A couple of weeks ago our pediatrician made the suggestion that it would be helpful for Hebrew language acquisition if the older kids would read Dr. Seuss books (in Hebrew) to the younger ones, and she wrote the title of her very favorite book down on the prescription slip she handed me – Oh the Places You’ll Go.

I had read this book several years ago and been very taken by the depth of it then, and thought about posting my thoughts at that time but never did.  In general I think Dr. Seuss is a genius – we currently have a compilation of his longer stories that we checked out from the local public library (they have a small English language section), and every time I read about them – about Horton (power of commitment when no on around you agrees with you or sees what you know to be true), the Sneetches (those who judge themselves as better or worse based on externals), the Zax (when people are stubbornly entrenched in their positions and refuse to budge at a loss to themselves) – I think about what a deep understanding his books reflect of human nature.

But Oh, The Places You’ll Go tops all of these.  Though children enjoy the catchy syntax and colorful pictures, it really is more like an understanding of life than a child’s story.  I found the following version being read aloud with some sound effects, and listened to it several times after this recent reminder.  It’s so true that it made me smile wryly and feel inspired and feel like crying all during six minutes.  🙂

Oh, The Places You’ll Go –

Here’s a link to the lyrics, if you’d like to read them – enjoy!  There’s a lot to be gained from it, whether you’re feeling on top of the world or going through hard times.

What do you think of Dr. Seuss books?  Have you ever read this particular book, and if so, what did you think of it?

Avivah

We recently had ds3’s first haircut!  We delayed it a little bit, since his birthday was two days before my mother arrived in Israel.  And then that week was so hectic that I didn’t want to do it then, because it would have been pushing too much into too short a time.  So we did it a week and a half after his actual birthday.

It’s so fun seeing the anticipation of the kids building up for it, particularly the little kids.

We started off by him repeating letters of the aleph bais with dh, and dipping his finger into something sweet after each letter – this is to show a child that learning Torah is sweet.   Dd17 was up late the night before baking with ds4 and ds6, making a special cake and aleph bais cookies.  After he finished saying the aleph bais, ds3 gave each of the people there a cookie with a letter of the aleph bais on it.

From there we started his haircut.  Each family member took a snip, starting with dh and I, thengoing in age order from the oldest to the youngest.  After that my mother and her husband took a snip, then the guests in age order again.  Finally at the end, I snipped off the ponytail that I had bound up in the back as a momento, then gave him a full haircut.

A haircut like this can be overwhelming for a young child since it’s a new experience and there are so many people getting involved, but ds3 was amazing – he stayed really calm and patient.  It helped when ds13 brought him a mirror and held it up for him so he could watch himself getting a haircut; this was fascinating for him.

After the haircut, he cut his special cake and gave out a piece to each person.  And after everyone finished eating their cake and the other refreshments, dh played the guitar with ds18 singing with him.

We were able to take advantage of the rare occasion of having everyone home at one time and having someone around to take a picture of the entire family, too!

It was a lovely event and we keep asking ourselves how ds3 can look even cuter now than he did before his haircut!

Avivah