the 90th minute

Until September 2007, when my oldest daughter was born, this blog covered daily life and politics in Israel, as well as Hebrew-English linguistic issues, from the perspective of an American-raised journalist and translator living in Israel. Now it mostly serves as the SmunchMonk&Bear news agency, a portal into the bizarre universe of the little people. Read more at: www.shoshanakordova.com.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Keeping in touch

Rimonit, on her way, with Kinneret, to fly on a plane (conveniently located on our balcony): "Ima, I'll Skype you every Friday from Savta Lea's house."

Thursday, October 25, 2012

So far, so good

It's only the first day, but so far this kid-readable list has been a humongous hit with Rimonit:

The idea is that instead of me nudging her to do the same things every day, she can just look at the list (magneted to the inside of the front door, which in Israel are usually metal) and do it herself. She was so excited about it today! She loved the independence of the list, and raced to perform each task, and then back to the door to find out what the next thing was until she had gone through each item. I had to hold her off from putting on her backpack half an hour before it was time to go (yes, they launch themselves out of bed way too early in the morning!).

And when the time did actually come to walk out the door, Rimonit heard me telling Kinneret to put on her backpack and called out: "Don't tell me to put on my backpack! I know already! It's on the list!" and did it on her own.

Who knows what will happen when the novelty wears off, but in the meantime there's this:

Rimonit has already told me eagerly that when she comes home she's going to follow the post-gan sign. No way of knowing how it will play out, but at least it's a good start.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

I hear that school has fantastic swimming classes

1. At an aquarium, after we saw a bunch of fish swimming together.

Me: When fish swim together, it's called a school of fish.

Rimonit, the next time we saw something similar (about a minute later): I see the fish going to school!

2. That night, bedtime. RP again, demonstrating that while the "school of fish" concept may be a little confusing, she's a master at similes:

Rimonit: I'm giving you a kiss as big as the ship we saw [the battleship New Jersey; plants a smooch on my cheek], and a kiss as small as Moriya [gives me a peck].