Tonight is the seventeenth of the Jewish month of Tammuz, a ominous day in which many sad events occurred over the course of many years in Jewish history, and a day of mourning, which includes a sun-up to sun-down fast. While crafting is usually associated with joy, it can and should be used to learn about and discuss sad events in history as well. For many children, self expression through art is a wonderful way to help them process information, and especially information that may be confusing or disturbing. I can’t say I’m an expert, but it certainly is obvious that art is a wonderful tool that we ought to use as often as possible with our children.
The seventeenth of Tammuz is the first day of a three week period of mourning for the Holy Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, so now is the time to do craft projects with a Jerusalem theme. We haven’t done any yet ourselves, so here are two good ones from the archives, both using tissue paper. Above is a tissue paper collage on glass, a nice project with beautiful stained-glass-like results. Below is a tissue paper collage on cardboard shapes and cardboard tube halves, and a project that kids could work on over the course of the three weeks.
For those of you who are fasting, may you have an easy fast, and may we all merit to see the Holy Temple in Jerusalem built again very very so0n! I am a good few hours away from Jerusalem, but when it does happen I’m quite sure I’ll hear about it quickly enough to let you all know, wouldn’t that be an amazing use of this blog?
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