secular resources

[Cat]

One of my ongoing frustrations in homeschooling is the lack of labelling. In searching out a K curriculum for next year I've encountered all kinds of stuff for HS--most of it Christian. But the websites and product descriptions don't SAY that; I have to search through descriptions to find out that something is a Christian curriculum. It's time consuming and frustrating to work this way.

Does anyone have a list of secular and pagan resources? Or is anyone interested in working on one with me? I'm mainly interested in the secular stuff, because I plan to teach my version of paganity my way. But I'd love to hand pagan businesses any work I can.

[Lyrien]

I've only found one curriculum written specifically with the pagan religions in mind, but I have never seen it. Most of the pagan specific information I've found have been from personal websites and such.

I do understand your frustration with finding truly secular materials for homeschooling, I too have met that brick wall. K12 is secular for the most part, the only religious information I've seen is a couple of bible stories that everyone already knows and they aren't taught as ..this is the way it happened. The entire chapter is prefaced with a statement that says these stories are introduced as cultural information, general knowledge so that the student would understand any reference to the story in the future. The stories are Noah, Jonah and so on...the real common ones. In fact, in the history portion when they are discussing religious freedom and the hierarchy of God, King, people...they never define god; it's just the concept of God that is presented.

Anyhow, I've got to run...I'll look thru all my bookmarks later.

[Ceres]

Have you come across the Oak Meadows curriculum? Its sort of new agey, but it has a lot of really great ideas. It is based on the Waldorf school philosophy.

[Faol-chù]

I'm not sure which subject you're talking about, but for math, we use Saxon.

I'm not sure what age you need for and English curriculum, but Saxon has a phonics program.

http://saxonpublishers.harcourtachieve.com/en-US/saxonpublishers.htm

I, personally, in the younger years, used and array of workbooks for grammar a writing.

For history and science, we heavily utilize the library.

[Sage Rainsong]

Here, hope this helps:

http://www.atheistview.com/secular_homeschool.htm

http://www.homestead.com/barbooch/PaganHomeschool.html

http://paganwiccan.about.com/od/paganhomeschooling/Pagan_Homeschooling.htm

http://www.amazon.com/Pagan-Homeschooling-Kristin-Madden/dp/1892718421

http://secularhomeschool.net/

[Cat]

I wasn't at all clear in my first post. That's what I get for writing before being sufficiently caffinated. I think it would be cool to have a large resource list for everyone to use, not just one for my immediate needs.

Though I'll happily take any suggestions I can get :)

I have seen k12, which looks good. Oak Meadow's K seemed very off from where my daughter is, so we aren't considering it right now unless we also supplement it with other stuff. I've also found Laurel Springs and Clonlara, which are full curriculum schools that seem secular.

For individual subjects, because that's the way I am leaning now, I am looking at Math U See and Schiller math, and McRuffy for some science, maybe. I'm on a quest for a cheap set of lets read and find out books too. For reading I'm going to try the old Dick and Jane books, and if that doesn't work for us I'll look into Sing, Spell, Read and Write.

Pagan wise I've found Moon Circle Academy, which didn't thrill me though I can't now remember why.

[Lyrien]

Cat, I think what you are describing would be a wonderful resource, a huge project..but a great resource. I'd love to help you, though I don't know how much help I'd be.


I have about a million links to online tools and lessons. I don't know if that is something you were wanting to tackle or if you wanted to stick with purchasable books. If you did want to include links, I can post out what I have; if just books I can only review k12 at this point. Beginning this summer we are ditching a lot of the structured stuff and taking a more unit study and learn as you go approach. The only 'school' books we'll be using is most likely math, and we're going to try Singapore.

[Ceres]

I hear very good things about Singapore Math.

[Cat]

Yeah, Belle, that's basically what I had in mind. I don't know if anyone else here would find it useful, but I still think a list would be good.

Anything you want to contribute would be great!

[Lyrien]

Well, I'm still in awe with this link I discovered yesterday... http://www.redmond.k12.or.us/mccall/renz/mathsites.htm#area-perim

I'll rummage thru my bookmarks later this afternoon or tomorrow and post them.

Perhaps there should be a thread for each subject that could have all information listed under each heading...ie: Math, geography..etc. Easier to find info that way.

[Lyrien]

I'll rummage thru my bookmarks later this afternoon or tomorrow and post them.




In the homeschooling world, tomorrow means next month. ;)

These are my bookmarks, not all have been thoroughly investigate and some may have even come from here. I'll try and finish this up today, but I can't promise anything.


History:
US Capitol virtual Tour (http://www.senate.gov/vtour/index.html)
History House Online (http://www.historyhouse.com/)
Historical Documents (http://www.ourdocuments.gov/content.php?flash=true&page=milestone)
American History (http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi)

Literature:
The Cricket in Times Square (http://www.mce.k12tn.net/reading24/cricket_in_Times_Square.htm)

Math:
Not sure what this is (http://www.learningbyyourself.com/)
Fabulous link to all kinds of stuff (http://www.redmond.k12.or.us/mccall/renz/mathsites.htm)
TimezAttack (http://www.bigbrainz.com/index.php?PARTNER=krimsten)

Geography:
State and Capitol game (http://www.purposegames.com/geoquiz/usstates)

Science:
Anatomy (http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/tv/humansenses/)
Projects and experiments (http://www.spartechsoftware.com/reeko/)
Periodic table (http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/)
Science Friday (http://sciencefriday.com/)
Materials and such, not sure where I got this one. (http://www.sciencekit.com/)
http://msnucleus.org/index.html

Worksheet websites:
http://www.abcteach.com/
http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/language_arts/
http://www.onlineworksheets.org/
http://www.teach-nology.com/worksheets/language_arts/reading_comp/
http://home.att.net/~bandcparker/worksheets.html (http://home.att.net/%7Ebandcparker/worksheets.html)

Various links that I have yet to organize and sometimes, even look at.

http://www.gardenandhearth.com/Homeschool-Activities.htm
http://www.unitedstreaming.com/
http://learningpage.com/free_pages/gallery.html
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html
http://www.kidsclick.org/


Worksheets all over the board, includes a generator (http://www.edhelper.com/)

Big list of resources for all subjects (http://www.multiplication.com/teachersites.htm)

efield trips (http://www.efieldtrips.org/)

free foreign language, have not used. (http://www.byki.com/)

This is a strange game that my daughter really likes. It doesn't really have an education theme, but it is thought provoking and I guess could teach some sort of ancient farming/family economics. LOL You just have to check it out. (http://www.arcadetown.com/3rdworldfarmer/gameonline.asp)


Pagan Specific:
link to another msg board that came up when googling pagan kids material. I know nothing about this community. (http://www.paganforum.com/index.php?topic=1728.0)

Buddhist Homeschoolers Yahoo group, not really pagan by my definition but perhaps useful to someone. (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Buddhist-homeschool/)

[Lyrien]

My kids also have a subscription to Ask and Spider magazines. The subscription ran out last December and I, the ever procrastinating mom, finally got on today to renew the subscriptions. In doing so, found that they offer loads of books as well. There is an entire series on children of the ancient world. Such as...Greece, Rome, China, and Egypt.

I'm normally very hesitant on spending 18 dollars for a book I've never seen; but I've been so impressed with their magazines that I may just give it a shot.

http://www.cricketmag.com/home.asp

Does anyone else get these magazines?

[Ceres]

Whoa Belle, that was worth the wait!

[Cat]

Wow, Belle, these are great.

The farming game is addictive.

[Lyrien]

The farming game is addictive.

OMG!! I know! My DD left it up on my computer one day, so I started playing. An hour later.....

[Lyrien]

Whoh, a friend sent me this link today...there is tons of stuff on here.

http://www.fhe-mo.org/websites.php

[PeleRising]

This is a strange game that my daughter really likes. It doesn't really have an education theme, but it is thought provoking and I guess could teach some sort of ancient farming/family economics. LOL You just have to check it out. (http://www.arcadetown.com/3rdworldfarmer/gameonline.asp)


Very cool game, thanks for the link.... I played it for a while then my daughter booted me off the puter so that she could play *smiles* we are both enjoying it. :boing:

Thanks for posting all the links... they have been very helpful.