There is a reason that finding secular curriculum is hard, and that’s because secular homeschooling is a newer concept than those with religious views. Secular curriculum is always picked apart by homeschoolers, from the actual content to the creators of the curriculum. I wrote a post recently about curriculum that is often under fire.
Why is Finding Secular Curriculum Hard?
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It is hard to find secular because there hasn’t always been a need or want for it. Religion isn’t the reason everyone has chosen to homeschool anymore, where as it has been a large factor it isn’t necessarily anymore. It was not for us.
Because of that, there isn’t a lot of secular curriculum available.
What Defines A Curriculum as Secular
When searching for secular curriculum, it’s important to keep in mind that people have many different definitions of secular depending on their background or what it is that they are specifically looking for.
Secular definition: denoting attitudes, activities, or other things that have no religious or spiritual basis.
How to Find Secular Curriculum
Ask someone. If you know other homeschoolers, ask them what they use, what they recommend. While they may have different ideas and reason for what they love you can start forming an idea on the curriculum. You may also have a change to physically look at rather than just looking online.
Reviews sites. Secular Homeschool, for example, is full of great information, and they have some amazing curriculum listed that I had never heard of before and am interested in learning more about, plus others are able to rate it.
Facebook groups. Now I have learned that there are some hard core secular homeschoolers out there and they may just be a little more particular than you or I, but it’s okay because information is information and you can do with it as you will. There are still a lot of other groups that are open for anyone.
How to Choose Secular Curriculum
First, you need to remember that curriculum is what you chose to use in educating your child, it is not by defined by a boxed curriculum or a set list of textbooks that you have to use. You chose what you want, we for example do not use textbooks for the majority of our subjects.
Our first couple years homeschooling, I chose books and workbooks that fit our need until I found a curriculum that I wanted. I did it this was because I wasn’t sure would work for us, what our homeschool style was going to be, I just knew we were going to use secular materials and this way I got it without spending a lot of money on something that might not have worked for us. It was, and still is overwhelming to see how many Christian curriculum are available in comparison.
I am working on a follow up post of curriculum that is secular and available in Canada. I know that shipping to Canada is super expensive.
Similar posts that you may be interested in:
Books for Teaching Evolution in Your Secular Homeschool