Shemot-Safe or Unsafe?

Parasha Shemot begins the enslavement of the Jewish people in Egypt and introduces us to Moshe.
Since this is the early addition and this is a tale pretty universally known thanks to Pesach, I will not expound more on the text.

Project 1: Recently my girls have been asking for a pet. Specifically they want a teacup chihuahua. Don't get me wrong, those pups are insanely cute in photographs, but we are NOT getting one. I explained to the girls that in our house we look after people and not pets. This led to a discussion of how we look after babies.

"If you were Miriam, and you were looking after Moshe, even before he is in the teva, what do you need to do?" I asked. They got paper and pencils and wrote "A Baby Guide for Miriam."

This led to a great discussion about people's needs, baby safety, and responsibility. It always was a good opportunity to practice handwriting, spelling, and all that stuff.

Ruti was equally enthusiastic, yelling "Baby! E!" and scribbling furiously. Much cuter than a teacup chihuahua.  (And cuter than gluing another baby in a basket).

Project 2:
The burning bush! This is a very powerful moment in the Torah which is difficult to really appreciate. Forgetting about the intensity of G-d suddenly chatting with you, the shrubbery on fire and not consumed is amazing. I do not think the words do it justice. I don't think my children even understand that fire regularly does consume things. How often do children today see a fire from start to finish and feed it logs and stuff?

Today we collected leaves. I will be leaving them out to dry. Then the pyromania will begin...

I know all of my kosherkidz readership wants to know what happened with my children and this project. Through more luck than judgement it was a success.

 First we sorted the leaves into live and dried.

 Then I made the girls promise to stand behind a line and not touch. The words "hot" and "fire" were used repeatedly. We also got a bucket of water handy. Just in case.

 And then we lit the leaves on fire!

 Needless to say, the dry ones burned quickly. The green ones extinguished themselves.

 [We looked at the glowing embers and I told my girls to look at how shinny they were. Later I told them the midrash of Moshe touching the embers and burning his tongue. See story here]

 When it was cool, the girls were desperate to feel the leaf ash and compare it to the living leaves.

We compared how for us the dried leaves burned quickly and the green leaves extinguished and that only Hashem could make the miracle of a burning bush, which burned and wasn't consumed.
We also reviewed fire safety, bush/forest fires, and not to touch matches.

Have a Safe and Wonderful Shabbat!