Rosie, Tzvi, Eliezer
(April 2003) The Jerusalem group has been meeting regularly twice a month for a few years now, and there are usually one or more new families every week! Over the course of the day, ten to twenty families will show up. It’s a great way to meet people who are homeschooling and find out if it is right for you.
April 1, 2003 was a gorgeous sunny day, and we learned to play Ultimate Frisbee with participants’ ages ranging from three years old to “over 40.”
Ari Neuman and Aharon Aviram’s 2003 research article on homeschooling in Israel (English):
(Oct. 6, 1999) The 3rd annual Home Educators Picnic in Efrat’s Omega park on October 5, 1999 (formerly the “Not-Back-To-School” Picnic) was attended by ten families, as well as by magazine and television reporters.
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The kids played in the playground and had water fights, while the parents (including two fathers!) got to know each other and talk about their individual homeschooling philosophies.
The television crew was a big distraction, and most future events will not be open to the media. The kids handled the television interviews very well, as did their parents.
Kobi Ernstoff, age 13, who attends yeshiva in Jerusalem for Torah studies only, told the television reporter, “I’m the only kid in my school who hasn’t been sent to the principal. Why don’t I act up? Because I’m not forced to be there. I can leave whenever I want.”
Everyone expressed a desire to get together more often, and planning is already underway for some upcoming events.
Several families who heard about the picnic but could not attend, made contact to express their support and to find out about future events.
Reprinted from Haaretz Magazine
About thirty families in Israel are taking advantage of a clause in the compulsory education law which allows them to teach their children at home. Some of the parents reveal why they are so set against formal education
By Ella Komar
August 13, 1999
It is hard to imagine that Hani Ernestoff is only eight. Her wild, curly hair, her ruddy, tanned complexion, her fiery temperament and her independent free-thinking ways (not to mention her understanding of advanced mathematics) set her aside from other girls of her age. Hani’s mother would argue that her daughter’s development is not exceptional, but rather the product of a natural education outside of the stultifying methods and expectations imposed by the classical, institutional framework of the school.
