More Than Four Sides

Category: kids

  • Exhausted by first week of camp, restored by a low-key weekend

    Last week, the boys were at Camp Shoresh – a camp located about 45 minutes from our home, in the middle of farmland and rolling hills in Maryland. S went there last year, and loved it, and this year, J joined him, rather than staying at the BK-ECC for their summer program. We love the…

  • Fun in the pool

    When we moved into our current home, the only downside we saw was the presence of a pool. This particularly the case of my dear husband, who investigated the option of filling it in. When he found out that it would cost several thousand dollars to get rid of it, we decided to get comfortable…

  • Tot shabbat II

    I mentioned in my last post that our most recent Tot Shabbat didn’t go as well as I’d hoped.  And I promised a followup post to explain. Here goes! So, the first mention I made of Tot Shabbat, I described how difficult it was because J got so clingy, and wanted my undivided attention.  I…

  • Connecting Cultures…

    Yesterday was a full day. It started with Tot Shabbat, in the morning at Tikvat Israel, and despite following the excellent advice of my friend Mary (Thanks, Mary!), the morning didn’t go much better that last month‘s (separate post on this to come). J and I drove the car to the synagogue, as we had…

  • Tot Shabbat

    Our Friday nights and Saturdays follow a rhythm that varies rarely. Most Friday nights we try to be home before sunset (an almost impossible challenge for us in winter, but achievable in the summer months). We have a nice meal together, in our dining room rather than our kitchen table. The meal is structured with…

  • What a ride!

    So, as promised, the second children’s book that we downloaded to review was: “Speeding Down the Spiral: An Artful Adventure” by Deborah Goodman Davis and illustrated by Sophy Naess. Verdict: we all loved it!! It’s 33 pages long, with some pages containing some complex and extended text, but our 5yo was engaged and excited about the pictures and…

  • Not the lesson on nature or biology I was expecting…

    Sometimes the cover of a book is deceptive.  And, I think this may be one reason why selecting e-books can be so challenging.  The cover of this book appealed to me, and the title suggested to me that I and my kids might learn something.  Sadly, I was disappointed.  Their response?  They liked it well…

  • Big Brother Poetry…

    We found two pieces of paper in S’s red folder (the folder that facilitates communication between home and school).  Dad had read them already, and was upstairs doing the bedtime routine when I found them. I read these in the kitchen, while cleaning up the dinner dishes, and couldn’t stop laughing! S said from upstair,…

  • Mulling over mortality

    On the way to preschool today, J asked, “Why did Reaghan have to die? I wish she was still alive.” “All animals have to die sometime – dogs, and even people”, I answered. “Lions don’t die – they kill other animals”, was his comeback. “Yes, even lions die when they get old.” “No! Lions only…

  • Happy New Year!

    2012 will soon be in the past, and, in a few hours, we launch into 2013! Image from http://scienceblogs.com/startswithabang/files/2011/07/fireworks.jpeg And, by all accounts, we will fall off the fiscal cliff! Image from http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2012-12-23/fiscal-cliff-through-eyes-cartoonists So, since we can’t do anything about the fiscal cliff, or about the clock ticking away inexorably toward midnight, we packed the…