I love Yiddish! There are words spoken in Yiddish that just don't convey the same thing when you translate to English. Take the word Grandmother. We all know who a Grandmother is and we all love her. We know what it means to be Grandmotherly and we know Grandma makes the best cookies in the world. But Bubby, Bubby is different. Bubby is the Yiddish word for Grandmother. Bubby is a super hero. She can do anything. She is warm and cozy and tough as nails. She can cook anything and sew and knit anything. She had been through hard times that you don't even want to imagine but she can always find the silver lining. Her family is the most important thing in her life and you can feel it emanating from within her. Some day I hope to be deserving of the title Bubbie.
Heymish is a Yiddish word that means home-made, homey, down-to-earth, unpretentious, warm and cozy, intimate and informal. Like Bubbie, the true definition can not be expressed using English words. Heymish can describe a person, a food, a place, or things and ideas. In this case it describes our homeschooling life-style. I say life-style because homeschooling, for us, is a way of life. We look at every moment as a learning moment. What makes it heymish? Well, I think our home is heymish. Our home is full of life and color but as soon as you settle in, it is hard to leave. It is relaxing and warm and I never get too uptight about kids and animals. It seems, the more chaos (good chaos, happy chaos...imagine children running full speed through the living room with the three dogs behind them barking, laughing and screaming) the happier and more relaxed I am. Our style of homeschooling is also somewhat heymish. We do a lot of crafts and read a lot of books together. I made our curriculum myself to be sure my kids get a well rounded education. I create my own lesson plans and have also made my own books (penmanship and history).
I hope to share my resources and curriculum with others. I'll try to post projects and activities as well as ideas for organization (which I've been told is my strong point) and even recipes and menu.
I hope all who read this, find it enjoyable and even helpful.
