Below is an alphabetical listing of books related to homeschooling gifted students.
More Gifted Homeschooling Resources
If you are considering homeschooling your gifted student, the national Davidson Institute’s Young Scholars program provides FREE services designed to nurture the intellectual, social, emotional, and academic development of profoundly intelligent young people between the ages of 5 and 18.
Benefits of the program include:
- Consulting Services
- An Online Community
- In-person connections
- Community service endeavors
- Summer Programs (fee-based)
Applications are due on the first of each month. For more information, see the Admissions page.
Gifted Homeschooling Curriculum & Courses
Looking for a structured gifted homeschooling curriculum? Find more on Davidson Academy Online’s Curriculum.
For single-class enrollment, look at find available classes on Davidson Academy Online’s Single-Course Enrollments page.
Book List (A – Z)*
A Sense of Self: Listening to Homeschooled Adolescent Girls
This book examines the lack of a “crisis of confidence” in homeschooled adolescent girls, compared with other girls in more traditional school settings. Several of the girls interviewed for this study are intellectually gifted.
Accidental Genius
The story of homeschooled profoundly gifted child, Michael, who attended kindergarten at age 3 and graduated from high school in only one year at the age of six. He graduated from college at 10; holds four Guinness World Records; and, graduated with a master’s degree in chemistry at 14.
And Sometimes Y (Howling Vowels) (Volume 2)
The sequel to The Howling Vowels, this fictional book continues to take a look at one group of friends and their experiences with homeschooling.
And the Skylark Sings with Me: Adventures in Homeschooling and Community-Based Education
This book documents the home education of a musically talented, highly intellectually gifted child, from the perspective of her father. An interesting, detailed account of the child’s musical development within the context of the total educational program is included.
And What About College? How Homeschooling Can Lead To Admissions To The Best Colleges & Universities
This is a helpful, practical guide to college admissions for homeschoolers, especially those who may not have had a “typical” program or sequence of study (including unschoolers or early college entrants). Cohen describes and provides examples of how to translate interdisciplinary homeschooling curriculum and apprenticeship experiences into a high school transcript, and de-mystifies the college admissions process.
Creative Home Schooling: A Resource Guide for Smart Families
This book is a comprehensive guide to homeschooling. It includes features on reasons to homeschool, record keeping, curriculum resources, how to get started, college preparation, social and emotional issues, and much more. It also includes a chapter on homeschooling your twice exceptional child.
Critical Issues and Practices in Gifted Education: What the Research Says (2nd ed.)
This is the definitive reference book for those searching for a summary and evaluation of the literature on giftedness, gifted education and talent development. The book presents more than 50 summaries of important topics in the field, providing relevant research and a guide to how the research applies to gifted education and the lives of gifted children. This second edition updates every topic with new research and introduces several critically important topics such as cluster grouping, Response to Intervention, programming standards, the Common Core State Standards, educational leadership, and legal issues.
Educating Your Gifted Child: How One Public School Teacher Embraced Homeschooling
What would make a dedicated public school teacher decide to homeschool her own children? In her book, Educating Your Gifted Child: How One Public School Teacher Embraced Homeschooling, Celi Trépanier shares her journey from recognized top teacher in traditional schools to disillusioned parent struggling to obtain an appropriate and challenging education for her gifted sons.
Exploring Homeschooling for Your Gifted Learners
Parents of gifted learners may hear about homeschooling and the potential benefits, but what do they need to know in order to develop a strategy to evaluate homeschooling for their gifted children? NAGC Select’s Exploring Homeschooling for Your Gifted Learner helps parents get started by presenting background information and descriptions on the benefits and challenges of homeschooling, outlining various homeschool approaches, and offering references for further reading.
Family Matters: Why Homeschooling Makes Sense
This book discusses how a public high school English teacher homeschooled his own children. It touches on the primarily child-led curriculum he used, the reluctance of his peers to accept his choice to homeschool, and the common question of socialization. He makes a strong argument about why homeschooling makes sense through research as well as example.
Finding Your Way through the Maze of College Prep Tests: A Guide to APs and SAT Subject Tests with Tips for Homeschoolers and Accelerated Learners
Written by the parent of a gifted student, this book is filled with information that parents and students may find helpful when making decisions about pre-college planning and testing. The following questions are addressed. Are you a high school student trying to decide on college prep courses? Are you a parent wondering about APs and how they affect your student’s high school and college plans? Are you homeschooling through high school and need resources for tackling college prep work and the details about how to register for testing?
Five in a Row
The three volumes of this curriculum provide 55 lesson plans covering social studies, language, art, applied math and science. Designed for a homeschool setting, these lessons would also be appropriate in a conventional school. Although the original Five in a Row was designed for children ages 4 to 8, families of profoundly gifted children will find these guides more appropriate for the preschool years.
Forging Paths: Beyond Traditional Schooling
Traditional schooling may not provide your son or daughter with a satisfactory or fulfilling education. In this book, you’ll read the stories of nine young people who took varying, nontraditional educational paths and succeeded in their chosen endeavors and vocations.
From Homeschool to College and Work
This book is about turning homeschooled experiences into college and job portfolios. As a parent who homeschooled and, more importantly, unschooled her children since birth, McKee had often pondered how she would go about writing a college portfolio if her children chose to attend college. This book outlines how her family wrote two successful college portfolios. Topics covered are (1) how to get started (2) documenting the learning process (3) compiling data for a portfolio (4) putting a final document together to create a college admissions portfolio or job resume.
From School to Homeschool: Should You Homeschool Your Gifted Child?
This book by author Suki Wessling guides parents through the process of considering homeschooling options and educational alternatives. The book is filled with practical information and loaded with resources that will get parents off to a good start as they begin their home-schooling journey with their children.
Gifted Children At Home
Veteran teacher-moms Janice Baker, Kathleen Julicher, and Maggie Hogan teamed up for this book in order to answer the myriad of questions parents of gifted children often ask.
Growing Good Kids: 28 Activities to Enhance Self-Awareness, Compassion and Leadership
Created by teachers and classroom-tested, these fun and meaningful enrichment activities for grades 3-8 build children’s skills in problem solving, decision making, cooperative learning, divergent thinking, and communication while promoting self-awareness, tolerance, character development, and service.
Home Grown: Adventures in Parenting off the Beaten Path, Unschooling, and Reconnecting with the Natural World
This book is about a family who opted out of formal education for their two sons, who learn through self-directed play, exploration and experimentation on their farm, in the woods, and (reluctantly) indoors. This approach allowed the boys to develop confidence, resourcefulness, and creativity. They learn, they play, they read, they test boundaries, they challenge themselves, they fail, they recover.
Homeschooling Gifted and Advanced Learners
Written by a veteran homeschooler, this book clearly and concisely teaches parents how to homeschool their advanced learners, focusing on special considerations that often go along with gifted children such as providing challenging curriculum, offering outlets for artistic and creative talents, accelerating students into college courses early, and finding them true intellectual peers.
How to Work and Homeschool: Practical Advice, Tips, and Strategies from Parents (Perspectives in Gifted Homeschooling) (Volume 5)
This book addresses the following questions many parents have: do you want to homeschool, but you need to keep working? Maybe you’re already homeschooling, but you would like to start a business? Perhaps you’re homeschooling, working, and volunteering, but need to create space for yourself? How can this possibly be done? How do other parents manage? This book is contains real world examples and tried-and-tested approaches.
I Am a Homeschooler
In this picture book for younger children about homeschooling, 9-year-old Teigen tells others what it is like to be a homeschooler. She describes her daily routine – prayers and working on specific subjects in the morning; helping her mother with chores or baby-sitting in the afternoon; music and art; nature study; field trips; and a weekly cooperative day at a local church facility where home schoolers meet to have gym, science, and history classes and time to socialize. She also describes some days when everything goes wrong and classes are canceled due to family emergencies.
Nebel’s Elementary Education: Creating a Tapestry of Learning
This book (450 pages) contains approaches and actual subject matter for delivering a superior K-5 education. It describes not only WHAT to teach, but also HOW to teach it using hundreds of hands-on activities, and much more.
No Regrets: How Homeschooling Earned Me a Master’s Degree at Age 16
This book is Alexandra Swann’s personal story of her homeschooling career and her very early entrance into college via a distance learning/independent study bachelor’s degree program. It espouses a philosophy of homeschooling called “accelerated academics.” Alexandra and her nine siblings were all homeschooled and completed high school work by the ages of 11 or 12. Although the “gifted” word is never mentioned in this book, it is obvious that this is a very gifted girl with very gifted siblings.
Project-Based Homeschooling: Mentoring Self-Directed Learners
This book combines student interests with long-term, deep, complex learning. It is an introduction and guide to creating the circumstances under which children can teach themselves. The author gives parents concrete tips for helping children do challenging, meaningful, self-chosen work. From setting up a workspace that encourages independence to building a family culture that supports self-directed learning to concrete suggestions for a step-by-step approach to inquiry-based investigation, this book shares techniques for mentoring independent, confident thinkers and learners.
Reading Strands
This book by Dave Marks provides parents and educators ideas for discussing fiction with their children. The goal of this book is to help parents teach their children to enjoy reading.
Serving Gifted Learners Beyond the Traditional Classroom: A Guide to Alternative Programs and Services
This concise guide provides an introduction to the various types of out-of-school programming recommended and appropriate for gifted and advanced learners. VanTassel-Baska includes overviews of mentoring programs, residential schools, summer opportunities, and distance learning. Readers can learn about alternative services for teachers, parents and gifted education program directors.
Setting the Records Straight: How to Craft Homeschool Transcripts and Course Descriptions for College Admission and Scholarships
This book is designed to provide parents the tools and information they need to create homeschool records to perfectly document their homeschool education in a way that will demand attention. The author’s proven system will teach you how to present your child to colleges in the best possible light.
Strategies That Work : Teaching Comprehension to Enhance Understanding
This book covers educational strategies for teaching/homeschooling, focusing on instruction that is responsive to kids’ interests and learning needs. It also has an appendixes that includes lists of educational aids, such as books, magazines, and journals, curriculum guides and professional journals.
The Complete Guide to the Gap Year: The Best Things to Do Between High School and College
The newly updated second edition is the go-to book for anyone considering a year to recharge, to follow a passion, to become immersed in another culture, or to find their love of learning again. It includes everything a student, parent, or guidance counselor would want to know about the gap year, including what a gap year is, what it is not, and how it can have a positive impact on a young life. Whether it means spending a year on a sailing vessel, coaching sports and teaching in an impoverished area, or following a passion in the arts or academics, this invaluable guide will help students evaluate their interests, plan for, and fund their gap year.
The Complete Home Learning Source Book: The Essential Resource Guide for Homeschoolers, Parents, and Educators Covering Every Subject from Arithmetic to Zoology
Provides parents and teachers with information on all the resources needed to plan a well-balanced curriculum for the home or the classroom, from preschool through high school. The Complete Home Learning Sourcebook not only covers basic academic subjects but also addresses diverse interests. Thorough and up-to-date, this invaluable resource reviews all possible learning tools.
The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education
Filled with strategies, resources and guidance on how to design an interest-driven self-education, this book is for any bright student who wants to escape the drudgery of traditional school and get a “real education.”
The Ultimate Guide to Homeschooling
This book describes the joys of homeschooling and essential tools for success from a personal experience vantage point. This book includes a CD-rom containing the complete text of the book plus web-site links and a browser.
Transcripts Made Easy: The Homeschooler’s Guide to High-School Paperwork
This book covers everything parents need in order to assign grades, grant credit, and keep the right records. New in this edition is a chapter on Records and Transcripts for Special Needs Students, quotes from college admissions counselors on what they want to see in the homeschool transcript, and more information on granting credit and weighted grades for AP and honors courses.
Well-Trained Mind: A Guide to Classical Education at Home
This guide to classical education features complete descriptions of each of the classical education stages (grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric); suggests pedagogical approaches at each stage; and suggests textbooks and resources. The second half of the book focuses on specific homeschooling issues, including socialization, athletics, schedules, record keeping, and testing. It offers a secular, rather than religious, approach.
Writing Strands
This series by Dave Marks is a complete writing program using a process approach to writing and composition assuring continuity and control. It has been written specifically for homeschoolers. The author has created manuals for the parent and/or student to use, depending on the level, suggesting the typical number of days to spend on each assignment. The author has also created manuals to teach fiction and interpersonal relationship skills, as well as to evaluate writing.
You’re Gonna Miss the Prom: A True Life Account and Guide Book for Gifted Kids
This book is a guide for gifted kids who accelerate, home school or enter a college program. One author skipped high school and entered college at age 13, graduating at 16. This book details the process she took, the social questions and answers on entering early college, how to research laws and generally how to prepare to accelerate.
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