Lotsa Matzah

It's the middle of Passover week and many of us have grown tired of the cracker that tastes like a box - that's right: Matzah! Well, I should mention that some of our kids ask for matzah on an hourly basis, but the rest are a little sick of it. I'm not sick of the kids acting out the 10 plagues, though. That's a cuteness I'll never get over.

At the JEC, we've been serving a variety of hot lunches and kosher for Passover snacks, and they don't always include matzah. Of course, when we serve matzah lasagne on day #1, we always realize we didn't prepare enough - those kids pack it away! Some kids are very vocal about wanting their Doritos or fruit snacks back, but we provide lunch for the week so we can assure everything's kosher for Passover. They're trying new things and loving it, believe it or not.

We also had our JEC seder yesterday with lots of parents attending lunch and asking for Tanta Leah's chicken recipe. And her matzah ball soup recipe and her apple bake recipe. Miss Carrie prepared a wonderful story and song session for us, highlighted by the kids singing a song about working all the time and how awful that would be. I especially liked the Disney pillows and Bob the Builder cushions the kids brought with them.

Passover celebrates freedom, but there are also restrictions in how we observe. One is no bread for eight days. No pasta, no crackers, no pancakes, no pizza. But we also try to think about those who are not free and how our actions might affect them.

When we talk about dietary matters, whether you espouse all organic, no sugar, no wheat, or kosher food plans, we understand that we all have our food flags to wave. One of the many points of keeping kosher (or having any kind of food standards) is to make you conscious of what you're eating.

Every year on Yom Kippur, observant Jews fast for a day. There are a lot of reasons for it, but I'm always struck by how much time I spend preparing, shopping, thinking about and cleaning up after food. Without that distraction, my observance of the holiday is more complete.

That said, my daughter was having a hard time Monday deciding what to pack for her school lunch. She usually has some kind of bread, but not this week. I explained to her that one of the benefits of no bread for eight days is to try new things, be aware of what you eat and if it's good for you, and figure out solutions to limitations. I'm sure she gave me the full-body eye roll when my back was turned.

So she's counting the days until Saturday night when we will have a pizza feast at my house. After eight days with no bread, pizza is a real luxury and a tradition we relish every year. Because I'm a mom, I'll probably ask her what she learned this week. What she doesn't know is there is no right answer to that question!

Wishing you all freedom this year,

Miss Tara and Miss Leah

ART nights - What can Art do for you?

Last fall, we got a generous grant from the Alaska Association of School Boards to create a project that lets adults and kids connect through the arts. So, we started Art and Recreation Nights (ART Nights) at the JEC and it's been a rousing success. The idea is to make materials and projects available for kids and their families to do together and to encourage parent involvement in our school.

At first, only a few families participated, mainly because of the time we picked (once a month, on Tuesday, from 4:30 to 5:30). We also asked parents to accompany their kids to ART area, which meant many people would skip it altogether since it was the end of the day.

About three sessions in, we changed it up: Kids went together with their teachers to the ART area at 5:00, started a project with our school-age kids, then finished up when their parents arrived. It worked beautifully; parents would stay with their kids and do a project, or at least talk to their child about what they had done before the parent arrived.

What we've noticed over the past few months of doing ART Night regularly is that parents are coming around more - they're volunteering at events, helping out in the classroom and generally showing that they feel more comfortable at the JEC. Which is what we absolutely wanted all along.

At our annual fundraiser, we had unprecedented parent participation - they manned tables, sold raffle tickets, kept things tidy, and served concessions. For our upcoming silent auction, parents are gathering up donations at lightning speed.

The best was two weeks ago, when we celebrated Purim. We had close to 99% parent attendance at the party. There were people EVERYWHERE. The school-age kids made carnival games, did crazy hair and face painting and served cookies to everyone. The younger kids guided their parents around the fair and even extended family attended.

The next ART Night is April 22 and we'll celebrate Earth Day together. There will be greenie projects and fun games about recycling for everyone to do. Once the weather is warmer, we plan to do outside art projects, including an art obstacle course.

I hope next year we can enlist the parents as project leaders - having them sign up to host an ART night for the school. Then the project's goal will be full circle - art bringing kids and adults together in positive ways.

Love,

Miss Tara (Miss Leah is on vacation in California - whatever!)