Here are some little designs we made up with our fuse beads (perler beads, hama beads) and the small square pegboard: two shabbat candles, a kiddush cup and challah, and the words Shabat Shalom. (I normally spell shabbat with two “b”s but that would not fit on my little pegboard.) You can download my Shabbat [...]. Read More »

Last year we made trees with flaps for Tu B’Shevat. This year we are going even more three dimensional! This is such an easy craft activity but it looks great. All you will need is: – a cardboard tube (I used a toilet roll) for the trunk of your tree – small amount of thickish [...]. Read More »

I bought a big container of fuse beads for the whole family to play with over the holidays. I think these are also marketed as Perler beads or Hama beads, although mine are the ever popular “no name” variety. They are colourful plastic beads which you arrange into patterns on specially designed boards and then [...]. Read More »

Weeks before Chanukah I planned to make a chanukiah out of toilet roll tubes. Then I saw one made by Creative Jewish Mom which was so elegant I nearly gave my plans away! But my daughter and I both enjoy getting the paints out, and so this colourful and very easy to make cardboard chanukiah [...]. Read More »

Last Chanukah I had a go at inventing my own mixed vegetable latkes, and they were not bad. But this year I decided to try someone else’s tried and tested recipe instead, and I’m glad I did. Kveller’s contemporary latkes include the extremely delicious Sweet Potato Latkes (with cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves) and the equally [...]. Read More »

I have been inspired and entertained by the creative ideas from Jewish Everyday. Joanna dreams up fabulous things to do with lego, including dreidels and menorahs, almost none of which involve the possibility of setting anything on fire. So today we pulled out our box of random lego pieces and put together this little menorah, [...]. Read More »

I finished this just in time for Chanukah! I am really happy with how it turned out. Happy Chanukah everyone! Tagged: Chanukah, dreidel, Hanukkah, Jewish fabric, sewing. Read More »

I decided I needed a table runner with a chanukah theme, so after a little bit of searching on the internet, I found this pattern for making a dreidel quilt block. I adapted the pattern slightly and enlarged it. I’d never done paper piecing before, but it was easier than I expected, and these are [...]. Read More »

My daughter Talia attends a public kindergarten for 4-5 year olds. Parents take turns helping out for a couple of hours, and my husband and I were “on duty” last Thursday. A week earlier, I asked the teacher what she had planned for us to do, and she invited us to talk to the class [...]. Read More »

The pipe cleaner chanukiah is up on the front door, the bunting and dreidel mobiles are hung up inside, we’ve stocked up on new candles and a big bag of chocolate gelt… roll on Chanukah! These are the home-made cards I’m sending out to some of my friends and family. I love making cards and [...]. Read More »

Trying to talk about Israel to children who are only vaguely aware of their own country (or even the concept of what a country might be) is always going to be a bit hit and miss, but that’s no reason not to try.  Here’s a way to make it a bit more interactive as a [...]. Read More »

My daughter knows quite a few Hebrew blessings, but has had very little exposure to written Hebrew so far, other than the characters on her dreidel collection.  Knowing that her name was one of the first things she recognised when she learned the English alphabet, I thought it would be good to put her name [...]. Read More »

This past week, I designed a little Jewish card game/board game for my daughter (aged 4).  In it, you need to match 3 pictures to each of a selection of Jewish holidays. For example, Shabbat is represented by candles, a kiddush cup and challah; Chanukah has a menorah, dreidel and latkes; Pesach has a seder [...]. Read More »

This past week, I designed a little board game for my daughter (aged 4).  In it, you need to match 3 pictures to each of a selection of Jewish holidays. For example, Shabbat is represented by candles, a kiddush cup and challah; Chanukah has a menorah, dreidel and latkes; Pesach has a seder plate, the [...]. Read More »

I have a terrible memory, so I decided to make a 5 year Sukkot journal/guestbook so we can remember all the fun we had each year. Do you like it? (Please ignore the manufacturing company’s watermark in the middle of the page). I have just ordered a hard copy and am really looking forward to [...]. Read More »

We did it! We made our very own sukkah, something we had never done before, and we have been having a great time using it as much as the weather has permitted.  (This week the maximum temperature has varied from 21C with cold wind and rain to 34C with hot wind!) It is 2.5m wide [...]. Read More »

No celebration is complete if your toys can’t enjoy it too!  This is the world’s easiest toy sukkah. 1. Cut the top panel off an empty tissue box. 2. Cut a large rectangle from one side to become the doorway.  I cut it out completely, then stuck a “beam” across the doorway made from part [...]. Read More »

This is an easy Sukkot craft activity for young children. Materials – paper or light card for background, any colour.  I used A4 size. – some popsticks,  to form the walls of the sukkah.  These are available from craft shops in various colours. – selection of leaves or small sprigs of greenery,  to form the [...]. Read More »

Last year I saw this fabulous idea at Creative Jewish Mom: she had made apple-shaped gift boxes from the ends of plastic bottles.  For better or worse we don’t buy much in the way of soft drinks, so it was quite some time before I finished two bottles of tonic water and was able to [...]. Read More »

We bought the PVC tubing – it’s cheapest in 6 metre lengths (approximately twice as long as our car) and we needed five of them.  Big thanks to my Dad for coming to the rescue with his van. My husband then cut it all to size, with only 50cm left over from the 30 metres [...]. Read More »