Don't Scream, You'll Wake the Kids! (SavtaMommy)
posted Tue January 17th 2012 @ 6:55 AM

When my children were small their father traveled on business. Frequently, I found myself playing the role of single mother. In some ways, it was easier. Any arguments about parental decisions were conducted solely with myself. 

In other ways, homeschooling three children without family nearby was incredibly stressful. Bedtimes were the worst. Read More »

Small Garden Solution (DrMilotay)
posted Tue January 17th 2012 @ 12:35 AM

One of the reasons people tend to use to not grow their own vegetables is that they don’t have the space to make it worth their while. For these folks I recommend the Square Foot gardening approach made popular by Mel Bartholomew. It acknowledges the fact that a lot of space is wasted with traditional row-based gardens. Row-based gardens tend to waste 60–80% of the potential growing space. Read More »

The Heart of Winter or My Favourite Time of the Year as a Gardener (DrMilotay)
posted Tue January 17th 2012 @ 12:33 AM

As a gardener, my favourite part of the gardening year is the heart of winter. It is at this time that I am holed up on the couch with seed catalogues planning out the next year’s garden. While pouring over them, I am envisioning my garden in absolute perfection, providing a bounteous harvest, without images of weeds, or infestations of aphids. Read More »

The Essential Bond of a Name (Yael)
posted Mon January 16th 2012 @ 11:39 AM

For some reason, just as we began parshat Shmot last week (but before we had any conversations about the parsha), all kinds of name-related happenings started popping up in my house. I don’t think it’s a coincidence. I’ve found that we really do “live with the times”—our lives reflect what happens in each week’s Torah portion—and we can see those connections if our eyes are open to them. Read More »

When Cookies are more than Calories (Channie)
posted Mon January 16th 2012 @ 10:29 AM

Only in my home does vegetarianism come in two flavors: “exotic” and “healthy.” The former refers to work-intensive interventions such as making cucumber sushi or hummus latkes. The latter refers to easy efforts such as cobbling together tomato rice soup or cilantro and red cabbage salad. The first mentioned dishes are produced by my children, while the second mentioned dishes are made by me. Given my roles as a teacher, writer, and editor, I only spend part of my waking moments as a domestic. Read More »

New Q&A feature with Mayim Bialik (Yael)
posted Mon January 16th 2012 @ 3:04 AM

I am excited to announce that Natural Jewish Parenting and our sister site, Room613, will be hosting a new feature with actress and mom Mayim Bialik, PhD. Mayim will be answering readers' questions about Jewish parenting and Jewish homeschooling. Read More »

Starfighters (Channie)
posted Mon January 2nd 2012 @ 2:41 AM

Adolescents typically grump about their parents’ lack of investment in fashion, specifically, and about their parents’ lack of investment in consumer goods, more generally. Kids’ pouts and other nonverbal protests produce powerful sources of fission, sources that are volatile enough to keep an entire continent glowing past midnight. Read More »

Open my Heart: A Story for Chanukah (Channie)
posted Sun December 18th 2011 @ 5:18 AM

This story is based on a true event that happened roughly thirty years ago.... Read More »

The Cost of Taming the Jungle (Yael)
posted Tue December 6th 2011 @ 5:26 PM

A few years ago, we lived in a rented house with a yard that was overgrown and wild with plant life. The front yard was not a grassy lawn, but some kind of natural ground cover that looked like a forest floor. The backyard was theoretically grass but over time had become a mixture of mostly weeds and mud. There were bushes all around the house, untrimmed, reaching into the walking paths. We called our yard “the jungle.” Read More »

Embracing Guilt-free Alternatives to Mainstream Torah Schooling (Channie)
posted Sun November 20th 2011 @ 4:54 AM

Despite the fact that one of my children is successfully growing within the framework of an alternative school, it took me many painful years to embrace the Torahdich sentiment, which I had often espoused, but not lived, that each child ought to be educated according to his or her needs. When it came to actualizing that concept, I fell to the demons of “what if.” Read More »

Full Online Pre-Release Screening of New Vaccine Film - Five More Days Only (Yael)
posted Tue November 1st 2011 @ 10:22 PM

An award-winning new documentary about childhood vaccination, The Greater Good, will be released tomorrow in selected locations. But everyone can watch it until the end of this week, online, as part of Vaccine Awareness Week, co-sponsored by the National Vaccine Information Center and Dr. Joseph Mercola.  Read More »

I never knew walking was so dangerous (Yael)
posted Thu October 6th 2011 @ 1:11 PM

Two nights ago, around one o’clock in the morning, I was sitting at my computer, working my usual nightshift. I heard my two-year-old wake up and call for me, so I stood up and started walking across the room… and then I heard… POP! and felt something like a hard ball or a broomstick hitting into the back of my right calf (although no ball or broom was anywhere to be found). I stumbled the rest of the way to my bed and collapsed onto it to nurse my toddler and my injured leg. Read More »

A Spoonful of Vinegar is the Medicine that Goes Down (Channie)
posted Thu October 6th 2011 @ 1:00 PM

Often we associate healing liquids with ghastly-tasting prescriptions or with sugar-laden remedies. Rarely do we think about preparations for our health as bitter but palatable. Vinegar is one such strong-tasting cure to which we ought to get accustomed.

Vinegar is remarkable in that it has few side effects but offers many benefits. Vinegar balances the digestive system and equalizes blood sugar. It cleans out internal muck, and it serves as a breath freshener, too. Read More »

Revenge in the Supermarket (SavtaMommy)
posted Sun October 2nd 2011 @ 7:51 AM

My children spent much of their formative years in a large, well-lit suburban supermarket with shelves full of all sorts of attractively packaged stuff (I hesitate to call it food) which I did not want to buy but they did. We did not own a television, so it couldn’t have been the commercials. Read More »

Partial Empty Nest Syndrome (Yael)
posted Tue September 13th 2011 @ 3:43 AM

It sure feels empty in the house without teenagers around. Just over a week ago, I dropped off my 17-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son at their respective out-of-state high schools. Both kids are independent enough to enjoy the adventure, but my emotions about not having them here kind of sneaked up on me and, well, it sure is quiet around here! Read More »