Why We Homeschooled on the Mission Field

The move to the mission field is full of decisions — where to live, what to bring, what to do, what church to attend, where to shop, what vehicle to get. The list is quite long. This time is full of transitions for the whole family. While some of the transitions are easy others are more difficult for certain members of the family. But one of the decisions that we get asked about is why we homeschooled on the mission field. What were the factors that caused you to make that decision? Was that an easy transition for you all?

Let’s chat about what factors led to the decision for us to homeschool on the mission field!

1. Previous Experience

In order to keep things more consistent in our family, we decided to keep on homeschooling. We had begun homeschooling our older girls when we lived in the US. While we hadn’t considered doing that long-term, we were thankful that God had put that into our hearts before we left for Zambia. Homeschooling was going to minimize the number of transitions that we needed to make with this international move. We would just continue what we had been doing, but once we arrived in Africa and got settled, we would reevaluate how it was going with the added responsibilities and challenges.

2. Spiritual and Character-Building

The most important reason why we initially homeschooled our children on the mission field was so we could have the most spiritual influence in their lives and help them build the character that we desired them to have. We felt mandated by God to be that spiritual guide in their lives (Joshua 1:1-9, Deuteronomy 6:6-9). We agreed that was best accomplished through homeschooling. If they were away at school from 8-4, they would be influenced by their teacher, friends, curriculum, and not us. We would only get a couple of hours with them before school and a few hours after dinner. Those would not be the best hours with them after a long tiring day of school. Homeschooling allows us to be the greatest and most consistent spiritual and character-building influences in their lives.

3. Flexibility

Homeschooling gave us the flexibility in our schedule — the best hours of day, the best days of the month, the best months of the year, etc. We were able to be flexible in our home school day and cater to the interruptions that God would send our way — people stopping by the house, a friend’s emergency, a day full of ministry in the city with dad, visitors from the US arriving for weeks of ministry, etc. Since we homeschooled, we were able to be the hands, feet, and heart of Jesus. The kids learned great real-life lessons and the value that we put on all people in all situations.

For example, we took a furlough every other year and were able to be flexible in the homeschool calendar. We started our school year in July and “did school” for 8-10 weeks before going across the ocean. We didn’t bring our books back to the US for the 2-3 months we were there, but rather we used that time to focus on field trips, social skills, and quality family time that our hearts needed. Also, our ministry has Camp Life that has a ministry concentration during May-July. (Check it out at www.familylegacy.com). During that time our whole family is busy with full days of ministry. Because we valued our family’s time to serve together, we set aside that time each year. We didn’t schedule our school during those months. Homeschooling on the mission field doesn’t need to be rigid.

4. Advanced Curriculum

When we were looking into school options for our children, we originally thought that they would go into the Zambian school system. But after looking into that further, our children were too advanced according to the curriculum there. The American school system progressed at a faster pace than those on our mission field. The public school system there wasn’t a viable option for our family.

5. Relationships as a Family

Since we valued our family relationships, we thought it was best for us to be together during the days. We knew that our community would be one to come and go as other missionaries and expats came in and out of our sphere. Our family relationships were going to be a constant on the mission field. We wanted our family to have a strong bond — one that would last through the ups and downs of life in another country. A strong family was important to us. Homeschooling would give us the time needed to cultivate these relationships. This is a huge reason why we homeschooled on the mission field.

6. Cost

There were a few international schools that we could have chosen for our family in Zambia. While some of them were great academically and were more in line with the choices we had in the USA, we could have never afforded sending our children to those institutions. Being a support-raised family, we would have needed to more than double the amount that we need each month to afford to send our children to one of these schools. We did not feel that was a good use of the Lord’s money in our situation. When we factored in all of the other reasons, it became apparent that this was not really an option for us.

7 . Connect with Like-Minded Families

Homeschooling allowed us the time to connect with like-minded families. We needed this connection since we were away from the support systems that we had grown over the years. Having the flexibility to be able to join other families to do life together, was an important part in our decision for why we homeschooled on the mission field. When our whole family felt connected to the ministry and people in our city, it made Lusaka feel more like home.

In Conclusion

Even though we started our homeschool journey before we left for the mission field, we didn’t know if we would continue that forever. But we were grateful that we had that experience before landing in Zambia, because God made it abundantly clear to us that this was the best option for our family. We homeschooled on the mission field so our family would be spiritually strong, relationally secure with each other, educationally confident, and service-minded.

Here are a few homeschool resources that might be helpful for you:

To read more about homeschooling, click here! Are you a missionary family who has homeschooled on the mission field? Are you planning to be a missionary family who homeschools on the mission field? Give us your best tips, tricks, and questions in the comments below! And be sure give us your email address so you will know when the next article in this series is published!