Yom Rishon

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Yom Rishon

Branching off from our highly successful “Matchilim” program, held Shabbat mornings (following the school calendar), we are thrilled to offer preschoolers and their parents the opportunity to extend and expand our learning community. Held approximately once a month on Sunday mornings, “Yom Rishon” (“The First Day” or “Sunday”) is a theme-based program, including art, movement, music, stories, and projects as well as further learning on the subject for parents and other adults who accompany the children. It is family education at its finest.

Many of us have stories or anecdotal evidence of young children urging parents to become more and more active in Jewish life, but now studies are actually proving this to be the case. Drs. Roberta Goodman and Pat Bidol Padva, two experts in the field of Early Childhood Jewish Education, teach us:

Early childhood education represents a unique opportunity to engage both young children and their parents in a rich and meaningful Jewish communal life. At this stage of their lives, parents of young children are open to considering questions of identity and connection for themselves and their children. The raising of young children offers Jewish communities an unrivaled opportunity to engage young families and deepen their Jewish journeys. The early years of a child’s life have a substantial impact on brain development, social-emotional intelligence and personal identity. The foundations for future learning, personal relationships and communal belonging are laid down in those early childhood experiences.

This, combined with the accepted knowledge that quality early childhood Jewish education will lead to an increase in the Jewish involvement and learning of families and that parents of children in early childhood programs tend to form peer groups have led us to design an Jewish educational experience that will help families learn together while having fun and forming (or deepening) social groups.

Classes take place at 10am downstairs at Beth Israel Center (watch for signs as to which room). Our classes for 2011-12 will be:

September 18 - Rosh Hashanah
October 16 - Sukkot: we'll be in the sukkah!
November 20 - Shabbat
December 18 - Hanukkah
January 22 - Tu b'Shevat
February 26 - Purim
March 25 - Passover
April 29 - Blessings
May 13 - Your Jewish Home

Please tell your friends—everyone is welcome to this innovative program. For more information, please contact Beth Copelovitch at 256-7763 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .