This week when one of our six children was sick in bed, the other kids asked if they could make him up a snack plate.  I watched as they happily cut fruit, piled on goldfish crackers and even drew some pictures for their ill sibling.  After a bit of arguing over who would get to deliver the plate to him, they not only brought him the plate and a drink, but they spoon fed him too.  (He didn't quite need that much assistance, but he did not object, either!)  Then they took turns reading stories to their brother. 

Watching our three year old "read" a picture book to her sick older brother, inventing the words as she went along, just made my husband and I feel so blessed. Of course, children are not born knowing how to minister to one another in such a way, but through parental encouragement they can learn to "...through love serve one another". - Galatians 5:13 

Now what preschool or what nanny would have the eternal motivation or the means to teach such a powerful life lesson?

I couldn't help but think of friends and relatives who send their children off to preschool or outsource their parenting to others when they don't have to.  What they are missing is not only bonding between parent and child, but sibling bonding.  When a person lovingly helps another who is in need, there is a gratefulness that cements a friendship.

I mean, will your child really be able to call up their old preschool friends when they are an adult and in trouble?  No, it is their family you hope they will be able to lean on in dark times.  So, if you are considering homeschooling, don't put your child in day care, preschool or with a nanny while you ponder whether you can handle homeschooling – if you are a loving, safe parent, then care for them yourself, and keep them with the sibling team God gave them. Sure, serving the children in this way and teaching them to serve is the more difficult path, but the more fruitful one.