Secular vs. Christian Homeschool in Delaware: Communities and Curriculum Options

Delaware's organized homeschool community has a heavily religious bent, which surprises some families when they first start looking around. The Tri-State Homeschool Network — the largest co-op serving Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland — requires a signed statement of faith for membership. The Delaware Home Education Association (DHEA), which was instrumental in passing Delaware's 1997 homeschool laws, is similarly oriented toward traditional Christian homeschooling.

This doesn't mean secular homeschooling is unwelcome or legally restricted in Delaware. Delaware's homeschool law says nothing about curriculum content or religious affiliation. But it does mean that if you're a secular family, you'll need to know where your community and resources actually are.

The Christian Homeschool Infrastructure in Delaware

Tri-State Homeschool Network serves Delaware, southeastern Pennsylvania, and northeastern Maryland. It's one of the more active co-op networks in the region, with classes covering a range of subjects and regular family events. Membership requires agreement with a statement of faith — this is a firm requirement, not a formality. Secular and non-Christian families are not the intended audience.

The network offers genuine value for Christian families: a ready-made community, accountability, social structure, and shared resources. If that's your context, it's worth exploring.

DHEA (Delaware Home Education Association) has been around since before Delaware's current homeschool law and played an advocacy role in shaping the 1997 legislation. Their focus is primarily on legal rights and advocacy for traditional homeschoolers. They're less of an active co-op provider and more of an information and advocacy resource, but they're identifiably faith-oriented in their orientation and member base.

Local church co-ops: Many Delaware churches host informal homeschool co-ops that meet weekly or bi-weekly for shared classes. These are typically Christian-oriented — often explicitly so — and range from one or two families sharing a church basement to organized multi-family programs with a dozen or more students. Quality and structure vary widely.

Where Secular Families Connect

Secular Delaware homeschoolers find each other primarily through less formal channels:

The "Homeschool Delaware" Facebook group (4,000+ members) is the most active community and includes families of all religious orientations. It's not explicitly secular, but it's not faith-gated either. The quality of legal advice in the group is inconsistent — members regularly post outdated or incorrect information about Delaware's requirements — but as a social and networking hub, it's the most accessible entry point.

Secular curriculum groups online: Most secular homeschool families in Delaware connect with state-agnostic communities organized around specific curriculum choices (Classical Conversations for classical; Brave Writer for language arts; Math-U-See or Beast Academy for math) or philosophy (unschooling groups, Charlotte Mason groups).

Independent pods: Many secular families in Delaware end up building their own small pods rather than joining existing co-ops. A group of four to eight families with aligned values and curriculum preferences can create exactly the community they're looking for without having to fit into an existing religious framework.

Curriculum Options by Philosophy

Delaware law imposes no curriculum requirements. Parents can use any materials, any approach, or no packaged curriculum at all. The main choices break down roughly like this:

Classical education: Structured, logic-focused, often literature-heavy. Classical Conversations is the most recognized program in this category and is explicitly Christian. Secular classical options include The Well-Trained Mind (Susan Wise Bauer) and associated curricula. Classical education microschools — where families share instruction in Latin, rhetoric, and classical subjects — are growing in Delaware's co-op and pod ecosystem.

Charlotte Mason: Emphasis on living books, nature study, narration, and short lessons. Not inherently religious; many secular families use the method. Ambleside Online is free and widely used but has a Protestant Christian flavor in its book selections; Simply Charlotte Mason and other variants are available.

Project-based learning: Students work on extended real-world projects rather than traditional subject-by-subject instruction. Popular in microschool settings because it scales well to multi-age groups and doesn't require a strict daily schedule.

Secular eclectic: Most Delaware homeschool families end up mixing: a structured math program (Beast Academy, Singapore Math, Math-U-See), a language arts approach (Brave Writer, Institute for Excellence in Writing), and then whatever interests-based content covers science, history, and electives.

Waldorf: Artistic, developmental, rhythm-focused. Waldorf-inspired homeschooling is not inherently religious, though Waldorf philosophy has anthroposophical roots. A small but active Waldorf homeschool community exists in the greater Wilmington area given proximity to the Waldorf school tradition in the region.

Spanish Immersion and Bilingual Homeschooling in Delaware

Delaware has a significant Spanish-speaking population, particularly in areas of New Castle County and some communities in Kent County. Spanish immersion homeschooling — where instruction in one or more subjects is conducted in Spanish — is a growing niche.

Options for Delaware families pursuing bilingual or Spanish-focused instruction:

Dual language curricula: Programs like Sonrisas Spanish, Rosetta Stone (not rigorous for native speakers), and Dreaming Spanish (immersion-based video content) are used by homeschool families pursuing Spanish maintenance or acquisition.

Bilingual tutors: Delaware's proximity to Wilmington, Philadelphia, and the I-95 corridor makes it feasible to find Spanish-speaking private tutors or educators for pod settings. A bilingual educator hired as an independent contractor for a multi-family pod can deliver subject matter instruction in Spanish for two to three days per week.

Delaware Technical Community College: Delaware Tech offers dual enrollment to homeschoolers, including some foreign language courses. This is more relevant for high school students pursuing Spanish at an advanced level.

Building a Secular or Bilingual Pod in Delaware

If the existing co-op landscape doesn't fit — because it's faith-gated, geographically inconvenient, or philosophically misaligned — building a small independent pod is the practical alternative for Delaware secular families.

Delaware's nonpublic school framework (14 Del. Code §2703A) doesn't distinguish between religious and secular homeschools. All operate under the same legal structure: file a Notice of Intent, maintain 180 days of attendance, and teach the required subjects. No curriculum approval, no religious test, no state oversight of content.

A secular pod of five to eight families, sharing a hired educator two to three days per week, costs roughly $200 to $500 per student per month depending on the educator's rate — comparable to religious co-op fees, without the statement of faith.

The Delaware Micro-School & Pod Kit includes the legal setup framework and operational templates for independent pods in Delaware, whether your educational philosophy is classical, secular eclectic, bilingual, or anything in between.

See more United States homeschool guides →