Craft: Omer Counter

Today as our craft, we made an Omer Counter.  "Counting the Omer" is the Jew's formal counting of the 49 days from the second day of Passover (when the Omer offering was brought in the Holy Temple) to the eve of Shavuot, signifying our preparation for the receiving of the Torah on the holiday of Shavuot.

If you're interested, you can read more about Counting the Omer here.

For our Counter, Yoav finger crocheted a long chain of wool yarn.  Then we tied colored wooden beads onto short lengths of thin wool yarn and I made a loop at the end of each to slide it onto the crocheted chain.  We then put the colors into a pattern and slid them onto the crocheted chain.  Each night, we'll slide one bead from the right to the left.  It was a good craft for us - Yoav kept busy with the finger crocheting, putting beads on the white yarn and then ordering of the beads and Elie was busy stringing beads.  I knotted the beads onto the white yarn and made the loops.

Yoav and Language / No Intervention

Score 1 for No Intervention!

For the past few years, Yoav has said a few words wrong and I've wondered if I should do anything about it.  I talked to Beth Sutton of Enki Education about it a little less than a year ago and (based on his detailed biography), she suggested I wait a year and then re-evaluate.

Thank you Beth!

Today, suddenly, Yoav is able to say ALL the words properly!

The words he said wrong were:
"d" instead of "th" (ie, "dat" instead of "that")
"ill" instead of "ull" (ie, "bill" instead of "bull")

Today he said to me, "Watch (me spin this candle).  I hold the string between my thumb and this finger."
Me:  "Your WHAT!?!?!?!"
Him:  "My thumb."
Me:  "Your thumb?"
Him:  "Yes my thumb."
Me:  (nonverbal)  Woohoo!!!!  Then, aloud, "Ah, and you make it go as fast as a bull?"
Him:  "Yes."
Me:  "As fast as a bull?"
Him:  "Yeah, as fast as a bull!"
Me:  "Do you think you can pull a bull?"
Him:  (thinking aloud) "...pull a bull..."
Me:  (nonverbal)  Woohoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Creative Parenting: How to Sleep and Play With Your Kids :)

This post is in honor of my very creative husband ;)

Today he was playing with the kids - DH was the shop owner and the kids would come by with their pick up trucks to buy items from the shop and then would take the items to their home and organize it all.

DH was exhausted from just returning from NY and going to sleep too late last night and waking up early this morning.  So he said to the boys that he (the shop owner) had to go to the bank and was closing down the store briefly and would be back soon.  Then he came and rested on the couch and told Yoav that he picked a number at the bank and he got number 176 and they were on number 25 or something like that.  Both kids took it as part of the game and went on playing in a way that didn't involve going to the store.  Occasionally Yoav would ask what number the bank was on and DH would let him know and Yoav took it as just the way it is / part of the game and DH got to sleep a bit :)