need some help finding secular ELA

[mountains27]

...and science and history/SS but I am focused on ELA at the moment so I'll start there 😄 I have a 7th grader and a 9th grader and I don't need their program to be the same. I bought them both soaring with spelling already but still am searching for lit/writing and grammar. Does not need to be all in the same program but does need to be secular.

If anyone has any recommendations I would really appreciate some help 🙂

[mountains27]

thank you, I just found that Essentials in writing/lit and like the looks of it a lot! I want to check with my kids and see what they feel about watching video instruction vs. all just learning from a book. My son was PS last year with the last 2 months 100% remote learning and my daughter is just now finishing her online charter school.... they didn't like it very much! and I am afraid they might be so turned off from online anything at this point they might balk at this, but I am going to show them the sample and give it a shot! 🙂

[mountains27]

16 minutes ago, Paradox5 said:

Science: Ah, the bane of a secular homrschooler. Oak Meadow (good to check for all your needs, actually), Pandia Press Real Science Ody., CK12, Mr. Q, 

haha, yes this is a tricky one 😕 my daughter is a horse girl and works full time at a stable so she is getting a homemade Equine science course for this year but I might want to find a lite biology class to add in too.

My son loves chickens and space so I am trying to find a lite poultry science course for him (maybe from 4-H mall) and an astronomy curriculum. 🐓🪐

[Syllieann]

I like writing with skill combined with fix it grammar.  in addition to the science options Paradox listed, you might want to see if the books by centripetal press would work for you for science.  They have a Christian arm, Novare (Trinitarian Chrisian but not young earth or anti-evolution) and centripetal is the secular arm.  It might be easier to use than the secular science from big name publishers.  They were recently acquired by Classical Academic Press, but the same books existed before CAP owned them.

[almondbutterandjelly]

Buy a telescope.  It will probably come with a booklet of stuff to look at.  For books, I really like DK Smithosonian Space! The Universe As You've Never Seen It Before.  (In fact, that's kind of mostly what we did for a semester of Astronomy.)

https://www.amazon.com/Space-Universe-Before-Knowledge-Encyclopedias/dp/1465438068

Oh, and Mosdos Press and Textword have nice lit books.

Edited August 13, 2020 by perkybunch

[almondbutterandjelly]

21 hours ago, Paradox5 said:

Thanks for this. I hadn’t heard of Textword before. Would you elaborate a bit about it? 
Mosdos doesn’t have high school books anymore. Unless they have a separate website for it, the main one stops at 8th.

Here is Textword's website:

http://www.textword.com/

I mentioned Mosdos because she said she had a 7th grader.

[almondbutterandjelly]

OP, Figuratively Speaking is also GREAT for those ages if you haven't done it yet.

https://www.amazon.com/LW-1020-FIGURATIVELY-SPEAKING-Delana-Heidrich/dp/0881603171/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=figuratively+speaking&qid=1597508166&sr=8-2

[SilverMoon]

You might look at Build Your Library for secular history, science, and lit. 🙂 

My 7th is using Writing With Skill and Analytical Grammar for English; both are secular. Literature is through Build Your Library and a pile of high quality children's literature. (BYL doesn't need more books! It's plenty for most kids. He's just not one of those kids.) He's done with spelling and we don't do separate vocab. So it's just writing, grammar, and lit. 🙂 

I like Figuratively Speaking for this age too! He's done bits already, but he's barged into his high school siblings' literature lessons so much that he's covered much of it. 

Edited July 5 by SilverMoon

[Shoeless]

Michael Clay Thompson for ELA is secular. 

CPO Science is secular and appropriate for middle school. I think they have a 9th grade physics course, too. 

[kiwik]

On 8/13/2020 at 6:35 AM, Paradox5 said:

Essentials in Writing/Literature comes to mind right off

I know Lori D. has some great ideas.

History: Pandia Press History Quest/Odyssey, k12 Human Ody.,

Science: Ah, the bane of a secular homrschooler. Oak Meadow (good to check for all your needs, actually), Pandia Press Real Science Ody., CK12, Mr. Q, 

If you are really strict Essentials in Writing doesn't seem  secular.  Mr Q is described as neutral. My son is using Lantern English and while I haven't seen anything I think it is a Christian Organisation.  Actually the only one I can think off I have seen was 4square writing and I think the Time4Writing class my older son did.