I think Jews are exceptional; I cannot explain it religiously as I am not Jewish, either by religion or ethnicity. I don't know if it is genetics (almost certainly that is part of it) or history or just something mysterious. I think the Jews have a significant role to play in human development (and have already played a significant role, obviously), but I don't have a very good feel for what it is, exactly. I can't make heads or tails of the liberalism of American Jews in the media and esp. Hollywood, alas.

I guess one specific way to ask that would be - do you (and I mean the community/religion you all, as much as you can speak for it) see the whole "Jewish media control everything etc etc." as a bunch of balderdash or do you see Jews as having a unique and important/relevant place in various parts of society? I realize the Jewish media thing has negative connotations but I have the same question in relation to say Einstein, famous/important scientists, writers, politicians/world leaders, etc.

How would you describe the sense of place that the orthodox jewish community feels, in terms of relevance/ position/role in the world, both contemporarily and with a historical view?

now one of you needs to have a second opinion so we can get 2 jews, 3 opinions :)

Regarding having more mouths to feed in case of financial insecurity/disaster, or the higher chance of having a kid that has a disability of some sort and needs extra care, or not being able to spend as much time on that kid because of having many other kids - Having larger families spreads out the pain and difficulty and sacrifice from these things. In the way that some countries have nationalized/socialized support structures (like guaranteed health care, financial assistance, housing, etc.), a large family (esp. a large extended family, for whose formation large immediate families are necessary) socializes, to an extent, the amount each person would be required to sacrifice in an event like that - but it also makes it less likely for people to have to go without support, or fall through the cracks. Stable families, esp. large ones, are the least invasive form of societal regulation in this way.

We were poorish when I was young. There were activities I couldn't do, and times I couldn't spend the same amount of $ as other kids in my school. I never resented my parents for not choosing more financially lucrative professions. (My parents only had 2 kids, btw.) He's a teenager.

Is there a disdain or separation (covert/unconscious, even) among orthodox jews for converts? In reform it didn't seem like there was much concern about whether one was Jewish by birth, but I wonder if orthodox is different in this regard? ETA: I ask because in my experience Judaism is different than Christianity in this regard - Jews don't seek out converts; there is no overwhelming mission to spread the word or anything like that, and (I heard) that when you request to convert a rabbi must refuse you three times before accepting you just to make sure you're certain.

love :)

My grandparents always called going to the synagogue on Friday going to Temple. They were (very) Reform, though.

Maybe you could do a similar thing with American history - visit some places in the US (or even locally) that have a connection to whatever period/event you're studying.

I don't keep track of the expenses, but I will say that we buy a *lot* more pencils than I had anticipated. Also very worth it to get one of those nice electric sharpeners, imo. We're always running out of pencils.

My maternal grandmother was a reform convert; I spent summers with her when young (and a couple of High Holy Days and Passovers) so I was sort of off-and-on exposed to Reform. Somehow when she moved we happened upon a messianic congregation; it was led by a former Orthodox Jew, so we didn't realize it was messianic until the service started. We kept going to the temple (that is what they called it, fair enough I figure) until my grandmother could no longer bide his belief in Jesus; I kept going for quite some time after that (I didn't know what I believed at the time, but I was comfortable in the congregation). I was 12-14 at the time so my recollections may not be entirely accurate, but I think you've mischaracterized the Jewish members of the Messianic movement to a degree. The rabbi (this is how everyone referred to him; I don't know his religious training) did not reject the history or tradition of Judaism; he kept kosher, shabbat, had lots of kids, etc. He just saw the New Testament as the fulfillment of the Torah; it didn't seem to subtract from his faith, just added to it. It was a small, poor congregation with probably 30 regular members who were gentile and 3-4 (including the rabbi but not his kids) who were jews; perhaps the motivations and expressions are different in larger congregations and different areas. There was some ignorance about Jewish custom and history but not one instance, that I ever saw (and I was a pretty perceptive 13 year old) of disrespect or the casting off of Jewish tradition or law. The congregants were about as pure of spirit and heart as I've ever seen in churchgoers of any religion.

My daughter went through K, 1, 2, and part of 3 as a generally acknowledged gifted kid; for the last part of 1 until the end she was in the gifted and talented program. They accommodated us as well as they could; here is what they did: They had a gifted class pull-out, with one or two other kids from the grade, for 2 hours on Friday. She was allowed (although I had to protest this again every year, and repeatedly) to check out books from the library at her reading level instead of grade level. She was allowed to read when she was done with her work; eventually we (temporarily) had a kindle, so she took that to school with whatever books she had on it. Classroom teacher in 4th separated out the top 5-6 kids in the class to work on projects together. This wasn't accelerated work or above grade level work, but it was at least not hugely remedial. That was all they could do. I didn't press them, though (except for the reading privileges), since I thought it would be kind of unrealistic to ask the teacher to spend specialized effort on my daughter, who was not in any kind of dire straits (esp. as opposed to the kids on the other side of the spectrum, who did need help). They weren't surprised when I took her out.

What skills is she learning in studying for the competitions? How does she study? Is she disciplined and organized about it? Is she doing the research for the knowledge she has to gain herself (thus learning research skills)?

My son (almost 6) is like this; he writes well as long as he doesn't have to physically write. I've recently decided to separate the two; for handwriting practice he does copywork, and for most of his composition work I transcribe for him, and then he copies it. This has eliminated a lot of frustration about writing and also improved his handwriting, as he can focus on it solely when he's practicing it without worrying about composition at the same time. He is better at math than either of these things, though. My daughter (almost 9) is fine with handwriting; her composition is at approximately the same level, minus maybe a grade, as her reading (7th), but her grammar and spelling are on grade level (3rd). I see no need to push to bring the grammar/mechanics/spelling up to the level of her composition; I figure it will come in time. She is not particularly good at math - maybe a grade ahead.

You selectively quoted, and then restated inaccurately. I did not say violin was not useful; reread.

http://bookviewcafe.com/blog/2014/02/10/belief-in-belief/ That is interesting too, a blog post by Ursula Le Guin (although I disagree with her, partially) We take a lot of things on the faith of other people; we couldn't function otherwise! That is the nature of authority, expertise, etc. Science and religion are, for most people, two of these things. I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing.

Heck, *I* enjoyed going through some of the problems in the BA books. Granted I haven't done any math since high school calculus, but still.

Yup, that's why I said "barring extreme circumstances" and left out things like a passion for science or robotics or math - the complaint/concern was about passions for content areas that had little career/real world potential, like Harry Potter, and I noted that there are a lot of other things we let our kids pursue passionately that also have no likely career or future - violin, ballet, baseball, art, etc. Of course there are outliers, but I doubt there are many more outliers among gifted kids than non-gifted ones for non-academic content areas, and most of these things only offer future professions for the very very exceptional child. I doubt many of us have our kid doing an hour of violin practice a day, or ballet or baseball or whatever, actually planning for the kid to become a professional violinist/baseball player.

I dunno, I extend people a good deal of grace with this going both ways. I've had a kid that needed pretty constant supervision - he was a runner-off, and if you left him outside by himself for 45 seconds when he was 3, he'd be across the street and gone. I have another that never, not once in her whole life, has tried to go into the street. So even with two different kids, my comfort level with (relatively) unsupervised outside time is quite different.

I just realized I might be something of a hypocrite; I've been avoiding even telling my DD about HiH b/c I'm afraid she'll want to do it and WWS will fall even further down the priorities list :)

This is really weird, but I totally randomly saw that one episode of Call the Midwife while I was up late working one night (watching PBS), I think last August. Never saw the show before or since (now I know why, as it was the end of the season), but it was excellent and indeed teary. I don't even watch TV regularly, or own one, anymore! That was one of probably 10 hours of TV I watched last year.

I don't cry over and over at movies, but there are a few that got me the first time. Evita, when they turn out the light in her window. Up, in the beginning when the wife dies. There was a bit in Inside Llewyn Davis where he is visiting his father in the nursing home, and his father just looks at him - the actor that played the father looked a bit like my dad, who died not too long ago. That got me. I don't know if it counts since it's not a movie, but the last few bits of Battlestar Galactica (I know, I know.)

Hah, I am the opposite. I don't like to bake (my baking skills are not all that great) but I love to eat cookies. :) I doubt liking cookies is all that unpopular, though.

Yes! He hears the music and you don't know what it is and then he walks in and it's everyone and just :(