Homeschooling Support Group

mom96, there's actually no such thing as macro evolution vs micro evolution. it's all the same. there was never any difference at all until a few years back and it was a term made up by conservative christians. talk to any scientist about evolution and they'll be able to tell you the real facts. "macro" evolution as you would think of it is nothing but millions of "micro" evolutions over billions of years. Meaning that a fish doesn't suddenly become a lizard. Evolution is highly misunderstood by a lot of people and, when the time comes for your children to learn that part of science, perhaps you could get a "special speaker" to come in and talk about it. Like maybe a scientist or a professor from the local university? Someone who can really take the mystery out of it and help it make sense.

I'm really glad you're going to teach it to your kids since it's not just popular among scientists but accepted as fact among scientists (of all kinds, not just ones who study evolution). Although I'm not a Christian, I honestly don't see what's wrong with believing in both creationism and evolution.. why can't God have created evolution? Doesn't it say somewhere in the bible that a day to God is like a lifetime to us or something like that? It's better to teach kids how to accept both science and religion and mesh them together (if you must teach them religion) than that science is incorrect because when they get older, especially now that evolution is not even really a question among the scientific community, they'll start questioning their faith if it contradicts science and I'm sure you don't want that.

There are people far more qualified than you or I -who are on both sides of the fence. I disagree with your Macro/Micro statement. It is not a mystery to me, I have a science background and could have taught it at the secondary level in my state. I know scientists. My FIL was a scientist from a significant University. No, scientists don't all believe in evolution. Yes, I even know a few theistic evolutionists (Christian, Muslim and Hindu)who are also established scientists. It wouldn't change my faith in Christ, I just totally disagree that the evidence is there. But I don't want to discuss it with long posts on a homeschooling site. If you are a scientist, and you want to set up a website or group, I will be happy to visit it and read your information. Otherwise, don't worry, my kids have had more exposure to labs and scientists than most adults.

i am not christian and may end up homeschooling my daughter. everytime i work with her though, she ends up in tears and i want to throw things, so i don't know if that will happen. when and if i do decide to take her out of public school, i'll be looking for secular curriculums to help me out too.

I understand your concern for not putting your child in pre-school, as a former pre-school teacher. I can say some does occur but not to the degree that it does later. If you are looking for socialization for your pre-schooler I would consider your local library for story time and other programs they are usually free and religion is not usually a factor. I currently work as a childrens program coordinator at a library and have seen some great friendships develop and they have set up there own play dates and pre-school home school groups informally but the content still applicable. I home schooled my daughter last year and it was difficult for me because she is bipolar and becasue of financial reasons I was trying to work full time also and it was too much for me. I was a non-chrisitian home schooler. I am writing this from work right now but have sources at home that may help you. I will forward info. later to see if you could use. Hope you have a great day.

I encourage you to rent the movie "Expelled".
I homeschool my children in a public home study program, but I have the "say" as to what kind of curriculum they will follow.

I was a bit concerned as well with your emails, and really questioned if your pre-schooler is cognitively developing in a healthy environment, meeting the needs of a pre-schooler....
If you type it, people will read it and because the reader does not know you on a personal level, may misunderstand your comments and start questioning your own reasoning...

Based on my own experience as a public school teacher and mother, I too have found (even in a court of law) there is more evidence of J.C. dying on the cross and resurrecting from the dead on the third day, than evolution ocurring "millions or billions of years ago" as how the science books claim it happened in all public school text books. On top of that, in a court of law, the ressurection would hold more evidence than evolution because not all scientist agree about what happened "millions or billions of years ago"...were you there?

The eye witnesses for the resurrection alone would win this case...it has nothing to do with religion if you place it under a court of law, religion is man made anyway....Thanks for your post, Sincerely, a fundie...

I homeschooled for a number of years until moving this year to a good school district.

Get a catalog from Rainbow Resources. This catalog is more than 1000 pages thick. I'm sure you will be able to find non-religious curriculums.

=

The home schooling program I'm in is not secular, it's called Keystone. The type of program I'm doing is online classes but it's certified and is accepted by the board of education at least in my state. I've only been doing it for a few months but I really like it so far.

I do not teach any type of religion in home ed. I have however taught my son about the big bang theory. This makes more sense to me than the creation theory. I am an athiest. I home educate because my son who will be 15 in January,has autism and was bullied at school. At least he is safe and learning at the same time.

The homeschooling program that I am in is through a charter school and none of my curriculum is in any way religious-based. I'm sure we could get some if I were to want to, but I don't. I was raised Catholic, but I've turned my beliefs to Agnostic Atheism. I think that it is great for people to have a religion or beliefs and find support in a God or Gods, and I know that can be very helpful for people. I don't know what my science book has about evolution but in my mind, it is taught as theories. I was tutoring last year and found a lot of websites that provide curriculum. I would just Google what I needed and the resources were amazing. I don't know what's out there along the lines of non-christian, but maybe running some searches online would help? And depending what homeschooling program you're going through, maybe a school official, teacher, etc.?

hlks and sparkly -

Have you considered satellite schools? There are any number of non-Christian ones out there.

btw - just to try to eliminate any further confusion - secular MEANS non-religious. In our country, it is generally used to mean non-Christian.

I know in WI the public schools now offer satellite home schools, and there are numerous secular school (public schools) that offer them online as well.

I think you will find them by googling, if that sort of program interests you. They have their advantages and their disadvantages.\

I, myself am Christian and do homeschool. HOWEVER, the primary reason I drew my children out of public school when my oldest was in 2nd grade, in the 1980's, was not to teach them Christian curriculum, although that was part of it. The PRIMARY reason I homeschool is because of 1)government control of public schools 2) could not afford private schools, and even if I could, many of them use gov't funding 3) My son was ADHD and I did not want him "labelled", "left behind" or schooled by traditional methods of sitting in a desk all day.

I have to admit, I am slightly upset by your assumptions about Christians and homeschooling. While we may be the largest group of homeschoolers out there, we often have reasons very similar to yours for having chosen the homeschooling path.