On Monday I took my 5.5yo to the dentist, who pointed out that has has two sets of bottom front teeth. Now why didn’t I notice that? He said it’s only a problem if the new teeth grow to the height of the old ones before the old ones fall out. He sees two or three cases like this a week, and rarely needs to intervene. For the record, top teeth do need intervention in this case.
In the afternoon we had an appointment at his school for next year for an interview to assess the family’s observance and evaluate the child’s level. This is a Torani mamad, i.e. a national religious school with additional hours of Jewish studies paid for by parents.
We met with one of the male “rabbis” (usually a hesder yeshiva student, who teaches Talmud in 4th-6th grades), the principal, and a first-grade teacher. The rabbi asked him about his unusual name and advised him to speak up and say it clearly and proudly. I noticed that the rest of the day no one asked him to repeat it like they do when I say it!
The principal asked him if he attended the “chug muchanut” (preparation course). I viewed this as a marketing ploy for insecure parents. Why send him to gan for 30 hours a week, if not to prepare him for first grade? Although I understand parents who want their kids to get to know the school, staff, and their future classmates, it’s not enough to make me want to add an extra weekly event to my schedule.
She then asked him what the difference was between gan and school. He said that school is harder. She asked what they learn in school, and he said Torah (does that mean he passed the torani test?) Then she told him she wanted to talk to his mother for a moment, and that he could listen. She asked me whether there was anything I needed from her or the school. I said no. I am probably the only one who said that! She mentioned that they are going to have a Talmud Torah from 2-4:30 each day, with an emphasis on shinun (review of texts to learn them by heart).
Now please keep in mind that most first graders in Israel study from 8:00-12:45, six days a week (gan ends at 1:20; school and gan are not allowed to end within 20 minutes of each other to allow parents to get from one to the other). The additional torani hours (paid for by parents) add an extra five hours a week. They sponsor an optional tzaharon (afterschool program) including lunch, homework supervision, and chugim (extracurricular activities). They want the Talmud Torah to be part of the tzaharon but haven’t quite worked out the details. My 5th grader is in a school that emphasizes shinun, and benefitted tremendously, but I’m certainly not planning to send my first-grader to school until 4:30. Even my 5th grader finishes at that hour only once a week; usually he ends at 2:30. He’s busy enough.
It will be interesting to see whether this idea will be successful in the public religious school; they are clearly hoping to attract a certain type of parent.
Next we met with the first grade teacher. She asked him to identify letters, write his name and some shapes, match cards with pictures of rhyming words, and answer an oral math question. She also asked him to choose the words that began with a particular “tzlil,” in this case the sound tee, and showed him a paper with pictures of tiras, a tik, tinok and tapuach (corn, purse, baby and apple). When he chose tapuach she tried to explain that he needed to choose the intitial tzlil and not simply the initial letter. This was lost on him. I bet they covered that in the chug muchanut.
At any rate, I think we’re in.
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“unusual name”
you probably can’t answer this, but unusual in what way?
My older two have gotten virtually all their adult teeth the same way your little guy is doing. We call them ‘shark teeth’ since sharks also have two rows of teeth. The baby ones have always successfully fallen out on their own and the adults ones have moved into position. They love freaking people out with them.
Here’s another “tee” regarding the chug muchanut – tircha! I’m glad you guys got around something extraneous and likely unnecessary.
You’ve made me curious about his name too! Hatzlacha to him next year!
As far as the teeth situation…you can see that my big one had that with one top tooth…and we did have to have it taken care of…
I hope my school is as involved as yours. They haven’t even met me or my husband..I think we got in by accident, but there isn’t any doubt my girl is appropriate for the school.
I wonder when the book/supply list comes out…
ooops wrong blog of mine showed up…
Book lists come out for kids already in school the last day of June, theoretically you should get yours soon afterward. I heard that our school enables parents to order as a group. Be prepared for major sticker shock.
To the curious: His name is Yedaya ידעיה
Re first sound of a word… I wrote a paper (and did a teeny bit of research) on that. Kids who are oriented towards Hebrew, and especially kids who read Hebrew are much more likely to include the vowel as part of the sound.
Kids who are more English-oriented and/or read English are more likely to consider the consonant as the whole sound.
Hebrew is written syllabically. English isn’t. If you’re interested in looking at the paper, let me know.
It’s not thrilling, but it deals with exactly this issue.
t.c.
ugh. turns out that sometime in the past 6 years, I managed to purge the whole paper from my computer. I have only the abstract
Thanks tc, that certainly explains a lot. Because he had no trouble with the rest of the test.b
hehe. reminds me of my brother. When he was little, my parents only read him storybooks in Hebrew. He’d never heard Cinderella (for example) in English.
On an IQ test before kindergarten, he was asked what a ‘gown’ was.
He replied “4 quarts, 8 pints, 16 cups.”
Of course, he got it wrong…
I’m with RaggedyMom, tircha! Keep your schedule free and let kids enjoy some unscheduled time.
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