Religious Families That Secular Homeschool? - Page 2

[readermaid]

I grew up in a religious family that homeschooled for secular reasons. We loved it! I felt very free to explore any topic, even when it didn't align with my family's religious beliefs (as a sidenote, I am no longer religious now that I am an adult). I hope to bring the same attitude to my daughter's education (whether we homeschool or not) when she's older.

[JesiLynne]

1/2 and 1/2 here, religious family, HSing for religious reasons, but some of the materials we use are secular. Saxon Math and Shurley English. A lot of the reading books we use are secular and a lot of the history resources are from a secular stand point. Writing too, but most of the things my kids write about have God in them somewhere.

That's about it though, science, history, bible ( ) and as of right now penmanship are all religious.

One thing I want to add, other religions are a very frequent topic of discussion in our household.

[ErinBird]

I'm not officially homeschooling for a few more years, but we are devout Catholics who will primarily use secular homeschooling materials. I would intend to do Catholic centered religious studies similar to what I had as a child via church, but thats something extra.

I'm not vehemently opposed to say.... handwriting practice that uses Bible verses or reading religiously oriented stories along with a number of other non-religious stories as part of something else, but I will not teach science/history/math (?) etc from the Bible.

[justthinkn]

Tho my DD is young, I'm pretty convinced I will HS/unschool when the time comes. We're definitely religious (Christian), and we'll incorporate that in natural ways through the whole of our family life. We'll incorporate it as we discuss whatever things we're learning... But I'm not at all drawn to curricula that claim to be giving a "Christian" perspective on science, history, etc. I'm ok with practicing critical thinking skills as necessary!

[scheelimama]

Haven't read all the responses yet, but we are a Christian family and I was at first very against using any Christian curriculum just because of bad memories of Christian school. We tried Oak Meadow. But now, we've settled on Sonlight for the bulk of our curriculum. But I will teach my children science and history from both a Christian and secular slant. I don't think it's healthy to teach only one. Just as I'll also teach them about many different religious groups. But I did feel that we've had a bit of a void with Christian teaching and I plan to incorporate Bible readings and scripture memorization next year. But I would think of this as our devotional time as a family that I would do regardless of whether they were homeschooled or went to public school. So, I guess I'm with annettemarie. It's hard to compartamentalize. I don't plan to ever use a solely Christian based curriculum, but I do incorporate Christian bits into our daily lives.

[joy_seeker]

Well, I don't really like the term "religious" as I consider myself more spirtitual than religous... meaning I adhere to the teachings of Jesus as I study them and interpret them, not the rules of a man made religion. We attend church for fellowship and to study and grow together but ultimately the choices of my faith are mine. I did feel led to homeschool and we count church activities as part of our required hours for our record keeping so I don't know if I could call us secular homeschoolers but we don't use a Christian curriculum, or any curriculum for that matter. We also don't think faith and science ever contradict each other... if something is proven to be true scientifically then this is just something we have discovered about how God works and reveals something as figurative instead of literal... JMHO.

We are actually the only Christian family in the local secular homeschooling group because the Christian group was too confining... we unschool and most of them use curriculum, we practice GD and most of them use punitive discipline, we are liberal in our politics and most of them were conservative... you get the idea. I felt judged and viewed as not really Christian most of the time so we just found another group. It has been fantastic because my kids get to learn first hand that people of another faith (or no faith at all) are great people and we have more similarities than differences.

[ReadingMama]

Interesting thread. We're Christians (Catholic) who live our faith and homeschool using secular curricula for academics. Ds doesn't enjoy going to our church's religious education classes for kids, so next year we will be homeschooling him for religious education. I don't know if we'll use the church's curriculum and teach it differently or whether we'll study it more informally.

Sometimes I think religious academic curricula create artificial connections between learning facts and religion. If you're learning about art, does creating an analogy between making pottery and how Jesus shapes us really enhance your learning or your faith? Sometimes it's a stretch, I think. I'm a renegade in my homeschool group because I don't teach Creation science (we aren't sure about the timeline and believe it's possible that the "days" of creation in the book of Genesis could mean years or ages, etc.) I don't think that science and God are mutually exclusive. I teach that God CREATED science.

[harmonyhobbit]

We are a Buddhist family in a very Catholic area. If Buddhist curricula were available in English, I would definitely start there. I have yet to find any. We have really liked Asian curricula (Kumon for preK and Singapore for math and science), even though it's secular. We do use SOTW, which is Christian based, but I through in a lot of clarification.

[Ruthla]

I don't see how we can possibly separate out religion from our lives! No, we don't use specific religous curriculum, but then we don't use much in the way of curriculum to begin with. We have secular math and science textbooks- and that's about it for textbooks! We only do formal bookwork for an average of an hour a week (some weeks more, some less, some weeks not at all) so I really don't compartmentalize "homeschooling" in quite the same way that you do Maggie. Life is learning, learning is life, being a religous Jew is part of the life we live, and sometimes we'll open up a textbook.

[holyhelianthus]

Originally Posted by Ruthla

I don't see how we can possibly separate out religion from our lives! No, we don't use specific religous curriculum, but then we don't use much in the way of curriculum to begin with. We have secular math and science textbooks- and that's about it for textbooks! We only do formal bookwork for an average of an hour a week (some weeks more, some less, some weeks not at all) so I really don't compartmentalize "homeschooling" in quite the same way that you do Maggie. Life is learning, learning is life, being a religous Jew is part of the life we live, and sometimes we'll open up a textbook.

I just don't see it that way. I mean yes life is learning an learning is life- I completely agree- but homeschool is I guess you could say a supplement of sorts in my mind. Homeschool is only a few hours of our life where we learn something in particular.

But yes what I meant was not using a religious based curriculum. I'm in no way suggesting separating our religion from our lives just not using our religion to homeschool. It can and is done but I think it only works if you don't view homeschool as the equivilant of learning, if that makes sense. As in we learn at all times and we homeschool between 9 and 12

[holyhelianthus]

I meant to touch on this...

Life is learning, learning is life, being a religous Jew is part of the life we live, and sometimes we'll open up a textbook.

Yes! I totally agree. And that is what I am getting at- when you pick up the textbook is what I am asking about not how you live your life. When you pick up the textbook is it one that teaches history based on your religion or secular? We prefer secular. And when my family is done with the little bit of "book learning" we do in our day (because I am bigger on "life learning") we go about our lives as usual.

I think when people hear "secular" they think anti religion or non religion. I get this from friends who talk to me about our "Atheist public school system" They say "How could you want our schools to be secular? How could you not allow a child to wear her cross or read from her Bible in class?" and I just sort of scratch my head over that. A secular curriculum does not mean you are void of religion or your faith even for those few hours. It's simply not 1) being preached to on a religious level and 2) not learning based on a religious curriculum. I have yet to meet a secular school proponent who wants to take that little girl's cross or Bible away from her and Lord knows I wouldn't do that in my own home.

Just because we don't read from the Bible in our history lessons doesn't mean we don't believe in the Bible and utelize it beyond schooling, ykwim?

[Daffodil103]

I am Christian and will be using whatever resources fit the bill for my kids. Most of them will probably be secular.

[darcytrue]

Originally Posted by Daffodil103

I am Christian and will be using whatever resources fit the bill for my kids. Most of them will probably be secular.

ditto that.

[Queen Gwen]

We're homeschooling in the Midwest. When we tell people we homeschool they assume that we're Evangelical Christians (although now that we've moved to a more Catholic area they might assume that we can't afford private Catholic school). And if they know anything at all about homeschooling they assume that we use Abeka or some such.

For that matter, other homeschoolers assume we use Abeka, Rod & Staff, or Bob Jones or maybe Sonlight or Tapestry of Grace (well, except a Catholic friend who asked if we'd considered Seton). They can't fathom that we'd choose something else, or that other choices even exist. The thinking seems to be that if we homeschool we are all doing it for the exact same reasons, and we have the exact same views on faith and politics.

It's hard to discuss curriculum choices sometimes because we're on such different wave lengths. I'd like to kick around ideas about, say, middle school science ... but I've already ruled out Apologia and things of that ilk, which rules out most things my irl friends know exist. If conversations about curricula do come up they look at me blankly, and I look back at them blankly while trying to figure out how to say why I don't like a particular text without actually speaking aloud the words "seems full of preachy twaddle stuck in to appeal to a Christian audience that's more concerned with quantity of church-speak than quality of writing."