I have only been to two homeschooling conferences, thankfully both Charlotte Mason conferences.
Let me tell you, they’re not cheap. Registration, housing, food, gas/travel, Red Bulls for the drive…
And I did them both with baby in tow. Last year, baby was a newborn and one of three newborns who came. This year, nursling that she is (no one is more surprised than me – ask me sometime about my experiences feeding babies!), she had to come along especially since it’s such a long trip from home for me. And surprisingly, she was the only baby!
It is just so wonderful and amazing to meet other people who care about CM and nerd out in real life. Social media is great, more than I could have dreamed of before the internet, but it’s just not the same. It’s nice to be reminded that people outside the Facebook box like CM too. And I can feel a little more normal.
Of course, it’s never easy being a Jew in the homeschool world. The statistics on “secular” homeschoolers (meaning the broad definition of “non-Christian”) show a clear trend that there’s more of us, but we’re still hard to find. Christian voices are still the loudest and most common, and primarily evangelical Christians (and Catholics, I was surprised to find). I’ve found people are often uncomfortable rocking the boat and will “admit” to not being Christian (or a particular type of Christian) only privately after I’ve already outed myself. We equally fear being ostracized or missionized. We just want to be part of the conversation, not Other ourselves. And it’s not an unreasonable fear. It’s very realistic in my experience.
Obviously I stand out at a homeschool convention because I wear a headscarf. They may not know “what” I am, but they know I’m not Average American Susie Homemaker. Maybe they don’t know headwrapping is increasingly common in the Catholic and Greek Orthodox faiths or for people with various anxieties or just for fashion’s sake. They’re unlikely to know Jews wrap. But being white, they’re less inclined to think I’m Muslim (though of course that’s possible). From what I can tell, most people think maybe I’m a hippie. And even though I already know I stand out with my headscarf and skirt and sleeves, I’m still nervous to say aloud that I’m not Christian. Obviously I’m not afraid to say it if asked, but volunteering the information is scary. You don’t know how people will react, and you know from the conversations being had that just about everyone is actively assuming everyone present is actively Christian, from the prayers to the praise band breaks to the one-on-one conversations. I always end up outing myself because I think it’s important to challenge this narrative and make space for everyone, but that doesn’t make it any less scary to put yourself out there, especially in a time of increasing public antisemitism.
Now after that cheerful rabbit trail, back to how awesome it is to go to a CM conference.
You get to learn new things! Like trying your hand at calligraphy! It didn’t go well. I couldn’t get the nib to transfer ink! But at least now I have the fundamental ideas (and happen to have supplies at home thanks to a contest I won, and I couldn’t even give them away for free…guess that worked out for me in the end!).
Or finally seeing what sloyd is! My cute little paper chair before babyleh smushed it. Smushing it was totally worth the two minutes of occupied quiet baby time.
Mostly babyleh practiced her walking and running skills when not being worn. Babywearing is the best, y’all.
It’s even better when the conference is on a real working farm and you get to meet goats and chickens!
I had to leave early because of Shabbat starting, but you can read/listen to the speech I missed over at Charlotte Mason Poetry! Just scroll to the very bottom for the recording.
Is going to a conference worth the time, money, babysitting difficulties, and annoyance of bedtime while traveling? YES YES YES.
#MotherCulture win. Because mothers are people too.
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