Curriculum to Use when Homeschooling on the Mission Field

The question that I get the most from homeschool moms everywhere is, “What curriculum should I use for homeschooling?” This question has too many layers to unpack in a simple conversation. But my answer gets doubly complicated when talking with fellow missionaries. From these conversations this article was born. There are many great curricula to choose from, and it can be overwhelming for anyone, especially for the ones going on the mission field. I have listed below several things to consider when you are choosing a program for you family since each has unique needs.

1. Grade Levels

What grade levels will you be teaching? When considering what curriculum you will be facilitating, you need to consider this because the younger grades will require a significant more attention from the teacher than the older grades do, mostly because those children are not readers yet. If you are teaching several grade levels and two or three of those are for younger kids (under third grade), you will need to pick curriculum that will not require as much from the teacher, or you will need to be ready to spend a significant amount of time each day doing school with children back to back.

2. Spiritual implications

Do you want the curriculum that you use when homeschooling on the mission field to be Christian? This can be a tricky question for homeschoolers. For us, we decided to make family Bible time a priority in our homeschooling and then select most of our materials to be Christian. We used a Christian language arts, history, and science program while our math was a secular one. This is a personal preference for each family. I have really enjoying having our children read stories in their language curriculum that were from the Bible or see the way they weave God into the study of history and science. This might not be a priority for every family, especially if there is a subject or course you want to teach but you can’t find a Christian curriculum for.

3. Ease to Get

When thinking about a curriculum, you will need to be sure that you are able to get the pieces of the curriculum that are required. Can you get them shipped to your new home? Will you need to bring 2-3 years’ worth of materials with you? Can you buy elements in your new country? This may be a big factor in the curriculum that you choose. If you are not able to get the curriculum that you want or if there are just too many pieces to get shipped to you, you may want to pick another curriculum.

For example, many people like to use a living history curriculum like Sonlight for their history and language arts, but this program requires a tall stack of books per level. While this is not doable for some of our missionary friends, others were able to buy the teacher’s book and then find the majority of the other books as digital books from the library or an app. If you are passionate about a style of homeschooling or a specific program, there will be ways to get what you need. We have used Sonlight which has been great for several of our children. We had to be careful about storing our books, though, because we battled termites which eat paper (and books!) during different seasons.

4. Material Requirements

Some of the curriculum that I have wanted to use over the years had several components that I was not able to get on the mission field. While I was able to get the Apologia Science Curriculum books, in order to get a full understanding of it, I needed to do the science experiments. They required many everyday components that are available in the US, but we were not able to easily find those things in Zambia. I had to order the science kits to go with them. While that wasn’t a problem, it just required more elements to order and get to Zambia for my children.

Consider what components you will need to have for each of the subjects your children will be taking. A thesaurus, compass, protractor, graph paper, graphing calculator, thermometers, flash cards, beakers, microscope with slides, US coins, and the like are things that you may need to bring with you to the mission field. Not every country will have what your curriculum needs — especially if you need to measure using the imperial system and your country uses the metric system.

5. Combining Students

Some subjects lend themselves to combining your children to have one class. Bible, history, geography, science, and social studies can be taught together with all or some of your children. This allows you to limit the number of classes that you need to prepare for or teach in a day. It’s a beautiful thing to watch your children learning together and from each other as the older ones help the younger ones. Currently I combine our 2nd grader and 5th grader for history and science while all of our children (grades 11, 9, 7, 5, 2) enjoy our Bible time together where we are studying Pilgrims Progress. They will all retain different amounts of the material. It is a blessing to be together and share these experiences and memories.

For example, we always start together with Bible. (Learn more about how we begin our homeschool day HERE.) It is a special time for us to learn and grow in our understanding of God and His Word and the character that He desires us to have. We have studied books of the Bible, memorized verses, studied chapters, read Christian books together, sung hymns, read missionary biographies, and more!

6. Time

Some curricula are known for being time consuming and require a lot of effort from the teachers. Depending on your situation, this may not be the type of schooling that you are able to do. That was certainly the case for us. Since I was homeschooling 6 children, there were several times that I was pregnant or nursing a new baby while homeschooling. I needed to know that I didn’t have to put a lot of preparations into the day to day of school. I just didn’t have the time to do that. Planning for the school year to come and then implementing those plans was a game changer for us. If I didn’t feel well or had a fussy baby, we were still able to get the lessons done for the day.

7. Rigor

The homeschool movement has changed a lot over the years. Some families choose to have a rigorous education for their children while others to have a more relaxed approach. You need to decide what kind of education you want for your children because that will dictate the kind of curriculum you choose. Choosing subjects and curriculum like Greek, Latin, Rhetoric, Trigonometry, Advanced Chemistry, and more would usually constitute a more rigorous education.

8. Recommendations

The choices for curriculum are almost endless for the Christian homeschool family. Since there are so many good books for you to consider, you will need to think about the categories above to see what will work best in your situation and family’s needs. I have listed below just some of the curriculum that we have used over the years. While some of these were great for certain children in specific situations, there are very few programs that every one of our six children have used for a specific class and grade. Carefully look through the choices and prayerfully consider with your spouse what God would have you use in your family.

Language Arts:

Abeka (www.abeka.com)

Wordly Wise (Wordly Wise Overview | EPS Learning)

IEW (www.iew.com)

All about Reading (All About Reading | Homeschool Reading Program)

All About Spelling (All About Spelling| Homeschool Spelling Program)

Handwriting without Tears (Handwriting Without Tears®)

Five in a Row (and Beyond Five in a Row) (Five in a Row)

Math

Saxon Math (Saxon Math Program | HMH)

Math U See (Math U See)

Teaching Textbooks (Teaching Textbooks)

Science

Apologia Science (Apologia)

Master Books Science (Master Books)

History/Social Studies

Sonlight (Christian Homeschool Curriculum for All Ages | Sonlight)

My Father’s World (My Father’s World | Christian Homeschool Curriculum)

Bible

Answers in Genesis (Homeschool Bible Curriculum)

Abeka Bible (www.abeka.com)

Full curriculum (several subjects with one company)

Master Books (https://www.masterbooks.com)

Abeka Book (http://www.abeka.com)

Sonlight (www.sonlight.com)

Bob Jones University Press (BJU Press Homeschool)

In conclusion, there are many programs that you can choose for your family. You will not mess up your children for life if you choose the “wrong one.” Curriculum can be changed and adapted. If you figure out that you don’t like the one you have for a particular child, work at making a change.

The most important part in your homeschooling is not the books that you have in your home to teach math or science. It is the lifestyle and mentoring that happens in the living room, kitchen, and dining table. The time that you are investing in your children for them to love God, obey Him, and serve Him is what really matters. The curriculum you have to make that happen isn’t the most important part of homeschooling. It is just a tool. Christian homeschooling author Sarah MacKenzie says, “We are teaching people, not books. We need to understand the limitations of curriculum. We need to stop trying to make it something that it’s not, expecting it to yield what it was never intended to deliver” (Teaching from Rest).

While we may want to stress over the choices that we are making, we need to remember that homeschooling (especially homeschooling on the mission field) is all about character development. We are training our little blessings from God to be soldiers in His army and lovers of Him. That is the most important thing in homeschooling and in life! (For more great perspective on homeschooling and curriculum, read Teaching from Rest by Sarah Mackenzie.)