Dave Smolar is co-founder of Kikayon Productions, creating turn-key solutions for Jewish education. Our “TORAH TIME LIVE!” Parashah Play series is now for sale! From Creation to Mt. Sinai, click on “Our Store” for more!
Welcome to Frontal Free, your home for creative approaches to Jewish learning for tweens and teens, in the school or at home. This blog strives to provide ideas and inspiration for Hebrew school teachers and parents in Jewish homes wherever they may be. Kikayon Productions is your home to “Jewish fun in a box”, turnkey solutions for Jewish education. If you need a full lesson on a certain holiday, tradition, topic, or Torah story, we will give you everything you need with little preparation. But first, here’s our simple truth.
Frontal
teaching just doesn’t work with kids.
Remember
when a teacher stood before the class and dumped their brain of knowledge while
either begging the class to focus or throwing out distracted students? Not only did that method do little to impart
the information, but the only lesson the students gathered was that Hebrew
school is just no fun. And at the other
extreme, folks thought that creativity meant getting kids each week to build
Mt. Sinai/the Garden of Eden/Theodore Herzl’s beard out of macaroni and
glue.
We’re
changing that. Done. Changed.
This is the home of Frontal Free lessons and advice.
Many
Hebrew school teachers work only a few hours a week while maintaining other
work on the outside. Some are authors,
writers, tutors. Some are raising a
family. And some, like me, are
freelancers with a hodgepodge or self-regulated schedule, and Hebrew school
teaching is a fun break from everything else.
A lot of times, though, you look at the clock and realize it’s time to
get to school…with barely time to prepare for the day.
If
you’re a sub who suddenly has to appear before a random set of kids; if you’re
a parent who wants to boost their child’s Jewish identity; if you’re a ritual
leader looking for a fun but educational Jewish holiday event; c’mon in.
On the
Frontal Free blog and throughout Kikayon, we strive to find and deliver to you
interactive, experiential approaches to Jewish learning. We know how hard it can be to walk into a
classroom or synagogue gathering and always have a clear path for what you’re
trying to teach.
And as
always, we welcome your comments and suggestions.
