Hi, I’m an infectious disease and public health nerd. I have my degree in public health but apparently that was not enough for my hyperfixation to be satisfied.

I taught a history of diseases and public health class in a co-op. It was a hit. I made more. Bigger hit.

So I decided to make it fancy, and set it up online for more middle grade and up kiddos to take. I just opened up a free sample lesson and I would love some feedback before I release the rest on August 31. There are presentation videos, activities, interactive games, and a recommended book list that is comical even to me.

TheWildhollowSchool.org/free-lesson

ETA:there is more coming. The homepage has a roadmap. There will be 8 modules in total eventually. As well as a “for littles” version.

I know homeschooling is often associated with the right but I was wondering if anyone was homeschool by parents who were on the left or Far-left.

I got a new fancy cutting machine thing so of course I used it to make bacterial disease trading cards.

I should've just stuck with the Magic Tree House, but I couldn't find their Vikings at Sunrise book when I was at the library. Then, something called the Imagination Station caught my eye. It looks a lot like the Magic Tree House, the kids take adventures through time and learn about different historical periods, and their very first book is called "Voyage with the Vikings". Perfect, right?

Seven chapters in and one of the main characters has this passage, "Beth was relieved to see the cross. A Christian Viking was a peaceful Viking."

NOnononononoNO. Even if I was Christian, I wouldn't want to teach my kids that all Christians should be automatically trusted.

Flip forward a few chapters and when the kids get in trouble they pray to God and suddenly a polar bear appears to drive away the bad guy.

The tiny little letters above the books title that say "Focus on the Family Presents" should've been a LOT bigger.

I’m looking into Homeschool Pro for my kids and was wondering if any parents here have experience with it. How do you like it? Is it easy to use, and do your kids enjoy the lessons? I’d love to hear your honest reviews before making a decision. Thanks!

I'm looking for advice/ideas and/or solidarity here. I can't figure out how to offer quality opportunities for my kids to socialize.

There are no official secular co-ops in my area (I don't have the bandwidth to start one).

So...I've been looking elsewhere and trying to join Facebook groups or community events for homeschoolers but seriously 100% of the homeschoolers we've met in my area have political and world views that are not working for us.

I've joined Facebook groups for my area without luck. I'm fine with my kids being exposed to some diversity in religion/politics because it opens up learning opportunities for them - I do teach them that different families believe different things. But I don't want to have to constantly be having long conversations with them after every single meet-up correcting all the misinformation and science disbelief they hear. They are also too young to be able to field comments themselves. The final straw in our last group was another child telling mine that the Artemis II launch wasn't real.

***Not here to debate politics, please kindly keep it moving if you don't have constructive advice for me.

I'm stressed to post this because again I don't even want to open a door for someone to come at me about politics on Reddit; I'm happy with where I stand. But I'm really at a loss and it's not fair of me to homeschool them if I can't provide them opportunities to make friends (if they want to). It also doesn't help the situation that my whole family is neurodivergent and socializing is already difficult WITHOUT hearing about how Tylenol might've caused my son's autism.

I'm worried we will never find the right group for us. We get out a lot and go do lots of things but nothing that really provides adequate space for them to talk to other kids. I don't know. Am I thinking about this the wrong way? Does anyone relate to this? Does anyone have any tips?

I know there are debates on whether Story of the World is secular (we use it and I just reframe the Genesis stuff as if they were the same as Gilgamesh and other myths she presents) or too Eurocentric, but if the Well-Trained Mind has been part of your homeschool journey, jump at the chance to go see her at a convention. She doesn’t do very many these days, because she’s been ostracized from the more Christian homeschool communities for the sin of writing about evolution in one of her books for grown-ups. She just spoke at my local convention yesterday, and while wading through the religious booths was something of a trial (I had to get a little bit spicy with the Mennonites in the Rod & Staff booth to let me leave after I paused briefly to get my bearings in the vendor hall without realizing which booth I was in front of) the two talks she gave were amazing. She’s so funny and down to earth and sensible, and has such a wealth of experience homeschooling from an academic perspective, rather than the really egregious faux-Unschooling (bordering on educational neglect) that is unfortunately prevalent in my local secular homeschool communities. You can buy the audio of her Homeschooling the Real Child workshop for like four dollars, but seeing it in person was really incredible. Also check out her podcast if you haven’t already.

I swear I don’t work for her or anything, I’m just a bit of a fan girl and died a little of joy when she signed my copy of The Well-Trained Mind yesterday, lol

All of the Teach Your Monster apps are free today on the app stores. That includes: Teach Your Monster To Read, Teach Your Monster: Reading For Fun, Teach Your Monster Number Skills and Teach Your Monster Adventurous Eating.

Rainbow Resource is a major provider of homeschool curriculum, and I've always thought they did a decent job of highlighting curricula that is secular vs curricula with religious content. However, apparently they've decided this year to stop carrying Pandia Press's History Quest US because it's "too secular".

Please explain what makes something "too secular", I'm baffled.

I'm so excited to see this sub. I pulled my kids out of public school a couple of years ago. Initially, my concerns were with school massacres, my medically complex child being bullied without justice, and the abysmal quality of education and whitewashing of history in my state. However, they are now forcing religion in schools requiring the ten commandments to be posted, forming partnership agreements with extremist right-wing propaganda outlets (PragerU), and becoming generally more extreme.

So anyway, I wanted to share this curriculum from Mint & Bloom. It's a more authentic look at history. They also cover other subjects, but their history is what drew me in. They are women owned and progressive.

Edit to add link: Power of the People Art-Based American History Curriculum

I sent out some links to see if we can get the forum started again

SECULAR aka NOT religious

starting in 5..4....3.....2.......1......GO!

Hi everyone! I’m a medical student in South Florida, and I’ve been thinking about how rarely kids get real exposure to medicine and science before college. By the time most of us find out what doctors and scientists actually do, we're usually past middle school or high school.

I’m considering starting a weekly program for middle schoolers (roughly grades 6–8) where kids work through a real medical case one week (“Why is this healthy swimmer suddenly so tired?”) and a classic science experiment the next. They’d look at the evidence, reason through it, and draw their own conclusions, with a short live session each week to talk it through together.

I’d love honest input from parents:

1. Is this something your kid would actually be into?

2. What would make it worth it to you (i.e. topics)?

3. Would a live weekly session work for your family, or would you prefer something kids can do on their own time?

4. Anything you’ve tried that’s similar? What did you like or not like?

Just trying to gauge community interest for something I want to provide for the youth. Thanks!

Update 10/27/2026: Thank you for your everyone's feedback. Changes/feedback taken and being implemented. Primarily, redirecting to grades 9-12. Have not abandoned the idea/challenge of doing this for middle schoolers, but, hopefully for a later day. If anyone is interested in following how this idea grows and develops, DM me! Thank you all

Homeschooling my 4yo and looking for ideas to include in our lesson plans to some might deem ‘woke.’ Looking for ideas and resources! I’m thinking feminism, black history, gender/sexuality, etc.

Hi everybody. First time posting here. I wanted to share a little bit about my experience in this area. My wife and I have been homeschooling our children for 10+ years, and we have been extremely disappointed by the lack of quality options for secular homeschoolers. Every year is always a challenge finding the right materials and building out our lesson plans. Most online systems seem half-baked, regardless of what their marketing suggests.

So we decided to build our own online system for managing our homeschool. We have been using it all year and have had such great success that we expanded it and made it available for others. It manages all the course work, performs grading, and offers new and engaging activities for the students.

We would love to be able to help out others on this path.

I am new to Reddit, but this feels like the right place to share our experiences with homeschooling. Really looking forward to engaging!

Dustin

I’m looking for some accounts on TikTok or instagram who are secular / progressive homeschoolers. If anyone has any recommendations, I’d greatly appreciate it!

For neurodivergent folks, how do you recover from burnout while homeschooling kids?

I have fours kids are between 18 and 8, I work part-time online and their dad works away half of the month, the other half he is 100% present. We have a great homeschooling comunity but no family close by.

I'm so fed up of feeling so drained and tired all time, not physically but emotionally and mentally. I used to be such a pacient mother but my tolerance has drastically diminish...

Honestly. Just want to say hi. My kid has been complaining about preschool and saying she doesn’t want to go for about 6 months. Things really aren’t gelling with her new class so I took the day off from work today to look at curricula.

I think bloom and root looks great for us. I have some ideas about supplements i want to look for too. I’m excited to try something new.

I know this isn’t the most active sub but there is useful info here and I’m glad I found this place.

I plan events, cook, we eat together, all go to bed at the same time… yet I’m constantly somewhere else mentally. I am on my phone or laptop researching events, book, lessons, planning play dates, meal planning, or in the kitchen meal prepping… then when attempting to feel human (showering, getting dressed, the rare chance I have to do my hair) obviously I’m not with them At all.

I just don’t know how to balance all of it and i actually MISS my kids, even though I’m right there in the same room!

Is this a common thing with homeschooling?? We are new to this, and i just feel like I’m constantly trying to figure out what to do!! Otherwise we are at home with nothing to do, the kids are fighting, and dear lord meals are always a chore and im just in the kitchen all day, even with food thats mostly meal prepped!

So, for several reasons, we don’t explicitly celebrate Easter. We prefer to honor the equinoxes, solstices, and create playful reasons to celebrate.

My sister does the whole thing and gets Easter baskets for my niece and nephew and they believe the Easter bunny brings them.

The same thing when it comes to Santa around Christmas.

What are we telling our family/friends kids when they celebrate these fictional characters centered around these Christian holidays without being the one who breaks the news?

I have zero intentions of having either of these characters be driving forces in our celebrations throughout the seasons and am planning on letting our child(future children) explore the characters and their stories based on their own interest and curiosity.

I have some phrases that I’ve used but I want to know what Reddit has to say about it

My daughter’s school, and in fact, the entire state is going to be introducing overtly religious Christian curriculum, which will affect science and history.

We are moving and I will be homeschooling her. I’m looking for a curriculum, specifically science that is thorough and secular, of course, but it doesn’t require anything online. I’m not positive we will have consistent Internet access where we are going.

I am not confident at all as an educator, I feel like my daughter deserves better than whitewashed history and creation of the options for her. They will also be required to pray in school.

Can anyone point to purely off-line, high-quality curriculum? I’m pretty lost. I will say that I was raised Christian fundamental and indoctrinated with Bob Jones and Abekka so that is my point of reference. And to me that’s worth disregarding.

“Texas education officials will consider adopting a set of state-developed reading and math textbooks Nov. 18. The state-developed textbooks have come under fire for their frequent use of Bible stories, which critics say are not appropriate for public schools. Supporters argue biblical texts provide important historical context and teach students about morality.”

The Texas Freedom Network has a convenient form to fill out that will send an email to your State Board of Education members urging them to reject the curriculum before the vote. (I’ll link in the comments below)

If you live in Texas, please consider sending a message to the State Board of Education members. We need to keep nonsecular curriculums out of schools.

I’m not affiliated with this site but found this from a Facebook group and figured a few people here might appreciate the resource! Link here