EDUCATION

Who's Minding The Kids?

Cheryl Jerusalem, Akiva latchkey supervisor, serves snacks to Danny Gutman, Rivka Huffstutter, Elana Tinman, Rachel Tinman and Yoni Winter.

SUSAN GRANT

Staff Writer

I

Hillel Prime Time student,
Sharone Senk, plays on the
school's jungle gym.

108

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1990

he bell rings,
signaling the end
of another school
day.
But while other
Akiva Hebrew Day School
students rush out of the
Southfield Road building to
catch a bus ride home, Danny
Gutman, 8, and his brother,
Geoffrey, 5, walk down a
hallway and into a nursery
school room.
The boys, ignoring the
videotape of The Little Mer-
maid playing on the VCR,
sit down in front of a box of
toys, pull out a plastic rod
and begin playing with it. In
another corner of the room,
Ami Schwartz, 3, plays with
toys in a sandbox, watching

the sand slip through his
tiny hands.
Welcome to Akiva's lat-
chkey program. Almost
every day after school, six
boys and two girls between
the ages of 3 and 8 gather in
this nursery classroom, play-
ing games, eating a snack,
and occasionally doing
homework, while they wait
for their working parents to
take them home.
A similar scene takes place
at Hillel Day School in Far-
mington Hills as the 3:30
p.m. bell sounds and 20 chil-
dren of various ages slowly
gather in the multi-pm-pose
room.
After a quick greeting to
Mandy Skeegan, Hillel
Prime Time site director,
Eve Posen, 8, shouts out she
wants to do her homework.
But a few minutes later,

when most of the children go
outside to play, Eve decides
to save her school work for
the long Sukkot weekend
and joins the rest of the lat-
chkey group on the play-
ground. As they play, Mrs.
Skeegan watches over the
children, smiling as Daphna
Heisler, 5, shows off her
skills at the monkey rings
and comforting David Gould
who was bruised in a boys'
soccer game.
As the children return to
the multi-purpose room,
Mrs. Skeegan serves them
cookies and juice. Wolfing
down the snacks, the chil-
dren are ready to work on
the arts and crafts project
planned for that day. Many
of the girls don smocks and
begin painting designs on
ceramic tiles, running to the
bathroom to wash off any
unacceptable art. Eve wat-
ches the other girls as she
staples pieces of colored con-
struction paper to create a
chain which will decorate
her family's sukkah. Near-
by, a group of boys play a
game of Clue as they wait for
their parents.
The Jimmy Prentis Morris
Jewish Community Center
has offered latchkey for five
years. It is a relatively new
concept for Hillel and Akiva
as well, whose programs
have begun their second
years. But as more women
leave the home and go back
to work, latchkey helps
families struggling to find
good Jewish day care for
their school-aged children.
Akiva parent Miriam Huf-
fstutter knows all about the
struggles of finding day care
for children. As a single
mother, Ms. Huffstutter had
to find someplace for her
daughter, Rifka, 9, to. stay
when she worked late.
While the Orthodox com-
munity does not encourage
working mothers, Ms.
Hufstutter said, "Some
mothers must work." Her
daughter isn't enrolled in
latchkey, but sometimes at-
tends. "We're recognizing
that reality," she said.
Cheryl Jerusalem, who
supervises the Akiva lat-
chkey children, said, "We
basically want to provide a
service for the parents and
provide a helpful envi-
ronment for the kids."