Why Free Play Is the Best Summer School
05/14/2015 11:00:00 PM
Why Free Play Is the Best Summer School
The more time children spend in structured, parent-guided activities, the worse their ability to work productively towards self-directed goals.
Jessica Lahey, June 20, 2014
Most schools across the nation have marked the end of another academic year, and it's time for summer. Time for kids to bolt for the schoolhouse doors for two long...Read more...
The Upside of Downtime
05/07/2015 11:00:00 PM
The Upside of Downtime
The scientific case for doing nothing more often â€" and its surprising rewards.
In the mid-1980s, physician and author Victoria Sweet, MD, was doing her internal-medicine residency at San Francisco's Kaiser hospital. She worked 110 hours a week, getting time off only every fourth night, after a 34-hour shift. It was then that Sweet discovered the necessity of a little...Read more...
The Case for Preserving the Pleasure of Deep Reading
04/30/2015 11:00:00 PM
The Case for Preserving the Pleasure of Deep Reading
Annie Murphy Paul | June 3, 2013
When a minaret dating from the twelfth century was toppled in the fighting between rebels and government forces in Aleppo, Syria, earlier this spring, we recognized that more than a building had been lost. The destruction of irreplaceable artifactsâ€"like the massive Buddha...Read more...
Why Kids Should Be Allowed to Act Out (Scenes) In Class
04/22/2015 11:00:00 PM
Why Kids Should Be Allowed to Act Out (Scenes) In Class
Physically acting out a written textâ€"as an actor would walk himself through the gestures and emotions of a soliloquy during rehearsalâ€"is an effective way to commit that text to memory. For adults, this process of enactment imbues abstract words with concrete meaning, fixing them more firmly in our minds.
For children, acting out words on the page...Read more...
The Ten Commandments of Social Media
04/17/2015 12:07:15 PM
The Ten Commandments of Social Media
Reinventing my Social Media Presence: A Jewish Educator's Rant
by Rabbi Arnold Samlan
A hallmark of my work as a rabbi and Jewish educational leader has included the use of social media, be it as a blogger, and as a user of Facebook and Twitter. Social media gives me the tools to stay in touch with colleagues...Read more...
How to Talk about the Holocaust
04/09/2015 12:45:15 PM
How to Talk about the Holocaust
Rabbi Sarah Reines
Only a couple of miles from my daughter's elementary school, two planes flew into the World Trade Center. Around the city and across the nation, parents were forced to make quick decisions about how to keep sons and daughters safe from the shadow of a chilling new reality. Psychologists and school counselors advised us to keep the televisions off...Read more...
The 10 Real Plagues of Passover
03/24/2015 05:55:15 AM
The 10 Real Plagues of Passover
Each year, the thought of Passover makes me want to run away. It's a labor-intensive, heavy-on-the-sighing holiday, especially in Israel. The traditions and message are nourishing, but for me they get lost in the pre-holiday hype, in the burden of preparation, and in the myriad prohibitions which turn us back into disgruntled slaves.
If the 10 biblical plagues...Read more...
5 Ways To Connect To Judaism Between Holidays
03/19/2015 04:31:15 PM
5 Ways To Connect To Judaism Between Holidays
Nina Badzin, March 12, 2015
The last hamantaschen has been devoured, and the Passover cleaning will not start in earnest for a few weeks (at least not for me). We are Jews between the holidays. Yes, we always have Shabbat, but in these weeks when there's a lull in both the excitement and the pressure of a holiday, it is the perfect time to turn inward and to explore other...Read more...
The 8 Essential Kinds of Books That Every Kid Should Own
03/12/2015 08:23:16 PM
The 8 Essential Kinds of Books That Every Kid Should Own
I've never been a big fan of lists like "50 Books Your Kid HAS to Read" or "The 100 Best Children's Books OF ALL TIME." Typically, they make my blood pressure spike, tossing me between joy ("Ooh, good pick!") and rage ("No Sylvester and the Magic Pebble? Those Philistines!"), and I spend more time debating their selection criteria and omissions than enjoying their...Read more...
Why Purim is So Much More Than the Jewish Halloween
03/05/2015 05:19:17 PM
Why Purim is So Much More Than the Jewish Halloween
Rivki Silver
Since Purim is a holiday that's not necessarily on the radar of people unconnected to the Jewish world, whenever I find myself needing to quickly explain it, I usually end up calling it the “Jewish Halloween.” There are enough similarities to warrant a comparison. They're both fun, involve dressing up in costume, a significant amount of nosh,...Read more...
Wed, April 30 2025
2 Iyyar 5785
