{"id":19898,"date":"2016-07-08T00:31:14","date_gmt":"2016-07-08T07:31:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=19898"},"modified":"2016-07-06T16:19:17","modified_gmt":"2016-07-06T23:19:17","slug":"preschool-widens-catchment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2016\/07\/08\/preschool-widens-catchment\/","title":{"rendered":"Preschool widens catchment"},"content":{"rendered":"

Naomi Hazon\u2019s daughter, Maayan Cohen, with the striped sleeves, has been attending Beth Tikvah\u2019s Shalom Preschool for a year. The youngsters have supervised access to an outdoor play area and garden. (photo by Naomi Hazon)<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Watching parents pick up their kids at Beth Tikvah Congregation\u2019s Shalom Preschool and then touring the facility with teacher Esther Karasenty once the hallways had cleared, it is hard to believe that only a year ago, the program was in danger of closing for lack of enrolment. No such problem now, however, and parents wanting to check out the school for their 2.5- to 5-year-old should visit sooner rather than later.<\/p>\n

Karasenty has been teaching at Shalom Preschool since 2008.<\/p>\n

\u201cEsther has the skills and training to work with children and a very natural ability to connect with children…. She\u2019s able to build trust and make connections,\u201d parent and schoolteacher Naomi Hazon told the Jewish Independent<\/em> about Karasenty.<\/p>\n

Karasenty is \u201cthe next best thing to when Mommy\u2019s not around. I don\u2019t feel worried, ever, when I leave my daughter here,\u201d Hazon said.<\/p>\n

In addition to her teacher credentials and extensive experience \u2013 in early childhood education and instruction, and in teaching special needs children \u2013 Karasenty also speaks five languages: English, Hebrew, Portuguese, Spanish and French. Yet, even with such a capable teacher, when Hazon went to register her daughter Maayan last year, she was told that the preschool was probably going to close within a year because of low enrolment.<\/p>\n

About that situation, Karasenty said, \u201cThe population around here changed a little bit. Young couples started selling their homes and moving away from Richmond, so we didn\u2019t have a lot of new children that belonged to Beth Tikvah itself,\u201d and the preschool was previously \u201cdirected toward the community of Beth Tikvah.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Hazon found out that the preschool she herself had attended as a child might close, Karasenty said, \u201cShe just said no.\u201d Hazon \u201cworked really hard to bring it back to life. It was amazing,\u201d said the teacher. When she joined forces with Beth Tikvah to open it up beyond the synagogue community, \u201cshe reached out to everybody and that made the difference,\u201d said Karasenty.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the matter of a few months, we had several open houses,\u201d said Hazon, as well as \u201cfamilies through in the evenings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hazon also contacted Lissa Weinberger from Congregation Beth Israel, who sent an email to the Jewish children\u2019s book mail-out program PJ Library, to build \u201ccommunity connections and get the word out.\u201d<\/p>\n

As well, Beth Tikvah hired a new program director, Hofit Indyk, who has worked with Hazon to advertise and market the preschool.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have updated our website and we advertise more on social media,\u201d said Hazon.<\/p>\n

Preschoolers whose families are not members of Beth Tikvah \u201cjust pay a slightly different fee for being non-members,\u201d Hazon explained, \u201cand members\u2019 children are obviously welcome, and we are also open to non-Jewish families that are also in our community.\u201d<\/p>\n

This fall, five of the eight students will be Jewish. Other cultures represented include Japanese and Indian. \u201cSo, we have really mixed families,\u201d said Hazon.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven within the Jewish families,\u201d she added, \u201cit\u2019s often a place where families who have mixed marriages and maybe one parent hasn\u2019t converted, they feel welcome here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hazon shared the story of a family who recently moved here from Brazil. \u201cTheir child speaks barely any English and, by word of mouth, they hear that [Karasenty] speaks Portuguese, and [their son] is able to speak his first language with her and he was able to settle in right away.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Hazon was signing her daughter up for Shalom Preschool last year, the Jewish Community Centre of Greater Vancouver program for 2-year-olds had a lengthy waiting list. She describes Shalom Preschool as a \u201chidden gem\u201d because it is providing Jewish education to her daughter \u201cwith an incredibly gifted and talented teacher in a small group setting and it\u2019s local and, you know what, it\u2019s affordable \u2026 and it\u2019s inclusive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karasenty explained her approach to teaching. \u201cI see my position in the class as a facilitator. I facilitate the children\u2019s interaction with the world around them. I facilitate their interaction with each other and I give them skills to communicate and to express their needs\u2026. I respect children. I don\u2019t lie to them, I always tell them the truth. I always see them as intelligent human beings. They may be short human beings, but they are human beings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Karasenty derives her approach from Maria Montessori who, explains Karasenty in Beth Tikvah\u2019s December 2015 newsletter, \u201cwas an Italian physician, educator and innovator, acclaimed for her educational method that builds on the way children naturally learn. At Beth Tikvah Shalom Preschool, I follow those guidelines, creating an environment that will promote children\u2019s development: offering them cognitive, physical and emotional experiences that will help them in becoming critical thinkers, human beings who will have the clarity of vision to direct and shape the future of our society.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the Jewish community becomes more dispersed \u2013 the latest figures cited by the Jewish Federation of Greater Vancouver show that 46% of Lower Mainland Jews now live outside of Vancouver \u2013 Hazon said, \u201cIt is important that people access what\u2019s locally available to them and that you give back to your community to keep things going.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBeth Tikvah is here,\u201d said Karasenty, \u201cto keep on the feeling of community.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shalom Preschool runs Monday through Friday, 9 a.m.-noon, with Shabbat-themed programming every Friday. The preschool is still accepting registration for the fall. For more information, visit btikvah.ca\/learn\/shalom-preschool<\/a> or call 604-271-6262.<\/p>\n

Zach Sagorin<\/strong> is a Vancouver freelance writer.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Naomi Hazon\u2019s daughter, Maayan Cohen, with the striped sleeves, has been attending Beth Tikvah\u2019s Shalom Preschool for a year. The youngsters have supervised access to an outdoor play area and garden. (photo by Naomi Hazon) Watching parents pick up their kids at Beth Tikvah Congregation\u2019s Shalom Preschool and then touring the facility with teacher Esther […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19889,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1976,5864,3076,449,6063,6062,6061],"class_list":["post-19898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","tag-beth-tikvah","tag-children","tag-education","tag-hazon","tag-karasenty","tag-montessori","tag-preschool"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19889"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}