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(If you are asking yourself whay are all the punctionation marks, mostly periods at the end of the sentences, are misplaced in the English posts – the answer is: it is time to move to a new posting system – WordPress sucks!)

Kfir is applying to some private high-schools. With-in this horrible (horrible, horrible) process, not only does Kfir has to write a lot of long answers (basically short essays), but his parents have to respond to some questions as well.

I would have hated doing it in Hebrew, so you can imagine how hard it is for me to do it in English

It's not hard to praise Kfir (or any of our kids) , he is a great kid (and I am very objective about it 🙂 ), but it is hard to write it in a way that will show what I think about him, with a high enough language that would overcome the other parents' reviews about their kids…

Well, I am not the right person to use high language. Maybe they'll accept him because   they'll see that even though his mom is not as adducent as others (yes, I did mean adducent and not fluent), he was able to overcome this impediment and became great student…

Anyways, I am so much better in parents interviews. It allows me to show how …passionate I am about him and his capabilities

Anyways, we've spent so much time writing this, I wouldn't want them to the abyss of  oblivion (and maybe we could use them in the future for another kid… This is the only good thing I can say about this process: I have learned a lot, and it will be easier next time).

Oh, that and Mike are the only good things about this process, but Mike is a topic for another post…

So, Here are some of the questions I've answered about Kfir (press the link to open). You don't have to read them all, just know that I bragged a lot…

School #1

School #2

School #3

*I think I must have edited the responses in the application system, as they look unorganized to me. I left them as is here, you can see my stream of thoughts and understand how difficult it was for me to respond to these questions.

What do you consider to be your child's academic and social/emotional strengths, as well as areas needing growth?

1. Strengths*

Kfir is a curious, enthusiastic learner. He collaborates with others while working together on a task, learning from his peers in areas where they are more knowledgeable than him or sharing his knowledge with them. On the other hand, Kfir is able to challenge himself and learn new subjects on his own, either using a designated course or by investigating and learning in self-pace.

His experience at Helios in 7th and 8th Grade (current), has changed the way he is learning. Kfir thrives when being challenged to investigate a phenomena he experimented with in his science class, deepen his knowledge in literature and poetry by his humanities teacher’s recommendations, or solve a problem in his geometry class using the AoPS methods for learning. Kfir adapts to new learning styles very easily. After spending one year at Helios, he was so engaged in learning, that he decided to learn an Algebra 2 course on his own during the summer, and he is now placed in Geometry class (Aops).

2. Areas needing growth*

Kfir is showing a high level of  independence in his studies, however he sometimes struggles with time management. As he has a tendency to perform thorough investigations on the topic he is learning, he might end up with a lot more information than he can process in time to finish the work he is assigned. During his time at Helios, he has faced such situations and started learning how to focus on the task at hand, keep track of the time he spends on the tasks, and set reasonable goals which will reflect on the effort needed for each task. He also learns to identify when he is struggling and notify his teachers so they can help him re-focus on the task, teach him how to manage his time and if needed, get an extension for his project. However, this is a process he started practicing only during his 2 years at Helios (as he never had time management issues before) and still needs to work on perfecting it.

In addition, Kfir’s sense of fairness sometimes reflects on his judgment. When he is in a situation where he feels unfairness has occurred (not necessarily to him, but also to others), he might get agitated that he will struggle to express his thoughts and emotions. Kfir is aware of the effects such situations have on him and is working on learning to calm himself down, straighten his thoughts and express his emotions in an organized manner.

3. As you are completing the high school admissions process, what values and priorities for your child's education have emerged for your family? How and why do you expect that our school will meet these values and priorities?*

The process of searching highschools allowed Kfir to take ownership of the path he would like to take on his teenage years. While reviewing the different highschools, missions, goals, curriculum, …. Kfir was able to define what is most important for him during his high-school years. As a family, we learned that each of us has a different view of what are Kfir’s needs and which high-school experience will benefit him most. As part of this process we shared our thoughts and discussed our opinions. The process stimulated us to revisit our family’s core values. If in the past, we thought our children should follow our ways of thinking and grow by following our ‘moral foot steps’, than now, following this process, we learned that as they reach a crossroad in their life, we need to let them explore the opportunities available for them, discuss the pros and cons of each opportunity and allow them make an educated decision where they want to lead their life.

In addition, we learned that as our kids grow older, we need to change the way we handle academic and social-emotional challenges facing our kids. fInstead of solving a problem arising because of academic or social emotional issues, we need help each of them find the process they can use to face and resolve these types of problems on their own. Using strategies they learn and use in class to review different aspects of a problem, they can solve a lot of their day-to-day issues.

our kids find ways to cope with this complicated and complex issue, either by using day-to-day realities or by elaborating using some ideals they have learned in school. Nueva’s teaching perspective creates a direct connection between classroom situation and real life situation is a direct connection to our ways of education.

While this might seem like an easy answer (i.e. we would like Kfir to be ready for college and real life), we can not say what we would expect for him to know.

In the last 6 months since he started the high school search process, Kfir has changed in so many ways, and has matured so quickly in front of our eyes, that we can not limit ourselves in specifying what we hope to see, as it is truly an enigma for us.

Instead, we would like to express our thoughts about the process he will go through. We would like him to be engaged, challenged, encouraged to explore, learn and thrive. But mostly, we would like him to be happy, and be able to express himself with no fear of what would happen if his opinions are different from the people surrounding him.

We love the tremendous change that Kfir went through since joining Helios. He is encouraged to express his opinions, challenge teachers on different topics, use hands-on learning, and introduced to a variety of subjects. We love that he has the opportunity to dive deeply into the learned subjects but also to investigate projects he is passionate about and find useful implementations of them.

In our continuously changing world, it is important to allow kids to experience different ways of learning. Kfir had the opportunity to advance in math course during summer. This was a new learning experience for him: pushing himself, managing time, searching for information and knowledge on his own. As there are many opportunities to be a self-learner today, students should be encouraged to be self-taught using online and other resources in designated online courses or mastering new non-academic skills.

We would ask Kfir to describe the situation, what has happened and how he feels about it. Then we would encourage him to see the situation from different perspectives, trying to see all aspects of the situation, not only his perspective. The next step would be to think of what can be done to resolve the problem, while encouraging him to talk to the people involved. All that time, we would maintain a calm environment so that Kfir is able to think about the whole process and learn from it. It is important to us that Kfir understands that while we might not agree with his ways of thinking. We will support him in his actions, as long as they are thoroughly thought out and do not offend others.

Playing strategy games as a family demonstrates the difference in our kids' ways of learning. While Kfir thoroughly reads the instructions and makes sure he fully understands the rules before playing, Barak immediately starts playing, makes mistakes and learns as he plays. Ella would learn by observation, then playing using the learned strategies and Yoav would rather watch and advise the other players.

As a side effect of the pandemic, we had made calculated decisions about our kids' learning paths in the last 2 years. Guided by their different ways of learning, demonstrated in their game learning capabilities, we chose different learning experiences for each child.

Kfir was enrolled in Helios as we knew that he would be able to quickly adapt to a new environment, and be encouraged by this new challenge. Ella was part of an independent study home-based-group while Yoav and Barak participated in our district’s virtual learning program. At the end of the school year, we reaffirmed our knowledge about their learning experiences, understanding that they would benefit from a school that would be able to see who they truly are and devise a learning process that would match their different personalities.

4. Please share any information that will help us better know your child. You might include family circumstances, health concerns, learning differences, tutoring, accelerated programs, previous assessments, educational evaluations, etc. (optional)

Kfir started attending Helios in August 2020, after 6 months of pandemic. Helios school and teachers allowed Kfir to expand his horizons and gave him the realization that it is good for him to be who he really is and not be concerned about his desire to learn and expend his horizons.

Kfir is a happy, curious and smart kid who is always open to learning new things. Teachers love having him in their classroom as he is always engaged in learning, helps his peers and helps create a collaborative and open environment.

During the 9 months since we started the process of searching for highschools that would benefit Kfir the most, Kfir has grown and developed in manners we did not expect. Kfir is leading the search process and his perspectives about what is most important to him have changed. If at the beginning of the process he was interested in schools who situate themselves as academic with rigorous curriculum, then today he is more interested in the experience of learning and finding schools that would allow him to develop different skills and would expose him to new experiences, knowing that these are the skills and attributes that would make him successful in his adulthood.

Kfir loves learning and diving into searches on his own, but he thrives when collaborating with others, mutually infusing each other while conversing, debating, and sharing ideas, knowledge and experiences. His time at Helios, both during the virtual learning and ever since the students came back to learning in person has helped him progress in both methods of learning.

5. Our school hosts community-building events throughout the school year and encourages and depends on families to participate. Parents/Guardians volunteer at school events, lend their professional expertise to enrich the academic program, donate to the annual fund and capital campaigns, and serve on committees and governing bodies. We understand that families have varying capacities to give their time, talents, and resources, our school values every person’s participation. Please describe how you have been involved in your child’s current school and how you would like to become involved in the school’s community.*

In our family, being part of a community is part of who we are. Whether it is by volunteering in our kids' classrooms on a daily basis to encourage and develop kids or non-curricular activities such as art, sport etc’, or volunteering and chairing PTA committees including serving as PTA President, to being involved as part of the local baseball league and coaching staff and organizing community events at our current school.

1) Why do you want to enroll your child at our school?* 

Kfir is a curious, enthusiastic learner. He is able to collaborate while learning or dive deep into a subject and learn on his own. During his two years at Helios we have seen him thrive when being challenged to reach his potential and we have seen new aspects of his personality and capabilities emerging while he is engaged in his learning.

As opposed to the past, when he followed directions to complete his assignments, today Kfir is focusing on why he is learning these subjects and how he can be a better learner, the way that different teaching methods affect his process of understanding and what methods benefit him the most.

Kfir will enjoy and benefit from learning in a school that will allow him to continue growing as a young adult, in an innovative, encouraging, stimulating environment while giving him opportunities to explore different his horizons, through hands-on experiences, exposing him to knowledges, information, new ways to investigate and pushing him to explore with no boundaries.

2) How do you think your child and your family will contribute to the our school's community?* 

In our family, being part of a community is part of who we are. Whether it is by volunteering in our kids' classrooms on a daily basis to encourage and develop kids, or volunteering and chairing PTA committees including serving as PTA President, to being involved as part of the local baseball league and coaching staff and organizing community events at our current school.

Our kids learn by example. Kfir chose to run for Student Council representative of his class this year, in his efforts to change the school's rules to benefit the students. But even at a younger age, he was always dedicated to helping students in need, making sure they are feeling part of the class’s social fabric. Mostly helping students arriving from Israel to have an easier integration into the class.

3) Describe what you hope your child knows, shows, and is able to do by the time they turn eighteen.

While this might seem like an easy answer (i.e. we would like Kfir to be ready for college and real life), we can not say what we would expect for him to know.

In the last 6 months since he started the high school search process, Kfir has changed in so many ways, and has matured so quickly in front of our eyes, that we can not limit ourselves in specifying what we hope to see, as it is truly an enigma for us.

Instead, we would like to express our thoughts about the process he will go through. We would like him to be engaged, challenged, encouraged to explore, learn and thrive. But mostly, we would like him to be happy, and be able to express himself with no fear of what would happen if his opinions are different from the people surrounding him.

4) What have you liked about your child’s education so far and what would you like to see done differently?* 

We love the tremendous change that Kfir went through since joining Helios. He is encouraged to express his opinions, challenge teachers on different topics, use hands-on learning, and introduced to a variety of subjects. We love that he has the opportunity to dive deeply into the learned subjects but also to investigate projects he is passionate about and find useful implementations of them.

In our continuously changing world, it is important to allow kids to experience different ways of learning. Kfir had the opportunity to advance in math course during summer. This was a new learning experience for him: pushing himself, managing time, searching for information and knowledge on his own. As there are many opportunities to be a self-learner today, students should be encouraged to be self-taught using online and other resources in designated online courses or mastering new non-academic skills.

5) Describe a learning experience that the whole family engaged in, and the takeaways from that experience.* 

Playing strategy games as a family demonstrates the difference in our kids' ways of learning. While Kfir thoroughly reads the instructions and makes sure he fully understands the rules before playing, Barak immediately starts playing, makes mistakes and learns as he plays. Ella would learn by observation, then playing using the learned strategies and Yoav would rather watch and advise the other players.

As a side effect of the pandemic, we had made calculated decisions about our kids' learning paths in the last 2 years. Guided by their different ways of learning, demonstrated in their game learning capabilities, we chose different learning experiences for each child.

Kfir was enrolled in Helios as we knew that he would be able to quickly adapt to a new environment, and be encouraged by this new challenge. Ella was part of an independent study home-based-group while Yoav and Barak participated in our district’s virtual learning program. At the end of the school year, we reaffirmed our knowledge about their learning experiences, understanding that they would benefit from a school that would be able to see who they truly are and devise a learning process that would match their different personalities.

6) What would you do if your child came home and said they had a problem at school? This problem can be either social or academic.*

We would ask Kfir to describe the situation, what has happened and how he feels about it. Then we would encourage him to see the situation from different perspectives, trying to see all aspects of the situation, not only his perspective. The next step would be to think of what can be done to resolve the problem, while encouraging him to talk to the people involved. All that time, we would maintain a calm environment so that Kfir is able to think about the whole process and learn from it. It is important to us that Kfir understands that while we might not agree with his ways of thinking. We will support him in his actions, as long as they are thoroughly thought out and do not offend others.

7) Is there anything else you would like us to know about your child that has not been mentioned earlier?

Kfir is a happy, curious and smart kid who is always open to learning new things. Teachers love having him in their classroom as he is always engaged in learning, helps his peers and helps create a collaborative and open environment.

During the 9 months since we started the process of searching for highschools that would benefit Kfir the most, Kfir has grown and developed in manners we did not expect. Kfir is leading the search process and his perspectives about what is most important to him have changed. If at the beginning of the process he was interested in schools who situate themselves as academic with rigorous curriculum, then today he is more interested in the experience of learning and finding schools that would allow him to develop different skills and would expose him to new experiences, knowing that these are the skills and attributes that would make him successful in his adulthood.

Kfir loves learning and diving into searches on his own, but he thrives when collaborating with others, mutually infusing each other while conversing, debating, and sharing ideas, knowledge and experiences. His time at Helios, both during the virtual learning and ever since the students came back to learning in person has helped him progress in both methods of learning.

1. Describe the situation in which your child learns best.

Kfir is a curious, enthusiastic learner. He collaborates with others while working together on a task, learning from his peers in areas where they are more knowledgeable than him or sharing his knowledge with them. On the other hand, Kfir is able to challenge himself and learn new subjects on his own, either using a designated course or by investigating and learning in self-pace.

His experience at Helios in 7th and 8th Grade (current), has changed the way he is learning. Kfir thrives when being challenged to investigate a phenomena he experimented with, in his science class, deepening his knowledge in literature and poetry by his humanities teacher’s recommendations, or solve a problem in his geometry class using the AoPS methods for learning.

Kfir adapts to new learning styles very easily. During 7th grade, his Algebra 1 class was virtual the whole year. After a couple of months teaching in the traditional way, where the teacher instructs the topic in class, and the students solve problems at home, his teacher started recording himself and the students were requested to watch the videos, try solving the problem, and the lesson time was dedicated to solving the problems in various ways.

 Kfir was so eager to learn Geometry in 8th grade, that he decided to cover the Algebra 2 material on his own during the summer. He watched the videos his teacher recorded for the Algebra 2 course, and succeeded in solving most of the questions and problems in his study book. Kfir enjoyed this method of learning, as it allowed him to learn at his own pace and be challenged. When he did not understand a specific concept, he was able to search online for further explanations.

Kfir enjoyed investigating the same topic from different views. Experimentation, investigating, searching for information, collaborating and debating are all methods he likes to use when learning.

2. Tell us about your child's goals, special strengths, interests, talents or personal areas of creativity, including any honors, awards, or special recognition.

Kfir loves learning, and he especially loves math. He has been participating in “Thinking Challenges” after school program for 7 years, in which the teacher challenges the students to investigate mathematical concepts and scientific phenomena. He participated in the Math Olympiad for 2 years and won first place in his elementary school. This year he will participate in Math Olympiad, AMC 8, Math Kangaroo and other mathematical contests.

Kfir enjoyes engineering challenges, either in his science class or at home. He implements his structured way of thinking in other areas of his life, for example, he spent some time investigating how to earn game money in Minecraft, designed a farm which was the most efficient in producing items, then sold them to earn the most desired items in the game. He usually thinks about the project, thoroughly plans it and then executes it the best way he can. Planning ahead and thinking thoughtfully about the projects allows him to quickly adapt if the situation changes or his plan does not work.

3. How do you think your child will handle a rigorous academic program?

Kfir loves learning, and the challenge of having a rigorous academic program excites him. He loves learning new things, exploring new subjects and enjoys seeing the connections between and across different subjects he learns.

Kfir is not concerned about working too hard to complete his assignments, however, if a topic ignites his enthusiasm, he might spend time exploring and investigating deeper and wider than needed to accomplish the task he is assigned, and therefore, he might end up having to much information and not enough time to process it before his submission time. Therefore, one of the challenges he is facing is time management, which he started practicing at Helios, but also during the process of searching for highschool (when he had additional work on top of his regular school work).

 If the academic program is rigorous, yet being conducted in an encouraging, stimulating environment – Kfir will thrive. Giving him opportunities to explore different horizons, through hands-on experiences, exposing him to new knowledge, information, learning methods and pushing him to explore would fit his personality and encourage him to continue learning.

4. What has been your child's biggest social or extracurricular challenge so far?

Kfir’s biggest social challenge was the change in his active social life during the pandemic. Moving on to a virtual environment in his 6th grade was not a good experience for Kfir or his friends in different aspects, but mostly from the social aspect. As he used to be engaged in many in-person encounters and activities with his friends, not being able to spend time with them was hard for him.

Kfir was highly involved in many social interactions throughout his elementary school years. Whether it was forming lifelong friendships with kindergarten classmates, to bonding with players from his baseball league, to having close relationships with his friends from the Israeli community – Kfir’s social life was constantly diversified and full.

The pandemic quarantine has reduced Kfir’s social life to a minimum. During the quarantine most of Kfir’s friends’ interactions were through online games and as he was not engaged in those specific games, he had very little social interactions. In addition, some of his closest friends moved to schools which maintained a rigorous virtual program, while others moved out of the area. All of these combined had left Kfir almost lonely.

When he moved to Helios school, in 7th grade, it was hard for him to create meaningful relationships with his peers while the learning environment was virtual. As soon as school started in-person, around February 2021, things improved a lot and it had a huge impact on his spirit. This year, with school being full time in person, Kfir is thriving. He has found a new group of friends, which have a lot in common with him. They can start a conversation on any topic and continue talking for hours. They are being respectful and encouraging each other and enjoy each other’s company. Kfir feels very comfortable in this environment, and he is inclined to let his own personality be expressed with no boundaries. If in the past he would be reluctant to initiate any large group gathering, this year he has suggested and organized some class-wide activities, which were accepted by many of his classmates.

Kfir’s need for friendships and his acknowledgement of the effects of the pandemic on his loneliness have pushed him to go beyond his natural shyness and allow himself to open for new opportunities and new experiences. According to his teachers and classmates, he is now a driving force in grouping the class, directing them towards mutual relationships and working together.

My parents tell me that until I was six years old I would eat everything, but then all of the sudden I became super picky about what I was eating. This continued until about two years ago when I began trying new foods, and realizing that I liked them. Around the same time my family began watching cooking shows together. These two events sparked an interest in cooking and food for me. It amazed me that in the cooking shows, the contestants would be able to create an entirely new dish they have never made before. They somehow knew what flavors would go well together. This really intrigued me and made me want to learn about flavor palettes.

Watching cooking shows has taught me a little about flavor palettes, and it has ignited my interest. I want to learn how to balance out flavors, and what flavors work well together. In addition, I want to learn why certain flavors work well together (like balancing sour with sweet flavors) and why others don’t. And last, I want to learn why humans like certain flavors and not others.

Now that I know that I am interested in food and am willing to taste new things, I am planning to start learning about food palettes. In the last year, our family organized a couple of events in which my friends and I learned how to cook some Israeli dishes. Although I grew up in an Israeli family, I always refused to try traditional Israeli dishes, but during these cooking events I tasted everything we cooked. I liked some of the dishes and disliked others, which increased my interest in understanding what impacts a person's flavors palettes.

I want to begin taking extra-curricular classes on cooking, baking and food palettes. I also want to take some classes on chemistry and biology to understand what reactions happen in our bodies when we eat certain foods, and how that affects how we view certain flavors. I have a feeling that learning about this will be a lot of fun, and that it can lead me to an entirely new passion in my life.

In the following video, you can see me making vegetarian Kubeh, which is a traditional Israeli dish, made mostly from wheat, squash, tomato and onion. Making Kubeh is a long process and I am proud that I did it. Along with this I also learned how to use TikTok to edit the video. I found that TikTok excelled at some things but wasn't great at others. For example, the overall technology was very simple and easy to learn, but I had to try to guess where everything needed to go, and bugs caused me to lose my progress several times. Overall I found that TikTok was very good, but I think that there are probably better platforms specifically for video editing.

If you are wondering – the Kubeh was extremely tasty and although I made a lot of it – it was all gone in one meal

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