First I must apologise for the long absence. Lev arrived safe and sound and these past months have been very busy adjusting to having two children in the house and of course the demands of a newborn. Now that the baby is sleeping through the night and we have settled into a routine, I have time for thoughts outside of breastfeeding, nappy changing and grabbing the occasional nap.
Recently I have been mulling over what I call 'the school issue.' Basically what I mean by that is Doug and I have long been of the mind to have our kids enrolled at a Jewish school. We like the idea of our children learning in a Jewish environment, not having to deal with Christmas or Easter issue (in a school sense: concerts, crafts, etc.) Private school gives the advantage of smaller classrooms and a great education among other things. Two things weigh in on the other side of the scale. One being that locally we only have a Orthodox Jewish school and being a Progressive family I do worry about the 'politics' of that. The second is cost. I take great pride in being a stay at home mum. I feel strongly about not putting my children in day care and therefore we live off of hubby's income. That does us fine but private schooling is expensive and would more than likely require me going back to work, at least part time. Everything in me as a mum screams at me that this would be the wrong decision for our family. Now I realise Sari is only two and a half and Lev is only 4 months old but these are questions to be asking now. A: Do we wish the kids to attend Jewish, regardless of it being Orthodox? B: If so, how can we financially make it work without compromising our ideals of raising our children with a stay at home parent? C: Are there any other options?
The first question I've more or less answered is question 'C'. The other options are public school or homeschooling. The public school system makes me cringe and I truly wish to avoid it if at all possible, The other option is homeschooling. This actually appeals to me somewhat. One of my closest friends with children the same age as my own and being raised in Progressive Judaism has chosen to go with a secular homeschooling curriculum and will supplement their Jewish lifestyle into their education. Sounds pretty perfect, right? The thing is, is it perfect for us? I'm not so sure I'd make a great homeschooling mum. I would be devastated if my gorgeous, smart children had gaps in their education because I wasn't a good teacher. I hear there are great support networks though and I still am thinking quite seriously if this would indeed be a good fit for our family. So question 'C' has left me with more questions to answer.
I have some time to mull over these questions and I'd love to have some input from my readers as well. What has worked for you? Are there other options I haven't thought of?
