Shabbat Around the Table -- Family Prayer

Tonight many of our friends will be celebrating Shabbat using special Shabbat bags they've brought home from school. The bags come equipped with two mini challot, grape juice, a kiddush cup, candle sticks, candles, a story book, and reflection pages. Before the end of the year, each child will get a chance to bring the Shabbat bag home. 

In thinking about what we hope each family will take away from this experience, I could only think of the 'family prayer' we say at my house every Friday night:

We thank You, God, for enabling us to welcome this Shabbat day together.

We are grateful for the happiness of our home and for our caring and loving family.

We are thankful for the blessings of the past week: for life and health, for laughter and friendship; for the opportunity to work, to learn, and to grow.

Where these have been lacking, may the coming week be better.

We pray that the peacefulness of Shabbat will refresh and inspire us so that the week ahead will be one of blessing and accomplishment for each of us. (Emphasis added at my house!)

(from Siddur Sim Shalom)

I was so excited to hear about this tradition when I first started working here this year. What a lovely way for the children to bring home what they've been learning at school, and what a lovely way for families to share a meal together. Whatever your family's faith tradition or level of observance, we hope you find this tradition as meaningful as we do. Shabbat Shalom!

Shabbat Around the Table -- Beshalach

In this week's parsha, B'Shalach, the children of Israel finally leave Egypt. Followed by Pharoah and his army, they reach the Sea of Reeds, where it seems as if they're trapped. God then causes the sea to split, creating two walls of water and dry land on which the Israelites can escape. When Pharoah tries following them, the waters fall back into place, drowning the Egyptians.

In celebration, the Israelites break into song. Moses's sister Miriam leads the women in singing and dancing and making music with their timbrels. There's no better way to engage children in a story or a tradition than with a song, and singing around the Shabbat table at the end of the meal is lots of fun. Ask your children which songs they know, or check out some new music. Try Debbie Friedman, Judy Caplan Ginsburgh, Sheldon Low, Rick Recht, or (my personal favorite) Sally and the Daffodils.

Constructivism Part 2

Last month I shared Rabbi Meir Muller’s belief that children need (metaphorical) mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors in order to meaningfully construct knowledge about their world from their experiences. This hews to the theory of constructivism, which posits that one does not – in fact often cannot – learn directly from another. Information can be shared but knowledge cannot be given. Knowledge must be constructed from one’s own experiences and by actively engaging with those experiences, turning them over in one’s mind, making connections, and finding new meaning. Constructivism is a theory of learning, not of teaching.

            

Rabbi Muller explained that there are four key factors in constructing knowledge, which relate back to his mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors. (To recap: with mirrors, children see themselves in their experiences and therefore give import to those experiences; through windows, children see opportunities to apply their learning to new situations; by going through sliding glass doors, children engage with the bigger world and test their knowledge.)

In the first key factor to constructing knowledge, leaners must have hands on experiences and be able to internalize those experiences before they can truly learn. Hands on experiences are often sensory in nature and must involve the whole child. Children must engage authentically with their world and feel true emotions for real learning to take place. For example, we need to be careful that we don’t inadvertently give children the impression that the Torah is a lightweight, fuzzy, soft, blue and red toy that can be dropped on the floor. In order for children to really learn what the Torah is and what it represents they need to engage with a real Torah in an authentic way.

The second key factor is the hardest to provide, only because our rushed world is always pushing us to do more, faster. The factor is time. Children need time, lots and lots of uninterrupted time, to explore their world. They need time to notice how their world changes when just one tiny variable is added or taken away. They need time to build on what they’ve processed the day or week before. They need time to suss out why something is the way it is or works the way it does before a well-meaning adult jumps in to offer a little “help.”

This doesn’t mean adults have no role to play in the constructivist classroom. Social interactions are the third key factor. One way children construct knowledge is by learning from someone else something that they could in no way have gleaned for themselves. A good way to understand this is to think of a technology that is no longer in use in today’s world. Without the practical experience associated with that technology, we really can’t know or understand what it once did. Would a child growing up with iTunes be able to make sense of a gramophone?

Finally, passion and wonder are required in order for children to construct knowledge. Without that inspiration to know more, to ask “why,” sometimes over and over again, there will be no learning. That doesn’t mean it’s on us to make sure our children are always interested and entertained. Instead it means that we shouldn’t quash children’s innate curiosity by thinking it’s our job to directly teach them everything they need to know. If we trust our children, they will show us what they are ready to learn.

Shabbat Around the Table -- Rosh Chodesh

Not only is tomorrow Shabbat, it is also Rosh Chodesh, or the new month. Tomorrow marks the beginning of the month of Shevat.

We mark the beginning of each new month at the new moon, and many of our holidays fall in the middle of the month, at the full moon. I genuinely enjoy watching the night skies in the weeks leading up to Passover to remind me how much time I have left to get ready for the holiday. As the moon grows and gets fuller, I have to plan faster!

It's a wonderful thing to make the time to look up at the stars and the moon with our children. Not only can we use the moon to track our holidays, but looking at up the celestial objects reminds us of the vastness of God's greatness. It gives us yet another reason to be thankful.

Shabbat Around the Table -- Blessings for Children

This week's parsha is the last in the book of Breishit, or Genesis. In it, Jacob blesses his sons before he dies. It has become traditional for Jewish mothers and fathers to similarly bless their sons and daughters on Friday evenings, often right after lighting Shabbat candles.

This can be a very meaningful moment for parents and their children. Parents often place their hands on their children's heads while reciting the blessings. In my experience, children, once they become teenagers, pretend to not like this tradition anymore. I think they secretly love it, because they know it's a demonstration of their parents' love for them.

In English, the blessings are:

For boys: May God make you like Ephraim and Menashe.

For girls: May God make you like Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, and Leah.

For both: May God bless you and keep you. May God's light shine upon you and be gracious to you. May God's face be turned toward you and give you peace.

To learn more, and for the blessings in Hebrew, visit the website below.

http://www.myjewishlearning.com/article/blessing-the-children/

Constructivism Part 1

In early December, Morah Virginia, Moreh Simon, and I attended Federation’s annual Jewish Early Childhood Education Conference. The theme of the conference was Ayeka, which translates as “Where are you?” It is the question God asks Adam in Gan Eden after Adam and Eve eat from the forbidden tree, realize their nakedness, and hide from God.

                                    

Each workshop at the conference challenged us to think about where we are in our beliefs about what young children truly need from the adults in their world in order to learn and grow. Where are we in our own personal journeys as early childhood educators? We left inspired and full of new insights and ideas. I’ll be sharing much of what I learned at the conference in the next several bulletin articles.

Meir Muller, an ordained rabbi who also holds a doctorate in early childhood education, gave a presentation entitled Ayeka?: Mirrors, Windows, and the Sliding Glass Doors of Constructivist Classrooms. Based on the work of the developmental psychologist Jean Piaget, constructivism is the theory that knowledge cannot be transmitted from one person to another. Facts can be transmitted, and often are, especially in older classrooms. One person can relate facts to another person, and that person can memorize and regurgitate those facts, but that is not true knowledge.

True knowledge goes beyond recitation of facts; knowledge is how one understands one’s experiences, (which include facts, observations, and skills) turns them around in one’s head, makes connections, questions and investigates them, applies them to new situations, and creates new meaning. Knowledge is thereby constructed, and constructing knowledge takes time. In a constructivist classroom, children are given the time to construct meaning of their world through a variety of carefully planned experiences guided by the teacher. A constructivist classroom is full of opportunity for investigation. The teacher doesn’t tell or explain. The teacher asks questions.

So what about the mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors? Rabbi Muller suggested that children need (metaphorical) mirrors in which to see themselves in order to learn. They need to relate to the learning experience and find it meaningful for them before they can fully engage with it. They also need windows to see the outside world, to appreciate that there is a world beyond theirs, with new experiences. Finally, they need sliding glass doors to walk though, to engage with those new experiences and begin to construct knowledge anew.

Shabbat Around the Table -- Vayishlach

Jacob famously wrestles with one of God's messenger's in this week's parsha, Vayishlach. After the nighttime encounter , an angel renames Jacob Israel, which means,"you have struggled with God."  

The Jewish people have also historically been known as the people of Israel, which refers less to the modern state and more to our ancestor Jacob/Israel. Just as Jacob struggled with God that night long ago, we continue to struggle with God as we try to make sense of this world, our place in it , and our role in making it a better place.

Anything that is worth doing is worth struggling over. Most things that are worth doing, that are important, are hard. When our children struggle, with sharing, tying their shoes, or building a chanukiah six feet tall, they are doing something important. They are learning, which is certainly worth doing. When we don't allow our children to struggle, when we try to help them so that they don't experience frustration, we take away their opportunity to learn. It's hard to see our children struggling, but it's important that we let them.