The Struggles of a Secular Homeschooler

As for me and my house, we do not want religious based curricula.  We have a strong belief in the science of evolution, along with preferring to keep religion and school as two very separate things. I know we're not the only ones, but sometimes it seems as if we're an underrepresented segment of the homeschooling population.  

A quick search of homeschooling publishers gives you easy access to affordable, well packaged curricula.  If you're Christian and want the school day to reflect this.  Even a large amount of the planners I looked at carried religious overtones, with inspirational verses and/or specific sections for Bible study planning.  

If that's your thing, then go for it.  The options are bountiful.  If not, then you feel my pain.  

Now I'm not saying I don't want to educate my children on world religions, or the history of the popular ones, and all the other important aspects of being wise in that course of study.  I just don't want to take a mass market concept of religion and shove it down their throats before they're old enough to make their own decisions.  

Now for finding the tools I need, I've often turned to Amazon.  They have a great selection of books, many of which I've used.  I love the workbook style of the Spectrum series.  They've served me well in the past, and even if they aren't fancy, they come in a wide variety of subjects and grade levels.  It's easy to pull out a couple of the perforated pages to send with the kids when they go to their aunt's while I'm at work.  However, coming into 7th grade, I knew I needed a more in depth curriculum for the Monkey, and the reading and writing books were either too easy or too difficult for my struggling Monster.  

I've also utilized these books in the past.  They come in handy dandy complete curriculum beasts with the same convenient workbook style pages.   Those aren't going to work this year either.  See reasons above.  

I definitely stalked Amazon looking for good deals and good reviews, but I found it rather difficult to cull through the results for 

A. Secular 

B. The appropriate grade level and subject combination

Searching can bring up any number of results, and it was, to be honest a little overwhelming. 

Then I happened upon the most amazing website.  

https://www.rainbowresource.com/

This site lets me search by grade level, by subject, by publisher, anything.  It gives excellent detailed descriptions and reviews for almost every item.  They have a huge selection of secular homeschooling materials and an easy to navigate ordering system.  Boom!  Not to mention all the other fun subjects that I had to remove from my cart so I wouldn't spend my mortgage on electives.  This site seems to have some of the very best prices though!  I'll definitely be adding some of those to our curriculum one at a time though.  

I'm thinking about the Saxon Pre-Algebra course for the Monkey.  It looks pretty perfect for giving a little more focus to math this year.  The kit comes with a text book, a workbook, test forms, and a solutions manual.  Here is where the Monkey differs from a lot of kids.  He does amazing on tests.  If it seems as if he has a strong grasp of a subject, I'll give him the test and then we can move on.  

Saxon also has a Grammar and Writing kit that I'm ordering.  I'm all about a bandwagon, so I figured if I was jumping on I might as well be in it for the long haul.  

For the Monster, I am seriously considering All About Reading. I had no problems with a young Monkey.  He picked everything up so quickly.  With the Monster, it's a whole different story.  She struggles ya'll.  Then, if it's difficult, she gets frustrated and sort of shuts down.  Not to mention she gets bored quickly with the teaching methods I've used in the past.  I think that part of it is definitely my approach.  I'm trying to use the same methods that work for my son, and she's a completely different type of student.  

I read a LOT to come to this decision.  I googled like mad.  Different methods.  Different books.  New concepts.  This seemed like one that:

A.  Could be as fun for me to teach as for her to learn

B.  Might actually get through to her in a method she can understand

C. Had so much positive feedback from actual users.

I'll stick with a basic 2nd grade math book for her, because that seems to come so easy to her.  

As for Science and Social Studies this year, my goal is to keep it as fun as it is educational.  I haven't gotten those ordered yet because, as you'll come to know, I am the absolute QUEEN of indecision.

So, kindly wish me luck, and tell me - where do you go for your resource needs?  I'd love to see suggestions and links!