Holiday Season Strategies for Jewish Mothers5531166
From The Pardusian Chronicles
When my son was little, we attended a co-op preschool in Manhattan Beach, California the location where the sole curriculum was "conflict resolution". As a result of this, none of their art centers contained any holiday references. The children never even came home using a Mother's or Father's Day card in case certainly one of their students did not have both dad and mom within their lives.
We gone to live in Santa Cruz, California prior to my son to begin kindergarten. I soon found out that Santa Cruz had a completely different policy about holidays. To my amazement, one of many kindergarten teachers stood a Christmas tree in her own classroom! Then throughout the springtime, inside my daughter's co-op preschool, I was again faced with the different policy. One of many art centers contained stickers of bunnies and Happy easter !. Once i brought this to the attention from the teacher, her response was, "Those aren't religious symbols."
It's interesting to note that folks have differing beliefs about what might or might not be religious symbols. Be using a Menorah downtown this season because some thought it was inappropriate to get a religious symbol through the post office. Regardless of this, I know that you will have plenty Christmas related symbols throughout the downtown in 2010. Lights, trees, bells, holly and much more are displayed around town in schools, stores, along with other public facilities.
So rather than beat them, I have faith that let's join them. Usually Jews are a bit shy about public displays of religiosity as a result of all the anti-Semitism that we've encountered. So this is a method to stand up with pride, along with some techniques for Jewish mothers with little children. These tips help kids love their Jewish identity despite being bombarded by all of the fun, brightly colored, and beautiful holiday symbols that merely don't participate in them.
1. When school starts, permit the teacher know before hand your child is Jewish and will be absent on Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur (our christmas season). Require a little consideration also to please not plan any exciting special projects on days gone by which means that your child won't feel neglected. Ask the school board along with your principal to put the vacations inside their school calendar so teachers understand them.
2. Around Hanukah, ask your son or daughter's teacher when you can can be found in to the classroom to make latkes. Your children love them! I've had kids ask me year in year out if I would definitely make latkes and I've had parents thank me for it. If you need, turn this in a cooking lesson. Help it become easy on yourself by purchasing bags of frozen shredded potatoes and minced onion through the supermarket. Or simply just cause them to become at home and bring them in already warm. Browse the Hanukah story from the picture book since they eat. You may even light a menorah to really make it truly exciting. Following your kids are done eating, make them learn how you can play dreidle. Peanuts in the shell work rather well for the dreidle game kitty - if there are no peanut allergies.
3. Possess a latke party both at home and invite friends. Chocolate gelt enables you to play dreidle with. In our family, every person has their unique menorah to light. My daughter created a gorgeous menorah one year in addition to a square of granite. You may need a lot of candles for all those menorahs though the light is worth it. After lighting, march around your table, like Maccabees singing Chanukah songs. Did you know it's really a tradition for doc2be to only to utilise the table and like the light as the candles burn? Get all of your cooking and serving done first and luxuriate in this relaxing 20 minute-meditation-mitzvah for girls only!
4. Use books and CDs to help your kids enter into the vacation spirit. There are lots of children's books that tell the story of Hanukah. One of my personal favorite picture books is named, "Festival of Lights, The tale of Hanukkah" by Maida Silverman. My daughter always loved the sticker book, "Melly's Menorah" by Amye Rosenberg. For older children, there is a chapter book called, "Jason's Miracle: A Hanukkah Story" by Beryl Lieff Benderly. For teens and adults, there's a book called, "The Complete Story of Chanukah" by Nissan Mindel. The top CD I have found for Jewish holidays is, "To Life! Chanukah along with other Jewish Celebrations". Cindy Paley also offers a nice Chanukah CD and "A Singing Seder" for Passover.
5. Being along with other Jewish children helps your son or daughter know he/she is just not alone in celebrating holidays which are distinctive from a lot of the other children in college. Community is available in the many synagogues out and about. In addition, there are many places for you to find out more on Judaism. My favorite place to go is Chabad.org where there are a lot of articles, mp3 downloads and videos - all totally free. But in case you can just learn alef, start there, you can teach your young ones "alef".
If they are met with the stunning, glittery and glowing holiday symbols that permeate our society in the "holidays", are aware that it is possible to give your kids something they can enjoy that's all their own. Kids are happy to are aware that some holidays are part of others when they have a gift of their very own. You are able to succeed in imparting the most beneficial that Judaism has to offer by experiencing the many Jewish holidays throughout the year. They may do not have the glamour and glitter nevertheless they offers your kids with deep meaning and miracles, a sense of values, along with a heritage they are able to take immense pride in.
