For countless reasons, I love working at Akiba. The smiling faces of students and their probing questions delight and inspire; our beautiful campus nourishes my senses; and interactions with our faculty and staff motivate me to think and grow. This week one such conversation took place. Morah Dorit, one of our Niztanim teachers and our Early Childhood pedagogic coordinator, shared a compelling thought with me from this week's parasha, Mishpatim. While Parashat Yitro records the events of the revelation at Mount Sinai and the giving of the Torah, this week's parashah includes Bnei Yisrael's response when offered the Torah; the famous phrase "Na'aseh v'nishma" (We will do and we will listen). With that answer, the Israelites accept the Torah unconditionally and promise to follow God's dictates in advance of their understanding each and every one of them. Morah Dorit explained, "Long before Nike came up with 'Just Do It' and before the latest results on the neuroscience of motivation, we had 'na'aseh v'nishma. The action comes before the motivation to perform and not the other way around, as we may think. With kids it is the same whether learning a new skill in Chumash or basketball, reading a story or zipping a zipper. In all those instances, we need to provide children the opportunities to 'do' before they will want to do. Learning and intent are all born from the doing. Our job as educators and parents is to provide our children with every opportunity to 'just do it.'"

Morah Dorit's words resonated for me as I reviewed the parashah and noticed that so many of the mitzvot included in it pertain to interpersonal relationships. The Torah breaks from its narrative about the birth of the Jewish nation and God's redemption of the Israelites to list a series of interpersonal mitzvot integral to becoming a moral, successful, and compassionate society sculpted in the image of God. From the complex relationships of our patriarchs and matriarchs and their family systems to the dehumanizing period of slavery, Bnei Yisrael had much to learn about the way to interact with each other, communicate, and respect the sanctity of every person within the nation.  Even if the intention behind each mitzvah remained a bit veiled for the Israelites, each and every one agreed to take the leap of faith and perform the mitzvot, with a willingness to internalize the rationale and develop the intent as practice perfected the performance.

Yesterday, I visited in Morah Dorit's room and witnessed how we at Akiba convey this essential importance of doing from the youngest ages. After a social skills lesson with Morah Suzie Hacker, Dorit's class danced and sang about being kind to one another. For these young children, the dance may have been a series of steps and the song a set of whimsical lyrics, but what our teachers chjoreographed fro our students was the opportunity to practice kindness and do good so the motivation would follow.

Shabbat Shalom!

Shabbat Shalom!

Bigger, Smaller, Same and Different

The preschool often brings the outdoors inside to enhance the learning that is going on in the classroom. This week our Teenoki Bet children learned math concepts and vocabulary words like "bigger" and "smaller" and "same" and "different" while exploring a variety of pine cones.

 

   

Sticky, Ticky Tape

All it takes is something as simple as tape to spark the curiosity in our Nevatim babies. The morahs put tape on the table and the children used their strongest finger muscles to pull it off. What the children didn't realize is that they were strengthening their pincer grasp that they will be using one day for writing with pens and pencils.

Kindness is Contagious

In Teenoki Alef, the Morahs captured their children spontaneously holding each other's hands and being good friends to one another. Kindness is contagious!  

Independence Through Art

Morah Marni and Morah Marcela's K'Ton Ton children were given an empty container and invited to the drawing shelf to choose their own supplies.  Children thrive when given the opportunity to make their own choices.  The role of the adults in their lives (parents and teachers) is to allow, encourage and support children to take responsibility for themselves and their belongings whenever possible.  It can be faster and less messy to do things for children, but they learn so much from doing things for themselves...they practice large and small motor skills, gain confidence in their ability and build their self-esteem and pride in their independence.