Home School Heartbeat Radio Program

How can homeschooling families better serve their communities? Michael Smith shares some tips today on Home School Heartbeat.

Mike Smith:
Do you sense that your homeschooled child may have a problem with pride? It is easy to see how homeschoolers, who typically perform above average in their academics, might develop this problem. Parents should encourage their children to value service to their communities. The best antidote to pride is to learn to place the interests of others before our own.

There is nothing like selfless community service projects to learn about the needs and values of other people.

Children can visit nursing homes to sing or play instruments. They can read the newspaper aloud to persons losing their sight, or just listen to a lonely grandmother tell the stories of her youth.

Physical labor for efforts like Habitat for Humanity and other reclamation projects are a great way for book-smart teenagers to see that he or she still has things to learn.

Surely there is a family in our neighborhood that could use an extra set of hands to mow the grass or shovel the snow. Certainly a mother in our church could benefit from a young person to watch her children so she can run errands.

Service to our neighbors and community requires a special brand of humility well worth cultivating in our children. As homeschooling parents, we must make sure that our children do not miss out on this healthy dose of humility.