Torah Tuesday: Forensic Science for Kids and Parashat Shoftim

This week's parasha discusses the importance of crimes being carefully investigated and evidence being closely examined before convicting and punishing a person.

What a perfect time to turn your home into a mini crime scene and use some forensic science to investigate the crime.

Here is a list of activities you can incorporate. 

1. Blood typing: 

 http://lessonplanspage.com/sciencepebloodtypecompatibilitydemonstration512-htm/

2. Who's marker did it: http://kidsahead.com/external/activity/203

(scroll down to middle of page)

3.White substance: http://kidsahead.com/external/activity/173

4. Fingerprints: http://kidsahead.com/external/activity/176

5. Dna extraction http://kidsahead.com/external/activity/41

6. Glow in the dark blood: http://www.ehow.com/how_8385402_make-glow-dark-fake-blood.html

7. Identify the unknown substance: http://www.scribd.com/doc/23064123/Forensic-Chemistry-Identify-the-Mystery-Substance

8. Candy DNA: http://eclectic-homeschool.blogspot.com/2011/04/making-dna-model-out-of-candy.html

Torah Tuesday: Parashat Matot-Masai and Compromise

Photo Source

In this weeks's parasha, The tribes of Reuben and Gad (later joined by half of the tribe of Manasseh) ask Moshe if they can stay in the land east of the Jordan River and not settle in the promised land of Israel. They preferred the East Jordan since the land was fertile pastureland for their cattle. Moshe is initially upset, but eventually makes a compromise with them. They can stay east of the Jordan on the condition that they do not abandon their brethren in their conquest of Israel and that they lead them in the battle. 

Moshe proves again to be a leader who is sensitive to the needs of his people while maintaining his position among them.

This event has got me thinking about all the compromising and deal making that goes on in our home.  We are definitely not the "because I said so household" nor are we the "do whatever you want family."

Finding the right balance in between those extremes is often the struggle. Giving your children a sense of control over their lives while also steering them correctly is a tricky thing.

 Seems Moshe is setting the example for us. Only after Reuben, Gad, and half of Manasseh fulfill their responsibility to the greater family of Israel, can their individual needs be met. Only after my daughter helps her family space stay neat by putting away her toys, can she have the free time to play in the kiddie pool.

I still struggle with the all the compromising that goes on here. At times, wondering if we make too many concessions and other times regretting not making enough.

Torah Tuesday: Parshat Pinchas and Taking Action

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This week's parasha discusses the daughters of Tzelafchad whose father passes away with no male heir. They petition Moshe that they be granted the portion of the land belonging to their father. Moshe appeals to G‑d who accepts their claim and incorporates it into the Torah's laws of inheritance. Considering the time period this is pretty revolutionary for women's rights. 

This parasha was a perfect transition into discussing the fact that the daughters of Tzelafchad didn't just complain about their problem, rather they took action. They marched over to the leader of their  people to have their appeal heard.

We used this story to discuss the importance of taking action when we see problems both at home and in the world in general. 

There has been alot of complaining around here. Some from me, the overly pregnant and sweaty mama and some from my kids who have become pretty kvetchy recently. So we talked about how important it is to do something when we are unhappy, either talking it out or taking an action to help us out of our jams.

Since both my kids will be starting camp in the next few days, we also talked about bullying and inappropriate touching and the importance of taking action by saying "Stop!" and then going to their leader, i.e. counselor/Morah to help them just like the daughters of Tzelafchad went to their leader.

Torah Tuesdays: Parshat Balak and Role Play

Balak was the first Parasha I blogged about a year ago. To see the crafts we created to go along with the Balaam and donkey story click here. 

Super quick parasha synopsis:

 Balak, the king of Moab, asks the prophet Balaam to curse the people of Israel.  On the way, Balaam's donkey refuses to go forward because it sees the angel that G-d sends to block their way. Balaam hits the donkey. When Balaam tries to curse the Jewish people, blessings come out instead. 

We skipped the more risque topics that came up in the second part of the parasha. 

 For a great insight into the first portion of the parasha, please read this wonderful piece put out by the Sephardic Institute: http://judaicseminar.org/bible/balaq1.pdf

Topics to discuss: 

1. "In the path a man wishes to go, in that path will he be led (b. Mak. 10b)".  Balaam wanted a certain response from Hashem when asking to go with Balak's messengers and kept asking until he got the answer he wanted to hear. How often do our kids do that to us and we do that ourselves?

2. Discuss the fact that the donkey got the message that Hashem's angel was trying to send and Balaam didn't. Why couldn't he see the message as clearly as the donkey, what was clouding his vision?

3. Discuss the blessings given over by Balaam.

We use role playing ALOT when teaching parasha topics. We repeat the scenes several times throughout the week to reinforce the sequence of events and discuss the characters. Here is a short audio clip of how some of the role playing went today:

Excuse some of the freedoms we took with the text. For example to help my 2 year old feel included she was the rooster who woke up Balaam after he slept for the night and received his prophesy from Hashem. This is most definitely not in the Torah.