Resource Recommendations for Taglets
This page is still under construction as of January 2010
I know what you’re thinking: “What the heck is a Taglet?” I first saw the term on the TAGMAX listserv. TAGMAX is an online community for families homeschooling one or more Talented and Gifted (TAG) children. And a Taglet is a young gifted student. I like the term. It’s cute. So I borrowed it for the purpose of explaining what this particular page of recommendations is all about.
Putting together a homeschooling plan for Taglets is often a serious challenge for parents. Taglets need meaty curriculum and full-bodied resources that sometimes cannot be found in the average grade school level material. However, middle or high school level material is not always easily adaptable to an asynchronous Taglet or may cover subject matter parents deem inappropriate for the young child’s emotional maturity level. This becomes a tricky and often frustrating business. So far, along our own journey, we’ve found some wonderfully helpful material that meets the Triad of Chaos’ desire for depth, but still feels appropriate for their youth at the same time in a variety of fields of interest. It occurred to me the other day, that I really should share these tidbit so parents of other Taglets may benefit from our discoveries. All that to say, here are a handful of resources Crunchy Mama and the Triad of Chaos highly recommend along with the details of why and where to find them. Hopefully this page will grow as we continue along our path and discover more and more little gems that make this homeschooling gig all it’s truly cracked up to be for our own house full of Taglets.
Math and Logic:
History:
Science:
Literature:
Art:First off– I cannot say enough about two specific resources that any and every family with an artistically inclined Taglet needs to have at their disposal. Those are a collection of art supplies of whatever media and highest quality as fits in your budget and a membership to your nearest art museum. Find out what sort of family programs they (hopefully) offer and try to take advantage of those experiences as much as possible. I have currently assembled a box with all of Artemis’ supplies that she alone can access any time she chooses to in our school room area. We have general art supplies that the whole family can use also. I try to keep them well stocked and check sales circulars at our local art and craft shops for sales, especially on paper.
Also, we are really enjoying many of Mary Ann Kohl’s books. There are a great many projects that are favorites with all three of my kids. She takes an approach to art that focuses on the process, not the product; a philosophy called Teaching for Artistic Behavior. This can be a wonderful experience for taglets because they often suffer from perfectionism. Teaching them to immerse themselves in and enjoy the process of creation without excess focus on the product is an approach my taglets all find therapeutic at times. If you’re interested in learning more about the TAB approach, there is a Yahoo Group of art educators across the country using this approach that is welcoming of homeschoolers with a desire to learn from them. Ms. Kohl’s books include a few that take a look at art history for younger children and are a great interdisciplinary addition to the studies of a child with a passion for history.
In addition to the Kohl books, the Come Look With Me series and a great book called Looking at Pictures are also quality resources for observing art at home. Google Image Search is the best way to get a look at a particular piece of artwork or the work of a particular artist. There is a great (announcement only/super low traffic) Yahoo Group run by a couple of homeschoolers who use the Charlotte Mason approach and the free Ambleside Online curriculum outline that contains very high quality, printable .pdf files of various artists one might use in a fairly standard art history study. You can find that group at AOArtPrints.
We are also currently working our way through Art Adventures at Home, Level 1. Each book/level contains three years worth of art lessons focused on the elements of art and approaches art study as an academic discipline. Athena and a friend of hers are working through these lessons together during our small art co-op. I anticipate that we will eventually purchase the other levels for her. The style and content of the lessons fit her analytical mind very well.