Adventures in Mama-Land

Creepy. Sorry, but that’s what comes to my mind when I think of Eric Kimmel.  Creepy, as in the very best kind of creepy Jewish books:  ghosts, ghouls, goblins and all things paranormal.  Hershel and the Hanukkah Goblins kind of creepy. Gershon’s Monster kind of creepy.  Jack and the Giant Barbecue kind of creepy. Huh?  Jack and the… giant… barbecue? Check it out: Sure, Eric is the undisputed champion of creepy Jewish kidlit, but if that sounds like he’s stuck in a niche, think again.  He’s not just about creepy… or just about Jewish books, as you’ll see. Read all about Eric A. Kimmel over on my children’s-book writing blog!

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!  The winner is Elissa/Elisa.  Please contact me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com within 3 days (before Tuesday, July 10th) with your mailing information.  In the event that I don’t hear from you within that time, I will draw another winner.  Thanks!!! I bought Morah, Morah, Teach Me Torah just before Shavuos (literally, minutes before the bookstore closed) and have been enjoying it weekly ever since.  I don’t look at it before I write my parsha overviews , but I do read it when I’m planning what sorts of things to do with my kids in connection with the parsha.  It’s also something I can read with them if I choose.  There are so many reasons I like this book!  Despite the very cute picture on the cover, it’s not just for teeny-weeny kids.  It features simple songs (if you know basic tunes to kids’ songs in English, like Mary Had a Little Lamb , or The Ants Come Marching , you can sing these songs!), parsha summaries, activity ideas, Shabbos-table discussion

THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!  The winner is Yael.  Yael, please contact me at Jay3fer “at” gmail “dot” com within 3 days (before Wednesday, July 4th) with your mailing information.  In the event that I don’t hear from you within that time, I will draw another winner.  Thanks!!! ENTER TO WIN A FREE SET OF ALEPH-BET STIX, courtesy of Jewish Educational Toys and Menlo Toys !  Oooh, I am so excited!  A couple of weeks ago, I wrote about Aleph-Bet Stix, an educational alef-bais learning product that I just happened across in a local bookstore… and, of course, being SUPER-nice, I wished I could share the fun with all of you.  Well, now I can! I was fascinated by the idea of inventing your own Jewish educational product to fill a niche (hey, I kind of do it all the time), so I wrote to Chris Bishop, creator of Aleph-Bet Stix, who – while not a Jewish homeschooler himself, is an engineering & science-supplementing dad to two Jewish boys – agreed to an interview.  And after the interv

This is Part 2 in an occasional series.  Please see Part 1, where I interview the indomitable Yael Aldrich, over here . I’m so happy to introduce Rachel!  She is that rare bird, an “IRL homeschooly friend.”  She is also a rarity in that she is a second-generation homeschooler – an unschooled high-school grad, accomplished birth doula, and all-round great (but humble) person.  I had the very good luck of meeting Rachel when she and her husband, a rabbi and teacher, arrived here from Vancouver a couple of years ago.  Before that, they were living in Israel, where their daughter Nechama was born.  They now have two children, Nechama, 4, and Shlomit, hmm… she’s a very sweet baby of some very cute baby age.  (don’t tell her I forgot!) I have been looking forward to sharing some of Rachel’s wisdom with the rest of the world because I think that she offers a long-range perspective on education that would be very valuable to those of us at the beginning or in the middle of our homeschool jo

As part of an article I wrote for the Canadian Jewish News about homeschooling , I had the pleasure recently of interviewing Yael Aldrich, a fellow homeschooler in the US. She had a LOT to say that I wasn’t able to include in my article, but she graciously gave permission for me to “publish” it as an interview on my blog. Yael has 4 children: a 10-year-old boy, an 8-year-old boy, a 5-year-old girl and a 2-year-old son. This is her fifth year homeschooling. Between her responses, I will interrupt your reading with intelligent-sounding questions that I didn’t actually ask at the time, because I was too busy watching the time on my phone card or fiddling around with Skype, but because Yael in her brilliance filled in everything I needed to know despite my ineptitudes. How did you first come to homeschooling? (with apologies; this section is choppier than those that follow) [My oldest son] went to kindergarten and other things… 3-year-old playgroup, 4-year-old playgroup, kindergarten