Recommended Resources

Books to Inspire You and Your Teen:

The Call to Brilliance - Resa Steindel Brown -http://www.amazon.ca/Call-Brilliance-Inspire-Parents-Educators/dp/0977836908/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280004258&sr=8-1 - Resa Steindel Brown’s “The Call to Brilliance” is a rare life-changing work. As much a personal story about an amazing family as it is philosophical treatise about modern education, this book reveals what has gone so wrong in our schools and takes you on a journey that reveals how to uncover the light of brilliance that is inside our children. A practitioner and advocate of homeschooling, Brown points out that public schools were designed for an industrial society to produce conforming drones who don’t mind endless tedium. She suggests that an entirely new model is needed in order to unleash children’s native creativity and curiosity and help them become truly functioning adults.

For parents, this is a must read.

College Without High School – Blake Boles – http://www.amazon.ca/College-Without-School-Blake-Boles/dp/0865716552/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280004288&sr=8-1 - (from the back cover) What would you do if you could go to college without going to high school?

• travel abroad?
• spend late nights writing a novel?
• volunteer in an emergency room?
• build your own company?

College Without High School explains how independent teenagers can leave high school to pursue life-changing, confidence-building adventures – and still gain admission to competitive 4-year colleges and universities.

Featuring stories from real-life, college-admitted “unschoolers”, and concrete advice on how to demonstrate the five preparatory results required for college admission – intellectual passion, leadership, logical reasoning, background knowledge, and the capacity for structured learning – College Without High School offers a world of opportunity to teens frustrated by traditional schooling.

The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education – Grace Llewellyn – http://www.amazon.ca/Teenage-Liberation-Handbook-School-Education/dp/0962959170/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280004364&sr=1-1 - (from the back cover) Your life, time, and brain should belong to you, not an institution. This Handbook is for everyone who has ever gone to school, but it is especially a book for teenagers and people with teenagers in their lives. You’ll read:

• good reasons to think about quitting school
• how to reclaim your natural ability to learn and teach yourself
• how to get your parents’ support, keep your friends, and stay out of legal trouble
• how to design a personalized education you can get excited about
• how to go to college without going to high school
• how to find volunteer positions, apprenticeships, and other work opportunities
• how other unschooled teenagers live and learn.

Creative Home Schooling - Lisa Rivero – http://www.amazon.ca/Creative-Home-Schooling-Resource-Families/dp/0910707480/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280031719&sr=1-2 - (from the back cover) A comprehensive guide to home-based education for high-ability children that gives parents essential information, including:

• tips for getting started
• options for learning approaches
• curriculum resources
• socialization and peer relations
• budget considerations
• research on gifted and creative learners
• advice from home schooling parents
• record keeping/college planning
• websites, books, magazine, learning groups, and other resources to help your home schooling process go smothly!

A Thomas Jefferson Education – Oliver Van DeMille – http://www.amazon.com/Thomas-Jefferson-Education-Generation-Twenty-First/dp/1615399917/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280004611&sr=8-1 (from the back cover) Is American education preparing the future leaders out nation needs, or merely struggling to teach basic literacy and job skills? Without leadership education, are we settling for an inadequate system that delivers educational, industrial, governmental and societal mediocrity? In A Thomas Jefferson Education: Teaching a Generation of Leaders for the Twenty-first Century, Oliver DeMille presents a new educational vision based on proven methods that really work! Teachers, students, parents, educators, legislators, leaders and everyone who cares about America’s future must read this compelling book.

The Element: How Finding Your Passion Changes Everything - Ken Robinson – http://www.amazon.ca/Element-Ken-Robinson/dp/0670020478/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280004663&sr=8-1 - (from the inside flap) The Element is the point at which natural talent meets personal passion. When people arrive at the Element, they feel most themselves, most inspired, and achieve at their highest levels. The Element draws on the stories of a wide range of people: Paul McCartney, The Simpsons creator Matt Groening, Meg Ryan, Gillian Lynne, journalist Arianna Huffington, renowned physicist Richard Feynman, and many other, including business leaders and athletes. It explores the components of this new paradigm: the diversity of intelligence, the power of imagination and creativity, and the importance of commitment to our own capabilities [...] The Element shows the vital need to enhance creativity and innovation by thinking differently about human resources and imagination. It is also an essential strategy for transforming education, business, and communities to meet the challenges of living and succeeding in the twenty-first century.

Writing Resources:

The Writer’s Workshop: Imitating Your Way to Better Writing – Gregory L. Roper – http://www.amazon.ca/Writers-Workshop-Imitating-Better-Writing/dp/1933859334/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280004757&sr=1-1 - This challenging writing curriculum engages the student in imitatio, or the art of imitating the masters: Cicero, Thomas Aquinas, Charles Dickens, Sojourner Truth, James Joyce, Ernest Hemingway and others. A very Charlotte Mason-friendly approach using portions of great literature, ancient through modern. A wonderful resource for high school students to improve writing skills.

Writer’s Inc. - Nelson Publishing -http://www.amazon.ca/Writers-Inc-Student-Handbook-Learning/dp/0669529958/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280004804&sr=1-1 - A writing handbook covering many writing topics with samples and explanations.

Bird  By Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life – Anne Lamott – http://www.amazon.ca/Bird-Some-Instructions-Writing-Life/dp/0385480016/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1280004841&sr=1-1 - entertaining, witty advice on various aspects of creative writing: Character, Plot, Dialogue, Setting, Finding Your Voice, and much more. Anne Lamott’s interesting, personal anecdotes give the reader the sense that she is sidling up, offering writing advice to a friend over a coffee.

Writer’s Jungle – Julie Bogart – http://www.bravewriter.com - A homeschooling mom’s writing resource, wonderfully written, packed full of information, creative ideas and sound advice. Julie Bogart has created an unparalleled, indispensable work for homeschoolers who find teaching writing a daunting task. Julie makes the process pleasant and her creative, unique approach to teaching writing helps even the most reluctant writer to be successful.

Help for High School – Julie Bogart – http://www.bravewriter.com - Written directly to the high school student, this non-consumable volume is another resource by Julie Bogart full of creative writing ideas and activities, helping students to understand the writing process and to be willing participants. The book is written in two parts: Part 1: Preparation for Essay Writing and Part 2: Essay Writing.

Math Resources:

www.artofproblemsolving.com - this site includes print resources (textbooks with full solutions), online courses, preparation for math contests and a free online section called Alcumus which has teaching videos and questions.

Challenge Math, Real World Algebra, Becoming a Problem Solving Genius – all by Edward Zaccaro - www.challengemath.com. These books are problem-based math books. The strength of these books and Edward Zaccaro’s genius really is that he takes a complicated concept and makes it extremely simple to understand. Following the teaching portion of each of these texts, there are 3-4 levels of questions ranging from those suited to students in grades 6-12. Higher levels of questions take the concept taught in the chapter to deeper levels of thought and application.