The Secular Gifted Network

Up until now, I'd been doing all the things to try to find everything I needed among the mishmash of services, blogs, forums, and newsletters. I muddled through the ads and pop-ups. I sorted "secular" from "secular enough" and tossed "not secular at all." I searched groups and forums and websites looking for curriculum, co-ops, and community, but I never quite found it in all one spot. And, I still had to figure out if it would work for my special-needs kid!

I got tired, y'all -- tired of the constant barrage of information; the fallacies, falsities, and falsehoods; the difficulty in finding and connecting with like minds. I thought, there has to be something more, together in one place.

“It’s very difficult to build a community and build real relationships, when you’re constantly being kicked out to something else.” Gina Bianchini, from "Why We’re Ending Our Love Affair with Slack and Facebook" by Laurence McCahill at The Happy Startup School

In rural and suburban areas especially, where resources can be limited to web searches and the limitations of Facebook groups, for homeschoolers to use a platform that highlights meeting people first, and everything else second, is monumental.

“Facebook connects people who know each other, and makes money holding back information about people’s interests to sell to advertisers,” . . . “This means that Facebook isn’t exactly motivated to introduce you to new people around the things you may have in common.” -- from "Gina Bianchini Is Taking On Facebook Once Again With Mighty Networks" by Daniel Terdiman at Fast Company

Enter the Secular Gifted Network. Here, we're not superficial. We're in it for the deeper connections and truer friendships with people who share our interests, passions, and circumstances. We're bringing more together every day.

Our mission is to bring together secular home educators of #gifted and #2e kids and to provide a place to meet, commiserate, learn, and share resources--all in one place and free from ads, spam, and noise.

Our founder, Stacie Brown McCullough, is an introverted entrepreneur, small business owner, writer, gifted adult, and #homeschooling mom of two spirited kids living in small town, Southeast Central Texas. She's passionate about our mission. That's why she's building a community to connect home educators just like her to everything they need or might want for their secular or gifted homeschool.

In keeping with the mission, I've created two ways to join the Secular Gifted community:

1. Virtually. The virtual community began as a repository of all of the secular and gifted/2e resources I came across and then organized in an easily searchable way. Now, that's just the tip of the iceberg with what this community offers. Continue reading for details.
2. Locally. The local community was launched from a desire to better suit the needs of my twice-exceptional son, to form a secular co-op in my immediate area, and to give back to the homeschooling community (see below).

The virtual community serves multiple purposes and will be expanded upon as community demands grow. It can be used to:

• Find exclusive content and conversations all in one place.

• Deep-dive into secular and gifted/2e homeschooling topics.

• Meet folks who live near you, care about the same topics, or have the same questions and concerns.

• Form co-ops and sub-groups related to this organization's mission.

• Post your own content (as long as you do so respectfully and responsibly).

• Make better, more well-informed decisions about the things that are most important to you.

• Swap stories, experiences, and ideas, not to offer advice, but so we can learn from each other.

• Save time with a one-stop spot for community; conversations; co-ops; resources; and peer-reviewed curriculum, professionals, and organizations.

• Free yourself from noise and distractions of other social media.

Because homeschooling has been such a wonderful thing for my family, I want to give back to the homeschooling community. My intention is to make it easier for secular and gifted/2e homeschoolers to form support groups and co-ops in their area and to meet others who have similar homeschooling philosophies or circumstances--a need that is especially important for these populations. 

Therefore, Secular Gifted, LLC is sponsoring its first co-op, Southeast Central Texas Homeschool. Hosting, networking, scheduling, and resource sharing services are some of the benefits that SECTX Homeschool receives. If all goes well, additional services and sponsorship opportunities will open up.

Secular Gifted, LLC has additional opportunities for listing homeschool co-ops, groups, and blogs related to this organization's mission. Contact stacie @ seculargifted dot com for more information.

Your generous support will allow us to build a network specifically for secular homeschoolers of gifted/2e kids. That's why we want to thank you by offering the following additional perks:

• Membership Rewards for referring folks to our community:
  • Bronze (refer 2 members) - Social media shout-out
  • Silver (refer 10 members) - Featured Member Profile
  • Gold (refer 25 members) - 10% off all purchases from the Secular Gifted store (coming soon)
• Access to exclusive courses (coming soon)
• 1:1 coaching sessions (coming soon)

Guess what else? I’m also on Patreon! With your help, I can expand the Secular Gifted Network to do even cooler things.

Together, we are building an all-in-one network for home educators of kids who are more. You'll get more community, co-ops, curriculum, professionals, and resources, together in one spot without ads, spam, or distractions, so we can waste less time finding what we need and spend more time on what matters most--our kids!