I’ve just come from a spirited conversation with some Early Childhood parents that we offered in conjunction with our consultant from the Virginia Frank Center, entitled “Are you Pulling Your Hair Out?” about the many challenges, both large and small, that tug at the hearts of parents. Each participant found support from their peers, and received meaningful suggestions from one another. It’s so hard and so rewarding to be a parent, and powerful to share this with others. We plan to meet again, over the summer and into next school year, knowing that it takes a village to raise a mensch. 

In Early Childhood, the cycle of the school year draws to a close with all of the ambivalence that accompanies big transitions. For our younger students (Kochavim and Madregot classes, ages 2-4), ‘next fall’ is too far off to imagine, so we talk with the children about summer plans, and saying good-bye to the classroom community we’ve built over the past 9 months. Our 5 year-old's (G’dolim class) are off to Kindergarten, which is both exciting and anxiety-producing. In the next weeks, we’ll have our G’dolim End of Year Ceremony,  and children (and their parents) will be wrapped in the Torah, and blessed by Rabbi London and Cantor Friedman. 

And for a taste of Early Childhood, here is a recent excerpt from a class notes:

One morning of playground discoveries and creations: Kids digging in the dirt and shoveling it into wheelbarrows to make chocolate soup and marshmallows and children pretending to make popcorn cupcakes. One child was digging around a tree trunk exposing roots that were tinged with orange. When I asked him what he was doing he said, “I'm digging up carrots from the carrot tree.” Such an imagination! The next day a few children were collecting leaves to feed the pandas. (Panda bears have taken up residency in the Beth Emet bushes.) And another group of children were “rock detectors,” digging up rocks from the dirt to bring back to our classroom for a Mother's Day project. (I know it doesn't sound very exciting – rocks for mother's day - but we did wash the rocks and also convinced the yeladim to leave the worms in the dirt.) Two children were working very hard together carrying sand up to the play equipment with shovels. I asked them what they were doing. “We're making UP soup.” “If you make your soup under the slide what would it be called?” “DOWN soup!”

Enjoy Spring!

Kathy Kaberon