Is Homeschool Made Up Of Just Religious Homeschooling Families?

Religious homeschooling certainly makes up a large portion of home school families. However, the number of non religious homeschool families (secular homeschoolers) who follow non religious homeschool curriculum are rising. There are Christian religious homeschool curriculum and Catholic homeschool curriculum choices along with secular curriculum options to meet your needs!

RELIGIOUS HOMESCHOOLING: female hand turning the page of a Bible sitting on a table

ABOUT RELIGIOUS HOMESCHOOLING

Are all homeschoolers religious?

People who don’t know much about homeschooling or are just starting homeschool sometimes assume that homeschoolers are made up of just a few unusual families here and there who are homeschooling for religious reasons, usually in the Christian faith. However, Christian homeschooling does not exclusively make up home education today. There are many secular homeschool families and non religious homeschooling families today!

What is religious homeschool?

Religious homeschool is when parents homeschool from a religious perspective, mostly Christian Bible-based, incorporated into most subjects of their school learning.

What does secular homeschool mean?

What is secular homeschool? Secular homeschool means that a home school family does not follow any particular religion or that don’t homeschool for religious reasons. There are many non-religious homeschool programs, non christian homeschooling curriculum, and secular homeschool curriculum available for families who do not want to include religion worldview or perspectives in their studies.

Historically, there have been two polarizing groups of homeschooling families:

1. Christian homeschooling families, who homeschool for religious reasons, and make up the vast majority of homeschoolers.

2. Progressive homeschooling families, who prefer non-traditional educational
methods that have nothing to do with religion.

Today, while a large portion of homeschoolers are religious, there seems to be much more fluidity in the homeschooling movement — with many homeschool families falling somewhere in the middle.

There are both Christian homeschool programs and curricula AND non religious homeschool programs (or secular homeschool unit studies / non religious homeschooling curriculum) readily available to meet your home education needs.

Homeschooling For Religious Reasons: A Closer Look

Religious Homeschooling Statistics

Homeschool statistics report that there are an estimated 1.7 million homeschoolers — or the percentage of homeschoolers is about 3 percent of the school-age population (5-17 years) — in the United States.

That’s certainly not an insignificant number!

In The National Household Education Surveys (NHES) program survey of 2017 — which is the latest published aggregate on homeschool data — 16 percent of parents reported “a desire to provide religious instruction” as their main reason for homeschooling.

However, it was not the top reason parents listed for homeschooling.

A whopping 80 percent listed “a concern about the environment of other schools, such as drugs, safety, or negative peer pressure” as their reason for homeschooling.

RELIGIOUS HOMESCHOOLING: CONCLUSION

Let’s recap:

  • There are still many homeschool families who educate at home for Bible-based learning or to provide a homeschool religious education / homeschool catholic religious education. TIP: Search free christian homeschool or Christian home schooling packages online.
  • There are also homeschool parents who teach religious studies during homeschool, but religious homeschooling statistics tell us that may not be their biggest motivation for homeschooling.
  • Other homeschooling parents do not consider themselves religious and do not homeschool for this reason nor incorporate this topic into their learning and mainly follow homeschool curriculum non religious (homeschool curriculum non Christian). TIP: Search for best secular homeschool curriculum packages, free online secular homeschool curriculum or secular homeschool curriculum list online to see options.
  • There are many homeschooling religious reasons, as well as non-religious reasons.
  • There are both non religious homeschool groups / non religious homeschool co op and religious homeschool groups / co ops available for your kids.

The point is this: no matter your belief system or reasons for homeschooling, there’s a place for you!

There is a great deal of diversity in homeschooling today! You can learn a lot from each other if you open yourself to it.

Why Are There Only Religious Homeschooling Families text over a caucasian woman's hand turning the pages of a Bible sitting on a table

HOMESCHOOLING MYTHS DEBUNKED: THERE ARE NOT ONLY RELIGIOUS HOMESCHOOLING FAMILIES, BUT MANY SECULAR HOMESCHOOLERS / NON-RELIGIOUS HOMESCHOOLERS, TOO!

Julia, Educator & Homeschool Mom
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