hamantash baking

Yesterday we got together with a few other families to bake hamantashen, make groggers and watch a Purim movie. That was the explicit purpose of the get-together. If I would be held accountable by how many of these goals were achieved by my kids, we would score quite poorly: 9 yo is the only one who successfully participated in all the activities and had something to show in the end (a grogger and hamantashen).

When we got there, there was a dog in the house. 4 yo is very afraid of dogs, so she would not go out back with the other kids as long as the dog was on the deck. I did not want 1 yo crawling on the deck with the dog either, so I did not really help out the boys. 9 yo started on grogger making with decorating his container. 7 yo had hard time squeezing glitter paint, then he saw a little clown that 9 yo made on the lid of his grogger, got frustrated that he can NEVER make a clown like that, and just stomped off into the backyard. He climbed on everything: the top of the sand box, the grill, the outer railing of the deck. Then he went inside, to play with Perplexus, read and make balloon animals.

Meanwhile the dog was brought into the house, 4 yo came outside, 9 yo followed the crowd to roll and fill hamantashen. I finally put the baby down, who made a beeline for the steps up the deck and the plastic slide. Oh, and the opening in the deck railing, second-floor height. I ended up watching and following him rather than helping 4 yo with her grogger. She made a half-hearted attempt to make one, but she was more interested in all the bikes and scooters on the deck. She tried out a scooter and a tricycle, but what really caught her eye was a bike with training wheels. She got onto the seat, and, with a little push, was able to pedal. There was not a whole lot of space, and the seat was a bit too high for her, but she spent a nice chunk of time practicing riding the bike.

I asked her whether she wanted to make hamantashen, but she was too engrossed in her new skill. I asked 7 yo if he wanted to make them, but he said no.

At the end, the kids did watch a Purim movie together (Megilat Lester and I heard good things about it).

When it was time to leave, 4 yo was ready to make hamantashen. Luckily there was one more piece of dough left, so she made two, and her friend shared one of hers to eat, so we did not have to wait for 4 yo's hamantash to be baked.

Was this a success? Was this a failure? Did we have good time? Did we learn anything?

Now I know that 4 yo is ready for a big bike. I know to bring some books for 7 yo to keep him busy, and that he is very much OK doing something different from the rest of the crowd. We also made some hamantashen on Friday at home, and he had hard time lining up the sides and pinching them, so we ended up with hamantash tacos and burritos. That might have been the extent of his desire to make hamantashen. We also had a really pleasant time walking to and from the house.

Maybe when the kids are not meeting educational objectives, the trouble is with the objectives, and not with the kids. I need to spend more time looking at the big overall picture rather than just a particular activity.

Megillah musings

http://www.squidoo.com/stop-stealing-dreams

In an ideal world, I would tell you exactly what this was all about and my two cents on it, too. In my world, I know that I have to put his link up now, before I forget, and you can read it and judge for yourself. I am currently on chapter 18.

The boys davened, one at a time, while the other one was doing Rosetta Stone. Then we did the beginning of third perek. We spoke about Haman's rise to power and how he might not have noticed that Mordechai was not bowing down, but the guards tattled.

Today was chilled out for the kids, mommy was going to the dentist and my friend graciously allowed kids into her house while I was being numbed and drilled. When we got back, I was planning on baking hamantashen, but 7 yo asked to do more megillah. We did six more pesukim, through the lottery and the Achashverosh's lack of reaction to Haman's plan. I explained that the lottery was for picking auspicious month. 7 yo brought in example from history that he read about chickens on boat on the way to Carthrage not eating grain and that being a bad omen. We also discussed how the ring was used to seal the decree and to show that it came from the king.

My husband came home for lunch and took all three kids with him to vote. They came back, chests puffed, with "I voted" stickers, and were whispering theatrically about which candidate daddy voted for. Then they wanted to watch the results of the election tonight.

My friend came over with her kids and we baked free-form hamantashen. The kids segregated by ages, 5 year olds went down to play while 7 year olds shaped the cookies. Then, after some time, 5 yos came up and the older kids went down. Chocolate chip filling was top choice, and 2 yo kept sneaking the chips and eating them.

While the cookies were baking, the boys went into the backyard and spent a good hour there. 5 yo popped in in a bit, with an "eaglet" feather. Then 7 yo came in, informing me that they built a teepee. Meanwhile, I was trying to clean up the kitchen.  2 yo came in, carrying watercolor and paintbrush, asking to paint. I set her up and showed how to drip water onto colors to make them soft. When the boys came in for good, I asked them to decorate Shalach Manot bags. By then, acrylic paints made an appearance. 5 yo painted the names of his friends on his bags. 7 yo did designs. 2 yo kept painting as long as there was empty surface.

I have been thinking about the way we're doing megillah and how it is going smoothly. I know that there are a few factors involved:

• The text is familiar. 7 yo read it a bunch of times in English, so he knows sequentially what is coming up next in the story.
• There is a tangible, quickly achievable reward of the kind that fits his motivation.
• We have been drumming up Purim, so there is high interest there. It also means that the whole exercise is finite, and the end is in sight. ( Stay tuned to see whether we will continue learning the Megillah after Purim.)
• The pace is quick. He reads the pasuk in Hebrew, and I let him translate as much as he knows, and just supply him with unknown words. There is no chazara.
• The story is fast-paced, unlike Vayeira, and we played with it a few different ways already.
• There are pictures on almost every page. They reduce the amount of text per page (the illusion of covering a lot in short period of time) and they serve as visual cues to context.

I am wondering which of these factors are worth replicating in Chumash.