Garenim

Giving your child their place in Judaism​

Jewish Learning ... Wait, All Learning Needs To Be Fun and Relevant

Recently, my husband and I finished parent teacher conferences. Each of our five children are unique in their learning styles, strengths and weaknesses.  And while it should not have surprised us, and it really did not, each teacher we met with, measured the success of our children based on how much they enjoyed learning a specific subject.  I had to laugh a little. This is not unique to my kids. I took the time to remember back when I was in Middle School and High School and I excelled when I

Out of the Box...Into the Hut

We are now about halfway through the festival of Sukkot.  I admit personally that I am exhausted.  After Rosh HaShanah, after Yom Kippur and after two days of a Festival that led into Shabbat, I slept in this morning, for the first time in weeks.        During the first Festival days, I laughed with friends in shul how if the Jewish people were considered to be so “chosen” maybe God could have spread out our liturgical year and not concentrated 11 festival days in under a month.  Everyone

Spot Light on Dyslexia

Here are some fun and important facts about dyslexia that have been gathered by the American Dyslexia Association, The International Dyslexia Association, The Dyslexia Center, The Dyslexia Foundation, The Child Mind Institute It is estimated that 1 in 10 people have dyslexia Over 40 million American Adults are dyslexic - and only 2 million know it Dyslexia is not tied to IQ - Einstein was dyslexic and had an estimated IQ of 160 Dyslexia in not just about getting letters or numbers mixed up or

Bringing Home Yom Kippur

Yom Kippur often gets a bad rap! Yom Kippur is not a sad day. It is a day in which we are serious and introspective.  The attitude of being serious, and the feeling of introspection can be confusing and challenging for children. Think about it a moment, when we ask children to be serious, such as in school; it is for brief amounts of time. Even then we expect them to fidget, lose focus at times, and based on personal maturity not every kid can be serious around the same topic as their peers.