Hannukah Memories
I work at an art museum that's really, really dedicated to children's education. We offer free, hands-on art activities to families every single day, and we really try to push the cultural diversity thing: every Dia de los Muertos we set up an ofrenda, and at other special times of year, we try to educate the public about other people's cultures. Hanukkah is no exception.
Friday, I buzzed our education curator to ask, "You got any of those dreidels left?" She said she did. I said, "Well put 'em out in the gallery. Kids love that game and there's a history lesson to boot!" She countered with...
"Great! Write up a kid-appropriate history of Hanukkah, and we're good to go!"
Yay. I get to condense thousands of years of Jewish history into on 8 1/2X11 sheet of paper. I did it, though.
Reminds me of a family event years ago. We set out blank, wooden dreidels with instructions on how the kids should write out the Hebrew characters onto the tops and play the game. We'd simplified the game so that it would last longer; none of that, "Take half the pot," stuff.
The instructions, and a mnemonic device I developed were:
Shin: put two tokens in
Hey: take two away
Nun: you don't get none
Gimel: I didn't have anything for this one
So, a HUGE group of kids was playing the game, and this adorable little girl I know name Lilly was the most enthusiastic participant. At every spin of the top, she'd scream out the mnemonic devices, much to my chagrin:
"THAT'S HEY! TAKE TWO AWAY!!!!!!!!"
"NUN! YOU DON'T GET NONE!!!!!!!!!"
"SHIN! PUT TWO IIIIIIIINNNNNN!!!!"
and finally:
"GIMEL! YOU GO TO HE-"
Me: "Lilly!!!"
I had to clamp my hand over her adorable mouth to stop her from cursing the little boy next to her.
Oh, Hanukkah. Makes me feel all warm inside. ;-)
Friday, I buzzed our education curator to ask, "You got any of those dreidels left?" She said she did. I said, "Well put 'em out in the gallery. Kids love that game and there's a history lesson to boot!" She countered with...
"Great! Write up a kid-appropriate history of Hanukkah, and we're good to go!"
Yay. I get to condense thousands of years of Jewish history into on 8 1/2X11 sheet of paper. I did it, though.
Reminds me of a family event years ago. We set out blank, wooden dreidels with instructions on how the kids should write out the Hebrew characters onto the tops and play the game. We'd simplified the game so that it would last longer; none of that, "Take half the pot," stuff.
The instructions, and a mnemonic device I developed were:
Shin: put two tokens in
Hey: take two away
Nun: you don't get none
Gimel: I didn't have anything for this one
So, a HUGE group of kids was playing the game, and this adorable little girl I know name Lilly was the most enthusiastic participant. At every spin of the top, she'd scream out the mnemonic devices, much to my chagrin:
"THAT'S HEY! TAKE TWO AWAY!!!!!!!!"
"NUN! YOU DON'T GET NONE!!!!!!!!!"
"SHIN! PUT TWO IIIIIIIINNNNNN!!!!"
and finally:
"GIMEL! YOU GO TO HE-"
Me: "Lilly!!!"
I had to clamp my hand over her adorable mouth to stop her from cursing the little boy next to her.
Oh, Hanukkah. Makes me feel all warm inside. ;-)