Secular homeschool curriculum: 4 huge reasons to start now

A secular homeschool curriculum does not contain religious doctrines or teachings of any kind.

There are many benefits and options with using a secular homeschool curriculum. It is an excellent choice for families who do not follow a religion or for those who do not want religion to be the focus of their child’s education.

Benefits

There are several benefits that come with using a secular homeschool curriculum.

Many faith-based ones will interweave doctrines into history and science lessons.  Secular provides lessons that do not have any religious influence in it.

Some faith-based lessons are too biased. Religion may make it difficult to learn about other cultures and beliefs. A secular type of homeschooling allows there to be no bias when learning.

This type of curriculum is also beneficial for parents who seek to teach academics separately from religion.

Basics

It is important to keep in mind that core subjects tend to differ based on what is required by your state.

Homeschool GA made by Rose Motes with SketchOn one hand, Georiga requires families to only cover the core subjects. This includes mathematics, science, social studies, reading, language arts, and English.

Illinois Homeschool. Created by Rose Motes using Sketch.

On another hand, Illinois requires mathematics, language arts, social studies, biological and physical sciences, physical education and health, and the fine arts.

As you can see with these examples, what is required for your family to study is largely dependent on what state you are in. If you would like to learn more about these homeschooling laws, you can find your state on A to Z Laws.

Options

When you have the state requirements taken care of, there are several options for courses to use within a secular homeschool curriculum.

Secular written out

Many parents have discovered that their child’s needs cannot be met by a single curriculum. These parents discover that by blending several different ones and learning types, parents can add variety to their child’s learning process.

There are several purchasable secular homeschool curriculum online. Some notable ones include:

Curriculum written out.

You can also choose to use interest-led learning. This is when you allow your child’s interests to lead the process of learning.  This type of learning can be used alongside a traditional curriculum. Parents can work it into the lessons or allow their children to use it for learning as a whole.

To do this type of learning, parents must take note about what their child has an interest in. After that, the parent must help the child learn even more about their interest. Just keep in mind to add these interests in at appropriate times when the timing is right for you.

Layout

The schedule for your courses are typically written out in a planner.

secular homeschool curriculum plannerprintable

Photo was taken by Jimmie on Flickr.

Core subjects typically need to be done every day. While some subjects are constantly considered core, keep in mind that this can vary from state to state.

The non-core subjects will need to be alternated weekly to fit into your schedule. These subject can be classes based on your child’s interests, or they can be another subject that you think is important for your child to learn.

Once you have your main school schedule underway, you can take the time for any extracurricular activities you have agreed to do for the year. This will help to prevent scheduling conflicts.

This type of layout for your secular homeschool curriculum will ensure that you do not miss any aspect of your child’s education.

Secular homeschool curriculums are becoming commonplace. Not only do they help your child approach the world with an open mind, but this also helps your child to be more accepting of other cultures and beliefs.