ASC Middle School Chemistry

Target Grade Level: 6th – 8th Middle School Chemistry from the American Chemical Society is my favorite homeschooling find of the year.  It’s their free offering to schools and individuals, and it is science education at its best.  After a rather ho-hum run through Real Science 4 Kids Chemistry I, my younger and I were looking for more chemistry to learn. Read more

Real Science 4 Kids

Target Grade Level: Elementary (1st – 5th) and Middle School (6th – 8th) Real Science 4 Kids offers curriculum options for the following science subjects: Astronomy Biology Chemistry Geology Physics You can purchase the Focus On series that take a year-long deep dive into each one of the the scientific disciplines. The following review is based on the Focus On Read more

Brave Writer

Target Grade Level: 9th – 12th Brave Writer’s Help for High School is a semester long program designed to “help teens learn how to think, argue, and create their own powerful writing at the same time.” It’s aimed for a teen to read and work through independently, with the parent as “ally” (the author’s word), available for support and conversation Read more

MCT Grammar Island, Grammar Town, & Grammar Voyage

Target Grade Level: 3rd – 5th Grammar Island, Grammar Town and Grammar Voyage by Michael Clay Thompson provide a comprehensible yet sophisticated introduction to grammar for the elementary grades. They ignore the low limits traditional at this level and include content often withheld until middle school or even high school. Grammar Island introduces, in very simple fashion, the full four-level Read more

MCT Advanced Academic Writing

Target Grade Level: 6th – 8th Advanced Academic Writing, Volume 1 (AAW 1) is the first of the Michael Clay Thompson writing Middle/Secondary writing series. It’s a serious tome designed to teach a learner how to write an MLA-style academic essay or research paper. It’s designed to be used with MCT’s Magic Lens 1 (grammar) and Word Within a Word Read more

MCT Sentence Island, Paragraph Town, & Essay Voyage

Target Grade Level: 3rd – 5th Michael Clay Thompson breathes life into language arts instruction. With six levels of materials covering grammar, vocabulary, composition, poetics, and literature, he seamlessly integrates those elements of the English language in a manner that assumes his readers are intelligent, active learners. These are not workbooks for self-study — they are texts best explored with Read more

Philosophy for Kids

Philosophy for Kids: 40 Fun Questions That Help You Wonder About Everything, written by David A. White, is aimed at children 10 and up but could easily be used with somewhat younger gifted children, depending on verbal skills and their ability to think abstractly. The book is broken down into four sections: 1- Values (ethics) 2- Knowledge (epistemology) 3- Reality Read more