Oh, hey there. Secular science is the reason I created Secular Homeschooler. I’m not even joking. I was so sick of finding young-earth creationist curriculum touted as science, that I decided to create this website so that other people could find great secular science material. Let’s get to it:

Post updated on 10/3/2020

Secular Homeschooler LLC participates in the Amazon Affiliate Program along with other affiliate marketing programs. This post contains affiliate links. That means that this site will make a tiny percentage on any purchase you make, at zero extra cost to you. It’s a great way to support something you love if you’re purchasing material anyways! It keeps this site running and it helps me keep this project moving forward. 

R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Secular Curriculum

First on the list is my absolute favorite science homeschooling resource. When I say R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey, I mean absolutely any of them. They’re all pure gold as far as science curriculum. R.E.A.L. stands for Read, Explore, Absorb, and Learn! The writer herself is fantastic as well. Her name is Blair Lee and she’s the creator of the SEA Homeschoolers community!

The R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey series covers Chemistry, Astronomy, Earth & Science, Physics, Life, and Biology! There are different levels to the textbooks. Level 1 is recommended for grades 1-5. Level 2 is recommended for grades 5-9!

“With RSO Life and Biology courses, students observe, speculate, hypothesize, experiment, and conclude through the topics of the human body, the plant kingdom, and the animal kingdom. Students learn by doing through engaging written lessons that are heavily reinforced by hands-on labs and activities.”

The best part of this curriculum, other than secularity, is that you can TEST IT OUT before buying. Who doesn’t love to try things out before spending money? I have purchased so many programs that I just didn’t end up using or didn’t end up liking. I’ve even purchased a curriculum that I thought was exciting, but my kids thought was lame. With R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey, you can test out a good chunk of it before making the purchase.

Moving Beyond the Page

“Moving Beyond the Page is a complete homeschool curriculum. Your children will grow in their love of learning through our literature-based curriculum that encourages critical and creative thinking, provides challenging and engaging projects, and supports different learning styles. All children can benefit from our unique approach to education. This is especially true for hands-on, creative, and gifted learners. A traditional or classical approach will often leave these children bored and uninspired.”

They have SO many different options for science, ranging from ages 7-14. You can check out all their science curriculum here. If you’re a catalog junkie, like me, you can request one for MBTP here.

Mystery Science

“Every lesson begins with a Mystery that hooks your students. I then narrate an unforgettable story told with stunning images and videos and punctuated with opportunities for discussion. Every lesson concludes with simple hands-on activities designed to use supplies you already have (or are easy to get).”

Mystery Science offers hands-on and exciting science mysteries on the topics of plants, animals, weather, force, lights, sound, water, storms, rocks, and anatomy. They are also currently offering several-hundred free trials!

Next Level Homeschool

So we HAVE to talk about Next Level Homeschool. They offer a Shark Month course because, obviously, one week is truly not long enough. They even offer a Harry Potter genetics course. Does anyone else get overly excited when they find Harry Potter homeschooling gold? I’m not even that concerned about signing up my actual kid for these courses. I just want to take them myself.

CK12.org, Robus Secular Evolution Lessons

You can sign up for a free account and check out all their Flexi books! Check out their biology section here – there are tons of quality evolution lessons.

Oak Meadow High School Science

Oak Meadow offers a lot in the way of secular science courses – Environmental Science for a Changing World, Biology and Chemistry (with labs), Physics, and AP Biology, Chemistry, and Physics 1 and 2. Being that I am still a catalog nerd, even a whole few paragraphs down, here is their sign-up link for such goodness.

Everything You Need to Know…(Secular) Science Edition!

“It’s the revolutionary science study guide just for middle school students from the brains behind Brain Quest.”

“Everything You Need to Ace Science . . . takes readers from scientific investigation and the engineering design process to the Periodic Table; forces and motion; forms of energy; outer space and the solar system; to earth sciences, biology, body systems, ecology, and more.”

Click here to grab it from Amazon US, UK, or Canada.

Scientific Connections Through Inquiry, a New Secular Curriculum

The makers of SCI teamed up with the writer of Building Foundations for Scientific Learning (See Volume I, grades K-2, Volume II grades 3-5, and Volume III, grades 6-8) to create a really robust science program that’s totally secular. One of the programs co-authors is actually the creator of Torchlight!

According to their website:

Each unit opens with an overview of the sessions, a list of materials needed for the unit, and optional extension books for interest-led deep dives or reinforced learning through reading. Each session will be made up of a mixture of these 4 components:

Discussion These sections are not meant to be read to your student. Discussions in Scientific Connections through Inquiry are intended to be organic conversations through which your student discovers new scientific information. Such discussion cannot be scripted because it will follow the path of your student’s thoughts toward the intended discoveries. In these sections, SCI provides the educator with the information they will need to guide the discussion toward discovery.

Activity Activities will involve doing something hands-on to explore the science being discovered more deeply. The activities have been designed to give you maximum scientific knowledge “bang” for your effort “buck”. Be sure to observe proper safety procedures during all activities, including using safety goggles and washing hands.

Student pages These pages are not busywork, they are intentionally created to deepen understanding, create a reference your student will refer to later, or record observations from an activity.

Videos These videos are accessible online and will explain or demonstrate a scientific concept. We work hard to keep the links updated, but if you find a broken one, let us know!

Other Super Secular Science Curriculum Programs:

(See our rating system database for more information. Everything from the following list was pulled from our “Super Secular” ratings.) Updated 10/6/2020. Currently being finished.

• Big History Project (website)
• Big Fat Notebooks
• Bill Nye the Science Guy (tv)
• The Biology Coloring Book by Robert D. Griffin
• Botany Adventure
• Brains On! (podcast)
• Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding (curriculum)
• Canadian Curriculum Books (includes science workbooks)
• Carson-Dellosa Publishing Group (science workbooks)
• The Cartoon Guide Book Series (science books)
• ChemExplained (chemistry website)
• Chemistry, The Great Courses
• Chickee and Roo
• CK-12 (FREE science flex-books)
• Conceptual Chemistry by John Suchocki (curriculum)
• Conceptual Physics by Paul Hewitt (curriculum)
• CPO Science (variety of curriculum programs)
• The Crash Course (YouTube)
• Curiosity Stream (tv)
• Daily Science by GROW Publications (assessment and activities)
• Derek Owns (online)
• Developing Critical Thinking through Science by The Critical Thinking Co.™ (lessons & experiments)
• Discovery Education (videos)
• DKfindout! (series and website)
• Dr. Dave’s Teaching Manuals
• Elemental Journal by Kimberly Bredberg and Sara Evans
• eScience3000
• Exploring Nature with Children (curriculum)
• Exploringnature.org (website)
• Eyewitness Weather by Brian Cosgrove (book)
• Firefly Nature School (printables)
• Friendly Chemistry by Joey and Lisa Hajda (group study)