Viewing Another World

Today, we talked about how YHWH is creative. The Bible teaches us that He created the heavens and the earth:

"In the beginning, YHWH created the heavens and the Earth."

The English word create has a "plain" sound... but when you read it in Hebrew, you understand that YHWH literally created everything FROM nothing.  He took no ingredients, and created everything.
  
When we consider the care and detail He took in creating the earth, we must also remember that he took care to create the entire universe.  Each star and each planet has it's own unique terrain, atmosphere, and make up.  Yet, He gave special attention to make a place suitable for His special creation, mankind.

When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers,
The moon and the stars, which You have ordained; 

What is man that You take thought of him,
And the son of man that You care for him?

So, when I heard that on May 9, 2016, we could actually see Mercury transit across the sun, I rushed to get my homeschoolers to an observatory! We had to take this opportunity to view this "other world" that YHWH created with our own eyes!!

But.... Pittsburgh is a notoriously cloudy city.  So, of course it was cloudy!

The amateur astronomers at the observatory were great though!  They jumped in to give my children a grand tour of the observatory.

Before they closed up the refractor telescope, fitted with a special solar filter, they let us see it.

Then, they showed us the reflector telescope:

Then we found a globe model of Mercury... which was kind of cool because they didn't get to see the real mercury. A ball that looks like it is the next best thing, right???

My kids enjoyed their time looking around the observatory.  They learned about telescopes and asked when we can go back to view the night sky.  They almost forgot about the original mission to see just one piece of Yah's heavenly creation that we have never "seen" before....  Good thing in a virtual society, you can find EVERYTHING online, and in real time at that....

So,.... Mercury was really just a speck on the Sun.  (The bottom speck in the pic below).  A little anti-climatic, but significant on several levels.

My children asked me if it is morally wrong to leave this perfect home that YHWH created for us, and to travel into space. 

I said... maybe..... 

But then is it morally wrong to fly when he didn't give us wings?

I don't pretend to know all the answers.  But what I do know is that YHWH is the Master Creator, the Master Builder, the Master Designer... The Master of the Universe. 

Melech HaOlam

The Poet... The Artist

We visit local libraries once a week normally.  On one of our recent trips, we found a beautifully illustrated book of poetry by Langston Hughes.

As we read through some of the poems, my children were blown away by the images that Langston Hughes created for them.  We talked about how poetry, just like art, can paint pictures in the minds of readers.  Sooooo.... I asked them to each pick a poem, and draw/paint the picture that the poem brought to their mind.

They love reading.  Hizki decided to read his favorite poem artstically, like a poet.  He even  helped Afrikah read hers!






Here's Afrikah's:

Long Trip
The sea is a wilderness of waves,
A desert of water.
We dip and dive,
Rise and roll,
Hide and are hidden
On the sea.
Day, night,
Night, day,
The sea is a desert of waves,
A wilderness of water.





Afrikah decided to make a puppet show of this poem.

So, she drew her boat, a sun and moon, and puppet people to cut out and hot glue on popsicle sticks.

 

Then she made waves on a sheet of paper (different color waves) and cut slits in the paper so she could move her stick figures across the waves.

All of this was her idea, and I just let her creativity flow...









She was able to actually move her characters so that they dipped and dived, hid and were hidden on the waves... She even added a big fish to swallow up the people... and put tears in their eyes!

Hizki was fine with keeping to the task at hand... to make a painting:

F

There was a fish
With a greedy eye
Who darted toward
A big green fly.

Alas! That fly
Was bait on a hook!
So the fisherman took
The fish home to cook.

Hizki enjoyed a story about fish. He loves fishing, so it really interested him.  He noticed how the fish, the fly, and the fisherman (the poem's characters) all started with the letter F.  The poem was short, but it was packed with really interesting details.

He wanted to make orange paint, so we discussed something I learned in elementary school, ROY G. BIV. 

Alas!  His masterpiece!

Langston Hughes was a great author of his time.  His work continues to be an inspiration!  My children got to learn a little more about poetry today, and maybe next time, they will help another poet bring his or her imagery to life with paint and paper!

Art Excursion

I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh.  So, it's always a joy to go back to the campus and look around with my kids.

This week I decided that since we were going to the public library that is essentially on campus, we might as well check out Pitt's art gallery.  The Frick Fine Arts building is home of a few Art departments at Pitt.  I remember taking a history of architecture class there.... I have almost ZERO memory of the ridiculous facts that I stuffed away and regurgitated from my short term memory in that class.  Now that I homeschool, a few of those facts might be nice to have.

My homeschoolers were genuinely impressed by the first collection we saw.  It was a collection of stick figure art (artist Gertrude Quastler)... even a stick figure sculpture.  Any kid knows how to draw stick figures.  It's our first (and probably still my) ONLY way to draw people.  Afrikah makes stick figures all the time.  Seeing an "artist" whose stick figure work was on public display made her especially happy!

We then saw some severely less interesting art.  Probably the only interest was "who is that?"  And when they got the answer, "How?!"   But we walked through the extensive collection of Europeanized biblical art portraits anyway.

After we came out the building, the kids ran around the fountain outside.

Then Hizki grabbed my camera to do some photography.  He started reading the plaque and snapping pics of a war monument. Afrikah decided to jump in.

We had a great time exploring the art gallery.  Afrikah loves art, and loves creating things.  Who knows, maybe introducing her to the art of others will inspire our little artist to step out and create new ideas without inhibition.

Museums, BUGS, and Fine Art!

Somehow, in this blog I will tie together the museum, bugs, and art!

I've already discussed my new discovery of Free Admission days in Pittsburgh.  The Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh (Oakland location) actually has free days quite often.  We have gone to the museum 3 times this school year... for FREE!  The museum has several exhibits relating to... bugs!

Now, I'm squeamish about insects.  Yuck!!!  We talked about insects in science this year.... their anatomy in particular.  I tried my best not to show how I felt about bugs to my kids.  Hizki likes bugs.  Afrikah.... If it's not a butterfly or a lady bug, not so much

Afrikah was so excited to see an exhibit on monarch butterflies and milkweed.  She has become an expert on monarch butterflies over this school year.  They are her favorite!

Hizki isn't as focused as Afrikah.  He likes pretty much any bug...


but when he saw stick bugs in the museum, he wanted me to take a picture so that he could look them up later.

Afrikah loving the monarch butterfly and milkweed exhibit.

Hizki pointing at his new favorite bug.. the stick bug!










I've been wanting my kids to paint with watercolors all year.  But I also wanted a project that involved them tying things together into a painting.  This seemed to be the perfect opportunity.  Hizki wanted to learn about stick bugs.  Afrikah actually had interest too.  So, we googled stick bugs and learned about them.... Also branched off into leaf bugs.  When it came time to paint, Afrikah decided to paint a leaf bug instead of a butterfly...

I bought the watercolors and paint brush/sponge set from Michael's using a 30% off RetailMeNot coupon.  If you don't have the RetailMeNot App on your smart phone, I highly suggest that you get it!

Paint and children go hand in hand.   Writing reports has its place, but sometimes allowing children to use their imagination in other ways enhances their interest in the environment around them!

Here are their masterpieces!

And that's how we interwove the museum (yeah, we aren't going back a FOURTH time this school year!), bugs (Yah has to have a reason to create those dreaded things), and art (creative ability, flowing from within onto a blank sheet of paper).

Why We Are a Homeschooling Family

The commandment to teach our children diligently comes right after the Sh'ma (Hear of Israel, YHWH our Elohim, YHWH is one!) and the V'ahavtah (And You shall LOVE YHWH with ALL your heart, and with ALL your mind, and with ALL your soul!).

Moses then goes on to say that we should teach that we should "teach the commandments diligently" to our children.  My husband taught on the Hebrew word used for this phrase before... It means to IMPRESS or IMPELL the commandments into our children.  To make it a priority to REPEATEDLY and CONSISTENTLY instruct them in the ways of YHWH!  And the commandment goes on to say that we shouldn't just say the Sh'ma at bedtime, or even when we wake up, but we should instruct our children as we are in our home and also "along the way", i.e., step by step through life.

We started homeschooling in 2015 as a way to better keep this commandment.  I'm finding that I can teach my children the LOVE and FEAR of YHWH in every subject.  I'm enjoying them being around me 24/7.  I can see room for character growth and development.  We can focus on their weakness, dive into their interests, schedule around the Biblical feasts.  Overall, the experience has been amazing.  If Homeschooling is something you can do, I highly suggest you try it.  Or find an alternative like cyber school to keep your children home with you, so that you can teach them the things of YHWH at home and along the way.

I hope this blog will document some of the things that I do with my children, and help moms to discover things to do with their children... along the way.

-Tirzah Lewis

Pi Day Festivities 3.14.2016

Let's face it....Pi day (March 14 every year) is for nerds!  Am I a nerd?  Although I hate to say it out loud.... I probably am.  As a math and physics major, I think most people would declare that I am.

So.... I wanted to make Pi Day extra special for my children.  Even though they are only 8 and 6, I wanted to somehow make this number that YHWH created from scratch and that pops up in the universe over and over because of it's fundamental nature actually MEAN something TANGIBLY to my young children.  Maybe it would help them unlock some deeper understanding of physical laws later down the line.... Maybe they'll just forget about everything we talked about in a few days... I don't know.  To me, it was worth a shot.

Here is my board.  I started with how to even say Pi.  Then I showed them that it's a Greek letter and has a meaning of 3.14.

My children already know what a line of symmetry is.  They also know that a circle has an infinite number of lines of symmetry.  So, it was easy to just say, let's call the line of symmetry on a circle the "diameter".  If you wanted to measure this you could use a ruler....

The next major feat was to figure out how to describe the circumference of a circle.  I told them to imagine taking a piece of string, and tying it around a circle.  Then, measuring the string.  That would be this mysterious "circumference" number.

Now.... let's put it together.  For ANY Circle, no matter what size, the circumference and the diameter are related to each other in the SAME EXACT way, and that is by the number pi.  My kids don't know the term "ratio" yet.  I had to just say, "circumference divided by" or "over" diameter to them... Even my six year old has seen fractions and understands simple division.  This whole ratio thing might make sense in a couple years, but for now, since my kids understood what I was talking about, I considered it to be a victory!

Now.... Bust out all the circles in the house so we can test out this "theory"!

Afrikah Measuring the diameter of a clock.

We used string to measure the circumference of our circles.

Some Circles were so big that we needed to use measuring tape.  Here, Afrikah is drinking out of one of the circles we measured...

Hizki measuring a diameter.  After about three circles (you can see there's ELEVEN circles even in this picture) my kids got the point that 3.14 really kept coming up!

That Peanut butter jar's lid actually gave us the closest number to Pi.  I kept this in mind.  My children probably didn't notice it.  But they enjoyed all the measuring and using a calculator for the first time.  They wanted to keep measuring circles, but I had a FUN packet for them to do.







I found a Pi Day packet on teacherspayteachers.com.  I decided to go ahead and spend $4.25 for a packet that is appropriate for younger elementary school students.  It was worth every penny, and I can use it next year.  I only picked out a few activities to do from the packet.  I figure we can use it for the next few years until we've done all the activities we want to do from it...

Here's a link to this fabulous packet!

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Pi-Day-583799

 

My kids LOVED Pi Day!  So, I really consider this a success.  Circles will never be the same, and maybe I inspired my children to from a young age love math and be ready to conquer it!

Leap Day 2016

As a Torah Family, our main concern is understanding and keeping the Biblical Calendar.  However, now that I am a teacher, I decided to engage my children's interests in understanding the Gregorian Calendar by emphasizing the fact that there is something called a "Leap Day" that occurs roughly every four years.... Yeah, I didn't get into the exceptions.  I don't think I understand the exceptions to the rule fully.  LOL!!!

But... anyway...

I found some really cool ideas on Pinterest. I made a packet using the following FREE links for my children to color in and fill out...

https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Leap-Day-Freebie-202631
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Leap-Year-FREE-2396461

They took their pics and made written and video time capsules that they will open up in 4 years, on the next leap day 2/29/2020!

Here's Hizki's selfie:

 

Then we made origami frogs...

 And raced them!

Here is the YouTube video we used to make the origami frogs step by step:

https://youtu.be/_6uN2knV9iU?list=PLAXgPZLQ78YtpKXc_Cjes9KWq0gAX6ehl

Until 2/29/2020... Shalom!

MLK Day Adventures

One of the things I have discovered since being a Homeschool Mom is that there are FREE DAYS for every public location in Pittsburgh.  The museums, the science center, the aviary, the botanical gardens... everything that I'm used to PAYING money for is FREE if I just figure out when it is and plan accordingly as long as it's not a shabbat!

So MLK Day 2016 was a treat!  Literally, we left our house and didn't spend any money.

First stop.... the Pittsburgh Carnegie Science Center! We saved about $70 on the admission!

Second Stop! Another free event at the Pittsburgh Glass Center (https://www.pittsburghglasscenter.org).  They normally have free glass blowing demonstrations, as well as a gallery that is open to the public and on a donation basis.  They had free children's crafts as well as guaranteed glass blowing demonstrations.

 Afrikah and Hizki colored glass panes to be used in an exhibit at our local Children's Hospital (which is actually down the street from the Pittsburgh Glass Center).


Afrikah's glass pane was one of hearts and butterflies....

Hizki's glass pane (you can't see it well) was Martin Luther King, Jr's church.  It also said "Peace".

The beautiful thing about this part of our field trip was that my children we are able to create, and actually color on glass that will be used to help encourage and inspire other children.








Then, of course, there was the fun of watching molten glass.... Something that even I have never seen before.  Hizki and Afrikah were fascinated.

 All in all, MLK Day 2016 was a success.  We were able to incorporate Martin Luther King, Jr with the crafts at the Pittsburgh Glass Center.  We also had a good time learning, exploring, and doing new things.

Until the next free day!

-Tirtzah