Secular Homeschool Groups in Newfoundland: CHENL vs Non-Religious Options

When you start searching for homeschool community in Newfoundland, CHENL — the Christian Home Educators NL — comes up almost immediately. It's one of the most established and active homeschool organizations in the province. For families who share that faith orientation, it's a natural fit. For families who don't, it raises an immediate question: where do secular homeschoolers in NL actually connect?

The short answer is that secular community exists and is active, but it's more dispersed and less formalized than CHENL. This post explains what each option offers and how to find the right fit for your family.

What CHENL Is (and Isn't)

CHENL has been operating in Newfoundland for years and is a genuine community organization — not just a Facebook group with a name. It offers:

• Curriculum resources and recommendations aligned with a Christian worldview
• Community events and co-op opportunities for member families
• Peer support from experienced homeschoolers navigating the NL regulatory environment
• A shared value framework that makes parenting discussions feel coherent for faith-aligned families

What CHENL is not: a legal advocacy organization. It does not provide the kind of legal defense service that HSLDA Canada offers, and it doesn't manage withdrawal paperwork on your behalf. It's a community organization, not a compliance service.

If you're a Christian family homeschooling in NL, CHENL is probably the single most useful community connection you can make. Find it through Facebook.

If you're not — or if you're actively looking for a faith-neutral or explicitly secular environment — CHENL isn't the right fit, and that's fine. There are alternatives.

Secular Options in Newfoundland

Secular Science-Based Homeschoolers of NL — The most explicitly secular community group in the province. The group centers secular and science-based curriculum approaches, which makes it particularly useful for families with interests in STEM subjects, evolution, earth science, and evidence-based health education. It's a smaller group than CHENL or the general provincial group, but the members tend to be highly engaged.

This group is also the right place to ask about secular co-op activity. Occasional co-op-style learning events get organized through the group when enough families in an area want them — typically science-focused projects, outdoor learning days, or curriculum swap meetups.

Homeschoolers of Newfoundland and Labrador — The broader provincial group is not explicitly secular, but it's religiously mixed and generally inclusive. New members of all backgrounds participate. The group includes both faith-based and non-religious families, and conversations stay largely practical: Form 312A questions, curriculum comparisons, testing logistics, field trip coordination. It functions as the provincial commons — a place where all NL homeschoolers overlap regardless of worldview.

Reddit and national secular communities — Families in smaller provinces sometimes find that national or international secular communities (r/secularschooling, the Secular Homeschool forums) fill the gap that a local group can't fully address. If you're in a more remote area of NL and the provincial Facebook groups don't provide enough depth on secular curriculum or pedagogy, these broader communities are worth joining in parallel.

The Curriculum Question: Faith-Based vs. Secular Resources

The faith vs. secular divide matters most when selecting curriculum, not when filing withdrawal paperwork. The NL Department of Education does not require specific curriculum materials and does not evaluate what you teach — only that you're conducting education. The standardized testing requirement (typically the CAT-4 or similar approved test) evaluates academic outcomes, not curriculum philosophy.

That said, the curriculum choice is significant for day-to-day homeschooling. Families who accidentally order faith-integrated science or history materials and then realize they don't want that approach lose both money and time. The secular Facebook group is a good resource for specific product recommendations — Charlotte Mason resources that aren't faith-saturated, STEM curricula that handle topics like evolution straightforwardly, history programs written without a providential framework.

Common secular-friendly curricula mentioned in NL communities include:

• Math: Singapore Math, Beast Academy, RightStart Mathematics
• Science: Real Science Odyssey, DIVE Science (secular editions), Mystery Science
• Language arts: Writing With Skill, IEW secular editions, Michael Clay Thompson
• History: Story of the World (widely used; note the author has a Christian background but the text itself reads as straightforward narrative history — secular families use it regularly)

None of these require any specific religious orientation to use effectively.

Navigating Mixed-Group Situations

In a province with only around 222 homeschool students, you'll often find yourself in community spaces that include both religious and secular families. That's the reality of homeschooling in a small population. Most NL homeschoolers navigate this practically: the Christian families use faith-integrated curriculum at home, the secular families don't, and the group co-op activities stay focused on things that work for everyone — outdoor learning, museum visits, science projects, art.

Friction tends to be lower in practice than it sounds in the abstract. The shared experience of homeschooling in a small province, dealing with the same regulatory paperwork, and solving the same socialization challenges creates common ground that usually outweighs worldview differences in day-to-day interaction.

That said, if you specifically want co-op and community experiences free from religious content, the Secular Science-Based Homeschoolers of NL group is the right place to find that — both for the community itself and for finding families in your area who are building that kind of experience.

Withdrawal Comes First

Whichever community you end up with, the legal withdrawal process is the immediate priority before any of this becomes relevant. In Newfoundland, withdrawal requires submitting Form 312A to the Department of Education, meeting specific deadlines based on when you're withdrawing in the school year, and understanding the ongoing requirements — annual testing, work sample documentation, and the renewal process.

The Newfoundland and Labrador Legal Withdrawal Blueprint walks through that process in full: the Form 312A submission, the standardized testing requirement, documentation standards, and what to do when a principal or school board administrator pushes back on a withdrawal. Getting the paperwork right before pulling your child from school prevents the complications that follow when it isn't done correctly.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is CHENL only for religious families?

CHENL is specifically a Christian organization and its community events and resources are oriented accordingly. Families from other backgrounds can technically join, but the group's activities and culture center Christian homeschooling. It's not the right primary community for secular families, though some secular families participate in specific events that aren't faith-specific.

Are there secular homeschool co-ops in Newfoundland?

Not permanent, institutionalized ones — but informal co-op activity does get organized through the Secular Science-Based Homeschoolers of NL group when families in a given area want to create it. In St. John's, where the population is densest, this is most feasible. Post in the group describing your area and interest; if other families nearby are looking for the same thing, that's how informal co-ops form.

Does the Department of Education care about curriculum philosophy?

No. NL's homeschool regulations assess whether a home education program is providing adequate instruction across required subject areas — they don't evaluate curriculum philosophy, religious orientation, or pedagogical method. Secular and faith-based programs are held to the same standardized testing standard.

What if I live in a rural area and can't access either community in person?

The Facebook groups function as virtual communities for exactly this reason. Families in rural NL and Labrador rely on them for ongoing peer support, curriculum advice, and the kind of problem-solving conversation that isn't possible in isolation. In-person co-op participation simply isn't feasible for many families in the province, and the groups serve as the functional alternative.

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