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The Imperfect Homeschooler |
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The Homeschooling House
When we bought our house 18 years ago, we were not yet homeschoolers, but we intended to teach our children at home. It never occurred to us that there might be certain features of a house that would be especially conducive to homeschooling. But over the years, we discovered ways to make our house more homeschool-friendly, and indeed family friendly, and it has made our lives so much easier. I’ve been thinking about this lately because we are getting ready to sell our home and downsize. Our oldest moved out three years ago, and now our second-born just went back to college after his last summer at home (he plans to be married immediately after his college graduation next spring). So he won’t be coming back here except for the occasional weekend. His room has been emptied of all signs that he lived there except for a few pieces of furniture and a bed. We still have two teenagers at home, but their needs don’t require the kind of space that they needed when they were younger and had lots of toys, art supplies and all the other things that younger children like to have access to on a daily basis. They do have computers, books, and other possessions, but our need for space has nevertheless decreased below what it was when we lived here with four active young children. I keep thinking that it would be nice if a homeschooling family moved in here after us, even though the chances of that are probably pretty slim, statistically. But when I think of all the changes we made here, it seems a shame to waste them on people who are going to park their 1.7 kids in daycare while they go to work each day. This house is meant for a family with kids who have interests, make projects, spend time together, and occasionally need time away from each other. For instance, there are five bedrooms on our second floor. When we bought the house, it had four bedrooms clustered around a two-story foyer that looked nice, but carried every sound from the first floor to the bedrooms above. It also displayed little ones running around half-dressed in the upper hall to any one who came to the front door. Once we filled the top half of that foyer with the fifth bedroom, our second story became much more private and quiet, and our youngest finally had a room of his own, where his nocturnal waking wouldn’t bother the others. Many of today’s new homes have two-story foyers, two-story family rooms and even two-story kitchens. Those houses are made for show. Ours is made for a family that lives in it 24/7. Having several two-story rooms also requires a big income (or two) to cover the high utility bills generated by having to heat all that unusable space. But of course, most new houses are not designed for families that use them day and night like homeschooling families do. |
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Cardamom Publishers P.O. Box 4 Sturgeon Bay, WI 54235 |
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Our kitchen was another area of the house that we made family friendly. It started out with a tiny eating area, which was sufficient when we moved here with our 3- and 4-year-old children. However, once we began adding more children, plus needing table space for the many projects and games our children became involved in as they grew up, that little eating area just didn’t cut it anymore. We moved walls to make a huge eat-in kitchen, where the entire family could eat and converse comfortably. We turned the old separate dining room into our “schoolroom,” where the kids could leave their books out until they came back to them later: no more cleaning off the table to make room for lunch or dinner. It seemed a luxury at the time, but soon became a big timesaver. The extra kitchen space helped me out a lot because I did a lot of cooking for my family of six, plus it left room for someone else to help me while they learned to cook, too. While we were moving walls, we created an office (with a door, of course!) for my husband, who started an in-home business eleven years ago. For a long time, I joked that I was jealous because I didn’t have a door, so I was accessible to the kids all day long. But my husband’s door was usually open to the kids, and when it was closed, they knew he could not be interrupted just then. The office was where I sent recalcitrant teenagers who didn’t see the point of studying _______ (choose one: algebra, economics, expository writing.) And then there’s our basement. People around here tend to finish off their basements so they can have recreation rooms with surround-sound television systems, pool tables, and bars. Not us. Where else do you let the kids finger-paint, make things out of modeling clay, and roller skate in the winter? We never once had the urge to finish off the only place in the house where the kids could be as messy as they liked! We have so many fond memories of the years we’ve spent in this house. But those days are gone, and it’s time for us to move on to something smaller and easier to take care of, now that there are only four of us here again. It seems like such a shame to sell this house to people who won’t appreciate all the special features of it that make it perfect for a family that actually lives as a family every day. I think we will just have to pray that it goes to another family of homeschoolers, so that many more years of happy homeschooling can be added to this house’s history.
© 2006 Barbara Frank
Excerpted from The Imperfect Homeschooler's Guide to Homeschooling available here.
More articles by Barbara Frank. |
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