Favorite Homeschooling Curriculum | Secular Homeschoolers Collaboration

Please check out Shanna’s channel @MakingEverydayMagic for a complete list of videos

[bentersbookshelf]

Thank you so so so much for making this video! I am a brand new homeschool Momma and we are a secular family. Finding the secular curricula in the sea of non-secular is overwhelming!

[crystinanna]

I’m a Christian and I totally agree. Nothing should be sneaky, especially something you purchase. Sneaky is dishonest and deceptive. 👎🏻

[OdetoAbode]

I agree, if it is labeled as secular, and then it isn't, it feels extra icky. Just be honest. Say that you are attempting to write it neutrally, but you are a person or publisher of faith. We all have biases, and curriculum publishers should be designed so carefully because of that.

[angelamclaughlin]

Thank you! You are the first secular homeschooler I’ve found, and it helps. I respect all people’s beliefs, and love finding friendly advice. We are not religious and it can be difficult finding homeschool resources.

[Gojuninja]

Oh this was a fantastic video!!! And a big smile and nod on your feelings about Story of the World!! I was the same as you, couldn’t figure out if it was secular, it’s kinda advertised as neutral, and it is SO HARD to find quality history, this one was so popular, I thought it must be good. I read the first chapter of the first book to my kids, everything was going great! Then I was preparing the next weeks lesson and read the next chapter to prepare and was like, wait…that’s sorta odd…maybe it’s just me. Read several more chapters, and couldn’t resell it fast enough! You’re right! It’s underhanded and hidden like some sort of curse in the pages. I was SO ANNOYED!!! Wasted money! Wasted time! And you see, this curriculum just has a knee jerk rant reflex for us all!! LOLOLOL!!! Thank goodness for your wonderful videos which have helped me so so so much find quality curriculum! You are just fantastic and I appreciate all the time you put into your videos! Thank you!!!

[lifeinthetrenches]

I feel you on SOTW! You must be our homeschool twin, my kids love Beast Academy and I loved using History of US when I taught middle school history. Can’t wait to break the books out when we start U.S. History next year.

[LoveLearningEveryday]

I agree so much about story of the world. I never listen to religious homeschoolers now about what is secular or not because they have no clue a lot of the time.

Also I knew your top choice would be lightening literature! Haha.

[cuddlepotbootcamp]

I so totally agree with you about Lightning Literature!! We started with grade 2 and it's one of our favorites!! My son is loving all the books, writing projects and he is absolutely loving it 😊 watching this really made me excited about all the other grades...

[ericandmelaniemcdougall]

We also use History of US and it has made history our favorite subject for the second year in a row. (Two boys, 5th and 2nd grade). We have a large map of the US and one of the world in our living room and when we are curled up on the couch reading we go find the places on the map 👍. Great way to get geography in! Love the short chapters, level of detail, and story approach... Very digestible and educational for all of us! Learning a lot together

[Tartarsauce]

First, you have beautiful curls! Thank you for this video. I am returning to homeschool after a faith transition and it’s hard to find good balanced reviews on curriculum that is unbiased.

[ProjectHappyHome]

Lightning Literature makes my top 3 as well! 🥰 Loved your thoughts about independent learning.

[zeneats]

I grew up on Story of the World… as soon as you mentioned it I recoiled! It plays neutral while digging Christian claws into the pages.

[comingbackhome]

Lightning Literature is great! We are using it this year for 4th & 5th grade and we love it! Thank you for introducing it to me in one of your curriculum videos! We will be continuing to use it the next school year.

[flynnmorrow]

My family is Roman Catholic, and I'm so grateful for the secular curricula. We are very fussy about religious instruction and don't appreciate generically religious insertions into all the subjects. I just want math that does math, literature that does literature, and science that does science. History is tricky because you can't NOT take a stance.

I appreciate the reviews! I intend to take a look at Lightning Literature.

[aprilhutchens]

My favorite "doctor/lawyer turned homeschool mom" says 'curricula' so that's what I go with 🤣

[erinjomusic]

First year homeschooling here! Found this very helpful ❤

[OurHomeschoolCastle]

Absolutely agree with you on the story of the world. It is sneaky. I have had curriculum that the voice of the narrative really reminded me of listening to a ministry. (And not the band! 😅😂)

[MakingEverydayMagic]

Ooh I am probably using History of US next year. So helpful

[elizabethglowacz]

I'm currently using the story of the world as a secular homeschooler, and at first I was iffy about the religion that is in it but having almost finished the first book. The way I see it is that they don't just share Christianity they also share Hinduism as fact so they just give the facts of the religion and the parts that are up for interpretation they leave out like they will say Jesus was a real person but instead of saying he rose from the dead, they said his followers said he rose from the dead.

[evAngeliis]

Thank you for the info!! I was homeschooled with ACE. Definitely very anti-theist now. Would still love to do early education for homeschool, and was hoping a secular option was available! So glad!