CMCH Experience
THE CMCH EXPERIENCE
by Lisa Shore, and read at the CMCH Main Event 2012
My husband Sheldon and I are honored to be here tonight to honor Jeff and Diane Bland. It is our pleasure to be hosts for tonight’s special event.
For those of you who don’t know me my name is Lisa Shore and I am parent at CMCH. I am also known by my other name, what most of your children call me: Micah’s Mom.
A few weeks back at the Shul’s Women’s Rosh Chodesh class, I was approached by Dossie and asked to prepare a few words about the parents of CMCH for tonight’s Main Event. I said of course! because well, I don’t think you’re allowed to say no to Dossie.
But truly I was happy and flattered to have been asked.
I would like to take this time to give you an idea of what makes Chaya Mushka Children’s House so special.
First and foremost there are the children.
Micah has been a student at CMCH since he was 20 months old in The Little Chickadees. These days he’s in the pre-K Montessori program, we are proud Busy Bees and we are led by Morahs’ Beryl, Meril and Shelina.
Shelina and Meril are two of the wonderful new teachers that joined our school this past September. When school first started last year we were a bit confused. You’re teacher’s name is what? Beryl, Meryl and who?
So for a while it was just easier to call them all Morah Beryl. Which is what the kids did for the first two weeks.
But after you know them even for a minute their individual personalities are so uniquely beautiful and individual you can’t ever imagine getting their names confused. They are three teachers that possess an incredible love of life, learning, and children. Traits that describe every teacher throughout the entire school – From the Chickadees all the way up to the Third Grade.
Then we have our office. The epicenter of the school, Chaya Mushka’s central nervous system.
For those of you unfamiliar, the office is the room right next to the bathroom, sits right up against the diaper changing station, across from the two year old program, visible from the main room, is the working space for four full size adults, is typically log-jammed with parents with the drive-thru window looking window and that crazy ATM looking key pad thing. Believe me, I have tried to withdraw money and despite my best effort, it just keeps taking it!
I don’t know, maybe I’ve got the wrong pin number.
So, the picture I am trying to paint for you looks like this: We have our children, their incredible teachers the office and then there is us - the parents.
We are almost like eco-system, one organism dependent on another to thrive. Kind of like a family.
We are all so connected, so bonded, yes, so truly a family.
And with every family there is nurturing, friendship, and compassion, which, of course, is a polite way of saying, um,
D – R- A- M- A
And I couldn’t think of a more appropriate way to introduce the habits of the typical CMCH parent then through an old-fashioned, David Letterman style, 10 top list.
And here, ladies and gentlemen in my hand are the top 10 things parents can be heard saying out about and around Chaya Mushka Children’s House.
10. Have I paid?
9. I have an idea for carpool. --- The carpool line is the bain of many a Chaya Mushka parent’s existence. But I kind of enjoy being welcomed every morning by the school’s version of Walmart greeter’s Morah’s Liba Leah and Musha. And if there wasn’t such a long wait– how would I ever have a chance to catch up on my reading or finish my taxes.
8. It was a very EXPENSIVE jacket, no I didn’t put her name in it, who has time?
7. You send so many emails how do I know which ones I am supposed to read.
6. Dossie, my child is off the charts smart - just between you and me -don’t you think he could skip the two-year-old program and go straight into Montessori?
5. Why does every Jewish holiday at Chaya Mushka start two days early?
4. Bo, it will just be faster if you print it out, fill out and I’ll run by the drive thru and sign it.
3. Just call my wife: all I do is drop off
2. If you need anything financial, NEVER call my wife.
AND THE NUMBER ONE COMMENT OF THE CMCH PARENT IS….
1. Can I start my child in October because there is pretty much no school in September?
But seriously, any parent who has a child, or has had a child at Chaya Mushka Children’s House understands that the name of the school is no coincidence. It not only has HOUSE in its name, it’s truly a home. An intimate dwelling filled with affection, laughter, respect and Mitzvah Apples. A place where each week brings the anticipation of who will be the Shabbos Aba and who will be Shabbas Ema – it’s also the place of seriously the most amazing school pictures you have ever seen! Seriously, if you are getting married or know someone getting married, you should try and coordinate your official portraits with school picture day.
And if you spend some time here either on VIP day, volunteering to help with a festival or just walking your child into school, you will notice right away, that regardless of what classroom each of the morah’s work in, they know every child and their name. Just like they do in their own families.
Chaya Mushka Children’s House is not just a place for the newest neshamas, it’s a touchstone of learning and ruach for the entire family and we love being a member of this family.
By Lisa Shore
