Tapestry - Weeks 6, 7, 8 and 9!

Yeah! We start our "week off" break this week as we ended weeks 6, 7, 8 and 9. I am putting these all together as we learned much about the Jewish Holy Days. We continued studying Abraham, and also read and studied the lives of Isaac and Jacob. We also studied the Tabernacle in detail.  As I learn more and more about what type learners the kids are (more visual and kinesthetic), I decided to draw a crossword puzzle on the board and as we went through the questions the kids filled in the answers.  We had to consult the King King James Version quite often. 




Most of the reading for these weeks for History was from the Bible. We made more clothing, this time of the Israelites. Simple blue dresses for the girls, and turbans and robes for the boys. We spent a lot of time studying Shabbat (Sabbath) and have celebrated it twice on our own. The kids made file folders to help them understand all the parts and symbolism of Shabbat.

We also made our very first Challah bread!  Yummy!

Another import part of Shabbat is the Tzedekah Box.  This is a box where you put money into for the needy.  Once the box is full you give it to someone in need.  The kids are taking this very seriously and making donations from their weekly commissions. 

We then went on to study the Book of Leviticus and read about the animal sacrafices.  Praise God that the kids made the connection between the animal sacrafices of the Old Testament and the sacrafice of God's perfect lamb in the New Testament.   We also studied Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and their signficance.  The boys enjoyed looking at the Jewish calendar.  We spent time making a Shofar, and a breastplate like Aaron's.  We mailed L'shana Tova cards to our Jewish friends who celebrate Rosh Hashanah, and ate apples dipped in honey to remind us of the sweetness of God. 

 
To celebrate Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, we wrote our sins on little pieces of paper and then taped them to helium filled balloons.  We took them outside, said a prayer asking God's foregiveness, and let the balloons go, remembering that God promises to take our sins far away from us. 

And finally last week we read and studied Sukkot and Passover.  After the Israelites made it to the Promised Land, they became farmers and God provided rain from heaven to make the crops grow.  The Israelites looked through the Sukkah branches at the stars in the sky.  They remembered that God provided both rain and harvest, and we remember this by celebrating Sukkot, "The season of our Joy."  We decorated our back porch as a Sukkah; I'll post pictures at the end of unit celebration. 

We ended week 9 by studying Passover, and our end of unit celebration is going to be a seder.  We are blessed to have wonderful neighbors who loaned us their Kiddish Cup, candles, candle holders, and seder plate.  We are honored to use these this coming Friday for our Seder.  Nana and Grandpa are coming to visit and will celebrate with us.