Homeschooling for an Atheist Child?

Question

I am looking for a homeschool and curriculm that is not theist driven. I chose to homeschool my child due to issue with my area school and the only charter schools that will enroll him this late lack quality.

Answer 1

K12 is a secular curriculum.  It teaches the history behind the major belief systems, but does not cater to any one of them.  It's all in the understanding of history from a world view.  I think you'd find it suitable for your needs.

http://www.k12.com

Answer 2

Try www.rainbowresource.com (you can order a catalog, too).  They sell tons of books/curriculum...some are Christian, but a lot of them are not.  A lot of the products are used in public schools as well.

Answer 3

OK, atheism is an ADULT choice and it's not capitalized.

You do not have an "atheist child" just because you have denied the existence of G_d.

I hope child services comes and takes that kid away from you. He/she would do better in an orphanage.

Answer 4

Oh geez...yes, there can be such a thing as an "atheist child"  in as much as there can be a "Christian child".  We raise our children with our beliefs, or lack thereof.  No need to get caught up in semantics people. :p

Anyhow, I have faced the same issue.  At first I bought a curriculum from Oak Meadow, which is secular.  http://www.oakmeadow.com/   I really liked them, but eventually I found it was better for our family to piece together our own materials.  

I use mainly McGraw Hill and Harcourt materials.  They are all pretty much guaranteed to be secular, and this way I could tailor each subject to my children's abilities and interests.  http://www.mheducation.com/home/index.sh...  http://www.harcourt.com/

Good luck :) Oh and, here's a wonderful yahoo group you might be interested in joining.  Homeschool_Atheists http://groups.yahoo.com/group/homeschool...

PS  Thank you Creatrix :D  ((()))

Answer 5

I question the first answerers reading comprehension skills...  go theist homeschooling.

Answer 6

I don't know about full packages, except perhaps Oak Meadow, I think, but there are a LOT of educational resources out there that are not religious in nature. It means hunting around, purchasing from different companies, but they're there. Saxon, Learning Resources, all the textbook publishers for regular schools, omg there's so much it's not even possible to list them. Find yourself a homeschool group for atheists (there's bound to be one in Yahoo Groups) and learn about what things they have been using that they like.

ADDED: What do you mean "a homeschool AND curriculum"? Your home IS the homeschool. If you mean some sort of virtual program, then the curriculum is already decided for you, like for k12.

Answer 7

Many homeschool curricula are secular, and it's easy to secularize others such as Sonlight or Ambleside Online by just skipping certain books. K12, Calvert, and Great Books Academy are all secular full-service ISP's.

For cultural literacy purposes, I would encourage you to include studying *about* different religions and reading religious texts as literature even if you don't believe them to be true. Atheists who are so anti-religion that they exclude it completely from their children's studies are doing their children a grave academic disservice because the Judeo-Christian tradition is such a big part of our culture. To understand America, you have to be familiar with the basics regardless of personal religious beliefs (or disbeliefs).

Answer 8

How does a child chose to be atheist?

Actually why would you care as long as the program is one which your child learns.  Who cares who creates it, or that it is theist based as long as it produces the results that your child learns and is able to become a productive member of society.

Answer 9

My answer is : The same way you would any child.

Answer 10

I went to Sam's club to get my son's books, there is no mention of the Bible or other religion for that matter it is simply the curriculum. You can also go on-line to www.schoolspecialtypublishing.com

They have plenty there without religion in it, I use the Comprehensive Curriculum of Basic Skills put out by American Education Publishing

Answer 11

k-12 is Christian, as are many other packaged curricula. There's certainly a "buyer's beware"' element., and those things are expensive.

I think easiest for you would be finding homeschooling resources in your area, and asking parents there. Our homeschool group has curriculum swaps all the time, and talks about new resources that they've found. Matching the math program to the particular child, for example, can save you HUNDREDS of dollars compared to going online and buying something, and it might turn out that someone has organized a class or something that would be just his speed. If you google your state and homeschooling, you'll get a bunch of ads for curriculum, and a link to the big political groups (almost all fundamentalist) and a few links to support groups. Secular ones will usually say so. Don't bother with anything listed on the HSLDA website, they won't list them if they aren't their style of Christian. The UU's have a national group, too, I believe. They'll have atheists on that, probably.

I firmly believe homeschoolers need support from other homeschoolers, and you want to build that network early, so you aren't in an emergency looking for a Biology class, only to open the textbook and realize it's creationist.

Good luck with it. Homeschooling is fun. :o)

Answer 12

If you type secular homeschool into google, you get over 2 MILLION hits. As for good curricula, check out this homepage, it's the best I've found.

http://www.intothesunrise.blogspot.com/2...

Answer 13

There is an excellent book on home schooling called:

The Well-Trained Mind by Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise.

The authors have researched many home school resources and provide an excellent list of both secular and Christian based resources.  This book is worth it for the list of resources alone! I have been homeschooling for 4 years now, and have used many of the secular based resources suggested in this book.  They are excellent.

You didn't mention the age of your child, but the book covers all ages, right through High School.  Here are my suggestions for some great books in the elementary school years, plus High School.

Saxon Math

Writing Strands (fantastic writing program!)

Wiley Self-Teaching Guides (for Middle/High School Science)

McGraw-Hill Workbooks (math, language arts - available in bookstores)

Usborne Books (science, geography, history, art, music, etc.)

Also, you might want to check out local stores that sell to teachers, like Scholars Choice.  They have lots of great workbooks suitable for most ages.

Please don't let anyone intimidate you about your beliefs.  You are entitled to raise your child in your own beliefs, just as parents of any religion.

Answer 14

I don't see a problem.   You're homeschooling the child; don't drag the religious stuff into it.  You can control that.  Public school curricula are secular, and you can (and should) follow that.  

Can I just say that I think homeschooling deprives a child of very valuable socialization? Kids need to be with all kinds of other kids with all kinds of different backgrounds, beliefs and abilities--you know, like the real world.

And, btw, a child gets to be atheist the same way he/she gets to be a Christian, Jew, Muslim, etc.  They get their beliefs from their parents.  And I happen to think it's worse to brainwash a kid with mythological beliefs and then condemn others for not sharing those beliefs.  What an intolerant child you must be raising, Pugs.  Some parent you are.

Answer 15

Is there such a thing as an atheist child?, or are his/her parents choosing to raise them that way?

Anyway, this is a web site that I give to parents who contact our group, and are leaning towards these kinds of secular curriculum's.

Blessings, and I hope you'll find what you need.

http://www.angelfire.com/or/mtdewbydo/se...

Answer 16

k12 is not for you we do do religious things sometimes and pardon me but shame on you for your atheist belief why would push such a terrible thing on a child man some parents

Answer 17

There are some out there plus generic textbooks, as people mentione from McGraw and Hartcourt and Follettes.  All of them do the text books for public schools.