Hello All:
We had a fantastic week! I am pleased to announce that the
kids were ROCK STARS during tefillah on Sunday! The stars were in
alignment! It was a win for more than just the Patriots. Go team CSZ!
We finished up our unit on Sodom and Gomorrah. We talked
about the parental/child relationship between God and Abraham and how Abraham
negotiates with God via flattery and guilt… sound familiar?! Your kids
knew EXACTLY what I was talking about when I said that Abraham used guilt and
then flattery to get what he wanted from God. Apparently there are some
pros in the classroom. Trust me, my kids are among them. “Mom, why won’t
you go to my game? You always go to Sams?” or “Gosh? Is that a new
outfit? It looks great. Hey: any way I can…” I can spot it a
mile away… that “they want something statement.” Well, Abraham wanted
something… and God was going to let him play it out. Abraham didn’t want
God to destroy the cities. Abe’s concern was that there were righteous people
mixed in with the wicked. So, Abraham began trying to whittle down a
number with God. If I find 50 people, 25, 10…. And so on. It
doesn’t go so well for the folks of S and G, but we don’t really delve into
that in class. Our point is to talk about Abraham’s actions. FIRST he literally
STANDS with God, and then he CALLS GOD OUT on what he considers to be an
unreasonable action and then he tries to persuade God to change his (sorry to
genderize here… I am doing it for lack of the vocabulary needed to discuss God
in a precise way.. I have to work on that ) mind. That takes COURAGE.. that
takes CHUTZPAH.. and that takes, in the immortal words of some of my 6th
graders “balls.” Alas, a few more gendered parts, but we were not going
to get into a body parts talk today…
The kids really connected with the story. They LIKED
that Abraham argued with God. They could understand what it must feel like for
Abraham to not feel like he was being listened to. It’s typical tween
angst. (Poor Abraham… being comparted to a tween). But it is a portal for
them to really get into the story, so I like to introduce them to Abraham this
way. We then discussed the “how do you really know if the people in Sodom
and Gomorrah were really wicked?” We didn’t discuss what they did (it is
some pretty heavy stuff); instead, we talked about is someone ALL bad or ALL
good? Can someone be half half? Can someone be 80/20? Can
someone be all bad now, but then in later life be good?! How do we know
that the people in S and G were not going to be good people later on?! I
like to bring this up, because – and back to the tween thing – the kids are at
a wonky age where being mean is kind of a thing L.
It’s tough to be in middle school. The kids are insecure, and hence, they
put on different hats and try out different friends. They are also moody
and lash out and say unkind things and then the next day, they don’t even
remember it. But I don’t have to tell you that. You live with a tween!
So we played the game Bamboozled. I LOVE this
game. It is a game by Jellybelly with jellybeans. You spin a
spinner and get a color. The color could be 2 flavors. One is good and
one is gross. Say: barf or peach ; toothpaste or blue raspberry; booger or
vanilla; fart or chocolate pudding. You get the picture. Typical 8 year
old humor. Anyway: the rules are as such: NOBODY is forced to play and
NOBODY HAS to eat anything. The last thing I want is someone
barfing. The kids can spit it out (I did), get a drink and “chase” it
with another piece of candy. The kids were all really good sports.
And the purpose is to show – two flavors look EXACTLY the same on the outside.
You just don’t know. It could be good and it could be bad. In order
to find the good, you have to give it a chance. And sadly, sometimes you
have to spit it out and try again. But people are like this. We can’t
tell always by how someone acts and looks like what they are REALLY like on the
inside. We need to give them a chance. It was a good lesson. I just wish
I would stop getting rotten egg flavored jelly beans.
Tuesday we had our TubShvat Sedar. The kids got to
enjoy different kinds of fruits (ask them what classifications they were in)
and say the prayers associated with each fruit. The booklet we used is from
Hazon, you can download it and use it at home. It’s a beautiful publication:
Finally, please consider donating any of your random “stuff”
for our Maker’s Space! We are also collecting gently used children’s toys
for our programs. Both donations are tax deductible.
Have a great week,
Leah
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