Family Learning by Kevin and Robin Palm
We appreciate the Mishpacha Family Alternative Learning program for the fact we learn as a family. While it is tough to rally out of the house on Sunday morning, it is powerful to us that we learn as the kids learn instead of just dropping off at Hebrew School.
We appreciate the age appropriate breakout sessions, such that the kids learn from their teachers and the adults can learn from Rabbi Paul Kipnes, Rabbi Julia Weisz or other guest speakers. We then appreciate anchoring the material by sharing as a family what we all learned and doing a reflection exercise that helps us remember for future reference (e.g., such as the travel journal). This tends to lead to interesting spiritual and philosophical dialogue on the way home and this year we have appreciated the “car-convos” (questions to discuss during the car ride home) to help facilitate these conversations.
Finally, we appreciate the connectiveness the sessions allow with other families that have similar aged kids and allows for both social and spiritual connections. It is nice to study with other families as it adds other perspectives and adds to the pluralistic viewpoints the Torah and the rest of the Jewish Bible seem to be rife with.