Learning with Holidays: Celebrating Rosh Hashanah

We homeschooling families are incredibly blessed to be able to daily adapt our curriculum schedules to reflect the real world, making learning pertinent and appropriate to our real lives. Do you remember when you were in "school" and a holiday came along and we colored pumpkins and talked about Columbus coming to American and maybe we made some cute little clipper ships?

Holidays were briefly covered in the elementary years of school, at least given a nod for the major ones on the calendar. But real families America have deep roots and cultural traditions and celebrations that reflect their own unique heritage.

For our blended family we have strong Irish roots, German heritage, Native American ancestors and now we have Jewish and Hispanic traditions and celebrations. By incorporating your family's unique cultural and historical traditions and knowledge into daily life learning, you bring excitement to your child.

Everyone loves preparing for a festival or family celebration. We like making special foods associated with that holiday, or setting the table with specific elements, decorating the house and observing rituals that are pertinent.

Rosh Hashanah

For our family in September we have added the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah to our family learning as we embrace the Jewish traditions of our daughter in law and her background. And even if you aren't Jewish or have a Jewish family member, you can still learn a lot about the Jewish faith and people by having your own Rosh Hashanah celebration this year.

Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of a 10 day Holy Day period where the Jewish people focus on the repentance of their sins. As they move through the 10 days, special religious observations are held and the High Holy Days end with Yom Kippur where their confessed sins are marked in God's Book of Life as forgiven and the Jewish New Year begins with a clean slate. This year Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown on September 18 and finishes with Yom Kippur on September 27.

You can check out the following online resources for celebration activities and plans including some wonderful traditional Jewish foods. After all a celebration and holiday aren't really fun without the right food!

Rosh Hashanah traditions:

Rosh Hashanah Fun Pages http://judaism.about.com/od/roshhashana/a/shana_kidpages.htm

Rosh Hashanah for Kids http://www.chabad.org/kids/article_cdo/aid/354744/jewish/Rosh-Hashanah.htm

Rosh Hashanah Coloring Pages http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2177285/a_collection_of_5_rosh_hashanah_coloring.html?cat=34

http://www.examiner.com/x-23914-Religious-Education-Examiner~y2009m9d15-Rosh-Hashanah-crafts-and-activities

Rosh Hashanah Recipes

http://kosherfood.about.com/od/roshhashana/Rosh_Hashanah.htm

http://www.examiner.com/x-3514-Holidays-Examiner~y2009m9d10-Celebrate-Rosh-Hashanah-Recipes-crafts-and-fun

http://www.jewishrecipes.org/recipes/rosh-hashanah/index.html

Take some time to look at your calendar this year and find some fun new holidays to celebrate and learn from. What's your ethnic background? Research it and discover some of the cool "festivals and holidays" that are traditional. Life should be a series of holidays and festivals! It's just plain fun.