Monday, May 7, 2012

Torah Homeschool Conference--a review

Yesterday, my friend N and I went to the Torah Homeschool Conference in Baltimore.  We went last year, and although it was fun, it had a very "thrown-together" feel.  No such criticism applies to the year's conference!
While there were a number of familiar faces from last year, there were also some new people, including a number of people from the NY/NJ area.  (I guess Bergen County tuition is as bad as they say it is.)  I also got to match a number of faces to names that I see online.  The weirdest meeting for me, however, was seeing someone I used to know from San Diego--although this is a person I would have nominated for "Most Likely To Turn Frum."  She used to sit in the balcony of a Conservative synagogue.  Guess she went all the way.
As for the speakers, there seemed to be a nicely overarching theme of all for Torah.  One speaker discussed integrating Kodesh and Chol--without bringing up creationism!  Another talked about the importance of teaching your children a love of Hashem and his Torah first--all the rest will follow.  A rabbi, who also ran a maple syrup farm up in Vermont, spoke about the importance of financial literacy.  Jennifer from Adventures in Mama-Land discussed different techniques for educating little kids.  Finally, a panel of veteran homeschoolers answered questions.
All in all, a great day and a wonderful motivator!

5 comments:

  1. It was so nice to meet you and put a lovely face with your name. Glad to hear that you enjoyed the conference.

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  2. I shared the link on my Facebook. Although, I am neither married nor have kids, I'm very supportive of this. I was impressed to see so many fathers on the video at: http://baltimorejewishlife.com/news/news-detail.php?SECTION_ID=1&ARTICLE_ID=28955

    I really liked what Max Masinter said about how people are working their whatevers off to outsource parenting though he didn't word it that way... however, he mentioned outsourcing the NURTURING of the small children. It just seems so weird to me to pay some non-Jewish immigrant lady to love your kids and go off to work for probably not much more than what you pay them. These are people so worried that someone tampered with the milk that they are shomer cholav yisrael but they leave something as precious as their children with these strangers who don't share their values. They go and teach non-Jewish kids how to speak properly all day and leave their kids with non-Jews.... (many of them) It's just so ironic.

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  3. Oh and I you should have builder watch the video... Maybe if he saw how so many fathers are behind this and attended, he might be more supportive....

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  4. Builder saw the pictures and the video. He liked what he saw--especially when he saw me in a few shots.

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