Yesterday, as I stepped out on the front porch to receive a phone call, I glanced inside and couldn’t help but smile. Since our move in September, the face of our homeschool has shifted as significantly as our lives. The fact I was standing on the front porch in 30-degree weather is an obvious indicator. Kenny and Meredith were both writing essays when my phone rang, and I didn’t want my conversation to interrupt their train of thought. At present, the bathroom is the only place where we can close a door for privacy. It’s only a few feet from the kids’ school table. Going in there provides enough of a buffer for what one expects to accomplish in a bathroom, but not much for masking voices.
So, there I was on the porch, conversation over and turning to head back into the house when I caught a glimpse of our lives through our lake cabin’s 65-year-old single paned windows.
And I took a photo–the photo above. It isn’t the best photo. It won’t win any awards, but there before me was a reflection of some of the beauty right outside our windows blended with a measure of the warmth that is inside our home. Kenny sat concentrating on his schoolwork. Meredith, only a few feet to the right, lifted her laptop to block her face so I couldn’t capture a shot of her bedhead. Sunday, our rescued cat, slept in the warmth of the sun on the couch. My laptop desk was resting on the right waiting for me to come back in and begin composing a post.
It has been four months since we left our fabulous homeschool room. It has been four months since we’ve downsized, gave away and sold furniture and belongings, and moved into this little cabin. It has been four months of living within a few feet of each other all day, every day. It has been four months of learning the depths of the joy we find in each other–how much we listen, laugh and love in this little place.
Whereas before, the kids might hide out in their rooms after finishing their schoolwork, now they are only a few feet away. Whereas before, I could not tell you if they were awake yet each morning, now I can hear them turning over in their beds, stretching, yawning, and putting their feet on the floor. Whereas before, most of our schoolwork was accomplished indoors, now we venture to the front porch, the back porch or the pier (when the weather isn’t 30 degrees, of course) when “doing” school.
I honestly didn’t know if we would manage the loss of the schoolroom as well as we did. But…the days feel right, less rushed, and we seem to be living more deeply in this little place of ours. We are “whole.” I can’t think of a better way to describe it. Daily life and school merged to create a true “homeschool.” We are genuinely living, loving and learning together on every level.
It is 2015, and I do not have any homeschool resolutions. What I do have is an awareness of how thankful I am right now. I’m thankful for my family. I’m thankful for our freedom to homeschool. I’m thankful that I can come here and write about it.
What are you thankful for this 2015 school year?
Heather Sanders is a leading homeschooling journalist who inspires homeschooling families to live, love and learn. Married to Jeff, Heather lives in the East Texas Piney Woods where she currently home schools two of her three kids.