The phrase 'back-to-school', for our family, means something a little different. It comes at the end of summer, same as for the most other families, as the mornings cool and the air begins to smell of earth and change...
...but it has little to do with shopping at the mall. Or lists of supplies. Or bus routes or lunch menus or new backpacks and shoes. For us, 'back-to-school' time is simply a gentle, gradual shift in the rhythm of our home...
...until our activities become more planned and purposeful, perhaps our time spent more in pondering and asking questions and reading and talking about what we've read than it has been for two or three months.
This year, a part of that gradual change has been a physical change in our small living space, bringing things like art supplies, maps, science books, and math games out into our main living room area, so that those things are in sight and in mind when little hands reach for something to do.
To help us organize it all, and in the grand Missoula free-on-the-curb tradition of home furnishings, we found this awesome shelf/ commercial kitchen unit thing, in need of just a little clean up and a corner to call its own.
We washed it down with the garden hose (note to parents: work = fun when garden hose is involved)...
...gave the shelves a coat of paint we had on hand, and voila:
Like so many other pieces of our home, it may not be magazine-worthy, but it fills our need and cost us nothing. And there's something deeply satisfying in that.
So, how about all you homeschooling families out there? What does 'back-to-school' mean for you? Whatever it means, enjoy the moments it brings you and, if you're like me, the discovery of yourself you find in your children everyday.
...but it has little to do with shopping at the mall. Or lists of supplies. Or bus routes or lunch menus or new backpacks and shoes. For us, 'back-to-school' time is simply a gentle, gradual shift in the rhythm of our home...
...until our activities become more planned and purposeful, perhaps our time spent more in pondering and asking questions and reading and talking about what we've read than it has been for two or three months.
This year, a part of that gradual change has been a physical change in our small living space, bringing things like art supplies, maps, science books, and math games out into our main living room area, so that those things are in sight and in mind when little hands reach for something to do.
To help us organize it all, and in the grand Missoula free-on-the-curb tradition of home furnishings, we found this awesome shelf/ commercial kitchen unit thing, in need of just a little clean up and a corner to call its own.
We washed it down with the garden hose (note to parents: work = fun when garden hose is involved)...
...gave the shelves a coat of paint we had on hand, and voila:
Like so many other pieces of our home, it may not be magazine-worthy, but it fills our need and cost us nothing. And there's something deeply satisfying in that.
So, how about all you homeschooling families out there? What does 'back-to-school' mean for you? Whatever it means, enjoy the moments it brings you and, if you're like me, the discovery of yourself you find in your children everyday.
xo
I absolutely love this and am now hoping I can find somewhere! My kitchen is done in retro red and black and this would be amazing in it! Nice job on such a fine and recreating a new life for it!
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