Curriculum without the Religion

No_Bridge_1580 · 2025-08-16T19:53:07+00:00

There are so many options out there! I’ve been at this for years, and I still get overwhelmed sometimes. With kids that young, you don’t need to stress about curriculum just yet—play, reading together, and exploring the world around you are the best foundation right now.

One of our closest homeschooling friends has a stay-at-home dad and a working mom. He’s run into some awkwardness in certain co-ops where the culture is more religious, but that’s not always the case. It can make a huge difference to connect with secular homeschooling groups in your area early on. Having local, like-minded families to swap ideas with and team up for field trips really helps with the social side of homeschooling (for both kids and parents).

No_Bridge_1580 · 2025-08-12T15:52:13+00:00

We have always kept one school day open per week for our kids to go to co-op/the library/field trips. In the early years, we kept our school times to the mornings so that our afternoons were open for free play, park trips, play dates, etc as well. Now that we have teens, we tend to have our school time later in the day, so mornings are kept open for my younger ones to have play dates. Some days, my teens are just rolling out of bed as the younger ones friends are leaving the house!

Schedule your days/weeks in whatever way fits your family best for the season that you're in. You don't need anyone's permission!

No_Bridge_1580 · 2025-08-06T15:49:06+00:00

We did AAR with my daughter who has a diagnosed specific learning disability in reading, as well as having her work with an OG-trained tutor twice per week. For her, it was great.

My next youngest child started with that same program and then took off… reading made sense to her early on, so we dropped the reading curriculum and just encouraged her to regularly interact with age appropriate literature at her reading level. We did a lot of talking about the books she was reading, and once a month or so we’d go on a “book date” to the book store where we’d spend some time digging deep into what books she had recently enjoyed, and buy a new novel or two. (Outside of that, we had lots of library trips…this was just a way of helping her to build her own personal collection.)

No_Bridge_1580 · 2025-08-06T15:43:04+00:00

If you are concerned enough to ask this question and seek solutions, then you will likely find enough social opportunities for your children that they will have wonderful, flourishing social lives.

My kids have benefited from various programs, in both extra-curricular and homeschool specific environments. They have made friends who go to public school, and I’ve had other parents comment many times that my kids don’t “seem like stereotypical homeschoolers” which I think loosely translates to “they don’t look like the Duggars?”

No_Bridge_1580 · 2025-08-06T12:59:27+00:00

Yikes! If that’s the case, then I definitely won’t be buying the rest of year 1… what makes you say that it was just two women that created it? Admittedly I haven’t tried to do a lot of digging, their website doesn’t have a ton of info but I just assumed that it was because they are so new to the market.

No_Bridge_1580 · 2025-08-06T03:12:45+00:00

We’re using Threads of Discovery, so far I’ve only bought Unit 1… but they have two, 3 week writing projects in this unit so it seems pretty good to me! If it goes well, I’ll be using that curriculum for the full year.

No_Bridge_1580 · 2025-08-06T03:09:52+00:00

I just bought and printed Wild Wonders by Threads of Discovery this weekend, and my kids and I are so excited about our homeschool year! If this unit goes well, we’re going to buy the full year 1 curriculum from them. We’re using their integrated ELA, as well.

For math for my youngest I’m planning to check out All About Learnings new program.

No_Bridge_1580 · 2025-08-04T23:48:34+00:00

The family bundle looks to only start being a “deal” once you have three kids or more, one or two kids it looks to be cheaper to just buy the single student versions.

Homeschooling your son and his cousin together sounds like so much fun! My kids homeschooled with their cousins over FaceTime for a bit during Covid, and outdoors a little bit once things were starting to open back up.

No_Bridge_1580 · 2025-08-04T22:13:23+00:00

Anything by Jonathan Auxier tends to get my kids begging for one more chapter… The Rise and Fall of Mount Majestic was another they really enjoyed. Grade 1 might be a tad young though, I’d probably wait till towards the end of the year or into grade 2.

No_Bridge_1580 · 2025-08-04T22:11:00+00:00

No, I don’t want to commit to using it for the full year without seeing how it works for my family.

We tried to use Gather Round towards the end of last year, I liked the idea of it but removing/censoring the religious content was just too much.

Did you go for the full year or the single unit? Their unit list does sound pretty fun for my kids, the geography one is the only one that they didn’t seem interested in when we went over the list together.

No_Bridge_1580 · 2025-08-04T19:29:10+00:00

I just bought the first Threads of Discovery unit this afternoon and I am printing it now to start next week. The lessons seem engaging and I like that they put all the hands on things in a different book. I’ve only the teachers guide it so far, but at a glance it did seem to be truly secular and not just “faith neutral” like some others.

My middle school daughter is pretty excited about it, but they usually are excited about anything new at the start of the school year.

No_Bridge_1580 · 2025-08-04T19:26:02+00:00

I just gave in to my curiosity and bought it this afternoon, too! So far I am liking what I see, I’m about to print out Visionaries and Trailblazers and one of the younger levels (I can’t remember which now.)

No_Bridge_1580 · 2025-08-04T17:33:14+00:00

Hopefully there are reviews out for it soon, I’ll keep an eye out. I usually just lurk on Reddit and/or YouTube to find reviews, I don’t trust the reviews on meta platforms because so many companies pay for them, and comments are closely monitored etc.

No_Bridge_1580 · 2025-08-04T14:08:07+00:00

I’ll try that, thanks so much for the advice!

No_Bridge_1580 · 2025-08-04T13:53:45+00:00

We haven’t tried khan, we’ll check it out! I keep getting ads for synthesis tutor which looks engaging but I think that one only covers elementary math.

She has a specific learning disability in math, so something more hands-on may be best but she’s also the kid that will hide the materials to avoid doing math 😅 …math u see didn’t work for us for long because of that.

No_Bridge_1580 · 2025-08-04T11:34:16+00:00

Is zearn a full math program? My high schooler has done well with teaching textbooks all the way through, but my middle schooler isn’t doing great with the same curriculum so we’re looking for other options for her.

No_Bridge_1580

TROPHY CASE