The Pagan Homeschool: Where is All the Curriculum?

Let me start by saying that I don’t believe that all curriculum should be based on religion. I have been homeschooling for almost eleven years. I have been pagan for over twenty years. I would say that makes me a pagan homeschooler. Paganism isn’t a current topic of study at our house but my beliefs to infuence my teaching. Still after all these years of homeschooling I still have the same doubts I did as when I started. I think that is true for most parents. I have tried several different curriculums. My kids hated 95% of it. So I keep looking for new and better things to try. I don’t feel upto the task of dealing with christian based curriculums and the non-religious ones we have tried are just to boring and not indusive to my children’s style of learning. Worksheets are the enemy at my house.

This year we will be trying a Waldorf based curriculum. I can hear some of you screaming and some of you clapping. I know it is not pagan, curriculums don’t seem to come that way. While I’m not going to be following the curriculum to the letter, I will be using it as a guide. I will be customizing it to fit my beliefs and my kids. After I get going on it I will be blogging about. I hope to be able to help and inspire other pagan parents. The books I will be using are “Spiritual Syllabus by Alan Whitehead”. I know this will mean more work for me. I will have to plan out all the lessons, but I feel it will be worth it.

Will there ever be a pre-packaged pagan curriculum? I don’t know. Paganism is too diverse for one boxed curriculum. Are pagan parents currently out there building their own curriculums or only un-schooling? As parents will we be able to speak up and tell curriculum publishers what we want? I don’t know. On days like today, I’m left feeling like the outsider. Being pagan puts me outside of the mainstream. Beging a homeschooler puts me outside of the mainstream. Being a pagan homeschooler puts me way outside most streams. I think that maybe a feeling shared by other pagan homeschoolers. I think that if I had the skills I would make teaching aids for pagan parents. Maybe they are already out there lurking in cyberspace waiting to be discovered.