da bruddas

That is what my youngest used to call his older brothers. "Da bruddas." "what da bruddas doin'?" "wheah da bruddas?" Now that he is older, his pronunciation has become more sophisticated, but my husband and I often refer back to this more endearing term. It has occurred to me more and more that by being unschoolers, my children will be able to really know one another to a depth I will never know my own siblings. My brothers and I generally liked each other and got along. Still do. We love each other. But I would hesitate to say that I really know them, or even ever really knew them. I think that the deep bond of a healthy sibling realtionship is something that is probably one of the richest experiences a person can have.

When my husband and I are gone our boys will have each other to share their memories. And so we are making those memories now. Our choice to be home together provides us with so many opportunties to build trust, love, and compassion for each other, and although there are days when those elements are lacking, we always have the next moment, the next day, another week, to get past the hurts and experience the joy of being together as a family.