Opening November 2026

Pharos
Terminal

You teach. Pharos Terminal provides lessons relevant to today’s world.

Apply for the beta See how it works

zacnorthup.com/terminal

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.

How it works

Discover. Teach. Track.

Built for grades 7–12, with high school paths first.

DiscoverNexus Points: real events worth teaching, each scored 0 to 100 for your student by Teaching Value.Nexus Points
TeachReady-to-teach lesson packets in nine subjects, session by session, tagged to West Virginia standards.Lesson packets
TrackThe parent tracker logs lessons, hours and work samples, then builds your year-end portfolio.Parent tracker

Get the highlights.

Nexus PointsReal events worth teaching, ranked for your student.
Nine subjectsA ready-to-teach lesson packet in each one at launch.
Parent trackerLessons, hours and work samples, logged as you go.
Year-end portfolioBuilt from your records and organized for your annual assessment.
Reality Writes!Modules 1–2 of Zac's writing course, included.

Nexus Points

The world is changing fast.

Zac Northup's research desk follows the news and events shaping the world. When a story is worth teaching, it becomes a Nexus Point: what happened, why it matters, the sources, and a lesson that fits your student. Subscribers can open any Nexus Point's source note, Why this lesson?, to see the published reporting that prompted it.

A Nexus Point about two spacewalks to finish the International Space Station's solar power upgrade, with a Teaching Value of 88, what happened, why it matters, and the facts with their sources.

0–100Teaching Value score for every story, for your student

4things it weighs: grade fit, subjects still needed, how close to home, and how solid the facts are

Lessons

Nine subjects.
Ready to teach.

Each subject has a ready-to-teach lesson packet at launch. Every lesson is tagged to West Virginia College- and Career-Readiness standards.

HistoryPrimary documents, letters and records

Civics & GovernmentHow decisions are made, and by whom

Politics & ElectionsCampaigns, ballots, voting and the legislature

Economics & Personal FinanceJobs, prices, taxes and household money

Classic LiteraturePre-1965 classics; public-domain texts or discussion guides

Science & TechnologyAI, space, robotics, drones, cyber defense

Outdoors & Field StudyObservation, maps and West Virginia's land

Trades & SkillsTools, building and repair

Applied Math & DataReal numbers, graphs and estimates

Lesson packets

One dark December. Five sessions.

This Christmas is the 250th anniversary of Washington's crossing. Our history packet, The Crossing: Trenton at 250, teaches December 1776 from the letters and records of the people who were there. Like every packet, it comes with a parent guide, readings, activities and an answer key, tagged to West Virginia standards, and each finished session goes straight into the tracker.

The Crossing: Trenton at 250 lesson packet in Pharos Terminal, with the packet cover and its five sessions.

1 · The darkest DecemberWashington's own letters of Dec 18 and Dec 20, 1776, and why he wrote differently to his brother than to Congress.

2 · Words as weaponsHow Thomas Paine's The American Crisis persuades, and a detective exercise on when it first appeared.

3 · Timeline at the riverThe night of Dec 25–26, rebuilt from Washington's Dec 27 report, with the points where the plan could have failed.

4 · Turning point?A 1777 London map and the evidence: was Trenton a turning point militarily, politically and diplomatically?

5 · The war in the WestVirginia creates Ohio and Monongalia counties (Nov 8, 1776), and the final essay.

Parent tracker

Your records, kept for you.

Every lesson your student finishes is logged as you go, so at the end of the year your records are already in order.

The Pharos Terminal parent tracker: 30 lessons finished, 56.0 hours logged, 6 work samples filed and 46 West Virginia standards covered, with recent lessons by date, led by the Trenton at 250 sessions.

The parent tracker on a phone, with the Export year-end portfolio button.

Lessons and hoursLogged by date and subject.

Five required subjectsReading, language, math, science and social studies, at a glance.

Standards coverageSee what's covered and what's still open.

Year-end portfolioBuilt automatically, with your work samples, and organized for your annual assessment.

Reality Writes!

Students write about their world.

Zac's Reality Writes! curriculum powers the writing in Pharos Terminal. Every student gets Modules 1 and 2: choosing a real historical subject that can be checked, then building a research plan and a source log.

Reality Writes! inside Pharos Terminal, with the full course unlocked, Modules 1–3 signed off and Module 4 in progress.

The full courseReality Writes! — $295 for subscribers. Also available on its own for $495. 17 modules, from a real historical subject to a published novel.

One license codeModules 3–17 unlock where your student left off.

One-tap sign-offYou sign off on each module in the tracker.

Student records

Your family's records stay your family's.

Student records are kept in private, per-family storage on Amazon Web Services, separate from this website.

One family, one folderEach family's records sit in their own private folder. Nothing is shared or mixed between families.

Parents sign inStudents never create accounts. We keep only a first name or nickname and a grade.

Yours to downloadExport your portfolio and download your records whenever you need them.

Pricing

Which is right for you?

Compare Lesson Packets and Pharos Terminal
Feature	Lesson Packets$49per packet, one-time	Pharos Terminal$399per student, per year · billed annually
Ready-to-teach lesson packets	One unit you can print	All nine subjects
Weekly Nexus Points, ranked for your student	—
Standards tags
Parent tracker and automatic portfolio	A portfolio page
Reality Writes! Modules 1–2	—
Reality Writes! Modules 3–17	—	$295 for subscribers (or $495 on its own)unlocks with a license code

Beta testers

Apply for the beta.

Five founding beta families. No cost. In exchange, you'll give us honest feedback. Before Pharos Terminal opens in November 2026, these families will use it with their students in grades 7–12 and tell us what to fix. Tell us about your family, and we'll be in touch if you're chosen.

This is an application, not a purchase. If your family is one of the five chosen, we'll email you the beta details and the feedback we'll ask for before you decide. The founding beta costs nothing.

Questions? Answers.

When does Pharos Terminal open?

November 2026. Our five founding beta families get in first.

Who is it for?

Homeschool families with students in grades 7–12, with high school paths first. It's self-paced, on the web, and sold and delivered only at zacnorthup.com.

What does it cost?

$399 per student, per year, billed annually. Lesson packets are also sold on their own for $49 each. The full Reality Writes! course is $295 for subscribers, and also available on its own for $495.

How do lessons connect to West Virginia standards?

Where are my student's records kept?

In private, per-family storage on Amazon Web Services, separate from this website. Students never sign in, and we keep only a first name or nickname and a grade for each one.

November 2026