Yesterday a young man came by to tell us about the PVREA rebate for insulation. As it turns out, they can insulate our house for a mere $1400 after the $300 rebate. Yeah, not happening.
However, the important part of the story was when we sat down at the kitchen table for him to write out his quote for services. I looked with chagrin at my kitchen table covered with craft projects, books, a library reading program flyer, a cage full of moths and other flotsam. I was embarrassed by the mess. It looked something like this:
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| Stella, protecting her dross with her life. |
The young man sat down and started talking and working his numbers. Then he glanced at the table and asked, "do you homeschool? Because this is just what our house always looked like. My mom homeschooled all five of us until 10th grade." He went on to say that going to high school was useless to him because he was bored to death and couldn't work on what he wanted to do but had to repeat doing things he already knew.
Ha! So....
Vindication #1 - It's not that I'm a bad housekeeper, it's that we homeschool and it should look like this! Ok, well, I am a half-assed housekeeper. But, the projects that the kids do are important and do lead to things looking like a wreak a good part of the time. It's what happens when learning is going on in your house all the time. You can't learn without being a little (or a lot) messy.
Vindication #2 - I won't send them to high school. Alright, so that wasn't really in the plans anyway, but so many people get to that age and send their kids to school. I'd rather they did some apprentice work and took classes at Front Range Community College and had a mentor. I want those to be years of exploring what they might want to do with their life. I don't want them in a situation where they are relearning or bored.
Sometimes the little things you need come from the most unexpected places.
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