Which Tanachic character would you most like to meet?

Chana said she'd be pretty interested in talking to the Mekoshesh Eitzim (the wood gatherer who publicly broke Shabbos).  She said she thinks it takes a certain amount of guts to break Shabbos knowing there is going to be the death penalty.  What was the guy thinking about?  What motivated him?*



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*I didn't tell her about Tzlofchad and the idea that he did it l'shem shamayim because I never understood that.  But maybe when we get to B'nos Tzlofchad I will.

Relaxed lifestyle

I ran out to the gym this morning at 8am so I could rehab my knee before Ari left to work.  It is a glorious autumn day.  I watched people waiting for the bus, people driving to work and school, and I thought about unschooling.

Every day is like a relaxed weekend.  Except the kids are more inclined to do "academic" things as part of their play or in pursuit of their interests.  

I left my 7yo with a piece of paper with the numbers "383" so he could remember the code for Bowzer in the level he's designing.  (I don't know what that means, but that's what he said.)  My 4yo snuggled me briefly and ran outside to play with the neighbors.  The 3yo opted for TV.

My schedule today (unusually busy) is we are hosting playgroup this morning, then a trip to the library to get a book my 13yo reserved.  Then I call in to my Rabbi's class.  Then my 13yo and I will do algebra and chumash (we scheduled this last night.  Usually it's more fluid when we both have free time but since today is busy, we compared our schedules and chose a time).  Then I'll feed everyone and then take 13yo into the city to Carnegie Hall for a Sphinx Virtuoisi Concert.  On the way we'll probably read some more Dracula.

i feel this way a lot about homeschool

When I reflect, I'm not sure this is a negative thing.  Simplicity and natural are things I strive for.  And it also leaves a lot of space for things I didn't plan, but I'm glad there is space for.

Ba'ahaloscha

Chana is doing about 40 Rashis on this parsha.  I estimate she knows the general idea of 80-90% and not very much of the vocabulary.  I think she would be able to read more than half and remember what they are generally about.

I made a choice in the story of Miriam's lashon hara about Moshe to just do pshat.  Chana didn't question extensively about the Kushite woman that Moshe married.  I did remind her that we had learned about Moshe's wife and that she was from Midian.  She did ask what that had to do with Miriam saying that they are all prophets.  But she didn't seem overly curious so I didn't give her more information.

In the last few days, I forgot to do Pirkei Avos with her (Did I mention that I decided to do a little bit of Pirkei Avos every day after Chumash?).  I put it away last week and I forgot about it.  She reminded me to do it today.  That's a good sign--it means that I'm doing it in a way that is pleasant enough to her that she asked to do it.

Sometimes she asks questions but doesn't have much patience for the answers. She asked, for example, what it means to make a fence around the Torah but she didn't really feel like thinking about what the possibilities could be.  Today I asked her what fences are for.  All the reasons she gave didn't seem relevant to a fence for Torah.

The main reason I chose to do Pirkei Avos is because many times in life I find myself thinking about personal development or about a political or interpersonal situation and some words of Pirkei Avos seem relevant to me.  So therefore it seems to me that if Chana is familiar with the words of Pirkei Avos, they might seem relevant to her in some of life's situations.

our current rashi efforts

I still do not have a handle on the best method to gain rashi skills.  Right now, in 8th grade, I go through the rashis every day on the pesukim we've done.  I keep an eye out for pshat oriented rashis or famous rashis or rashis with straightforward vocabulary.  I underline them to begin them the next day.  In Parshas Baha'aloscha she is doing about 30 or 40 rashis (I'll count tomorrow if I remember).  Chana and I have evolved, via bickering negotiating, that I read it and translate it for 4 days.  By the fourth day she is familiar enough with it that she knows the general idea of the rashi, and she is comfortable enough to read it herself.  I'm finding that she generally does not learn the vocabulary of the rashis.  She relies on knowing the general idea.  There are phrases and words that she can't translate and that she can't pronounce.  When I brought that up to her, she agreed that when she reads and mispronounces a word, I should interject and correct her pronunciation.  But I'm not finding that it's a really efficient way that helps her remember it.  She is getting decent practice reading rashis and she'll probably remember a lot of the general ideas of the rashis.  I don't know how much of the actual words she is learning, and how to improve on that.  It's just that there are so many skills in doing a rashi-- reading the words correctly, translating, understanding the main idea, understanding the different phrases.. and that's not even analyzing the rashi itself, thinking about what rashi's question is and how this answers the question, and what this adds to the understanding of the pasuk.

Bamidbar haiku

Before we started, I ask Chana to do a little sikum.  She said, "Haiku?"  She decided to give a summary in haiku form:

Moshe was angry
Hashem gave no meat to Jews
They missed being slaves

Succos

It's chol hamoed and Chana mostly works at night so after the boys have been going to bed, we've been doing some algebra (about 15 minutes worth) and yesterday we did Chumash and Rashi.  It's the end of a long day and I don't look forward to dredging through the skills work.  (Mostly it's the Rashis; the pesukim go pretty quickly.)

Yesterday I was reading a lookjed digest and I saw there are online course offerings in Nach.  They have for grades 8-9, and grades 10-11, I forget the exact grade breakdown.  I perked up when I saw 8th grade and looked at what was being offered for Chana's grade level.  There were two Melachim courses, the first half and the second half of Melachim I, and there was a course on Eliyahu.  I was thinking about looking into it more, and how exciting it is, and then I was thinking about how I could actually do this with Chana myself instead of registering her.

Which got me thinking about how many things I've wanted to do as a homeschooler over the years vs. what actually gets done.  I'm sure there are homeschoolers out there who have an 8th grader (or any other graders) and actually get through a schedule, and have regular Nach sessions.  In choosing the unschooling route, our lives don't take that path.  I'm comfortable with the science and social studies and halacha that comes up that way.  But occasionally I have twinges.  I imagine starting school at 9am and going til 3, with an hour for lunch and maybe a 15 minute break in the morning.  And we learn academics.  I imagine how much Chana would learn if we did that.

Then I think about all the things she does with her time that she wouldn't get to do if I structured her time that way.  And all the things she learns.

I figure one of these days I'll sit down with her and confirm that she knows basic conjugation of Hebrew tenses, past, present and future.  That probably won't take very long.  And this evening, after algebra, I said let's do Chumash, and she sighed, and I asked her if she wanted to do Nach instead.  She eagerly sat down and we delved into Dovid Hamelech.  It was a lovely chol hamoed treat.