As part of the Mitzvot Unplugged series we are pleased to have Dov Weinstein, director of Tiny Ninja Theater, talk about a creative way of teaching gemara with Tiny Ninja Theater's M'amati. "Tiny Ninja Theater presents M'amati (From when?)" is an educational performance piece based around the opening Mishna in (tractate) Berachot. It uses everyd ...
Teaching Pirkei Avot
As part of the Mitzvot Unplugged series we are happy to welcome Jennifer from Adventures in MamaLand. She will be talking about teaching Pirkei Avot. It’s spring… time to learn Pirkei Avot! Traditionally, that’s every Shabbat afternoon between Pesach and Shavuot, one of six chapters per week. Many people keep going until Rosh Hashanah, but that’s ge ...
Turning Jewish values into Concrete Actions through Areyvut
Teaching our kids Jewish values also is about contributing to the community. I'm happy to have a guest post by Daniel Rothner, director of Areyvut as part of the Mitzvot Unplugged series to talk about some of Areyvut's creative projects, including Mitzvah Clowning. Jewish Values to Action Areyvut believes in turning Jewish values from abstract ideas i ...
The Living Torah
As part of the Mitzvot Unplugged Series, we are happy to have a guest post by Ilana Masri from JewishHomeschoolNYC.blogspot.com. As a homeschooling family, we feel privileged that we have a seemingly endless amount of hours each day to focus on our children's character development. We address Jewish values in a twofold manner. We use the weekly par ...
Kol HaOt – Illuminating Jewish Life through Art
We are happy to have a guest post from Kol Haot as part of the Mitzvot Unplugged Series. A fuller version of this post appeared in the Lookstein Journal Jewish Educational Leadership: The Arts in Jewish Education A short note, although i have never participated in the series, many years ago I visited David Moss's Jerusalem studio with my parents and my ...
Hachnosos Orchim- Welcoming Guests
As part of the Mitzvot Unplugged series, we are happy to welcome Danit from A Jewish Homeschool Blog. Danit dealt with the question of what was a successful way to teach a Jewish concept/value. She is dealing with Hachnasat Orchim (or Hachnosos Orchim.) "Hachnosos Orchim- Welcoming Guests" My kids love learning about the weekly Parshah. We all s ...
Mitzvot Unplugged Welcome
I'm very pleased to welcome you to the first ever Mitzvot Unplugged Series. The series developed as a conversation in my head and then with my kids. As my children get older I think more and more about how to inspire and develop their own desire to be good people, love of Torah and desire to do mitzvot. I know that much of that is role modeling and work ...
Mitzvot Unplugged
From Lag BOmer to Shavuot I will be hosting a blog series called Mitzvot Unplugged. The main theme of the series is teaching tiny tots/kids/young adults Jewish values in a creative way. I am pretty excited about this series, and about the people who have already agreed to participate in the series who range from creative bloggers to organizations to ...
Teaching Gratitude, Thanks and Prayer
Its a difficult time now for families in many different places. Our thoughts are with innocent victims and families that are suffering. It has been inspiring to hear how some people are expressing gratitude, given the trying times. Maybe I'll share some of them at another time. This post is supposed to be about helping kids give thanks to Gd. In t ...
Thank You for the Food You’ve Given Me- Gratitude
Kids are both the best and the worst at showing gratitude in general because they have incredible honesty. For instance, you might hear something like "Wow! Thank you so much for giving me a hamster! You are the best parents in the world!" uttered with complete feeling, followed by "Now I want two" or "I wan't a dog" or "How come you won't get me a hors ...