Country singer Rory Feek is building his daughter a backyard schoolhouse because it’s what her mother – Joey Feek, who died last year after losing her battle to cervical cancer – would have wanted, he said.
Rory has been raising his daughter Indiana – who has down syndrome – on his own since his wife’s untimely death.
In a recent blog post, Rory wrote that he has had plenty of time to think and pray about how Joey would have done differently.
Rory wrote that he decided to build the backyard schoolhouse so that Indiana and her friends can have home and school at the same time.
Although Joey would have loved both of the schools Indiana is currently attending, she probably would have chosen to homeschool her daughter, Rory wrote.
“Partly because she would want our little one here at home with her, growing up and learning on our farm,” Rory wrote in his blog. “And also because she would be way more interested in Indiana learning to be a good person than being a good reader. To love God and the life that He’s given her, more than what a lot of the world is telling us to love. And in her mind, home is the best place to learn those things.”
Rory began building the school with the help of friends, family and neighbors, he said. It’s located “just across the field” from where Joey’s cross sits, her said. It was inspired by a one-room Kentucky schoolhouse from 1892 that he and Indiana recently toured, he said.
Rory said he hopes the school will serve as a farm school of sorts, teaching kids about reading, writing and arithmetic as well as rural life skills.
The school is slated to open in January and will have room for about a dozen students ages 3 and 4 to enroll. The kids will have access to a garden, henhouse and concert hall, which can be used for both music lessons and a gym.
“Who knows, maybe someday when she grows up, she’ll want to teach there,” Feek wrote. “Or turn the building into a vegetable stand or business where she works. Or maybe even a house where she lives. I have no idea where it will lead. Just hope in where it might lead. To be a blessing to her, and to other little ones like her.”
(H/T: Country Living)