Go Go Going To Gan - What to expect from an Israeli Preschool

You have all just been given the most amazing gift .... an opportunity  to learn from Morah Pam Machefsky.  Pam is well respected with genius intuition and educated advice on raising children.   I am personally grateful  that many years ago Pam gave me a professional opportunity in curriculum development that would have not happened without her support and guidance.  Pam has served as the director of many schools and educational programs


.As a retired Early Childhood educator, I was eager to see my Israeli grandson Yair's nursery school (Gan) when we made aliyah two years ago. From our many visits to Israel as "tourists," I knew that the schools were not like their American counter-parts. However, now that I'm in his Gan frequently (responsible for  his morning drop-offs and afternoon pick-ups), I'm happy to say that the differences are not as "worrisome" as I anticipated.


One of the most obvious differences that a parent (or grandparent) will notice is the physical space itself. Just like our Israeli apartments and homes, the schools tend to be less spacious, with smaller classrooms and playgrounds. But there is much natural sunlight in these spaces, so they are bright and cheery. Take a look around; see how creative the teaching staff is at defining "learning centers," the different areas where children spend time with hands-on work and play opportunities. I marvel at the way the seating benches used for the morning prayers transform into roadways for toy cars, art stations, and puzzle table tops at Yair's Gan.


Another difference that you'll notice right away is class size. It's not unusual to have 35 children in a space that would be used for 12 children in the States! When we brought Yair for his first day at his "dati" Gan, we saw 34 other boys and three adults. As we left, my husband said, "I feel like we just left him at gladiator school! We should have given him a shield and a net instead of a backpack!" Once again, our fears were ungrounded;--Yair loves his Gan and his teachers and never complains about the other boys. In fact, he has many friends and afternoon play dates with boys from the class. He has become fluent in Hebrew in one school year (we speak only English at home, as does our daughter's family), and he delights in translating for me when I get "stuck" at the market.


Israeli teachers and American teachers are both underpaid and overworked, but here in Israel, assistant teachers often do the janitorial work after school is dismissed. Assistants are usually not college graduates, while the Head Teacher ("ganenet"), will probably have a degree or certificate from an education school. Requirements vary from town to town, but there are standards set by the government which all schools must meet. Since all qualifying schools, religious or secular, are funded by the State, one of the most pleasant differences that you will notice is the absence of an expensive tuition bill! Our children do pay a monthly fee for Gan, but it's less than 200 shekels--a nice fit for their budget.


We American parents and grandparents can make a big contribution to our children's education here in Israel, and I don't mean only financially! Here are a few suggestions of ways you can support your  school:

• Volunteer to 'work' in the classroom if your language skills are adequate. Maybe you play an instrument, have an easy cookie recipe, or like to make puppets from old socks! If your Hebrew is not school-ready yet, offer to take photographs and print them out for the teachers. 
• Ask if there is a "wish list" of freebies that the school can use. Yair's Gan accepts clean boxes of any sort, which the children use for cutting and collaging, building cities, and gluing together. I send in a box every day, and the staff especially enjoys the American products' boxes.
• Lend the school any appropriate music CD's or books that you may have. As a retired teacher, I came with a ton of stuff, all for sharing.
• Look for affordable items which would be welcome additions at Jewish holidays' time. I found carob and dried fruits on sale at the Supersol, and the teachers were really grateful for that small gift--it was an enrichment that didn't have to come from their own pockets!
• If you have a car, offer the staff members a ride home. (Especially helpful in rainy weather).
• Small gifts to teachers at Chanukah and the end of the year are truly appreciated.
• Consider giving the class a present for your child's birthday. Depending on the gift (you can ask the ganenet if there's something the class could use), you can spend a little or a lot--but any present will be gratefully received.

Last, but not least, don't forget to pack a sandwich for the "ten o'clock meal"--a hearty version of juice and crackers! Now, watch your children--or grandchildren--grow and thrive in Eretz Israel! B'hatzlachah!   Pam  pmachefsky@gmail.com 

Language Development in a Natural Environment - The Kitchen

Introducing Andi Leubitz and her fantastic blog Momasutra

Andi's blog provides readers with real life situations.  She journals her experience as a Mother living in Israel.  One of her friends actually made her a deserving supermom cape. This current blog gives endless opportunities for language and self confidence development in the kitchen.  Andi's children are incredibly lucky to have her as their Mother. http://momasutra.com/2012/02/life-values-from-the-kitchen/

Like many families, ours revolves around the kitchen table. Anything and everything happens at the kitchen table: breakfast and dinner together, of course, homework, telephone calls to family, serious talks with the kids, beef dip Thursday, the highlight of our week, and of course, all our food prep.

When my sister, Cyndi, and I were little, our favorite time of year was when Bubby and Zaidy came to visit. They flew all the way from Ohio to Pennsylvania to stay with us for a week or two at a time.

They were world-travellers and always brought us the most incredible gifts. But, more than the gifts are the memories they gave us. We played the money game (where Zaidy asked us simply school-related questions and we got a dollar for each one we answered right), the Creepy-Peepy (where Bubby presented to be a monster under the covers) and our favorite, “Restaurant.”

Restaurant was when Bubby cooked breakfast before Mom woke up and made us a special menu of food only she made- bird in the nest and hot chocolate. (Side Note: Powdered Hot Chocolate was banned in our home because of the mess we made when we prepared it with Bubby, so Bubby had to hide this in her purse and bring it from Ohio. Basically, she smuggled it in.)

Helping Bubby in the kitchen was the best part- one of us was the customer and the other was the waitress. The waitress took the orders and the customer told the waitress what she wanted (of course, the options on this menu were extremely limited).

Those memories were incredible- Cyndi and I still talk about those days.

Now, in my kitchen, there are certain values and traits I am teaching my own children.

1. The kids have their favorite jobs- cracking eggs, scooping out cups of flour, gathering supplies from the cabinet. And then, there are some jobs they don’t appreciate as much- taking out the compost bin, washing the dishes, cleaning up the counters after themselves. But by providing them with the fun and the hard work simultaneously and in conjunction with each other, they can see that you can be productive, and then clean up after whatever mess you make. With fun comes hard work and with hard work comes fun.

2. The kids can appreciate considering others- others tastes, others preferences, others skills and styles of cooking.

3. The kids, especially with the game of restaurant that we still play, discover what it means to serve others, support others. The good feeling you get from helping others, even if simply by preparing good food for them. We don’t only cook in the kitchen, we crank up the music and we dance too. This helps the kids appreciate each other too.

4. The kids have seen recipes that have worked perfectly and recipes that have simply flopped because the recipe was not well planned, or we forgot a key ingredient. We have learned to laugh over burned popcorn and start again. The nice thing about the kitchen is you can always start over if you have all the ingredients.

The Kitchen is a great place to learn about life values and how to have fun. It gives us the full perspective of life- from homework to making meals together as a family to watching each other practice their zumba moves. It certainly is the cornerstone of our home.

Music Has Power In Language Development by The Talented Roberta Abramowitz Seltzer

There is growing awareness amongst health and educational professionals regarding the benefits that music has on children's development, including language skills.
speech language pathologists and music therapists worldwide are identifying and harnessing the connection between music and language skills. By utilizing music it’s recognized that language development can be supported and improved.

Why is Music Effective for Assisting Language Development?

Music has structure and rules (as does language)
Music ensures that the words are sequenced in a predictable order
Music offers a fun opportunity to learn new words and concepts through repetition (an important factor when helping to improve a child’s language skills)
Music encourages turn-taking behaviours (just like in conversation)
Music has rhythm (enabling actions to be combined with words to reinforce word meanings
Music has rhyme (encouraging children to become aware of words and their sounds, which also assists with developing their literacy skills)
Music assists children to remember new words (particularly once the child has learnt the tune)
Music helps attention and listening skills
Music and movement assists physical development and coordination skills
Music motivates children to socialize, assisting emotional development
Musical involvement is known to enhance self-esteem and confidence

Who Can Benefit?

All children benefit from using music to aid language development. Nursery rhymes, singing and dancing are an essential part of childhood learning,
For children who have difficulty communicating, whether due to a language delay, a language disorder, a syndrome, autism, cerebral palsy, brain injury, trauma or bereavement, the benefits of music can be profound.

Learning to play a musical instrument changes the brain, leading to a slew of potential benefits, including improved learning and understanding of language, according to a recent article.
Studies suggest connections made between brain cells during musical training can aid in other forms of communication, such as speech, reading and understanding a foreign language.
"The effect of music training suggests that, akin to physical exercise and its impact on body fitness, music is a resource that tones the brain for auditory fitness," the researchers say.
The studies suggest society should "re-examine the role of music in shaping individual development," and schools should consider boosting efforts to incorporate musical training into the curriculum, the researchers say.

Olim - Shake hands with dyslexia

Blog 1

Introduction

Olim  - shake hands with dyslexia

Why do Olim, need to meet this learning disability?  Many people with dyslexia go through life without knowing they have it.  Drum roll please.....da da da da and then..... they learn a second language.  Before learning a second language dyslexic people can accumulate enough compensation skills and support to get by.

Learning a second language may not be easy for anyone.  If your child has dyslexia they are at risk for low self esteem, with drawl from school, suppressed cultural identity as Americans and Israelis.  This is especially seen if there is insufficient knowledge of the second language in the home.

What is dyslexia?

Dyslexia is a neurobiological language based, genetic learning disability.  The disability is seen in reading, spelling and writing.  It affects the temporal parietal lobe.  The bridge in the language area of the brain has to work extra hard in dyslexic people.  They cannot automatically translate auditory code to visual as others can.  In the classroom dyslexic children can struggle with letter and word reversals, with phonics ( tiny sounds that make up language), rapid word recognition and phonemic awareness ( how speech makes up sounds).   Other areas of education that can be affected with dyslexic children are speaking, listening, reasoning, mathematical, memory, organization, sequencing, perceptual and motor skills.  These areas are slower to acquire and process because of a poor short term memory and a slower speed of processing words that were not previously learned in dyslexic people.

Dyslexic children are known to be successful adults.  They are creative and can come up with different solutions to problems as shown in the following story.

Once upon a time, a father takes his dyslexic son on a camping trip.  The father's intention is to encourage his son to do better in school.  The father tells his son " I see you are motivated and work hard but...... you have to TRY HARDER."  The son who is trying his best, feels like he is failing.  He responds, "I will keep trying but there are times that I just do not understand." 

During the trip the father falls and breaks his leg.  The son who like many dyslexic children has above average intelligence, great visual spatial abilities, multi dimensional thinking and problem solving skills used his tactile/kinesthetic strengths to creatively solve the problem.  The son finds a large flat wood board.  He then helps his father sit on a luggage bag that has wheels.  The boy slowly pulls his father over the wood board that serves many uses as a bridge from one mountain to the next.  The father watches his son struggle to pull him.  The son does not ask his father to try and walk on his broken leg - to just TRY HARDER and maybe he could walk with it.

Tears fell from the father's eyes as he realized what his son must be feeling in school.  Sometimes, to "Try Harder" may cause more damage. Instead find your wood board that can be utilized in many educational areas to build a bridge to learning.  The son did not give up regardless of the pain it caused him to drag his father home. 

Parents, teacher and students cannot take the easy way out and give up.  There are solutions.  Expectations do not need to be lowered but educational opportunities to demonstrate knowledge and understanding must be provided as a joint effort of the school and home. 

Please contact me with your ideas, comments and suggestions for future blogs about educational advocacy for Olim.
Heather Cohnen