Nautilus Homeschool

Each family's curriculum is accessed via an online account and is fully customizable. You can place your student at the desired level in each subject, move the material to different places in the schedule, customize school and vacation dates, remove items or add your own, and combine readings for multiple students. Academic records and high school transcripts are automatically created as you complete the program.

In elementary and middle school, subjects are taught as a combination of a textbook or online course ""spine,"" along with a wide variety of supporting books and materials. Language Arts consists of the Writing with Ease / Writing with Skill writing curriculum which provides a strong foundation in expository writing without being overly time-consuming, and lots of great, enjoyable children's literature which progresses in difficulty to prepare students for reading adult books in high school. The math curriculum for first through twelfth grades uses the fun and challenging Art of Problem Solving curriculum, with various other materials as optional supplements.

Art uses the Artistic Pursuits curriculum, and science uses REAL Science Odyssey along with a collection of our favorite children's science books. History is taught using Story of the World and Story of US as a ""spine"", biographies and other topic books, and historical fiction. For foreign language, we recommend Homeschool Spanish Academy during elementary and middle school. All other courses are taught using a variety of living books, affordable online courses and self-directed activities.

Most high school courses use a combination of Great Courses lectures, textbooks, movies and fiction and nonfiction literature for adults.

We estimate that parents will need to spend one to two hours of dedicated time per day for elementary grade children. Much of this time will be spent reading together (the curriculum allows you to combine readings for multiple children). In upper grades students spend more time on schoolwork but are also able to complete more of the projects and readings independently, so the time commitment is normally reduced in later years.

In addition, while a child is reading or working independently, a parent should be present and provide enough supervision to ensure that the child stays on task.

None (other than those generally accepted as necessary to commence the grade parents select).

Yes, as long as the student enjoys reading. The curriculum involves extensive reading that progresses in difficulty from picture books in kindergarten to the great works of classical literature in high school. Our customization tools allow parents to adjust courses, content and scheduling to build a unique learning program for each student.

While not specifically tailored for children on the autism spectrum, its emphasis on student autonomy and freedom to pursue special interests may make it a very good fit for students on the spectrum.

Nautilus Homeschool is designed with gifted students in mind. What does this mean in practice?

Flexible pacing
Gifted students are rarely uniformly advanced in every subject. Instead, they tend to be highly accelerated in some areas, and less so in others.

One unique aspect of Nautilus Homeschool is that a single membership provides access to our curricula for all grades simultaneously, and our customization features make it easy to combine curriculum components from multiple grades to ensure students are being appropriately challenged in each subject. You also have the ability to move students forward to a new grade at any time and at no extra cost.

Greater depth
Throughout our curriculum, core subjects are taught at a greater depth and degree of challenge than is typical. In language arts, students read a large number of progressively more challenging books in various genres from classics to science fiction. Our default math curriculum option, Beast Academy and Art of Problem Solving, is designed for outstanding math students. History is studied in depth, with four years of world history and three years of American history taught systematically in elementary and middle grades. Science includes study of cutting-edge topics like genetics and cosmology in addition to standard biology, chemistry and physics.

Less review
Gifted students need less repetition, testing and review than most other students. In general, our curriculum emphasizes new material rather than testing students on what they have already learned. Unlike many language arts curricula, we do not require students to write book reports or answer comprehension questions about what they have read. This allows students' time to be spent more effectively on learning new material.

Interest-led
One characteristic of giftedness is the development of strong interests. In our curriculum, interests are supported in two ways. First, we facilitate discovery of new interests by providing exposure to a much wider range of academic and creative experiences than most curricula. Students have the opportunity to learn realistic drawing, web design, robotics, sculpture, and explore topics like philosophy, astrophysics and ancient civilizations, to name a few examples.

Second, our curriculum allocates ample time for pursuit of interests. Unlike other academically rigorous curricula, ours is not overly time-consuming because we believe that unstructured time is a crucial aspect of educational development. Starting in fifth grade, we also set aside one hour of ""Project Time"" each day for students to pursue their own academic and creative interests.

Life skills
When gifted individuals fail to achieve their potential, it is often due to deficits in general life skills rather than a lack of ability.

Our curriculum is unique in its emphasis on developing skills for an effective and fulfilling life, in addition to academic study. Middle school students read engaging books about topics like initiative taking, pursuit of goals, navigating adolescence and handling stress. Our high school curriculum includes a Skills for Life course that covers topics like nutrition, time management, prioritization, personal finance, leadership and ethics.

Study of great men and women
Our history and literature curricula emphasize the biographies of great thinkers, inventors, advocates for social change and other men and women who have changed the course of human history.

The high school curriculum even includes a course dedicated entirely to biographies, in which students choose ten (out of twenty options) remarkable lives to study from a variety of areas of endeavor, time periods and circumstances.

The purpose is not only to teach history, but also to inspire students to use their talents to create a better world."

While not specifically tailored for children on the autism spectrum, its emphasis on student autonomy and freedom to pursue special interests may make it a very good fit for students on the spectrum.

If any customer is not satisfied or decides the curriculum is not right for them, please notify us within one month for a full refund to your original payment method.

Students who are not strong readers or who dislike reading

My family puts materials on hold at the library in advance, so they are ready when we need to use them.

Please understand that we do not include books, or provide video content or other self-produced materials. Our courses are composed of carefully curated and assembled external books and materials, along with a suite of tools allowing parents to customize the curriculum for each student's unique needs and scheduling preferences.