderful day! It’s the perfect little activity for Tu B’Shevat and Shabbat Shira!
Tu B’Shevat is the perfect holiday for children to plant seeds of all shapes and sizes. In Hebrew, the word seed is pronounced Ze-ra, and vegetable seeds planted during the Hebrew month of Shevat (this year in February) should be ready to eat and enjoy by Passover! Come plant some pea seedlings with us!
In Central Florida, we’re right in the middle of strawberry season. With a chill in the air, and the promise of warmer days to come, picking strawberries (and eating fruits and nuts) for Tu B’ Shevat is a wonderful way to celebrate the holiday!
Havdalah is a little space in time when we separate the end of Shabbat from the beginning of a new week. It takes place on Saturday evening when three stars are twinkling in the sky.
Have you ever noticed just how many Jewish holiday traditions revolve around food - challah and chicken soup on Shabbat, hamantaschen cookies for Purim, and potato latkes and sufganiyot (jelly donuts) for Hanukkah (just to name a few).
When I was 14 years old, I visited Israel with my parents and younger brother. It extra special because it was at the beginning of Hanukkah and we were visiting my older brother who was living at the time on Kibbutz Tzora in central Israel,
Hanukkah celebrations wouldn’t be complete without lighting the Hanukkah menorah (also called Hanukiyah). We light the menorah in the evening at sunset when the stars first appear in the sky.
It’s wonderful when children have the opportunity to participate in an act of kindness for someone else. Yesterday, we made mini challahs, and today, we are going to package up them up into little loaves of love for a special challah delivery.
It’s almost the official start of winter! If you find your family spending more time indoors as the weather gets chiller (or looking for meaningful activities to do while your children are on winter break from school), it might be fun on your next Shabbat to take a break from your normal routine and do something special, like bake mini challahs for Shabbat with your children!
Over the summer, my dauther Elizabeth and I were taking an early evening walk when it started to drizzle. We saw in front of us, not one, but two rainbows!
One traditional way to celebrate Sukkot is to build and decorate a sukkah! To “build” a sukkah on a small scale, you can make DIY edible sukkahs! Make a lot, and you can invite friends over to have an sukkah decorating party!
Children of all ages love unicorns! They’re colorful, bright, fun-spirited and full of magic! This first Shabbat of the New Jewish Year (5780) feels a little magical, so we’re celebrating by making this delicious challah.
