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Hello, I would second Alef Press. Their books are available at Rainbow Resource now (little less $). Also another source is EKS Publishing at www.ekspublishing.com. I hope this helps. Viola

Hello, I don't know if I'm late or not with the answer but try going to hebrewforchristians.com. John Parsons who runs that site is such a nice person I am sure he would give you advice if you e-mailed him. Sincerely, Viola

Hello, I was learning cello as an adult ( I too have musical background). I must say that instructor would be most helpful to her. There are so many nuances of holding the bow, the cello itself, not to mention all the shifting! At least going online to see some tutorials would be very helpful, before one develops bad habits:):) There is a place called StringsLessons.com or I'm sure there are a myriad others. If you need books I actually have some for sale in the Classifieds. I was using Suzuki method, which I liked- listening to the Cds was very helpful, although at the beginning it was frustrating because it was played so fast and so perfectly:):) but with practice and dedication it became a challenge and a pleasure to listen to. Hope it helps. Sincerely, Viola

Now, I don't have experience with boys ( I have 4 girls) but I always encouraged them to play with simplest things possible. I think children are overstimulated these days. Have you noticed how colorful everything is, how noisy most toys are. Not to mention the shows. Children loose incentive to do things for themselves. My daughters went through the stage of everything being boring. One of the greatest things that worked for them was a clay world. I had a large flat plastic container with a lid( the kind of a plastic tub you could stick under your bed). I bought a whole bunch of clay, different colors ( not the foamy one, but just soft regular clay), and we proceeded to create a world. We did whole landscapes, trees, caves etc., then dinosaurs ( although in some games they just used small plastic dinosaurs. We had a desert area, mountains ( you can use rocks for it) forest ( you can collect small branches and stick them in), and a river ( high clay banks, then pour the water in). At one point we had a volcano ( your classic baking soda and vinegar concoction). It can get messy, but it is easily soaked up with paper towels. The cover for the container served as aboard for rolling out clay and creating as well as a handy cover to keep everything tidy. I don't know if this would work for you, but it did wonders for the creativity of my children. I had different ages playing, creating all kinds of things. The world is theirs, they add whatever they want. Initially, there was a time investment on my part, getting them introduced to the idea, helping them to create some of the things. But then it just took off on its own. Basically, it started as something I was going to do to "amuse" myself, my little world, and of course, if mom was so amused it must be great:) We also have a little version of it outdoors, but built with natural ingredients such as rocks, dirt and sticks and we used plastic toy animals. I guess you could use other toys and set ups ( little cars, trains, soldiers etc.) Most often the little child just wants the attention. He might enjoy doing "school", but has no attention span for it. What he enjoys is being part of it all. So spending a little time to get him jumpstarted into something like that, might give him an incentive to continue a bit on his own. Very often the toys we buy take away the creative aspect of play. Everything is ready made. The cleverer the child, the faster he /she will get bored. Sometimes children mature at different rates ( sometimes it seems they will never mature, but they do) but it is worth being patient with them and sometimes cater a bit to what we perceive as their extreme neediness. They outgrow it and the end result is a very close relationship with your children, minus the extreme neediness on their part, just confidence and love.It can be exhausting for a parent, but this is what it's all about. I am writing purely from my own experience, but I hope that it might help you in some measure. Sincerely, Viola