Home sweet, unique home fosters best learning
I recently took a break from working in our family business. I like to think of it as a sabbatical, a time of rest and reflection. I love being a speech pathologist, but I love being a homeschooling mom more. Many home projects were calling me, and my children are growing up way too fast. I couldn't afford to wait.
We played, we gathered shells on the beach and we worked on the house a bit. Slowing down has a way of refreshing me, of replenishing my energy and my perspective.
A good, thorough cleaning was on my list of things to do. I have friends who brag that you could eat off their floors. Some days, that is true at our house, too. If you looked carefully enough, you could probably find a whole meal down there. We clean up - really, we do - but with so many children, it can be hard to keep ahead of the mess.
My kids share the household chores, and they are not always focused on the task. I assure myself that they are learning how to keep a home, and that is the important thing.
"We need to fix our house up," my 5-year-old said. "You know, like one of those shows." Oh. One of those shows.
Ever since we broke down and got television, my girls have joined me in watching the design shows. The designers talk about shabby chic. I have it half right.
Our house doesn't look like anything you see on design shows, unless you count some of the "before" pictures. It is easy to get caught up in the transformations. Easy to spend time and money working on the impossible goal of a picture-perfect house.
See, we live in a home, and what makes a house a home is different for each family. For a homeschool family, a domicile must be functional and practical. With six kids in the house, things need to be durable, too. Survival of the fittest applies to furnishings.
Guests at our dinner table are likely to find an astonishing array of mismatched everything. There is a crayon mural on one wall of the dining room, compliments of my son. I thought about moving a piece of furniture in front of it, but I think all the pieces we have are covering up other art projects.
We have a globe on a side table, and a world map in the kitchen. Art projects and penmanship pages get posted on the wall from time to time, over by the poster of World War II planes.
We take our learning where we find it, one day curling up by the fire with a good book, or digging in the garden, another day building a fort or painting a picture. My quest to provide opportunities for learning means we sacrifice designer style. Our bookshelves are overflowing, our craft shelf oozes supplies. The puzzles and board games continually escape their boxes.
I went back to the office this week with fresh applesauce on my shoulder from feeding the baby. There were piles of paperwork to complete, clients to schedule, work to be done. In between, I wondered what my children were learning at home with their dad. I suspected that my home-improvement projects were back on hold.
Then I pulled into the driveway to find a child framed in the doorway, waiting for me. I navigated past a pair of skates and a couple of bikes and onto the porch.
No, our house will never be a designer's showplace. It is something better. It is home.
Rose Godfrey is a speech pathologist and homeschooling mom in Hallwood. Her homeschool blog can be found on the Appeal-Democrat Web site at www.appealdemocrat.com.
