As my son was trying to make his way through the dining room he found he was road blocked by my youngest and I finishing up our geography lesson. He apologized for interrupting us, to which my dear daughter replied, "No problem, we were just having a heated discussion about the equator!"

ba-dum-bump

This is an article that could have been written by me, she expresses my feeling so exactly.

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P A R E N T I N G
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Parting
By: Chana Weisberg
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It’s 3:49AM.

I am awake. I cannot sleep. My mind is racing. My heart is bursting. It bursts not from sorrow or pain, but from a fullness of joy, and a tinge of sadness at parting.

Tomorrow, you both leave.

In the last few weeks, you’ve both come back into my life. It’s not like you ever really left. You were always so close to my heart. You always will be. But the physical distance was between us.

I didn’t see you. I wasn’t a part of the many moments of your life. I couldn’t watch you rising in the morning or attend to the numerous activities of your day. We spoke often, but not often enough.

You are independent, far away, learning and growing, developing a life of your own. So far apart from me.

But the last few weeks, you were home. I’ve watched you both carefully. You have both grown as such different individuals, just like you always were, and I celebrate your uniqueness.

My heart is so full. So full that it aches.

One day, you will understand it. But not for a little while. Not until you, too, become a parent.

My nineteen year old daughter.

We picked you up from the airport, after an international flight on your break from seminary. I watched you walk with such a confidence, a surety in the direction you want to lead your life. You exude a calmness, an optimism in the dreams of your tomorrow.

Where has the young, hesitant little girl disappeared—the one who timidly clung to my arm and cautiously hid behind my gathered skirt?

She has become a woman. A woman full of sensitivity, full of devotion to her Creator, full of knowledge and idealism that is ready to be implemented in practice.

You’ve learned so much. You quote sources at the tip of your tongue. You speak, write and teach so eloquently and effortlessly, with fervor and true conviction. Your diligent years of studies have paid off.

Where is the little girl who used to sit next to me asking for help with her studies? Where is the shy girl who was loathe of strangers? She has grown into a woman, who now knows more than me.

I watch you learn and pray. With such devotion. Such earnestness. And as I watch you, I too pray. I ask that all the dreams of your heart, soul and mind be fulfilled. You want such good. You carry such absolute, unbridled power.

Where has the little girl gone, the little girl who I made practice her reading so painstakingly? You have developed into a woman, who connects with her Creator more intensely than me.

You insist on helping with the cleaning, cooking and tending to your younger siblings. You stay up late at night, much past my own bedtime. When my eye lids are drooping from fatigue, you continue working, accomplishing, achieving and doing. Your sparkling eyes communicate with me even more effectively than words could ever share.

Where has the little girl gone who I used to snuggle with at night and chase away frightening nightmares or daunting fears?

You have grown into a woman, ready to confront the challenges of life, strong and optimistic. You stand sure, full of power, without any cynicism, prepared to accomplish your ideals.

You stand beautiful and tall. You are not physically tall in your small petite frame, but tall in your worldview, and in the sure direction of fulfilling the dreams of your life.

My beautiful daughter, where have all the years flown?

My seventeen year old son.

I stand next to you. I no longer look down or bend down to search into your eyes. Now, I must crane my neck upwards.

I ask you to reach me a cup from the top shelf of the kitchen. You do so with ease. I used to gently toss you high into the sky as you giggled so loudly. Now you stand so much taller than me.

Where has the little boy gone who I cuddled in my arms? Where has the little boy gone who needed my help in building his block towers, or fixing his small racing cars? You have grown into a tall, upright young man.

I ask you to open up tightly closed jars—jars that are too firm for my grip, but not too tough for yours. Your grip is strong, just like your views and your opinions.

Your jaw is set sharp, just like your thoughts and mind. Your beard is growing. Where did those soft, round cheeks disappear, the ones that got a tender kiss every night? Where did the quivering chin vanish, the one that came to me to make things better, after getting a skinned knee?

You speak eloquently. You quote vast sources of knowledge. You tread the deep waters of Talmud with ease. Your mind is rational, it jumps from one point to the next, erecting a tall tower of strong theoretical foundations. Sometimes you lose me as your confidently expound a Chassidic discourse or a lengthy Talmudic exposition. But you patiently back track, step by step, as you notice the bewilderment in my eyes.

And my mind wanders back to a different time. A time when I sat like this with you, at our kitchen table, helping you solve your homework problems. Then the confusion in the eyes was yours and the confident explaining was mine.

Where has that little curious boy gone? He has grown into a knowledgeable young man, prepared to conquer even far more vast territories of knowledge.

And so I sit here on the sofa at 4:47AM, unable to sleep. This same sofa that I so often dozed on watching you both play.

Tomorrow, dear son and daughter, you both leave again. Back to your yeshiva. Back to your seminary.

And as I wave goodbye to you both, a part of my heart will break off and go with you, on your respective journeys.

My hearts is so full, so full that it feels like it will break. It swells with pride in both of you. In how you have each grown and matured and continue to grow and develop into a young man and woman.

I thank my Creator for allowing me to care for you and for giving me such joy in watching you grow up and overshadow me.

And I thank you both for reminding me with the swift passage of each of your years, how very precious these moments of life are and just how quickly a little boy and a little girl disappear to become all grown up.


- Chana Weisberg is the author of Divine Whispers: Stories that Speak to the Heart and Soul and three other books. Weisberg is a noted educator and columnist and lectures worldwide on issues relating to women, faith, relationships and the Jewish soul.

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I am sorry I have not been around for some time, I have been super busy this summer. My children both safely arrived home from Israel in June and had a super year there. G-d willing, Ya'akov is going to be returning next year for his second year in yeshiva.

What are you all planning this year for school? Any big and exciting unit studies?  Anything new out there that I missed?

My daughter and I have started today slowly, mostly reviewing. We are going to focus on the Victorian Age. Anyone else do this? I'd love to hear input from you...if anyone hasn't totally given up on visiting.

:::runs finger along mantle::: It did get awful dusty in here...I better get tidying up!

Ev'rywhere you go;
Take a look in the mailers sent overflowin' once again
With notebooks, pencils, pens, and some Play Dough.

It's beginning to look a lot like Schooltime
Books in ev'ry store
But the prettiest sight to see is the student that will be

Learning on your livin' room floor.

Silly words by Philly Farmgirl

TOKYO (Jan. 19) - Gohan and Aochan make strange bedfellows: one's a 3.5-inch dwarf hamster; the other is a four-foot rat snake. Zookeepers at Tokyo's Mutsugoro Okoku zoo presented the hamster - whose name means "meal" in Japanese - to Aochan as a tasty morsel in October, after the snake refused to eat frozen mice. 

This is quite a picture of the saying," keep your friends close and your enemies closer."

Do you really think they are getting along? And if they are, then what is our problem?

Although we can not be naive to the fact the snake cannot really be trusted, I mean he is a snake after all and my guess is he is simply lulling the mouse into a false sense of security.

hmmm...reminds me of a situation in my HomeTown.

For some flavor in your American History today add:

Judah Touro (1854)

The 19th of Jewish month of Tevet is the yahrtzeit (anniversary of the passing) of American Jewish philanthropist Judah Touro (1775-1854).

This is the night before Racheli left for Israel. We had a girlie pajama party. The youngest is three...we won't talk about the oldest. °Ü°

Y'know, if another person says this to me, I may forgo my naturally nonviolent ways :::cough, cough::: and slug them!

OK, maybe not, but really it is beginning to get annoying. People who do not homeschool, who do not raise their children the way that we do, totally misunderstand why we do what we do. They seem to think that we kept them home, protected them, filtered things, etc., because we wanted them to stay lame at home for the rest of their lives. What a terrible thing I did by not having television and pop culture all over my home. Who would want such a thing for their children? 

We homeschool because there was no other option as far as we were concerned. We were certainly not sacrificing our children to the public school system, (no offense intended to those who do use the schools, I know some are very fine and wonderful children have come out of them), but for us we could not. We did not want the schools enforcing their beliefs, their ideas of right and wrong, their agenda, etc., on our children.

We did not want our children to grow up peer dependent. We wanted to spare them the agonies as much as possible of this slavery that young people so often find themselves in. Slavery to the opinions of Hollywood and it's minions, slavery to pop culture, fads, fashions and the opinions of their equally confused peers. Did our children have to struggle with any of these issues? Of course they did! We did not raise them in a cave after all. They had friends and these things sometimes came up, but they were secure in themselves already and if they had any questions they came to us.

We presented them life in it's beauty and in it's ugliness. We did not keep all of it away, we could not, but we did shelter them from the worse and we allowed them to experience the rest when they were ready and through our filters. We have dysfunction in our family just like the rest of America so they could not be spared of all sorrow.

Some accused us of over protecting our children. Tell me who among you, if you had as your own the Hope Diamond would not 'over protect' it? I dare say our children are more valuable than this mere trinket. Besides that, as I said before, we did not live as hermits on a mountaintop, so life happened every day all around us.

'You are raising hot house plants', I was told. Yep, I thought, indeed I am. Strong plants, growing deep and strong roots, to withstand any storm when they are ready to be transplanted outside. This is the whole point. We raised them to be strong and independent in themselves. To know that family is where it is at. That if you do not have faith and family you have nothing. That no matter what and not matter who, your family is always there for you. That your best friends should be the ones waiting at home for you at the end of the day. If you cannot respect and be kind to your parents and siblings, how can you treat others any better? If you do treat friends kinder than siblings there is something very wrong. We tried to give them a solid foundation to launch from. A safe place to strengthen their wings from which they would fly. They grew stronger and more secure in themselves and in the safety of their home. And now that the time has come and they are ready, they will take flight! This is what it was all about. To enable and empower them to leave when they were ready and not before. Not at the magic age of 18 because society says so. Not because they heard us say, I can't wait till they are all eighteen and out of the house. 

Some folks just don't get it. They think it is all about us controlling and suffocating them. Quite the contrary. We helped them to grow strong and helped refine their character and nature. They are strong in their faith and and trust the Holy One, Most Blessed be He.  

Our children have not always agreed with us, but they have always respected. We have not always agreed with them, we have always loved them and given them the freedom to grow. In doing that we grew as parents too and as human beings. We are all constantly being refined. You cannot believe I am letting her go?! Why not? Of course I am, because as a dear friend just told me, this is the best of homeschooling! This is where it goes into action. This is where are the principles and faith and everything else that is homeschooling becomes very practical. When they leave the nest and soar with the eagles! This is beyond my wildest dreams and I am most blessed and very proud of the children that Hashem has given me! I pray I make my Father proud too.

But those whose hope is in Hashem will have renewed strength; they will grow wings like eagles; they will run and not grow tired, they will walk and not grow weary. ~~Isaiah40:31

I discovered this lovely video in the home of the folks I nanny for. Wow, what a lovely video! It has the most wonderful voices and songs on it. I actually watched Volume 2 but I am sure volume 1 is just as sweet. My little 'Neshamulah' really seemed to enjoy it. I can tell you I surely did. The music is gentle and pleasant. Nothing obnoxious about it at all. There are live actions with babies and puppets. To top it all off you even  get some simple lessons in Ivrit (Hebrew). Who needs Sesame Street when we have Oy, Baby?!

This Chanukah my daughters received a really fun book. It is called What Jane Austen Ate and Charles Dickens Knew . It is a very interesting and useful book about the day to day life during the 19th Century. It explains the games they played, the difference between a country dance and a ball, how to address your betters in rank, proper etiquette when leaving a calling card,etc. Anyone who loves Jane Austen will love this informative book about the day to day lives of the gentry and the common folk.