Janeway Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 I have friends of many religions. So I have a diverse circle, but I do not know anyone who home schools who is not a southern Christian religion. I feel discouraged. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 (edited) There are many of us here on the board. You could also initiate the forming of a secular homeschool group; that usually draws out the non religious folks. This said, I loved finding friends, but the fact that they were also homeschooling was largely irrelevant, since we could never talk about curricula either, because we came from very different motivations and had very different goals. Edited July 12, 2016 by regentrude 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachermom2834 Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 I am Catholic and homeschooling in the Bible Belt. It is very lonely and discouraging. I actually really like where I live but I have days when it gets the better of me. I don't know what size town you are in but I am in a small town and it is tough. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Janeway Posted July 12, 2016 Author Share Posted July 12, 2016 It is a smallish town. I would not call this a city. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teachermom2834 Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 Just a thought...I am pretty open about my Catholicism even though it results in rejection sometimes. I would rather get the rejection out of the way on the front end.I actually have been approached by a few moms who sought me out and confided that they were Catholic, athiest, agnostic or other outside the dominant culture religions but had been hiding it. There might be some other homeschoolers out there that just are flying under the radar to fit in. The whole thing makes me sad. I am Catholic and so very much a Christian. But I would definitely check out a secular group if someone started one. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foxbridgeacademy Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 :grouphug: It is discouraging. I found that getting involved with my new town's FB HSing groups helped me find the 2 other secular families (just kidding there's probably twice that here) :glare: . I think we have 120K people but around 25K are College students.... When I lived in a small town we had to drive 45 minutes or more to find people who were similar to us or very different from the standard HSer, it's in the top 3 reasons we moved, we needed diversity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FaithManor Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 I am homeschooling, and a christian. However, I homeschool entirely for academic reasons, and our homeschooling looks very different from what others in the area are doing. We've been disparaged and out and out insulted by others for our curricula choices, academic pursuits, etc. As a result, we don't get together with any other homeschooling families save one who is a dear, dear friend and is very open minded, non judgmental. So I get it. We've been very isolated too. Most of my friends irl have kids in PS and private school. We get along well. So my advice is to look for connections outside of homeschooling. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 So my advice is to look for connections outside of homeschooling. This. I happened to make friends with people in my secular homeschool group, but the base for the friendship are other interests. Homeschooling plays a marginal role. My DD never had any homeschooled friends, and my DS' friends are a mix, and many of them he met through common activities (sports, work), not through the homeschool group. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 I am homeschooling, and a christian. However, I homeschool entirely for academic reasons, and our homeschooling looks very different from what others in the area are doing. We've been disparaged and out and out insulted by others for our curricula choices, academic pursuits, etc. As a result, we don't get together with any other homeschooling families save one who is a dear, dear friend and is very open minded, non judgmental. So I get it. We've been very isolated too. Most of my friends irl have kids in PS and private school. We get along well. So my advice is to look for connections outside of homeschooling. We are another who are Christian but that isn't our primary impetus for homeschooling. I find that secular co ops have been lovely, because we meet tons of other families of various compositions. We would fit in just fine I the religious co ops bit on many ways we have more in common with other families who homeschool for the same reason we do :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mimm Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 I am Christian and a homeschooler but a much more liberal Christian than anyone else I've met in my Bible Belt town. I keep it "in the closet" so to speak most of the time. But it's discouraging. The homeschoolers in my area are an extremely homogeneous crowd. This is why diversity is important. Not just so you meet different people from you but so that the people you meet are used to meeting different people from them, and making allowances for that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SparklyUnicorn Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 I know very few Christian homeschoolers outside of these boards. The ones I know are atheists, agnostics, Buddhists, Muslim, who knows...other....etc.etc.... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wheres Toto Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 We are very liberal Christians who are homeschooling for quirky kid reasons, so I usually find the secular groups more to my taste. Locally my kids have found most of their friends through swim team, 4-H, Tai Kwan Do and other "afterschool" activities. We do some nature walk/park day type stuff with local homeschoolers but considering where I live it's surprising how many of the co-ops are Christian with a statement of faith that I would not be able to sign. Online - I feel pretty comfortable here but I also belong to the Secular Homeschool Community (not nearly as active as here but good if you are looking for curriculum recommendations that are secular), SEA (Secular, Eclectic, Academic) Homeschool on Facebook, and a few others. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seeking Squirrels Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 I don't even *know* anyone who isn't religious at least to some degree. And the least religious of them are not homeschooling. :( It is lonely sometimes. We have joined a "secular" co-op for next year, but that's only with regard to the content of the co-op classes. Of the people in the group, all I've met so far are religious. (Technically I do "know" some non-religious, but only online, none IRL.) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
need2read Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 I'm a Christian homeschooler but I can empathize with you because I homeschool for academic reasons, not religious. But all of the other homeschoolers here do it for religious reasons and are kind of militant about it, which I don't care for. If someone started a secular homeschool group I would join. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jayne J Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 I felt utterly shut out of the local homeschool scene (extremely conservative Christian) until I was lucky enough to stumble onto the 'underground' homeschool scene (by which I mean the secular/inclusive/eclectic/even-slightly-unschooly crowd). They seem to be sort of shadow worlds to each other--neither acknowledging the other, and never the twain shall meet LOL! At the risk of stereotyping, I would have found this group much more quickly had I been looking for them outside the box--whole foods markets, CSA pick-ups, yoga studios, alternative healing places, the local UU congregation, skate parks, music venues, local creative/maker type spaces. Kinda nebulous, but it never hurts to ask. This may be just my area though, so YMMV. Our group is a great mix of Christian, pagan/heathen, atheist, Buddhist, and who knows what else, and I feel extremely lucky to have found them. Best of luck to you! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audrey Posted July 12, 2016 Share Posted July 12, 2016 I have friends of many religions. So I have a diverse circle, but I do not know anyone who home schools who is not a southern Christian religion. I feel discouraged. There are lots of us here. Try not to let it get you down if you don't know anyone IRL who isn't religious. My ds will be going into his Grade 12 as a homeschooler in the fall. We've only ever homeschooled. We have NEVER met another homeschooler IRL who wasn't religious. We also don't know of any other homeschoolers in our immediate area. It used to get me down sometimes, but I let go of that and just focused on our family and how homeschooling was good for us. I quit worrying about what anyone else thought of us, and it's a big relief not to carry that around anymore. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted July 13, 2016 Share Posted July 13, 2016 Oh, the small co-op I started wasn't secular but inclusive - anyone could come so long as nobody got in each other's faces about religion or lack thereof. It was a good way of finding chill families of all backgrounds. But that is secular: not having a religious basis. Secular does not mean atheist. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted July 13, 2016 Share Posted July 13, 2016 But that is secular: not having a religious basis. Secular does not mean atheist. That's what it means in our groups too. Non-religious may be a better term but it's basically just a statement that there is no ideology espoused by the co op and the classes are neutral in presentation and not posessing particularly obvious religious bent. Our co op has LDS, Protestant, Catholic, Agnostic, undeclared, and overtly Atheist members. We welcome all and our goal is friends and fun, educational parent led classes. It's a lovely group :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arcadia Posted July 13, 2016 Share Posted July 13, 2016 We are an atheist-agnostic family. I hang out more often with afterschoolers though because my kids like afternoon B&M classes held in public schools and taught by private vendors, as well as the free programming classes at libraries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BooksandBoys Posted July 13, 2016 Share Posted July 13, 2016 I'm not religious and am leaving an incredibly liberal area to move to the Bible Belt and continue homeschooling. It could be interesting, but I'm hopeful that I'll find awesome friends regardless of religion. I hope you can find what you're looking for, Janeway. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jyhwkmama Posted July 13, 2016 Share Posted July 13, 2016 There are many secular homeschoolers in my area. I feel very lucky. I hang out with them when we do a coop class, it is through them. However, my local convention is sponsored by a local Christian homeschooling group and has many religious vendors (last time included Ken Ham and Let Them Marry along with the large Christian vendors like Sonlight and Abeka). I still go to the vendor fair because there are always a few secular things to see and a Rainbow Resource booth. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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