Secular Homeschooling

Secular homeschooling can encompass a variety of beliefs and purposes. Parents who consider themselves secular homeschoolers may do so because they are not Christian or not religious.

In addition, some Christians consider themselves secular homeschoolers because they are not homeschooling for religious reasons or because they have beliefs that fall outside of mainstream Christianity. These Christians may face the added challenge of feeling too Christian for secular homeschoolers and not Christian enough for conservative homeschoolers.

Two of the most common challenges of non-religious homeschooling are finding support and choosing curriculum. Here's a look at these obstacles, along with tips for overcoming them.

Secular Homeschooling Support

The Christian homeschool community contains a well-organized network of legal organizations, conferences and conventions, support groups, and advocacy groups.

As minorities, non-Christians and nonreligious homeschoolers may encounter difficulty plugging into that network. However, there is no reason any homeschooler should walk alone. Here are some options for secular home school support:

Participate in religiously neutral programs sponsored by libraries, sports associations, community recreation centers, civic organizations, private gyms and private lesson providers. Here are some ideas for places you can find homeschool activities for your child.
Join an inclusive homeschool support group that welcomes all homeschoolers without regard for their religious beliefs. If there's not an inclusive group in your area, consider starting a home school group of your own.
Join a Christian support group. Although Christian support groups cater to their members' religious beliefs, most welcome homeschoolers of other faiths. Some groups may require you to sign a statement of faith acknowledging that you understand that the group holds specific beliefs even if you don't necessarily agree with them.
Find support online. Forums, message boards, yahoo groups and blogs are great sources of support for homeschoolers. Some popular religiously neutral homeschool forums are ivillage, Baby Center and About.com.

Secular Homeschool Curriculum

Another frustration commonly expressed by secular homeschoolers pertains to the limited choices for homeschool curriculum. Many secular curriculum publishers cater to traditional classroom education in public schools. Well-established Christian programs may contain content that appears overly biased or contradicts family beliefs.

If you are having trouble finding curriculum, please view this page about secular homeschool curriculum where I'll share tips for finding secular programs and adapting Christian programs, along with information about companies that publish nonreligious materials.

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