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Educational Resources

Starting out on a homeschooling journey can be rocky, especially for secular homeschoolers, but we want to offer you a good flashlight and the warmth of human-to-human connection as your family makes this hike. Check out these resources to help you build up the homeschooling spark until it becomes a magnificent bonfire. For homeschoolers who are already burning brightly, curriculum ideas and resources might help you set off those celebratory fireworks too.

*Each link below takes you to the relevant section.

Curriculum Ideas + Resources

    Secular All-In-One Curriculum   

  • Moving Beyond the Page: Offers a complete package as well as individual subjects.

  • IXL.com: Offers an online K - 12 program for multiple subject areas.

  • Blossom and Root: Offers multiple subjects from pre-k - 5th grade along with an American History curriculum. Although there is a math through art curriculum guide, it’s suggested that families add another math curriculum based on the individual’s level.

  • Oak Meadow: Offers an all-in-one curriculum for pre-k - 12.

  • Lavender’s Blue:  Offers a Waldorf-inspired k - 3rd grade all-in-one curriculum.

  • Shiller Learning: Offers Montessori-inspired learning materials for multiple subjects.

    Secular English / Language Arts Curriculum   

  • Brave Writer by Julie Bogart: Offers a literature program that releases a new set of guides for novels every year for most levels. There is also a writing-focused program for elementary through high school.

  • Build Your Library: Offers a literature-based program for k - 12, including individual unit studies on special topics. Although the curriculum includes social studies and science, families will need to add their own math program.

  • Torchlight: Offers a pre-k - 5th grade literature-based program for integrated language arts, social studies, and science. It is suggested that families add reading and math programs that are geared toward the individual’s level.

  • Michael Clay Thompson: Offers a language arts program inspired by classical education. There are seven levels covering approximately ages 6 - 14.

  • Night Zookeeper: Offers a writing program for children ages 6 - 12.

    Secular Reading Curriculum   

  • Logic of English: Offers a phonics-based reading program for people learning how to read.

  • All About Reading: Offers a phonics-based program for people learning how to read.

  • All About Spelling: Offers a spelling program to teach people how to spell.

  • Wild Reading: Offers a literacy program for two levels of learning how to read.

  • Rooted in Language: Offers an early literacy program that combines literacy with language arts.

    Secular Social Studies / History Curriculum   

    Secular Math Curriculum   

    Secular Science Curriculum   

  • Pandia Press: Real Science Odyssey: Offers a k - 12 science curriculum.

  • Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding by Bernard Nebel: Offers an elementary and middle school science curriculum that is based on increasing understanding of key scientific concepts. The link takes you to the community site to help with organizing your teaching, but the books that have the content can be found in various places that sell curriculum, including Amazon.

  • Scientific Connections Through Inquiry: Offers an easier way to teach the content of Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding by Bernard Nebel by creating a step-by-step set of lesson plans. Currently there are levels up to level 5.

  • Science Through Nature: Offers two nature study options that include adventure and scientific understanding of natural science and biology. It’s aimed at elementary students.

  • Mystery Science

  • Generation Genius

  • Science Mom: Although this isn’t a full curriculum, she offers STEM courses and videos online.

    Secular Arts Curriculum   

  • Waldorfish: Offers a Waldorf-inspired arts education as well as a festivals course.

  • Deep Space Sparkle: Offers lesson plans in art techniques and famous painters. 

Apps We Love

    Apps    

  • Libby App: Offers access to ebooks and audiobooks through your library card. Not all libraries are on the Libby app, but the following local library systems are: Mid-Continent Public Library, Johnson County Public Library, and Kansas City Public Library.

  • Epic App: Offers access to ebooks and audiobooks through an app. There is a free version as well as a paid version.

  • Flora App: Offers a timer that is based on the pomodoro time management system, but this app can plant real trees and virtual ones to show how much focus time happened.

  • Calm App: Offers guided meditations for children and adults as well as sleep stories.

  • Headspace App: Offers guided meditations for adults.

Social Justice

    National Focus    

  • Learning for Justice: Published by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit legal and educational organization that explores diversity, society and justice, Learning for Justice has a beautiful, free hardcopy magazine you can subscribe to, as well as a website full of lessons, film kits, podcasts, educator workshops and webinars, printable posters, book lists and more. 

  • Do Something: Offers a way for youth to learn about social issues while also finding ways to help others.

  • Social Justice Resources from Pushing the Edge: Offers podcast episodes for educators and others interested in social justice issues.

    International Focus    

  • Global Oneness Project: Offers stories, lesson plans, and other materials for people to learn about people and their communities worldwide.

Ways to Homeschool

    Different Styles Found in Secular Homeschooling    

  • There are many different styles of secular homeschooling. Here are a few of the most popular ones.

    • Unschooling

    • Eclectic / Relaxed

    • Charlotte Mason

    • Classical

    • Montessori

    • Unit Studies

    • School-at-Home

  • Other terms you may find include:

    • Wildschooling​

    • Waldorf and Waldorf-inspired

    • Worldschooling

    • Roadschooling

Deschooling
Resources: 
Stopping 
School Attendance

    Deschooling Yourself    

  • Pam Laricchia at Living Joyfully: Offers excellent advice for caregivers who are beginning to homeschool their children after they have been in public school. For adults who grew up in a public school setting, it is helpful to take some time to change our own mindsets.

  • The Home School Mom Blog: Offers resources for helping parents adjust to homeschooling.

    Deschooling Your Child(ren)    

  • For many children who are coming from the public school setting, it is helpful to take a month of deschooling for every year they were in public school. So for a child who spent four years in public school, they would deschool for four months. 

  • During the deschooling time, children are still learning, but it's a time where they don't participate in formal lessons. Many families choose to take their children to museums, have long breakfasts like it's a Saturday, explore new trails and parks, etc. 

Learning Differences

    General Resources for Learning Differences    

​A quick note about language: In this section, we use the terminology "learning differences" in the interest of inclusivity, as it generally refers to a broader range of individual differences. We also recognize that homeschooling families may not have received an official diagnosis for themselves or their children, so this term fits more accurately for our purposes.

  • Learning Disabilities Association of America: Offers an overview of the potential learning differences that people may have, including links to more information about each listed item. This site offers a wealth of information related to education, policies, and other pertinent information about learning differences.

  • LD Online: Offers information about learning differences for parents, educators, and others to help learners, including a specialized section for homeschoolers. There are also articles on self-esteem, accommodations, assistive technology, and other topics that are essential for ensuring an equitable education for learners who need these resources. 

  • National Center for Learning Disabilities: Offers information about research, advocacy, and other topics related to learning differences. There is also an informal screening tool for caregivers available that offers suggestions once the caregiver has filled it out, including questions for pediatricians and other educators. 

  • ADDitude: Offers an overview of types of learning disabilities. For families with ADHD, this resource may also offer a lot of helpful information as well. 

  • What Works Clearinghouse through the Institute of Education Sciences (IES): Offers a wide variety of research-based information on interventions and other educational approaches, but it is written for a more professional audience. However, caregivers who are comfortable with this mode of communication may find this resource helpful.

Record-Keeping Resources

    Missouri    

  • Missouri Statute about Homeschooling: Here is the full statute governing Missouri homeschools.

  • In practice, this is what Missouri requires:

    • ​Compulsory education is from age 7 until 17 (but caregivers can stop tracking when their child turns 16).

    • 1000 hours of instruction time (this is generally interpreted to be clock time)

      • Of those 1000 hours, 600 of them need to be in reading, language arts, math, social studies/history, science, or other academic courses that are related to these subjects.

      • 400 hours of the 600 hours need to be at home (or whatever the regular school location is)

    • Records that need to be kept include:

      • a plan book or other written record that shows the subjects taught and activities engaged in​

      • a portfolio of samples of each child's work

      • record of evaluations of the child's academic progress

  • In practice, most families separate their records of their children's hours from the other records. So many families will have a spreadsheet of hours, a planner of lesson plans (if using curriculum, this can also be a checklist from that curriculum), and a portfolio of work.

  • Unless a child was in public school, there is no need to notify anyone that a child is being homeschooled. There are also few reasons why anyone can request these records, though families are required by law to keep them.

  • If a child was in public school, then it's required to send notice that the child is being withdrawn from that school.

    Kansas    

  • Homeschool Laws in Kansas: Offers the text of what is required in Kansas for homeschooling families.

  • All homeschools in Kansas are considered non-accredited private schools, and families have to submit this form once to declare their homeschool as a non-accredited private school.

  • Families are also required to offer classes that are "substantially equivalent to the time public schools are in session," which typically means at least 186 days of about 6 hours or 1116 hours total.

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