Earlier this year, I unexpectedly had to drive my oldest son to stay with my mom. She had hurt her back and was having spasms down her leg. She couldn’t sit or stand for very long and she had doctor’s orders not to drive.
My mom lives several hours away from us. My father passed away 8 years ago. My grandmother lives in the same town, but she’s 95. Grandma and Mom call each other every morning, but my Grandma thought it would be best if someone came to stay with mom full time for a while.
A few weeks later, my mom needed my son to come again so he could take her to get her back operated on and help her for a few days afterward. Having my son available to help was such a blessing to her, and something we could not have done without the blessing of homeschooling.
This is the first post in a series on the blessings of homeschooling that reach far beyond the educational value. In this post, we’ll talk about how homeschooling allows for opportunities to serve others.
Serving Extended Family and Friends
My oldest son (17) can now drive, and he is responsible enough to be entrusted with helping my mom with whatever she needs. Because we homeschool, we have the flexibility to take care of our extended family whenever they need us.
This same son has been able to clean gutters, change light bulbs, and rake yards for his grandparents (and even their neighbors who have seen him working hard out in the yard and want their odd jobs done too!) He has been told time and again how nice it is to have him to “lean on.”
As a side note, I want to mention that some homeschool families delay helping their children to get a driver’s license. I would like to encourage you to allow your child to get a driver’s license as soon as they are of age, if they have proven themselves to be trustworthy and mature enough to handle that kind of responsibility. You cannot always be available to your extended family members, but your children tend to have more flexibility (not to mention, energy!) to be at-the-ready to help out.
We have friends who use the flexibility of homeschooling to serve church family. They are able to do things for older people in their church who are without the blessing of family nearby; therefore, becoming their extended family.
Serving Within the Community
There are many opportunities to serve within a community; however, few young people are involved in these opportunities unless they occur after school hours. The blessing of homeschooling is that school can be put off until later so that daytime service can be done.
Serving within the community also exposes your children to a wealth of “networking” opportunities as they mingle with professionals and volunteers who are only available during business hours.
Serving Within Your Own Family
More often than not, serving others begins in your own home. Even if you are in a season where you cannot serve outside your home, you can start by teaching your children to cheerfully serve the people in their family. This will naturally flow into serving others once your children are old enough or capable enough to serve beyond their own four walls.
Praise your children when they do something for others. Encourage them to look for ways to bless others. And don’t forget to watch your own attitude toward serving others!
Live an open-handed homeschool life!
So, how has homeschooling helped you serve others? Share your stories in the comments section!
Posts in The Blessings of Homeschooling Series:
Serving Others – this post
Traveling
Networking & Job Experience
Adina says
I love this! I hope my children have a great desire to serve others as they get older. They are still young now.
Jillian says
That’s awesome that Blake was able to help out in that way! What a blessing. I’ve noticed that my kids are able to spend more time with my mother-in-law because we homeschool. She usually only visits during the week and spends the whole day here before going home in the evening. If my kids went to school, that’d definitely cut into our time together. Especially if you factor in time spent on homework. It’s nice being able to maximize the time. 🙂
Jillian says
Hope your mom is feeling better!!
Amy says
She’s slowly getting better. It’s been a rough start to the year!
Michelle Knight says
Serving in the community is very important to teach kids. In this world it has become more about ourselves than others. This post is a reminder of the blessing homeschool offers in many ways.
Laurie says
Our first grandchild was born a little over a year ago and he is a high needs child who completely overwhelms our daughter and son-in-law. We had planned to spend time traveling while homeschooling, but ended up cutting that time short to help. For almost the last year, our daughters over 12 have taken turns helping. At times they have stayed 8-12 wks at a time. If we weren’t homeschooling, this would not have been possible. A job opened up for my husband 1 1/2 hrs from our daughter, so we have now relocated; before traveling we were 12 hrs away.
Becky says
I agree it’s important for our children to learn at a young age to be helpful when ever they can. I’m pregnant with number 6 and am on bedrest for 3-4 months. I am not allowed to pick up my 13 month old baby either, which would make changing, feeding and playing with him impossible. 4 of my children help out around the house and my 2 oldest (10 & 12) especially help with baby and cooking the meals. If they were at school all day my husband would have to stay home from work to take care of the littles. It really has brought us even closer together as a family.
Rebecca says
We have seen this so many times in our family! (Of course, sometimes it gets abused and the mentality is “well, you’re home anyway, you can….**fill in the blank** for **fill in the blank**). Several years ago, a family moved here from out of state, no family, with 2 very small children and quickly had 2 more children. The mom stayed at home but also worked from home (as a free lance lawyer) and she homeschooled. My oldest daughter was able to bless her so much by coming over a couple afternoons a week just to do supper prep, fold the laundry, watch the kids play outside, weed the garden, just whatever was needed. My mom had hip replacement a couple years ago and my oldest girls were able to help her throughout the day or stay at night as she was recovering. We’ve loaned out our girls as baby sitters in a crunch (for stay at home moms), we’ve been able to take an elderly lady to the doctor for weekly blood tests when her own grown children couldn’t, we also have been able to volunteer at our church. People love to see kids volunteering and kids (mine anyway) love to help.
Kara says
My 16 year old son just got back this week after helping my in-laws out for several weeks when my Mother-in Law had a stroke.
Diana says
Amy, I’m really looking forward to this series! Thank you for writing! I’m eager to see the next post.
I’ve actually been disappointed many times in seeing the way that some (even homeschoolers) will sign up for the more feel-good ministries but say “sorry, don’t have time” to actual ministries in their local community (like helping with meal schedules for new mamas, helping an elderly person with home repairs, etc.). I think it can be a problem – even within the Christian homeschool community. I do believe that we need to be careful of that trap – i.e. always having time to take our children to AWANA to “teach them to be Christians,” but not having time to meet needs that the Lord places in front of us in our day-to-day lives.
Hope you are having a wonderful spring with your family and that sweet new little one!!
Amy says
That is a very good point, Diana! Thank you for sharing that insight!
Shiloh says
Yes, I have found little ways to serve others while teaching my kids. Thanks for this post Amy.