• Mar. 14, 2006
A Loving Bond
One of the many reasons I considered when thinking about homeschooling was the desire to grow strong relationships between my children. It seemed they spent most of their time together squabbling. This is how I spent my childhood with my sister and now we have at best a distant relationship. I wanted better for my children.
So, this morning, day 2 of homeschool, after the girls finished their chores and while I did a little email reading, they disappeared upstairs, along with their almost 3 yo brother. I thought for sure I'd hear protesting by someone within a few minutes. Generally, the girls can't stand their brother's often bothersome behavior.
But as time went by and quiet reigned above, my mommy radar went on alert. Too quiet. So I went up to check it out. And was wonderfully surprised.
The children had made a fort on the bottom bunk bed and inside my oldest daughter was reading to them. The other two were sitting, listening, not fighting or pushing. I sat down for a minute, helped with a couple of tricky words, and let them know that I was going to feed the baby and put her down for a nap. Then it would be our lunch time. And I left as my oldest began reading a Dr. Suess book.
It won't last forever, or even for the rest of the day, but for right now, my children are doing something together, without selfishness, without arguing. How great is that?
