Awesome Purim Crafts

Amy Deutsch for Kveller

Purim is one of those Jewish holidays that lends itself so easily to crafting. From making mishloach manot (goody bags) to groggers (noisemakers) to costumes, there’s just so much to do. We’ve collected some of our favorite crafts for you to check out below–enjoy, and get crackin!

Here at Kveller, we have an environmentally-friendly grogger (repurposed from your recycle bin) as well as some great Purim cards, no-sew costumes, and mishloach manot ideas. And did we mention our adorable miniature Purim dolls from Meredith Jacobs?

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For more Purim news, check out our    page.

10 Reasons Why Handheld Devices Should Be Banned for Children Under the Age of 12

Cris Rowan for the HuffPost Blog

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the Canadian Society of Pediatrics state infants aged 0-2 years should not have any exposure to technology, 3-5 years be restricted to one hour per day, and 6-18 years restricted to 2 hours per day (AAP 2001/13, CPS 2010). Children and youth use 4-5 times the recommended amount of technology, with serious and often life threatening consequences (Kaiser Foundation 2010, Active Healthy Kids Canada 2012). Handheld devices (cell phones, tablets, electronic games) have dramatically increased the accessibility and usage of technology, especially by very young children (Common Sense Media, 2013). As a pediatric occupational therapist, I'm calling on parents, teachers and governments to ban the use of all handheld devices for children under the age of 12 years. Following are 10 research-based reasons for this ban. Please visit zonein.ca to view the Zone'in Fact Sheet for referenced research.

1. Rapid brain growth

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LEGO Releases First Minifigure with a Wheelchair

Joanna Valente (Editorial Assistant) for Kveller

Recently, we reported that American Girl launched a line of dolls with a diabetes care kit and British toymaker Makies released a line of dolls with disabilities. Both of these toy lines were inspired by the social media campaign, Toys Like Me, which is a campaign encourages parents and kids with disabilities to customize their toys, and then post them online.

Toys Like Me did it again, calling for LEGO to start featuring more characters and toys that reflect real life, and actually include characters with disabilities. All kids should feel included–and it’s hard to feel included if all of your toys represent some limited one dimensional version of what kids are “supposed” to look like.

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Worst Day Ever!

Blog: jewishhomeschool

My 5 year old daughter is very emotional and sensitive.

Recently I have noticed that when she gets upset or frustrated about something, she makes a very dramatic comment like, 'this is the worst day of my life!' or 'I am having the worst day ever!' which is often followed by a river of tears.

In her little world, things need to go according to plan. Things need to look a certain way and be a certain way. And when they don't, it really is, to her, the worst day ever.

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Mayim Bialik: 5 Things I Didn’t Expect About Raising Older Boys

Mayim Bialik for Kveller

My boys are 7 and 10, and so many of the troubles of being a mom of two young kids are finally over now, thank goodness! No more needing to find a potty in the middle of every major department store, or having a constant barrage of Cheerio-type products underneath every carseat all the time. No more irrational (or so it seemed at the time) tantrums and very few meltdowns, because I won’t provide another lollipop or another toy after we have just consumed lollipops and bought many toys.

But as they say, small kids small problems, big kids big problems.

Here are the top five astounding things I didn’t realize older kids would end up doing:

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My 2 year old is still waking up at night – advice from a Pediatrician

 By Becky (Your Modern Family)

A few years ago, when our child was still waking up at night (he was two at the time), I went into our Doctor’s office with this complaint…  “My 2 year old is still waking up at night .”  Her advice changed our nights!

I wanted to share this with you, because our son was the BEST sleeper.
He came home from the hospital and slept through the night.  

Once we started watching his patterns more often, we realized that it was around the same time every night.  He was going to bed around 7:00 every night (6:00 if he didn’t nap at all) and waking up in the morning around 7:00 or 8:00.  If he goes to bed at 6:00, he wakes up between 6:50 & 7:30 – he always gets at least 12 hours, sometimes 13, which is about what he needs.

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Yiddish-Speaking Tigers and Klezmer-Playing Bears for Poland’s Jewish Kids

By Penny Schwartz for Jewniverse

Playful poems of a wise owl, a menacing tiger and a klezmer-playing bear that once delighted Yiddish-speaking Polish children are making an unlikely comeback in a soon-to-be-released children’s book for a new generation of Poland’s Jewish children.

Once nearly lost to history, the delightful read-aloud poems are among others in Yiddish Zoo, featuring poems written by prominent Yiddish writers of the interwar years with new translations in Polish and English.

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