Can’t beat ‘em…

I subscribed to The Old Schoolhouse.

My blog posting software doesn’t offer any fonts smaller than that, so I can’t hide it any better.

Am I ashamed?

First of all, my love affair with magazines:  everybody who lives with me knows this – I love magazines!  They are slippery and juicy like delicious noodles, ready to slurp up and enjoy.

Second of all, homeschooling.  Articles, support, from a religious perspective – albeit not my own religious perspective.  Elisheva was appalled when she came across a copy in the bathroom and saw an article all about people’s reasons for homeschooling:  they didn’t want to abandon their kids to lousy and immoral public schools; they looked in their Bible and found verses that led them to believe it’s a parent’s responsibility to educate her children.  They wanted their kids’ study to acknowledge not just the world itself but the Maker who formed it. 

Well.  Huh.

I pointed out that these were all things a Jewish parent could say just as easily, but I think she was still appalled.

For whatever reason, I feel I have more in common – at least in terms of what I want in a magazine – with these religious homeschoolers who are making their way through the ins and outs of homeschooling than I have even with some Jewish homeschoolers.

A while back I ordered a Jewish curriculum resource I will not name and have since been mildly embroiled in negotiations over how much it will cost to ship the thing to me here in Canada.

The person who contacted me – in addition to apparently having no SHIFT key on his computer – has not only spelled the product name wrong in EVERY SINGLE EMAIL (it has one “tricky” word, but it’s an English word that any spell checker would pick up).

Here’s this person’s first email on behalf of this organization (I suspect he/she is actually a child):

if there is another way you'd like to receive the {whatever-it-is} please let me know, if not please submit 12.00 to paypal for shipping costs. we hope you enjoy the {whatever-it-is}.   all the best  {his/her name all in lowercase}

I said that was too much money for what it is and suggested a couple of other options based on my perusal of the USPS website.  A second email arrived today:

hi [no punctuation, just a new line] i just sent the {whatever-it-is} out by {service} plus the cost of the envelope which came to 7.50 i was told the usa is holding canada mail for the last 2 weeks due to the mail strick. so there will be a back log besides the time it actually takes for book rate to arrive. please send a check for 7.50 to {organization} as the money that was laid out is money from {organization} all the best {his/her name all in lowercase}

Meanwhile, I consider myself LUCKY that this Jewish organization is selling their curriculum thing to me directly, because some – like Tal-Am when I contacted them – would not.  Shy Publishing, who put out the Migdalor Series we use for Hebrew, were friendly enough and open to homeschoolers ordering directly, but the actual rigmarole of paying and shipping were somewhat complicated.

So – consider that an explanation.  I want to see what the goyim are doing, because (in part) it gives me hope that we too will attain some degree of mainstreamishness in our Jewish community, as they have in their Christian world.

Someday, perhaps, we will no longer be seen as nuisances and exceptions by companies selling Jewish curriculum, but as a valid and thriving niche, if not equal to schools in buying power, at least philosophically and ideologically powerful enough to have a say in what our kids learn and who they learn it from.

Leave it to me to come up with the most complicated reason ever for subscribing to a magazine, huh?

What homeschool support resources could you not do it without??? 

And… if you’re Jewish, how do you deal with the lack of “cred” given to Jewish homeschooling by publishers and curriculum folks?