Seeing Outside Our Own Windows

By -


As we continue in our series of posts using the word HOMESCHOOL as an acronym, we come to the letter O. 
What I’ve Learned About HOMESCHOOLing: 


Seeing Outside Our Own Windows
Swimming lessons, basketball practice, family holiday plans…Which science curriculum should I use? Did Scott finish his math homework? Did I pay the water bill?...

Sometimes it is very easy for us to get so busy in our own little world that we lose sight of the big world around us. This is especially easy when we are homeschooling, because so much time and energy must be centered on our children and our home.

I urge you, however, to recognize the importance of seeing outside your own windows and investing in the lives of others—not only for yourself, but also because of the awareness it creates in your children!

It is more comfortable and less messy to hunker down at home and only focus on our own family’s needs, but life is not all about us! This is a very important life lesson our children not only need to hear, but also need to experience.

See the value of others.

I know this may seem hard to comprehend, but everyone does not do things the same way your family does! 

Although I am being a little bit facetious, our homeschooled kiddos do need to realize that this is actually a fact of life. The world is full of unique people, from many walks of life, who have different abilities, backgrounds, and interests.

They need to be taught that all people have value—no matter what their ethnic background, financial standing or physical abilities may be.

We can “talk teach” these lessons, but experience is a much better tutor! 

My cousin’s family spends a week each summer volunteering at a homeless shelter in the city so that her teenage girls can get a hands-on view of life and understand how blessed they truly are. Last summer, the girls actually asked to spend an extra week at the shelter, instead of going on vacation, because they wanted to help the people they had gotten to KNOW over the years!

See the needs of others.

How can your family reach out and help those in your neighborhood? In your community? Around the world? How can you actively meet the needs of other people? 

Here are a few ways our family has found to reach outside our four walls:
  • donating non-perishables to the local food bank
  • saving up coins to fill baby bottles for the local pregnancy center
  • collecting supplies for our town’s homeless shelter
  • packing Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes
  • shoveling snow for an elderly woman in our neighborhood
  • cutting a shut-in neighbor’s grass
  • making meals for sick family members and friends
What are some ways that your family has found to meet the needs of people around you? 




The richness that comes as we reach outside of ourselves cannot be produced through a book or a movie. It must be personally experienced. In order to raise compassionate adults, our families must be others-centered, not just home-centered. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Music Lessons?

By -
           Whether it’s knowing how to answer your children when they ask, “Why do I have to take music lessons?” or answering family members who ask, “Why are you wasting money on piano lessons?”, we hope the following list of reasons may give you some ammunition against music-lesson-skeptics:   Music lessons really do build character and instill diligence and a strong work ethic in the participant.   Music lessons give a child an appreciation for music that merely listening to it will not afford.   Music lessons have been determined to reduce anxiety, depression, and attention problems in children because they change the cortical thickness in the brain.   Increased cortical thickness in the brain also allows a student to improve memory skills, organizational skills, and attention.   Music lessons improve a child’s ability to solve complex math problems, comprehend reading passages, and use his verbal skills more effectively.   A child who takes musical lessons tends to ma
Read more

Never Stop Learning!

By -
Image
As we conclude our series of posts using the word HOMESCHOOL as an acronym, we come to the letter L.  What I’ve Learned About HOMESCHOO L ing: Never Stop Learning- No Ruts Allowed!  I just told my husband yesterday that I think I know my math facts better now than ever before. Why is that, you may ask? Because I am reviewing flashcards every day, doing facts practice pages, working through multi-step math problems… all with my children!   It never ceases to amaze me how much I am learning while we homeschool. Things I never knew (or understood?) when I was in school are so interesting to me now. I love being in on this learning process with my kiddos! Just as we are constantly learning new things in math, science, and grammar, we need to be willing to keep learning in other areas too. I tend to be a “rut” kind of person. If it works, why bother changing it? However, this isn’t always the best approach to life or schooling. Sometimes we should improve in an are
Read more

My Best Time of Day

By -
             My husband is a night owl —accomplishing some of his best work after 10:00 P.M. I am a morning dove (yes, I know that’s spelled incorrectly; work with me for the pun’s sake), getting up around 3:30 A.M. so I can have some alone time to get my best work done. Others would be like hummingbirds, who can work all day long. Okay, let’s get away from the bird similes and go to the point: u se your best time of day to accomplish your most important work ! Whether it’s creating lesson plans, grading, reading lesson instructions, having devotions, spending time with your spouse, working on scrapbooks, or whatever else is significant to you, use the best hour of your day to do that work . Determine what is most important to you or most necessary to you, and then accomplish that work when you are freshest and most alert. So, if it is within your power, use your best hour of the day to do your best work—in terms of productivity or in terms of quality of production.         
Read more