Looking for Fun Summer Activities? Kar-Ben has a Few Ideas!

If you're stuck on ideas for what to do with the beautiful weather and extra time that summer offers, take some inspiration from the characters in these books!

Tikkun Olam Ted

 

Ted spends his days working to make the world a better, kinder place by doing good deeds. Taking a lesson from Ted means participating in summer activities that are both fun and helpful!

1. Spend some quality time with your pets, or volunteer at an animal shelter. Animals appreciate the attention and the chance to get outside, and make great friends for a summer afternoon. Taking care of animals also helps children practice responsibility.

2. Use recycled materials to create unique new art projects. Keep some of those useful scraps out of the trash and use them for art projects instead of buying brand-new materials. Reusing what we can is as valuable to the environment as recycling.

3. Work in the garden - if you don't have one, help out a neighbor or volunteer at a community garden. Gardening is a great productive way to spend time outside, and watching the plants they care for grow is a great way for children to see the results of their hard work.

Thank You, Trees!

Children and adults celebrate Tu B'Shevat in this book, but you don't have to wait until January to try some of the activities they enjoy!

4. Go on a picnic. It can be as simple as taking lunch out into the backyard, or you and your child can plan an outing, complete with baskets and blankets.

5. Have an outdoors sing-a-long or dance with your friends. Children may be familiar with the same songs from school or family, and outside is a perfect place to be loud, dance out some extra energy, and celebrate.

No Baths at Camp

"There are no baths at camp!" says Max when his mother starts filling the tub. But as he recounts his week's activities, he realizes that there were many fun ways he got clean at summer camp. Whether it's at camp or at home, Max and his friends have some great ideas about how to enjoy their summer!

6. Stage an outdoor play. It can be a play, or try finding a reader's theater script for one of your favorite books! Reading a script will also help your child practice their literacy skills during summer break.

7. Build a fire and make s'mores. A campfire is also a fun time to tell stories and spend time relaxing after a long summer day.

8. Have a water balloon fight. Want to cool off, but can't make it to the pool? Have a water balloon fight instead!

9. Go for a nature hike. Find a park nearby - even the neighborhood park you go to all the time can provide interesting new things to observe, if you look hard enough. Try out a state park for even more adventure.

To learn more or to purchase Tikkun Olam Ted, Thank You, Trees! or No Baths at Camp, visit the Kar-Ben website!

Stories Inspired By Real-Life Objects

We've got heavy rain, soaked ground and high humidity here in Minnesota. It is not a day to go outside and play. I imagine kids will be lurking around the house looking for something to do. Create a story challenge. Ask your child to write a story (or if they are too young, to draw you a story) inspired by an object in your home. Teach creative thinking by asking your child to carefully observe each room and its contents and to select three possible items. Then discuss the possibilities of each and help the child be enthusiastic about one item. Then, set them to work at the kitchen table or desk with paper and pencils and wait for genius to arrive. Inside the imagination is a great place to play.

Need a bit of inspiration? Grandma Rose's Magic, the latest book by Linda Elovitz Marshall (who also wrote the charming Talia and the Rude Vegetables and has another book, The Mitzvah Magician, forthcoming this fall) is inspired by a real-life object.

The story focuses on Grandma Rose, a skilled seamstress. She creates garments and goods for her customers, and saves the money she earns to purchase dishes she admires in the big downtown department store. But, when she has earned enough, the dishes are gone! To her surprise, she does receive the beautiful dishes that look just like the ones her grandma had, but not in the way she expected!

Grandma Rose's Magic is special, but even more so when you know it is inspired by a real set of dishes. Here is a picture, courtesy of the author!

What object would you write a story about?

Linda Elovitz Marshall Cooks Up a Rosh Hashanah Story

Finding inspiration for stories is almost always an interesting process. Linda Elovitz Marshall’s new book Talia and the Rude Vegetables has inspirations that are as varied as they are interesting. We interviewed Linda to learn more:

Why did you want to become an author or illustrator?
I love words and I love playing with words. I like to string them together in all sorts of different ways and see what happens. I never get tired of this game. I guess that’s why I like writing.

Where did you get the inspiration for Talia and the Rude Vegetables?
One of the things I enjoy doing is helping people from other countries learn to speak English. While I was teaching a Russian speaker, I realized that there’s not much difference between the sounds of the words “root” and “rude.” I combined this with a recipe that I use for Rosh Hashanah (based on root vegetables, many of which I used to grow in my garden). And that’s how I cooked up the story! I used the name “Talia” because my granddaughter, Talia, was born just about the same time I presented the story to my editor at Kar-Ben.

What is the most interesting thing you learned in the process of writing or illustrating your book? In an early version, Talia sold the perfect vegetables and gave the money to her grandmother. When I showed that version to my Russian student, she said, “Nyet! Money is not to be in a story for children.” I thought about what she said. And I thought about Tzedakah. That’s how I got the idea that Talia should give the perfect vegetables to the rabbi, for distribution to the poor.

How do you hope your book will impact the Jewish life of a child?
I hope the book will help Jewish children appreciate the joys of gardening and the need to help the hungry.

Learn more about Talia and the Rude Vegetables.

Get ideas for Rosh Hashanah related activities: grow your own "rude" vegetable.