OK. Try this one.
I'm an atheist. But I'm not rabidly against all religion. I sent my son to a church-related preschool last year. It was wonderful and I was happy with the level of moral instruction and even the exposure to the Bible that he received. But I couldn't in good conscience teach him from a religious home-school curriculum. So my question is, are there good HS curricula out there that are not tied to religious instruction?
For math there is Saxon Math. The vast majority of homeschoolers love it. You will find some who don’t.
But it’s not worth investing in the grades 1-3 curriculum, IMO. I think it is priced way too high.
For spelling, you can use flash cards and work on word families.
One resource for some English is English from the Roots Up. It covers the Latin and Greek roots that make up a lot of the words in English. Another for teaching writing is Writing Strands. I don’t recall any particular religious influence in that but you’d have to check for sure.
One resource we used that we found worked well for just having a curriculum to put down on our reports to the schools, was workbooks that we picked up at Sam’s club. They have different subjects at the earlier grade levels that essentially covered what the pricier homeschool curriculum covered.
Teaching kids the basics of math is not difficult. Reading kind of comes mostly from doing it with them. Read them a lot of books. I thought that these workbooks for science and social studies were actually better than what I got from Abeka, for the first few grades.
The real big plus was that they are very inexpensive.
This can at least buy you time to find other sources for curricula for the later grades.
A friend of ours who’s not particularly religious, used Switched On Schoolhouse by Alpha-Omega Publications for her 14 year old and they both loved it.
I don’t know how you feel about using the computer for a child as young as yours.
My opinion, and it’s got nothing to do with religion, is that the less exposure they have to TV and computers at that age, and the more to books, the better.
You might want to read *Better Late Than Early* by Drs. Moore and Moore about early childhood development. It’s a fascinating book.
Where do you live?
The best thing for you to do would be to go to a homeschool convention and wander the curriculum fair - go around to booths and look at what people are offering for curriculumn. There are a lot of secular/non religious options out there. My family was very Christian but Mom used a lot of secular materials for us - especially for things like math and grammar where the “Christian” stuff was just injected in on top and seemed stupid. Check your area for secular/non-religious homeschool associations (there are often these around though they can be sort of liberal).
There are ton's!!
We are not members of a church, either. (Long story.) As others here have suggested, you’ll have no problem finding books and resources to use. There are many resources on the list we put together that you will find useful.
However, you might have a challenge finding a homeschool group because, like me, you don’t subscribe to a particular church doctrine but you’re conservative (I’m assuming because you’re here). If you’re considering homeschooling, try looking for a group now while your child is young. Some groups require you to sign a Statement of Faith, for example. OTOH, we came up against the left in a Christian group that didn’t require a statement. There are all-inclusive, secular groups with a mixture of political left and right and people of all faiths as well as nonreligious; we did find one where everyone got along well. Next we’re trying another Christian group. But... whatever you do, make sure your child will have enough to do with other children and that your child will know some other children who are homeschooled.
A “non-religious” curriculum with a long and honored history is Calvert School. I believe they started during the polio epidemic geared towards kids that had to stay hospitalized/in iron lungs etc.