Thursday, April 4, 2019
So it's been a little over a month since I started learning Elazar's bar mitzva parsha. I've learned almost 9 pesukim and a strong appreciation for the efforts a bar mitzva boy puts in. It's hard to believe my brothers did their parshas, the haftorahs, and musaf.
We were at a bar mitzva on Shabbos and I felt tremendous envy as the boy did a bang up job at his leining. Elazar wasn't even in shul for the candy part. I'm definitely feeling the pain/effort of backing off and trying to accommodate Elazar's nature. (Which is also why I'm glad Ari's mainly in charge of the boys' chinuch. I am definitely the type who can be too pressure-y.) I remind myself that stress and tics would be the result if I don't.
I was talking about it with Ari afterwards, and he said the bar mitzva boy's aliyah is be maftir. And I'm not sure why we didn't discuss this before, but maftir for Matos-Masei is only 3 pesukim, despite it being the longest parsha ever. I took a look at the pesukim and they are so much easier than what I've been learning. I'll continue learning his parsha on the off chance he wants to do it. But it's looking like maftir might be manageable.
Purpose
I am planning to try to blog our daily chumash struggles, triumphs and activities. For grandparents, it will keep you updated on chumash progress. For parents (that's you, Ari) it will facilitate our parent-teacher conferences and give you a chance to input your opinion on how you want things handled. For friends interested in education of elementary school age children for chumash, well, there might be some of that.
How This Began
I am an Orthodox Jew and I've been homeschooling for fourteen years. Teaching chumash is one of the most important subjects, and one of the most challenging. We care so much that our children love Torah. v'shinantam l'vanecha. We want so badly for them to have the skills and the ability. Skills work is a particular challenge for homeschoolers, who have not accepted boredom as a fact of school. Or should I say it is a challenge for the mom/teacher...
My oldest "graduated" homeschool (her choice) and is in high school. When I started, I was teaching chumash to a 3rd grader, with a toddler and an infant for company. We now have one chumash learner, one preschooler, a toddler and an infant.
I largely "unschool" and when I started this blog, I was reading Alfie Kohn. Many of my posts explored this. Although I currently am not brave enough to unschool chumash, I am seriously thinking about it for the boys.
My oldest "graduated" homeschool (her choice) and is in high school. When I started, I was teaching chumash to a 3rd grader, with a toddler and an infant for company. We now have one chumash learner, one preschooler, a toddler and an infant.
I largely "unschool" and when I started this blog, I was reading Alfie Kohn. Many of my posts explored this. Although I currently am not brave enough to unschool chumash, I am seriously thinking about it for the boys.
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