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SHELLI LIEBMAN DORFMAN
Staff Writer
ith carloads of construction paper
and glitter, Marcia Manson and
Renee Feinberg have taken their
decades of preschool classroom
teaching experience on the road.
Instead of having the kids come to school, they
bring their classroom to the playrooms of the 18-
month to 4-year-old youngsters they teach.
"Renee and I call ourselves "2 Wandering Jews,"
said Manson, who worked with Feinberg at
Congregation Beth Ahm for 10 years. "We wan-
der from home to home, our cars filled with a full
classroom of materials."
In business since January, the Farmington Hills
women run both a mother-toddler program and
classes for the bigger kids. Their hope is for the
14%
5/28
2004
70
classes to be an enrichment program taken in
addition to structured nursery school classes for
the kids.
Classes — which include five-10 children — are
geared toward what the moms request, with
length and content varying to include a combina-
tion of Judaic enrichment, music, art, play and
academics.
For one class, a May 11 field trip to Yad Ezra's
kosher food pantry in Berkley allowed the kids to
display and share what they had been learning.
"Our goal is to do more hands-on mitzvahs that
most don't get in the classrooms," Manson said.
"A mitzvah is something which comes from the
heart and all children can learn to be kind, no
matter what age."
Bringing with them their own creations of pup-
pets, made to look like giant pennies, they sang to
Lea Luger, Yad Ezra's development director, who
Top left: Renee Feinberg of armington Hills watches as 4-year-old students Jayne
Bender and Drew Klayman, both of West Bloomfield, display their tzedakah pup-
pets at Yad Ezra in Berkley.
gave them a tour of the facility. The kids also
brought along tzedakah boxes they made and
filled with change. At Yad Ezra, the kids poured
their coin-donations into a big bowl and then
took the cans back home to start refilling them.
Next up: "We are doing summer classes — all
outside," Manson said. "Painting on fences, side-
walks and creating all art in the sunshine." Fl
For information on classes offered
by 2 Wandering Jews, call Marcia
Manson at (248) 661-0668 or
Renee Feinberg at (248) 661-1877.
Top right: At Yad Ezra, Marcia Manson of Farmington Hills sings a song about
giving tzedakah with 4:year-olds Harrison Boudouris and Bradley Lucke; both of
West Bloomfield.