Family education is a passion of mine. If we do not involve the parents in what we do, there will be no connection at home. Every grade level has at least one family program. This week I will highlight the programs for the primary grades.

Every Sunday morning we begin the morning with an assembly. Parents come in with their child to learn during the fifteen minute assembly. Either Rabbi Bob or I teach some sort of lesson each week that is geared to the children but is always presented in a way that the parents come away having learned something too.

Preschool does a program every other year on the Jewish home where families come together to discover ways to make their home Jewish in many ways. We begin with a parent aspect to the program and then involve the children in activities with their parents.

Kindergarten actually does two programs and, this year one was last week and one will be this Sunday. Last Sunday parents joined with their children to learn about Tu B’Shevat. They brainstormed ways in which trees are important to us and then had a Tu B’Shevat seder where everyone tasted a variety of fruits grown in Israel as well as drinking four cups of juice with each one representing a season of the year. They concluded with the children planting parsley that can be used at their Passover seder.

This Sunday will be the Kindergarten Mock Shabbat where children teach their parents about Shabbat, as a culmination of their unit on Shabbat. Both programs are loved by the parents.

First grade also involves parents in a few ways. Their annual family program is about Creation. Parents gather for some adult text study and are later joined by their children to discuss the creation story and then each family creates a Creation booklet, with everyone writing how they can help God with each of the creations. In the late fall we had Shabbat dinners in the home. We matched up families to share Shabbat together. Each family that hosted was given all of the tools needed to make this a meaningful experience for all. Some of our families celebrate Shabbat every week; some have never done this with their children. For years this has been a very exciting program for our families. The other project which involves parents in first grade is Parent Connection. Children signed out a book from the classroom library, take it home and read it with their parents. At some point in the year each child and a parent come to the class to make a presentation together about one of the books they read together. We have had puppet shows, dioramas, posters, light shows, cooking, etc.

Second grade parents come together with their children to learn about the patriarchs and matriarchs. This is review for the children who have been learning about these biblical heroes and interesting facts are learned by the parents. This program also begins with some text study for the adults, followed by parent child activities which include making their own ancestor book.

A unique program in second grade is our family class where children come with a parent every week to learn about Torah and Hebrew together. This is a big commitment for the parents but we fill the class every year. This year we have an overflow crowd in the class and everyone loves it. This class is the ultimate in family education.

Children love having their parents involved in their learning. We take pride in these programs and encourage the parents to be a part of the program. Rarely is there a child there without a parent and this makes me very happy.