My Kids go to School in Israel

written by: Ruth
It is really hard to believe, you make all these plans for a year maybe two, months and months of packing , arranging, buying etc. you gear up to leave, one two maybe three parties, lots of crying and sad goodbyes, you arrive...more crying, you unpack and arrange and arrange then when 6-8 weeks have passed by and you just begin to feel settled ....then your kids go to school, not school like we knew a few months ago back in the old country , but school in Israel. I am not sure who was more nervous on Sept 1 ..my four kids or Darrell(chaim) and I! We did the school supply thing, one of Avital's friends had to tell me what everything on the list was. We bought what books we needed and then the alarm rang (at 6:30 am I might add). By 7:15a.m. everyone was gone, and for the first time in 8 weeks Darrell and I were alone...it was very scary. That wasn't so bad we looked at each other in disbelief, no one cried (except me) and no one had said they weren't going to go...this is going to be okay , I looked at Darrell and he said" Today was the easy day it's tomorrow that they won't want to go back." Thanks Darrell!!Everyone came home and seemed happy, no they didn't understand anything but no one wanted to talk everyone grabbed a snack and ran out to friends. I waited all day wondering and worrying and they had run off to friends. I guess it was a good sign.
Each boy was in class with a good friend Yonatan was with Shimon his new israeli english speaking friend and David was with Max another boy on our yishuv who made aliyah the same day as us. Each child is sitting beside an english speaker who can help him have some idea of what is going on in class. Avital is in a school (noga - beit shemesh) with many olim and who have a special sensitivity to new olim. She is in class with a couple of english speaking friends from the yishuv and efrat. She says it is hard and she often doesn't understand what is going on but it doesn't seem to really bother her.....We are so impressed by her! Sara is in gan on the yishuv, she is a little cutie, hangs her tik up on the hook and goes into class, there are some english speakers in her class but the truth is they speak mostly hebrew amongst themselves, thank goodness for Rivka (max's sister). the gan is clean and set up so nicely, her gannenet is sweet and soft spoken....in hebrew. I have to stay with Sara for a few minutes each morning until she dismisses me , but other than that she seems to be fine. She is happy to go to gan and also happy to come home. I asked her if she wanted to stay for Saharon (afternoon program), she asked if it was in hebrew, when I said yes she said no thank you it's enough hebrew for me. She is picking up new words all the time and even says them with a cute little accent.
We are very pleased thus far with our school choices. The boys school is in Efrat, the principal made aliyah when he was 12 or 13 so is quite sympathetic to their situation. He let Yoni come home early last week one day, when Y. was complaining of various body ailments. He called that night to see how he was and not only spoke to us but asked to speak with Yonatan. This wasn't the first call just to see how they are doing! I keep wondering how the boys are going to learn hebrew but the principal keeps insisting they will , they just will....okay I say just explain to me one more time....HOW?!Homework time is fun and notes home, they are just a hoot. "What does that note say Abba?"......."How am I suppose to know , it's all in hebrew!"
Last week was curriculum night week which was a real shock to me. After so many years at netivot and eitz chaim curriculum nights it was surreal to be sitting in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar faces. What struck me , was the difference in opening addresses of the principals and also of the teachers...they spoke about the "events of the summer" and how the kids were dealing with it, and how the staff were helping the kids to deal with it. I really felt that we weren't in Kansas anymore and we had landed down smack in the middle of Jewish History in the making. we and our children were now going to be a part of this history in the making, for better or for worse. As scary as that can be at times it is also very "real" and very meaningful.
We have been told that having kids go off to school happy and coming home relatively happy is 75% of the battle so we feel very blessed. We hope and pray that they have a relatively easy klita and learn the language quickly. Once they have the language under their belt they can move forward in limud torah in eretz yisrael.