Soaps...

During the summer holidays the soaps can always be useful ...
If then they have to portre traveling better if they are small and already packaged, they will appeal to children.
Use 100% natural soaps, coconut oil, honey or olive oil, for example, cut them in half and invent how to package them and label them (labels: www.evermine.com). 
Use jute, recycled wrapping paper, brow paper bags...

Tips: uses for brown paper bags

• To ripen peaches, avocados, pears, apples or tomatoes, put them in a brown paper bag. The paper helps retain the natural gases that ripen the fruit. Remember, as soon as you refrigerate the fruit or vegetables, the ripening process stops. Store mushrooms in a brown paper bag to keep them fresh.
  
• To keep onions on hand for two or three months without sprouting, remove them from their mesh or plastic sack and put them in a brown paper bag on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator.
  
• Tie a large brown paper bag over the head of your dust mop to shake off the dirt and dust inside the house.
  
• Drain fried foods or cool cookies on brown paper bags
  
• Cut or tear a 10-inch strip along the back seam of a brown paper bag and slip it over your car steering wheel to keep the wheel cool and touchable during hot weather.
  
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Summer lanterns

Create small lanterns or candle holders for summer dinners, cheerful and colorful.  
Recycle jars of baby food, apply strips of tape paper at a distance of about 1cm. 
Paint with acrylic colours. Once dry, remove the tape paper, fill halfway with durum wheat and cut strips of jute to tie them around the jar.  
Decorate your tables summer with something completely recycled ...

...trusting the magic of summer to provide us with a world of infinite possibilities.

Lavender Time

Lavender is ready to be harvested. 
If you have a corner of the garden or a balcony take the opportunity to plant some lavender plant. In early summer, you can make your first crop, then make the flowers dry and perfume your home..or make small gifts to friends.  
Create small bags of cotton where to put lavender flowers dry and dry, the result will be long-lasting and pleasant.

Add a few drops of lavender essential oil in bags and you have the perfect Havdalah besamim.
In the course of the havdalah ceremony, we sniff at besamim -- aromatic herbs, spices, or fruit (whole cloves are very popular). With the entry of each Shabbat, the soul of every Jew is uplifted by the presence of a neshamah yeteira, an additional spiritual dimension, a "Shabbat Soul." With the departure of Shabbat and the arrival of another mundane work week, this neshama yeteira departs, leaving behind a gloomy soul. According to kabbalah, of all the five senses, smell is the only one which impacts the soul. The fragrant smell of the besamim comforts and soothes the soul at its most difficult juncture of the week.

Tisha b'Av - Jerusalem painted bricks

The saddest day on the Jewish calendar is the Ninth of Av, “Tisha B’Av.” It is the date when both our Holy Temples were destroyed, and exile, persecution and spiritual blackness began.
Tisha B’Av starts at sundown of the eighth of Av and lasts till the following nightfall.
From the ashes of the destroyed Temple will rise an incomparably magnificent edifice. Exile will give birth to redemption. It is a tradition that our redeemer will be born on Tisha B’Av. It is a day of anticipation and hope, for “One who mourns Jerusalem will merit seeing her happiness.

With some dry air clay create with children some fake bricks, with small brushes and acrylic colours paint on them a picture you like of Yersushalayim. Let the paintings "unfinished" and the edges of the fake bricks inaccurate as if they had been removed or fallen. Create fractures along the bricks and then arrange it with glue.

Chag Sameach!

Sweet Torah Treats for Shavuot

Torah candies

This is very simple. Simply wrap a  piece of scrapbooking paper around 2 roll shaped sweets and tie with a ribbon.

Aseret Adiberot on Mount Sinay

Floral border on Mount Sinay for Shavuot

Shavuot greetings

Shavuot laminated greetings cards

Shavuot Bikkurim painting

Shavuot - Hag ha'Bikkurim or Festival of the First Fruits.

In the Bible Shavuot is called Hag Matan Torateinu, Hebrew for the Festival of the Giving of Our Torah, or Hag ha-Bikkurim which is Hebrew for Festival of the First Fruits, as well as Hag ha-Katzir or the Festival of the Harvest
Shavuot was also the first day on which individuals could bring the Bikkurim (first fruits) to the Temple in Jerusalem . The Bikkurim were brought from the Seven Species for which the Land of Israel is praised.

Jewish farmers would tie a reed around the first ripening fruits from each of these species in their fields. At the time of harvest, the fruits identified by the reed would be cut and placed in baskets woven of gold and silver. The baskets would then be loaded on oxen whose horns were gilded and laced with garlands of flowers, and who were led in a grand procession to Jerusalem.

Bikkurim offering painting and border

Meghillat of Ruth and paper case

The Book of Ruth is recited as part of the program of study for Shavuot night. Additionally, in many synagogues it is read publicly on the second day of Shavuot. There are several reasons for this custom:
Shavuot is the birthday and yahrtzeit (anniversary of passing) of King David, and the Book of Ruth records his ancestry. Ruth and her husband Boaz were King David’s great-grandparents.
The scenes of harvesting described in the book of Ruth are appropriate to the Festival of Harvest.
Ruth was a sincere convert who embraced Judaism with all her heart. On Shavuot all Jews were converts,having accepted the Torah and all of its precepts.

Illustrated Meghillat of Ruth paper case

IIlustrated meghillat for children case made with roll of paper towels covered with wrapping paper.
Download the illustrations HERE 

Shavuot greetings "bags"

It is customary to eat dairy foods on the first day of Shavuot. There are a number of reasons for this custom. On the holiday of Shavuot, a two-loaf bread offering was brought in the Temple. To commemorate this, we eat two meals on Shavuot, first a dairy meal, and then, after a short break, we eat the traditional holiday meat meal.
With the giving of the Torah, the Jews became obligated to observe the kosher laws. As the Torah was given on Shabbat, no cattle could be slaughtered nor could utensils be koshered, and thus on that day they ate dairy.
The Torah is likened to nourishing milk. Also, the Hebrew word for milk is chalav, and when the numerical values of each of the letters in the word chalav are added together 8 + 30 + 2—the total is forty. Forty is the number of days Moses spent on Mount Sinai when receiving the Torah.
On Shavuot we therefore eat dairy products and then take a break before eating meat in order to demonstrate our commitment to this mitzvah.

Pom pom ice cream cones greetings

Making pom poms is a favorite amusement for kids. It’s easy and you can choose your favorite colors. With pieces of an egg carton turn the pom poms into to ice creams greetings for Shavuot.
You need yarn, scissors, egg cartons, acrylic paint and a brush. You will also need glue, we have use a glue gun.

Flower crafts for Shavuot

Shavuot is a special time for adults and children. Shavuot is automatically associate with two things; cheesecake and flowers!
Flowers are a wonderful way to bring the spirit of the holiday into your home. These flowers crafts are very easy to make. They will look stunning as a decorative addition to your Yom
Tov home and table.

Felt flowers and tags

Historically for most Jewish communities, Shavuot is celebrated in part by bringing in fresh flowers and other botanicals into the home and synagogue, but in Eastern Europe another tradition developed around  the 18th C. There, the Jews began to create paper cuttings for Shavuot. As the tradition developed, the paper cuts became more and more imaginative.

Rice paper flower and decorated pot

1. Fold a single piece of square sheet like you were going to cut a snowflake
2. Cut the edge of the folded sheet so it is rounded like an ice cream cone
3. Open the sheey back up
4.  Separate the layers carefully and place them back on top of each other askew, but this is optional.
5. Pinch the end of the sheet and twist it.

Shavuot challà cover

Handmade Challà cover for Shavuot

Behar - Bechukotai

This week's double reading, Behar-Bechukotai, speaks about the Sabbatical and Jubilee years, laws regulating commerce and the redemption of slaves. It also contains a vivid description of the rewards for observing G‑d's commandments and the series of punishments that will befall us if we choose to disregard them. The Torah then discusses different types of gifts given to the Temple, and the animal tithe.
We are promised incredible blessing if we diligently study Torah and observe the mitzvot. The blessings include plentiful food, timely rain, security, peace in the land, the elimination of wild animals from the land, and incredible military success. And more blessings: An overabundance of crops and G‑d's presence will be revealed in our midst. 
With this we conclude the Book of Vaiykrà.

Home abundance of plants

 Painted stones

Emor - the omer

After making brief mention of the Shabbat, the Torah talks about the holiday of Passover and the mitzvah of eating matzah. On the second day of this holiday, an "omer" barley offering is brought in the Temple. This is followed by a seven-week counting period that culminates with the holiday of Shavuot. After discussing the Shavuot Temple service, the Torah briefly interrupts the holiday discussion to mention the obligation, when harvesting fields, to leave certain gifts for the poor.

 Wheat drawing

... and my daughters too did their wheat drawing, in brown and green.

CD case Omer counter

Meditative wheat drawing about counting the omer
Chose a simple drawing that is  related to the theme of Counting the Omer…wheat. Drawing a stalk of wheat is just a few basic shapes that don’t need to be perfect. 

Saw at CHAI AND HOME