Shalom Families,
Happy Shavuot. On Saturday night, we begin the celebration of the holiday. Learn more about Shavout here. Ask your child if they remember how many days are between the first Seder and Shavuot? (50- we have been counting on our Omer counter in the lobby since then!)
IMPORTANT CALL TO ACTION – MCPS Calendar Survey on School Closures and Holidays
From the JCRC….. MCPS is requesting comments and feedback from the community at-large regarding the 2019-2020 calendar. Whether you are an MCPS parent, teacher, or other employee, we strongly encourage you to fill out the survey to express your concerns about how keeping schools open on the first day of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur will impact you, your family members’, or your students’ attendance at school on those days. Please note the survey is due MAY 22nd.
Kids hate whatever they think is boring. However, as it turns out, much of what’s important in life is not fun-filled and exciting. While much of a child’s school day can be interesting (one hopes!), memorizing facts is simply rote. While family life can be fun, chores around the home are not. There are plenty of highs and lows in life, but most of life falls right in between.
The Torah portion this week, Bamidbar, begins the tale of the Israelites wandering through the wilderness. They have already been through the excitement of escaping from Egypt and receiving the Torah at Sinai. Now, they are simply traipsing through the desert, as they will be for the next forty years. But the Israelite journey through the desert is more than just wandering. It is a time for testing limits, for growth and renewal. It is a time for consolidating their identity as a nation and their relationship with God.
It’s important to teach kids to appreciate the “boring” moments of life. In working through the boredom there is much to learn: patience and fortitude, to name two important character traits. When they complain of being bored, we, as parents, should be wary of solving their “boredom” for them. Instead, let them work out for themselves the “problem” of boredom. In this way they can learn to tolerate boredom, or at least work through it by themselves and see their way to what’s valuable in the less exciting moments of life.
TALK TO YOUR KIDS about the wandering of the Israelites through the wilderness on their way to the promised land, and what this journey might signify for their lives today.
CONNECT TO THEIR LIVES:
Shabbat shalom,
Luisa Moss, Director of Education and Youth Programming
