Homeschooling

Archive for February, 2006

Question: Secular Homeschooling?

Does anyone know about the availability of COMPLETELY secular, agnostic or atheist curriculum for homeschool?

Everything I've run into is all Christian, and while I've been considering Homeschooling for a while (5 & 8 year olds, would be doing homeschool up until middle school), the lack of non-religious, science-based homeschool resources is a foreseeable roadblock if I were to do this at all, as is the (perceived) lack of secular homeschool community support.

Does anyone have experience with non-religious Homeschooling?

Answer: There are many who homeschool but are not Christian and many non-religious homeschoolers.

There are lots of curriculum choices. You are aren't bound to only materials created for homeschoolers. You can choose ones designed for public schools. Or use materials in the library designed for the general public. Or there's the option of creating your own curriculum.

We've used the "Making the Grade: Everything Your Kindergartner Needs to Know" series by Barron's (with titles up to 5th grade) as the skeleton of our curriculum. It was designed for homeschoolers and is completely secular; it gives lots of activity ideas for each topic covered; titles of library books to use to supplement with, a few worksheets, checklists of topics covered, and a final exam to see how much the child has learned. It isn't designed to be all on it's own, but it is a great skeleton and we supplement it a lot with things from our own bookshelves or from the library. We've used the "What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know" (with titles for each grade up to 6th grade) by E. D. Hirsch as a supplement, too.

But mostly, we've set up our own plan. Sometimes we've used textbooks that the public schools have used; you can buy them yourself, or we've gotten some used ones free from local schools.

For science, we've relied greatly on the nonfiction section of the library--they have lots of simple, nonreligious books on a wide variety of science topics. And the "Bill Nye, the Science Guy" and "The Magic School Bus" science videos from the library. If you read a few books to your child on a particular science topic, try a few science experiments or activities that are listed in some of the books, and watch a video or two on it, they'll learn a lot of science--much more so than in the public schools in our area.

For history, we've used "The Story of the World" to read aloud to the children. It does talk of various religions, as it is impossible to weed religion out of history. And since I read it aloud to the children, I can "edit" it as I read, if needed. Though I have rarely needed to do that. (Sometimes the kids just listen while I read, sometimes they draw a picture to go with the story, and often they'll play act the stories later for fun.)

Search around in your area. There might be an inclusive Homeschooling group. The inclusive group in our area is smaller than some of the Christian groups, but it is still a great resource. They have had proms, science events, geography events, lots of field trips, park days, and more. The group doesn't exclude Christians, but it makes it clear that religion (or lack thereof) is not the focus of things that they do and we've fit in quite nicely. (We have practicing and non-practicing Christians, atheists, those into New Age crystals and such, Jews, those from families where more than one religion is practiced, and more; and the group seems to work.)

If there isn't such a group in your area, you might consider trying to start one, as there are probably others looking for one.

Signs & Seasons Animation (no sound)

Famous Homeschool Legends produce by Renaissance Kid age 11