Parsha Nasso: Homeschool Helps

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Parsha Nasso (נָשֹׂא) “Take up”

Torah portion: Bamidbar/Numbers 4:21-7:89
Haphtarah (concluding portion): Judges 13:2-25
Brit Chadasha (New Testament): John 12:20-36

Did you know: Nasso is the second parsha [portion] of sefer [the book of] Bamidbar [Numbers]?

Science: Myth Busters is a TV show where the scientists conduct scientific experiments on various topics. Watch this episode of Myth Busters on YouTube to see which method of sneezing spreads the least amount of germs!

Parenting Moment: Bamidbar/Numbers 5:7He must confess the sin which he has committed; and he must make full restitution for his guilt, add twenty percent and give it to the victim of his sin.” It is imperative that as parents we realize that our children are not without sin. Regardless of how much scripture they memorize, how much Torah they listen to, and how well we do to protect them from worldly influences, our children do sin and will continue to sin. As parents, we have the charge to teach them the Torah. The Torah serves two purposes: (1) it defines the problem: sin [1 John 3:4], (2) and points to the solution: Yeshua [Ephesians 2:1-10]. Without understanding that there is a way to rid themselves of the guilt they feel when they sin, our children will be full of shame and be fearful of Adonai. Our goal as parents is to show them the remedy for sin. Every night, we pray for our children and with them. They know that they can come to us to confess their sin. They always feel so much better when we pray with them.

Culinary Fun: Numbers 5: 24 and make the woman drink the water of embitterment and cursing — the water of cursing will enter her and become bitter. Why not try something tasty with bittersweet chocolate? This week we are making this recipe for 3-ingredient Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles Royale from Kraft.

Health: Bamidbar/Numbers 5:1-4 Adonai said to Moshe, 2 “Order the people of Isra’el to expel from the camp everyone with tzara‘at [leprosy], everyone with a discharge and whoever is unclean because of touching a corpse. Both male and female you must expel; put them outside the camp; so that they won’t defile their camp, where I live among you.” The people of Isra’el did this and put them outside the camp — the people of Isra’el did what Adonai had said to Moshe. What would happen if the sick dwelt among us and there were no rules for those with contagious diseases? Imagine going to the grocery store and people were vomiting, coughing, and sneezing everywhere. Imagine a world without hand sanitizer or hospitals or essential oils! Abba knew all about how to protect us and He teaches us throughout the Torah how to protect ourselves from the spread of disease. What are some ways you can be safe during cold and flu season? What are some ways that you can protect others when you feel sick?

Haphtarah Connections: In Numbers chapter 6, we learn the rules for one taking a Nazirite vow. Our haphtarah this week is about the conception of Samson. His mom had to watch her diet and make sure that while she was pregnant, she followed the rules of Numbers 6. When he was born, he was not allowed to have a haircut. Judges 13:5 For, lo, thou shalt conceive, and bear a son; and no razor shall come upon his head; for the child shall be a Nazirite unto God from the womb; and he shall begin to save Israel out of the hand of the Philistines.’

Tongue Twister: This week we learn about the test of the jealous husband and the /bitter waters. Try this fun tongue twister about bitter butter:

Betty Botter had some butter, "But," she said, "this butter's bitter.
If I bake this bitter butter, It would make my batter bitter.
But a bit of better butter, That would make my batter better."
So she bought a bit of butter – Better than her bitter butter –
And she baked it in her batter; And the batter was not bitter.
So 'twas better Betty Botter Bought a bit of better butter.

Brit Chadasha (New Testament) Connection: John 12:26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor. As with the law of the jealous husband in this week’s parsha, we are promised that following after Yeshua, walking in obedience, being a servant of our Righteous King, and declaring His ways to those around us produces life.

 

 

Parsha Tetzaveh

Parsha Tetzaveh תְּצַוֶּה “You Shall Command” 

Torah portion: Shemot/Exodus 27:20-30:10
Haphtarah (concluding portion): 1 Samuel 15:1-34
Brit Chadasha (New Testament): Hebrews 13:10-16

Did you know: Tetzaveh is the 8th parsha [portion] of sefer [scroll of/book of] Shemot?

Bible: This week we will continue our Torah study by completing this week’s Messianic Weekly Series of parsha studies. The preschoolers will complete Parsha for Preschool for this week’s parsha. You can find these affordable and wonderful resources in our storefront. We will also continue working through our parsha lapbook MessiShul program with the older elementary kids and junior high school students. This fulfills a portion of our Hebrew language study as well. We have a student preparing for a Bat Mitzvah in our homeschool so she will continue learning through her Bar/Bat Mitzvah workbook as well.

Teen Time: Have you checked out Liv’s Teen Devos lately? We will listen to Pastor Joel of Messianic Family Fellowship teach on this week’s parsha via his free Messianic podcasts.

Math: Just in time for reviewing our basic math facts, Restoring the Way has a math drill sheet workbook collection. Noach’s Math will help us review addition facts, subtraction facts, multiplication facts, and division facts. These drill sheets are an invaluable tool for increasing speed and accuracy in math calculations. You can find these Noach’s Math workbooks at our online storefront.

Reading/Phonics: We will be using MessiKids Reading for the younger elementary students to continue our reading practice and Super MessiKids Preschool Adventure program for the preschool students to continue our studies in reading, phonics, spelling, and handwriting.

Hebrew: To polish up our Hebrew skills, we will continue using the Hebrew readers and handwriting sheets available from Restoring the Way.

Culinary: Infused oil. This week we learned about the command to always have pure olive oil in the tabernacle so that the lamps might always be burning. This week, we will also be working with olive oil and make infused oil (herb or floral). Click here for instructions.

Craft: This week we will experiment with making olive oil candles. Click here for instructions for making the candle part. We will be decorating baby food jars that we had given to us by my brother (he has a 9 month old cutie) with dollar store glass rocks. I am simply going to have the kids hot glue the clear-ish rocks to the jar all the way around to give it a nice look when the candle is lit. As I mentioned in the opening sentence of this section, we are “experimenting” because as with any candle, we should never leave baby food jar candles unattended. Because glass heats from the temperature of the candle flame, there is always a possibility of the glass breaking. Tea-lights work best for baby food jar crafts because they produce the least heat and pose the least danger of glass breakage. Since we are using olive oil and wicks, we’ll have to see how it goes. I also wonder if the glass will heat so far as to melt the hot glue and skew our decorations. We shall see…

Science (Geology): I am going to ask my older kids to read THIS ARTICLE about gemstones and respond to it in a discussion with each other about Biblical gems.

Sewing: Perhaps we will finish a project we purchased the material for long ago: APRONS. Although the priestly garments did not include an “apron,” I am going to kind of adapt the idea of the breastplate here (and use a little creative license). We will be using either THIS pattern or THIS ONE. I suppose we could embellish the chest area with some felt applique or iron on circles in the same colors as the stones described for the ephod. Here’s a picture of what the ephod looked like.

Don’t forget to visit our friends & ministry partners:
Petah Tikvah
Heart of Wisdom
Hebraic Roots Network
Holy Language Institute

Parshiot Acharei-Mot/Kedoshim

Parshiot Acharei Mot/Kedoshim אחרי מות/קדושים “After the death/Holy”

  • Torah portion: Vayikra/Leviticus 16:1-20:27
  • Haphtarah: Amos 9:7-15; Ezekiel 20:2-20; Ezekiel 22:1-16
  • Brit Chadasha: Matthew 5:43-48; 1 Corinthians 6:9-20

Did you know: Acharei Mot/Kedoshim is a double portion. They are the 6th and 7th parshiot [portions] of sefer [scroll of/book of] Vayikra [Leviticus]?

Bible: This week we will continue our Torah study by completing this week’s Messianic Weekly Series of parsha studies. The preschoolers will complete Parsha for Preschool for this week’s parsha. You can find these affordable and wonderful resources in our storefront. We will also continue working through our parsha lapbook MessiShul program with the older elementary kids and junior high school students. This fulfills a portion of our Hebrew language study as well. We have a student preparing for a Bat Mitzvah in our homeschool so she will continue learning through her Bar/Bat Mitzvah workbook as well.

Teen Time: Have you checked out Liv’s Teen Devos lately? We will listen to Pastor Joel of Messianic Family Fellowship teach on this week’s parsha via his free Messianic podcasts.

Math: Just in time for reviewing our basic math facts, Restoring the Way has a math drill sheet workbook collection. Noach’s Math will help us review addition facts, subtraction facts, multiplication facts, and division facts. These drill sheets are an invaluable tool for increasing speed and accuracy in math calculations. You can find these Noach’s Math workbooks at our online storefront.

Reading/Phonics: We will be using MessiKids Reading for the younger elementary students to continue our reading practice and Super MessiKids Preschool Adventure program for the preschool students to continue our studies in reading, phonics, spelling, and handwriting.

Hebrew: To polish up our Hebrew skills, we will continue using the Hebrew readers and handwriting sheets available from Restoring the Way.

Science: There is a school of thought in the world about the frequencies of linen and wool. The researchers of electromagnetic frequencies believe there are specific healing properties of linen. There is a written teaching about this from New2Torah that is interesting. I couldn’t find an actual scientific, peer-reviewed University article about it that was easy enough for my kids to understand but if you like this topic, I am sure you can find lots about it in Google Scholar. Another interesting science topic that I found in this week’s parshiot is the drinking of blood. Life is in the blood. But also, consuming blood can overload the body with too much iron. The body has a hard time shedding excess iron and consuming too much iron can lead to a plethora of dangerous physical ailments and even death. This article from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute is a good explanation of excess iron in the body (called hemochromatosis).

History: In keeping with our linen study, we will read the “historical use” section of this website and talk about historical health beliefs.

Art: Because we are learning about linen’s healing qualities, we are going to make linen pillows this week. If you want to sew your own from recycled linen (perhaps a thrift-store dress can be re-purposed), you are more than welcome to! You may prefer go ahead and purchase a pre-made linen pillow or pillowcase for this project. We are going to choose our favorite verse from scripture and stencil our pillow in any font we desire. You can also free-hand if you are confident. This tutorial is the one on which we are basing this week’s artsy project.

Don’t forget to visit our friends & ministry partners:
Petah Tikvah
Heart of Wisdom
Hebraic Roots Network
Holy Language Institute

 

Parsha Mishpatim

Parsha Mishpatim מִּשְׁפָּטִים “Judgments”

Torah portion: Shemot/Exodus 21:1-24:18
Haphtarah (concluding portion): 2 Kings 11:17-12:17
Brit Chadasha (New Testament): Matthew 17:1-11

Did you know: Mishpatim is the 6th parsha [portion] of sefer [scroll of/book of] Shemot?

Art: This week, we learn that Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the 70 elders went up and saw YHVH. (Shemot 24:9-11). They saw under YHVH’s feet a pavement like sapphire stones. This week we will be making our own stepping stones. Find a tutorial here.

Geography:  This week we learn where YHVH wanted Israel’s borders to be. Mark the borders on a map and then mark the current borders. What is different? Are any of the original borders still intact?

Minecraft: My kids love working with Minecraft. If you haven’t seen it, its like Legos but on the computer (or Xbox, Wii, PS, etc). There are Minecraft apps as well for Apple and Android devices. This week, I encouraged my middle school kids to build Mount Sinai in Minecraft. They will be building the sapphire walkway where YHVH was standing and also adding just His feet.

Poetry: The teens have been learning about different types of poetry this week. They have learned about free verse poetry (no rules) and rhyming poems of different types and meters. Their assignment is to read Shemot/Exodus 23:20-33 and interpret what they read into a poem.

Fun Craft: This week we learn that cloud and fire covered the mountain where Moses and YHVH were. (Shemot 24:15-18). Draw a mountain shape on a piece of paper. Use cotton balls and crinkled pieces of red tissue paper or crepe paper to make fire on top. Use glue to keep it together.

Bible: Study Shemot 23:23-33. Write a paragraph describing what you think it looked like to see an angel going before the Israelites in battle. Work on using a variety of descriptive terms (adjectives and adverbs).

Restoring the Way Materials:
MessiShul Parsha Lapbook Curriculum: Shemot
Preschool Adventure Series homeschool curriculum
Messianic Weekly (Kids) Volume 1: Shemot
Messianic Weekly (Kids) Volume 2 [subscription $1.99/wk] Messianic Weekly (Teens) Volume 1: Shemot
Messianic Weekly (Teens) Volume 2 [subscription $1.99/wk] Parsha for Preschool Volume 1
Parsha for Preschool Volume 2 [subscription $1.99/wk] Hebrew Handwriting Primer
Hebrew Handwriting With the Parsha Names
Noah’s Noodles Parsha Cookbook for Kids

Don’t forget to visit our friends & ministry partners:
Petah Tikvah
Heart of Wisdom
Hebraic Roots Network
Holy Language Institute