Tot Shabbat

After Sarah and I completed Mommy and Me classes at our synagogue I knew I wanted to continue exposing Sarah to more Judaism. During nap time one afternoon, I came across an email from the PJ Library with a list of toddler classes in our area. I was excited for the opportunity to continue Sarah’s education and quickly signed up.

This past September, Sarah and I enrolled in a Transitional Toddler class at a nearby synagogue.

Our class was held once a week on Friday mornings for two hours. The first hour consisted of singing songs, playing and a visit to the synagogue’s sanctuary.

Thanks to the Rabbi and Cantor, Sarah and I have learned a lot of new Shabbat songs this semester. If you know Sarah, you can probably imagine her dancing and clapping happily as we sang along.

Every week after we sang along to a few songs the preschoolers took their turn being Shabbat Stars. A Shabbat Star is when you and your family are invited to lead the candles, challah and wine blessings. Since we do Shabbat dinner every Friday night at home, Sarah was very comfortable in participating in the ceremony.

Sometimes she was too comfortable. A few times I had to pull her back so that parents could take pictures of their Shabbat Star.

This was also the time we celebrated the kids birthdays. Each week after singing Happy Birthday to the birthday kids, Sarah would ask me if it was her birthday. Even though if you ask Sarah when her birthday is, she would have no problem saying, “March 26th!” However March 26th never seemed close enough.

 Before heading out of the synagogue, the Rabbi would pass out any extra challah to the kids that wanted a piece. Sarah and her friend Madelyn always ran up for a piece.

The transitional part of the program began in the second hour. Shortly after returning from the synagogue the parents took the kids back to the room and headed to the lounge. During this time the kids made challah with Ms. Joy and played some more.

Thanks to Sarah we had homemade challah every week!

About 45 minutes to an hour later, the parents returned to the room. It was a nice little break. I spent my time returning phone calls, checking email and just having adult conversations with the other moms that weren’t interrupted by little voices. It was really nice! It was short, but nice.

With Sarah turning three in just a couple of months we were not able to enroll for another semester as she is too old for this program. Instead we were given the option to check out the synagogue’s preschool program.

After a lot of consideration we decided to not enroll her in the preschool this year, but instead to finish out the school year with her other commitments (school, ballet, etc).

Thanks for the great memories, friends!