PNP+-+Key+Learnings

=Prep and Practice Key Learnings= Go To: Kavana Main Page

__From the Final Report:__
This is something that we had a hunch about from the beginning, but this year’s participation rate in the Prep and Practice program has driven home the point! In particular, we have learned – through one-on-one conversations and our focus group – that parents in Seattle are happy to find activities in which they can participate //with// their children – especially those activities that have Jewish content, focus on positive values, help to build a sense of community, and include a component of learning for adults too in a non-threatening and non-judgmental way. At the beginning of the year – for example in our September program dealing with Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, and Sukkot – we tried to tackle too much and we were reminded of the rabbinic maxim: //tafasta m’rubah lo tafasta// – “if you try to grasp too much, you won’t grasp anything.” After that point, we adjusted to each event corresponding to a single holiday, a single theme and one clearly articulated take-home message. By the end of the year, we were articulating that take-home message verbally at the beginning and end of each event, and in writing in the e-mails leading up to and following each event. Parents reported to us that these messages were clear, memorable, and helped to enhance their Jewish home life (both in terms of dinner-table discussions with their families, and in terms of home holiday observance). In light of ideas workshopped with other congregations at the recent Legacy Heritage Seminar in Newark, now we are even thinking about taking these programmatic themes to the next level in the coming year, and linking our family education programs to other adult learning thematically. The best learning happens in comfortable group settings that take into account both children’s ages and family’s needs. At the beginning of the year, the Prep and Practice program was less structured and participants could go to activity stations in any order. As a result of our mid-year evaluation process, we decided to impose a stricter structure on the program – which included a rotation between three stations at each event, and pre-assigned groups for children of various ages (the groups were roughly for ages 2-4, 5-6, and 7-8). What we learned in the subsequent months was that families with multiple children would often end up split between groups. For those families fortunate enough to be attending with two parents and two children, one parent could accompany each child to the age appropriate group. But, for many families, these age divisions necessitated that either a parent would accompany a younger child, leaving older children to participate without the benefit of an adult, or that a younger child would be forced to tag along to a group designed for older kids. By the end of the year, we had adjusted once again. For our Shavuot Prep event in May, we carefully divided participating families into three groups based on the ages of all children and on the approximate Jewish background/knowledge level of the family. This worked incredibly well, as it allowed whole families to stay intact during the program and learn together, and it still had the benefit of allowing station leaders to tailor each activity to the level of the learners. As a side benefit, this “social engineering” method of dividing groups by family also helped create social ties between families with children of similar ages.
 * Parents are Hungry for Family Education Opportunties**
 * Take-away Messages Must be Simple and Clear and Repeated Multiple Times**
 * The Best Learning Happens in Comfortable Group Settings**

__From the Mid-Year Report:__

Parent Recruitment Takes Time
Parent RecruThe project was envisioned with the idea that parents would lead each station, and that we would hire consultants to coach the parents. This hasn't worked as well as planned because most parents don't have the inclination or capability to //lead// and entire station. However, we've had success recruiting parents to assist with stations.

Plan Far in Advance
As an adolescent organization, we typically only plan the next program immediately in front of us. Another key learning has been that that we need to plan out the entire year in advance. This will assist us in recruiting parents because it will give them time to be trained.

Structured Program Reduces Chaos and Improves Content Delivery
Originally, our programs were in a carnival-like atmosphere, i.e. there were a number of stations and each family could go to zero or more stations as many times as they wanted. We have now moved to dividing all the families up in to roughly equal size groups and rotating them to each station on a schedule. The result has been that the programs seem less chaotic, and that content has been delivered more effectively.

Age Appropriate Activities
Originally, we let all ages of children do activities together. We learned, however, that it's very difficult to run a station for 2 year olds and 9 year olds. As a result, we have taken to grouping the children in age-appropriate cohorts...roughly 0-3. 4-5. 6+