Open-and-Go curriculum with new lesson packets created daily.

Pharos
Terminal

Pharos Terminal provides lessons relevant to today’s world.

Student sign-ins, assignments, progress and your year-end portfolio, in one learning management system.

Grades 7–12 · $399 per year for one student · $299 for each additional student

See How it Works

By Zac Northup, writer, historian and researcher.

The Pharos Terminal dashboard. It shows the week at a glance for a 10th grader, this week's Nexus Point with its Teaching Value, and progress in West Virginia's five required subjects.

The Pharos Terminal dashboard on a phone.

Screens from Pharos Terminal, with a sample student and sample data.

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Inside Pharos Terminal

Open-and-Go
A parent guide and student pages. Open the packet and teach.
See lesson packets
New Daily Curriculum
New Nexus Points and lesson packets, created daily from real events.
See Nexus Points
Premium Curriculum
Complete courses, each a one-time purchase. The PDFs are yours to keep.
See the courses
Advanced Learning Management
Assign lessons, track progress and hours, build the year-end portfolio.
See the tracker

Reality Writes! · Inside Pharos Terminal

Your student writes a real book. You sign off every step.

The full Reality Writes! course now runs inside Pharos Terminal, from choosing a real historical subject to publishing the finished novel, with your student's work and your sign-offs saved to their private records.

All 17 modules, onlineYour student reads each module in the terminal, and the next one opens when the one before it is done.
You sign off each moduleYour sign-off logs the hours, subjects and standards to your student's tracker.
Modules 1 and 2 come with Pharos TerminalOne license code unlocks Modules 3–17 where your student left off.

$495, or $295 for Pharos Terminal subscribers.

See Reality Writes! in Pharos Terminal

Reality Writes! inside Pharos Terminal: the course page with a progress bar reading 3 of 16 required modules signed and the Semester 1 module cards. — The course page: progress, and every module in order.

A student filling in a research log card in Module 2, citing a book on the West Virginia Mine War. — Your student fills in the research log online.

The parent sign-off form for Module 4, with date, hours, subjects and standards codes. — You sign off, and it logs to the tracker.

Screens show a sample student.

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By Zac Northup

Premium Curriculum

Complete courses written and published by Zac Northup, each a one-time purchase. Start with Lessons 1–2 in Pharos Terminal, or buy a course and open every lesson. Enrollment opens November 1.

Cover of the novel Through the Fading Darkness by Zac Northup with Nancy Bruns.

History & ELA · 18 weeks

Through the Fading Darkness

For grades 7–12 · colonial American history, 1774

The 1774 frontier, in a novel and in the record.

Students read or listen to the novel, then test it against letters, ledgers, laws, newspapers and memoirs. All 18 lessons as PDFs, the capstone and the course guide, about 3–4 hours a week.

$249 one-time, or $179 for active Pharos Terminal subscribers. One family license.

See Through the Fading Darkness

Entrepreneurship · 18 weeks Coming soon

Pitch to Profit

Entrepreneurship for the AI Age · grades 7–12

Find a real problem. Build the fix. Make a first real sale.

Interview the people who have the problem, then build and test a solution. Work out the numbers and pitch live to an audience that includes local business owners.

$350 one-time.

Read about Pitch to Profit

The Reality Writes! course cover: A Project-Based Curriculum for Aspiring Writers.

Writing & history · 17 modules

Reality Writes!

For grades 11–12, and advanced students from grade 8

Your student writes a real book. You sign off every step.

Research a real moment in history, write the novel, publish the book. With an active Pharos Terminal subscription, your sign-off logs the hours, subjects and standards. The complete 132-page PDF comes with every purchase.

$495 one-time, or $295 for active Pharos Terminal subscribers, with all 17 modules online. One family license.

See Reality Writes!

Lessons 1–2 of every premium course (Modules 1–2 in Reality Writes!) come with an active Pharos Terminal subscription. Buying a course adds every lesson as PDFs that are yours to keep; online access comes with an active Pharos Terminal subscription.

See all Premium Curriculum

Field Adventure · Pharos Terminal · Grades 7–12

Rivers to RidgesThe West Virginia Cipher Road Trip

A weekend road trip with ciphers to solve.

A family weekend across West Virginia: four stops, four sealed envelopes and one message to decode, from the 1774 battlefield where the Kanawha meets the Ohio to the amber water of Blackwater Falls.

4 stops · about 285 milesPlan A runs Friday–Sunday and is recommended; Plan B fits Saturday–Sunday if your family starts close to Point Pleasant.
Year-roundEvery clue uses something outdoors that is there in every season.
A wrong answer never stops the tripThe whole route is printed in the parent guide. The ciphers confirm where you are going; they do not decide it.

Included with a Pharos Terminal subscription, or $49 each.

See the road trip

Part of a larger cipher adventure coming in 2027

Cover of Rivers to Ridges: The West Virginia Cipher Road Trip, a Pharos Terminal field lesson packet: the route, the four stops and what is inside.

Free guide for parents · Grades 7–12

Your First 30 Days of Homeschooling

A free 20-page guide that takes you through the first month week by week. It's nonpartisan, practical and sourced, and has a full section on the West Virginia Hope Scholarship.

Cover of the free guide Your First 30 Days of Homeschooling, from Pharos Terminal. — 20 pages · PDF · Edition 2, Fall 2026

What's inside

A week-by-week plan for month one: the legal steps, getting to know your learner, choosing materials and finding your rhythm.
Sample schedules for grades 7–8 and 9–12, plus a printable planning worksheet and a learning log.
The West Virginia Hope Scholarship, step by step: who qualifies, the 2026–27 award, how to apply, what the money covers, and how a Hope IIP differs from a traditional homeschool.
West Virginia's notice of intent and annual assessment, with every fact checked against official sources.

Get the free guide

Download it right after you sign up.

You'll get the download link on this page right away. We'll also email you a link to confirm your address before sending anything else. See our privacy policy. Not legal or financial advice.

The West Virginia State Capitol at night with an America 250 banner and a lit fountain

Get the WV 2026 Election Lesson Pack

Four lessons that use West Virginia’s 2026 general election as a case study: the ballot and Amendment 1, your districts, the results and the canvass. Grades 7–12. Strictly nonpartisan.

A Pharos Terminal lesson pack. Every fact comes from an official record, and nothing in it endorses or ranks a candidate or measure. We'll email you a link to confirm your address, then send the lesson pack straight to your inbox. Unsubscribe anytime.

Books by Zac Northup

Novels & Short Stories

Stories of America, born from real-world experience. In audio, print and eBook.

In the Ashes
A World War II Thriller
Stories From Middle America
The Short Story Collection
REMNANT
The Boreasby Blueprint
Through the Fading Darkness
Fading Darkness Series, Book One
Beyond the Fading Darkness
Fading Darkness Series, Book Two
Winter's Ghosts
Fading Darkness Series, Book Three

All books on Amazon (opens in a new tab)Audiobooks (opens in a new tab)

Zac Northup, smiling, in a color close-up portrait.

Meet Zac · Writer, Historian, Researcher

Writer, historian and researcher.

Experience over theory, for families who teach at home. Zac Northup writes and publishes curriculum for homeschoolers, micro-schools and learning pods. You teach; he provides the material.

Publisher and managing editor of National Guard Review, 1996–2003.
M.A., History, University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Blog

Read the blog ›

The latest from Zac

Read the latest on the blog ›

Enrollment opens November 1.

For homeschoolers, micro-schools and learning pods with students in grades 7–12.

See Pharos Terminal See How it Works Explore Reality Writes!