Secular Homeschool Curriculum: The Real Options

Secular homeschool curriculum exists in far more depth than it did a decade ago, and it comes in two useful flavors: explicitly secular programs written from a mainstream academic standpoint (evolution and deep time in the science, religions taught as history), and neutral programs that simply don’t take a position either way — most math, most handwriting, most grammar. Practically, that means you only have to shop carefully in three subjects: science, history, and any all-in-one that bundles them. Everything else, you can buy on quality alone. Below is the market as it actually stands, described factually, with no argument about who should use what.

House policy, stated plainly: this site covers secular and faith-based curricula as market options and endorses neither. I was taught with a mix of both, and the programs I remember were the ones that fit the kid, not the ones that matched a worldview.

Secular, neutral, and “faith-optional” are three different things

The words get used interchangeably in Facebook groups and they shouldn’t be.

Secular — written from a mainstream academic frame. Science teaches evolution, an old earth, and the standard scientific consensus; history treats religions as historical subjects. Pandia Press, Torchlight, Build Your Library, Oak Meadow.
Neutral — no religious content and no explicit position, usually because the subject doesn’t require one. Most maths, spelling, handwriting, and logic programs live here. A neutral program is not the same as a secular one, and in science that distinction matters.
Faith-optional — a publisher that sells the same materials with or without religious components. Timberdoodle’s kits, for instance, are offered in both a Christian and a non-religious edition at each grade level.

Knowing which of the three you’re looking at saves the most common secular-shopper frustration: buying a “neutral” science program and discovering it simply avoids the topics you wanted taught.

The secular all-in-ones worth knowing

If you want one box that covers most subjects, these are the names that come up repeatedly, and they differ more in flavor than in quality:

Oak Meadow — secular, Waldorf-inspired, K–12, founded in the 1970s. Heavy on nature, art, narrative, and hands-on work; gentler and less workbook-driven than most. Unusually, they also run an accredited distance-learning school for families who want teacher support and transcripts, which the book-only curriculum doesn’t include.
BookShark — the secular, literature-based option, built on a four-day, 36-week schedule with instructor guides that lay out the week for you. Everything arrives in one box: readers, read-alouds, history, language arts, science, with math options alongside. If you liked the idea of a literature-based program but not the religious content, this is the one people mean.
Build Your Library — secular literature-based with Charlotte Mason and classical influences, sold as downloadable guides rather than boxes, spanning a wide range of levels. Cheaper and more DIY: you source most books through the library.
Torchlight — secular, discussion-driven, built around diverse modern literature. Check the current list of available levels before you commit — its range has historically been shorter than Build Your Library’s.
Blossom & Root — secular, nature- and arts-forward, strongest in the early years, popular with families who want a gentle non-workbook start.

Full program-by-program comparison, including the faith-based boxes, sits in all-in-one homeschool programs compared.

Science is why most people go looking

Science is the subject where “neutral” quietly fails a secular family, so it’s worth choosing first.

Pandia Press REAL Science Odyssey — the long-standing secular homeschool science spine, hands-on and incremental, with levels across life, earth and space, chemistry, and physics. The same publisher’s History Odyssey and History Quest are the secular history counterparts.
Elemental Science — classical-method science sequences by stage, written to be usable by families across the worldview spectrum.
Mystery Science and Generation Genius — video-and-activity science aligned to mainstream standards, subscription-based. Not a full curriculum on their own for older grades, but they solve “I don’t want to teach science” honestly.

The test to apply before buying, whatever the label: pull the sample for the unit on earth history or life science and read it. Two pages tells you more than any review, including this one.

History without a worldview problem

Curiosity Chronicles runs a dialogue format — two characters walking a student through the period — for roughly first through seventh grade, and it’s the current favorite in secular circles. Pandia Press covers the same ground more traditionally.

One caution about the most-recommended alternative: The Story of the World is widely used by secular families and treats religious narratives as historical accounts within the story of the ancient world. Plenty of secular families are comfortable with that framing; some are not. Read the first chapter of volume one before you buy the set.

Math, language arts, and the rest: buy on fit

Here the worldview question mostly evaporates, and the choosing method is the same one in how to choose homeschool curriculum — the child first, then the teacher, then the format.

Math: Math Mammoth (worktext, mastery, inexpensive PDFs), Singapore-style programs, RightStart, Beast Academy from Art of Problem Solving (comic-format, deliberately hard), and the mainstream classroom publishers. All are usable by any family.
Reading and phonics: essentially all mainstream phonics programs are neutral. The sequence matters more than the brand — see teaching your child to read at home.
Grammar, spelling, handwriting: neutral almost without exception. Check sample sentences if you’re sensitive to sourcing, and otherwise ignore the question.

What secular families pay for

The one real cost difference: the free-PDF end of the market skews faith-based. Several religious publishers give whole language-arts levels away as downloads, and secular families don’t have an equivalent at that scale — so a secular year is often a bit more cash and a bit less printing. It’s a modest gap, not a chasm, and library-heavy programs like Build Your Library close most of it. The budget bands are in what homeschooling really costs.

If you love a faith-based program’s format

This happens constantly and there’s no crime in it. Three honest options: buy it and skip or discuss the passages you don’t want (workable in language arts, tiresome in science); buy the same publisher’s non-religious edition where one exists; or take the format you liked — the scripted lesson, the four-day week, the literature spine — and find the secular program built the same way. Format is usually what you actually fell for.

FAQ: secular homeschool curriculum

Secular curriculum is written from a mainstream academic standpoint — evolution and an old earth in science, religion covered as history — while neutral curriculum simply contains no religious content because the subject doesn’t call for it. Most math and language arts is neutral; science and history are where the difference bites.

Is there a complete secular all-in-one?

Yes — Oak Meadow, BookShark, Build Your Library, Torchlight, and Blossom & Root all sell multi-subject packages. Levels, formats, and how much of the day they fill vary a lot, so compare the weekly schedule and the parent workload before the book list.

Can I use a Christian program and just skip the religious parts?

Many families do, especially in language arts where the content is easy to swap. It’s harder in science, where the worldview is structural rather than decorative — you’d be editing the actual instruction, not skipping a verse.

Is secular curriculum more expensive?

Slightly, on average, mostly because the largest free-download offerings come from faith-based publishers. Library-based programs and PDF math close most of the gap.

Where do I check a program’s stance before buying?

The publisher’s own sample pages and scope-and-sequence, in that order — not a review site’s label. Independent review directories are useful for shortlists, but only the samples tell you how a program handles the topics you care about.