Here are a few Yom Kippur projects to keep your children busy while you drink lots of water.
Non-Leather Shoes
Of the five prohibitions on Yom Kippur, this is the one most relevant to children. Of course most children own a pair of slippers, crocs, or rainboots, so it isn't too hard to find some appropriate footwear, but I thought making a pair would be more fun.
I traced Cohava's foot on a piece of cardboard and cut out many, in both
directions (right and left shoes). Then I found some scrap fabric and
stapled a swatch to each one. Markers, sequence, glue, and anything in
the scrap closet went on the shoes.
The Big Fish!
I love the story of Yonah! I enjoy it from a very basic pshat level to the deeper analysis with mefarshim. And I love telling it to children. Someone in the audience always says, "But, but you can't hide from Hashem!" They see the flaw in Yonah's plan from the beginning and I hope it cements in their own minds, from a very young age, that none of our deeds are hidden from Him.
It is a pet-peeve of mine that many people tell children the story of "Jonah and the Whale". It was not a whale. If it were a whale, Nach would have used the word, 'levyatan'. It was a big fish. If you teach a child wrong, it is what they will remember. For this reason, my template for the big fish is very un-whale like. I made the fish double, two attached on one paper.
The children are instructed to paint on one fish, and then fold it over. This paints the other side with a mirror image and a changes the paint's appearance to look more textured.
When the paint dried, I stapled the fish onto an empty toilet paper roll. And added googly-eyes. Wallah! A big fish. I put a duplo lego man in its mouth and spat him out a few times. Obviously, the children loved it and are eager to eat their own Yonahs.
Cloved Lemons
Tomorrow morning my girls are going to beit kenesset to help with another Yom Kippur project. They will be making ponanders. These lemons studded with cloves are passed around during the fast. This gives people the opportunity to make a bracha on the smell (‘Bore Atze Bisamim), so we can reach the daily goal of 100 brachot (we miss a lot by not eating). And of course the smell is invigorating.
Gmar Chatima Tova!
