Category Archives: HS101

5 Tips that Keep Learners Engaged and Brains FocusedBy Blair Lee, M.S. Homeschoolers are dreamers. We spend months dreaming about what the school year is going to look like for our learners. It is easy to romanticize how it is all going to go academically. There is only one problem standing between our hard work and making our secular homeschool dreams a reality — our children. Don’t they realize how long and hard you worked to make this year perfect? Are you beginning to wonder just what you got yourself into? Or, you might be reading this and patting yourself …

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Handcrafting a Culture of Thinking: Metacognition What are your plans for your secular homeschool curriculum this coming school year? Language arts? Math? Science? History? What learning skills are you planning on having your children work on? Wouldn’t it be great to handcraft a culture of thinking in your home that is personally meaningful for your learners while providing support for a learner-centered education? If you were thinking these skills are something kids will just pick up, think about how many adults you know who have not mastered all the learning skills. By weaving these learning skills into your secular homeschool …

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Handcrafting a Secular Homeschool Curriculum for a Balanced Learner Secular homeschoolers are planners. Have you ever thought about the process you use when doing this planning? Do you think about the subjects you will have your child focus on and what secular homeschool curriculum or online programs you will use? What about how you are going to help your child learn how to learn? Do you plan the specific learning strategies you will deploy to help your child become a lifelong learner? Raising Lifelong Learners Homeschooling parents often say that they want to raise lifelong learners. That is a worthy …

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What is the best secular homeschool curriculum? A common question asked by secular homeschoolers is, “What is the best secular homeschool curriculum?” It is easy to understand why a secular homeschooling parent would ask this. Wouldn’t it be great if there was one well-planned curriculum provider who you could go to for the purchase of all your curriculum needs? Unfortunately, the short answer is that there is no one best secular homeschool curriculum. That doesn’t mean you will not hear from other secular homeschoolers that they have found the latest and greatest secular homeschool curriculum to use with their kids, …

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10 Tips for Secular Homeschooling Deciding to homeschool is a big step. It is a big responsibility to oversee your child’s education. Deciding to secular homeschool can make the job seem even more challenging. However, there are some tried and true tips that can make the job of secular homeschooling much easier. Continue reading to learn more, and if you’re interested in joining the SEA Homeschooling community, join our Facebook group or become a member today! 1. Know why you are choosing a secular homeschool path For most homeschoolers, the How (to do it) takes up most of their time. …

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Vetting Secular Science Curriculum10 Ways to Make Sure Your Science Curriculum IS Secular Phew! You have finally done it. You spent hours, days, and weeks planning the courses and materials you will use for your secular homeschooling during the coming year. Your excitement over planning the best year of homeschooling EVER results in you sharing your plan at a park day or on Facebook. Instead of the expected accolades, you hear from people that your choice for science isn’t secular. Wait… what? The website you purchased the science from didn’t say the science wasn’t secular. Or worse yet, the website …

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Renaissance of a Handcrafted EducationFrom the time I was pregnant with my son, Sean, until he was a toddler, if you had asked me what I wanted him to be when he grew up, I would have told you I wanted him to be a Renaissance man. To me, the term Renaissance man means a person (male or female) who has a deep and nuanced knowledge over a broad range of fields. It refers to a person who is literate and can express oneself through writing, speaking, or both; a person who is a creative thinker; someone who is not …

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Eclectic Academic HomeschoolingOne question we get fairly often is: Is SEA (Secular, Eclectic Academic Homeschooling) an unschooler group or a rigor group? This isn’t an easy question to answer without a specific definition of unschooler. Unschoolers can range in approach from radical unschooler to a child/student-led approach that many radical unschoolers do not consider unschooling. SEA Homeschoolers is an Eclectic Academic Homeschooling Group Instead of focusing on the unschooling/unschooler aspect of this question, I will rewrite it to ask: Is SEA (Secular, Eclectic, Academic) Homeschoolers an academic group or not? That is an easy question to answer. We are an …

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What Is Secular Homeschool Curriculum?It can be challenging to find secular curricula and programs for your homeschooled children. To help, SEA Homeschoolers developed these definitions explaining what constitutes secular academic materials. Read on and be sure to connect with SEA Homeschoolers today! Secular Homeschool Curriculum: Science Secular science curricula and programs use empirical evidence-based information from peer reviewed research. Secular science curricula present the accepted facts, principles, models, and theories explaining how the natural and physical world works as recommended by a majority of practicing experts in that area of science. They do not incorporate religious philosophy into the curriculum …

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The Benefits of HomeschoolingThere is a revolution going on right now in education. It’s called homeschooling. I am part of a fringe group in this revolution. You don’t hear a lot from us, but there is a group of homeschoolers who consider our style to be secular, eclectic, academic homeschooling. You don’t hear from us because on the one hand we are the unloved mongrels of the homeschooling community, so we keep a low profile, and on the other hand, we are too busy figuring out how to best facilitate our children’s education. We spend too much time on academics …

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Why Neutral Science Isn't Neutral by Blair Lee Are there any science types reading this title wondering who I am? Or do you know who I am and think I've finally lost it? I am not talking about science as it is practiced and taught at most universities throughout the United States. I'm talking about the special brand of “neutral science" found in the homeschool community and increasingly in public schools in the United States. The neutral science I'm referring to is science that suffers from omission. These are middle and high school level science courses that leave out the …

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