To celebrate summer’s closing moments we took a trip to Bear Lake where we watched the striking blues of the water, felt the sand in our toes (and in our car), ate gritty sandwiches, rode wave runners and taste tested lots of different raspberry shakes. Each morning when our youngest grandson woke up, he would immediately look for his big brother so that they could “play.” He watches and does what his brother does and most of the time it is a beautiful thing. Even my big kids were happier when they found a sibling to hike with or play a game with.
It got me thinking: What would it be like for little brother to wake up and find that big brother was gone to school and that he would not have his playmate around for the next several months – at least not during the day? It’s a cruel thing, I thought, to take one away from the other and yet that is what we do in the name of education. We separate family members for hours on end and expect someone else to teach them “important” things and then we notice that they grow a little bit apart from one another as the years go by.
Gratefully this is not the case with our grand kids. They get to stay home and learn and grow together and figure out how to get along with one another and how to serve and share and be brothers. They aren’t separated by age or ability or anything else. I’m so grateful.
I’m reminded of how, years ago, my oldest daughter left and went to Kindergarten each morning and how her little sister cried as we walked back home because she wouldn’t have her sister to play with. I thought I was doing the right thing, that it was supposed to be that way. I now know different. So just in case you’re still trying to decide if you should home school, or why you are homeschooling, remember it’s about brothers and sisters and family, and you are choosing the more beautiful way!
