Posted on: 01/28/2012
Spring Conferences 2012
Royal Fireworks booths and presenters
Illinois Association for Gifted Children: Feb 5-7 Chicago (Michael Clay Thompson presenting)
California Association for the Gifted: March 2-4 Palm Springs
National Curriculum Networking Conference March 7-9 William & Mary, Williamsburg (MCT presenting)
North Carolina Association for the Gifted and Talented: March 15 & 16 Winston-Salem, NC (MCT & Shelagh Gallagher presenting)
Great Homeschool Conventions, where both Michael Clay Thompson and Dr TH Kemnitz will be presenting on the Language Arts Curriculum:
- South East: March 22–24, Greenville, SC
- Mid-South: April 12-14, Memphis TN
- Mid West April 19–21 Cincinnati, OH
- California May 24-26, Long Beach CA
- North East: June 14–16, Hartford, CT
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Posted on: 12/29/2011
from the Publisher: Dr Thomas Milton Kemnitz
At the end of 2011 we want to send to everyone in the Royal Fireworks family our very best wishes for a happy and successful 2012. We hope that we have been a part of your having a great 2011; we are looking forward to an exciting New Year.
I am just back from a trip to Athens and Delphi where I took another 6000 photos for the upcoming revision of Caesar’s English 1 and other volumes in the MCT language arts curriculum.
I was in Greece for four full days plus the afternoon of the day I landed. The entire trip was terrific. It had been many years since I had been on the Acropolis and looked at some of the most exquisite buildings ever built—even as ruins they are awesome. 
The Erechtheion with its porch of the Caryatids is as glorious as the Parthenon, if not as massive. As you can see from the photograph, the weather cooperated.
I revere ancient Greek culture. I used to read the Iliad every year; each reading enthralled me. Our political debt to the Athenians and the birth of democracy is beyond measure. Two of the most important early figures of the political world are Themistocles and Pericles. The former was the man who formulated the strategy to develop Athens into a great naval power, and it was the demands of the navy for men to pull the oars that entrenched democracy in Athens. It is impossible to imagine men rowing for many hours each day and then being content with no say in their government. A navy based on oarsmen is very different from an army divided between aristocratic cavalry and plebian foot soldiers. A brilliant strategic thinker, Themistocles seems to have been the first man to figure out how to exploit democratic procedures for his political ends as well as to
have been primarily responsible for the strategy and tactics in the Greek defeat of the invading Persians and particularly the annihilation of the Persian fleet. Pericles is the pre-eminent exemplar of a wise leader. One of the thrills was to come upon an exhibit of the ballots (ostraka), see picture on the right. These the Greek citizens cast in 482 B.C. to have Themistocles ostracized—banished for a decade—in Themistocles’s case, it meant for the rest of his life. The democracy of Athens was often rough, and there were ostraka for Pericles in 444 and 443 B.C.
The museum containing ostraka was on the north side of the Acropolis in a stoa now rebuilt along the ancient agora; on the south side of the Acropolis one stumbles upon the theatre of Dionysus where works of the ancient Greek playwrights Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Euripides and Sophocles premiered. Imagine standing where Sophocles stood! Of course, any of the greats of ancient Greece and Rome might have walked where I stood—Socrates, Plato, Pericles, and later Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Augustus, Cicero, Hadrian, and so many more who came in the spirit of reverence that brought me there.
One cannot help but be awed by the burst of creativity that democracy wrought—such a flowering during the course of less than two centuries in sculpture, architecture, vase painting, theatre, poetry, philosophy—indeed, in virtually every human endeavor. Centuries later the Romans could do no better than to copy what the Greeks had done 500 or 600 years earlier. Much of that Greek culture remains the very finest that humankind has ever produced.
Of course I had to go to Delphi where almost every ancient who had the means went at one time or another in his life. The only building even close to intact is the Athenian Treasury, (see the photograph at the end of the page), but there is the amphithe
ater, and for those who climb all the way up, the stadium. As awe inspiring as it all was, there was also a single plate in the Delphi museum, depicting a girl with a lyre feeding a bird; It is so exquisite that it will soon make its way onto the cover of a Royal Fireworks book. That plate alone was worth the entire journey.
Here and there in every museum were exhibits that particularly thrilled me. There was a display of the spear points and arrowheads from Thermopylae Pass where the 300 died holding their ground to save Greek civilization from the Persian invaders. There was a bust here of Plato, there of Sophocles, another of Augustus, the face of 
Thucydides, the head of Hadrian, a bowl depicting wrestlers, a statue of Athena, a major bronze of Zeus, the death mask of Agamemnon, a dish showing an athlete holding jumping weights,
several displays of different sets of those weights, and beautifully conceived coins and pots and vases and bronze helmets.
Coming back from Athens (an incredibly long flight), I had ample time to reflect not only on the glories of ancient Greece, but also on what an exciting time this is at Royal Fireworks Press. First, we have the new MCT literature series and the revision of Caesar’s English 1, but we are looking at other major projects—Michael and I have mapped out work that will take at least the next three years to complete.
Second, we have the new art curriculum. This is dear to my heart. Art is essential to children’s creativity and conducive to a fertile flow of ideas. Art is part of the communication that makes humans distinctive. Personally it means so much to me because my father was an artist, and art has been an essential element in my existence from my earliest memories. For me a home or office without art is unthinkable. The focus of the new curriculum is on both making and appreciating art. We will empower children with techniques accomplished artists use to polish their finished works. We will help children to see more and to see better when they look at a painting or a piece of pottery or a sculpture. We announced the first parts of the art curriculum last week, but there is much more to come, and new parts will be available soon after the New Year.
Equally exciting are the Problem Based Learning curricula that Shelagh Gallagher is creating. Three units are available now, and foundation volumes for classroom teachers and homeschoolers will soon be ready for release. And then many more units will follow. I am particularly pleased by the PBL approach because it is a far better answer to teaching history than the story-of-man approach. PBL is one of the most researched teaching methods, and it is a very successful way to develop life-long learners.
Besides Shelagh’s PBL manuscript, on the trip back I was able to begin work on Dr. Dave’s latest contribution, an exciting manual on the science of the ancient Egyptians. It is a superb work, which will require a great deal of preparation to get just right with the images and the text. It is simply too good to be rushed; I hope that we have it available by April 2012. Dave Purvis has a flair for appealing to children’s imaginations in his Science Teaching Manuals every bit as gloriously as MCT does. For this project, I long to go to the Kelsey Museum of Archeology at the University of Michigan to take photographs of its collection; when I was a boy I would spend entire summer days in the cool halls of the Kelsey minutely examining everything that University of Michigan archeologists had dug up and brought back for display. Particularly fascinating to me was a 3000-year-old wooden door with its frame from Egypt. The door with three panels was precisely the same in every detail, and to the fraction of an inch in proportion, as the doors in many houses in Ann Arbor, including my bedroom door. It was from this similarity that I became interested in architectural details and styles copied from one era to another.
Also coming are works on Spanish culture (perhaps a trip to Madrid will be necessary) and a total revision of our philosophy curriculum, projects every bit as dazzling as the ones I have talked about at greater length. And we have a number of very good novels on their way!
When I started publishing for gifted children, I was so excited by what I was doing that I regularly stayed up working all night every third or fourth night. There was so much to do that sleep was inconceivable. Now 35 years later, I find myself that energized once again. After a wonderful year, we have laid the basis for a great 2012. There is a difference between good and great, and we are determined to bring to you what is truly great, and we will use the best mankind has created to fire the imaginations of children for years to come.
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Posted on: 12/15/2011
We are pleased to announce that we have the start of an exciting new curriculum designed to empower children as artists.
The first part is entitled How To Draw a Straight Line, and there are a dozen Practice Pads in the series available alongside it. Aimed at those already involved in art, the next book to follow will be for absolute beginners just starting to draw and paint.
This first book helps anyone, child or adult, to learn to draw and paint with the techniques professionals use. It is full of tips that will immediately improve their drawing and painting.
Author, Donald Skier, has spent his life as an artist, advertising art director, and illustrator and currently offers community art classes in New York. He dedicates his work for Royal Fireworks “to those people who love art for art’s sake and are willing to put in the effort to learn to draw and paint better.”
His method is simple in its techniques and powerful in its results. He helps the art student to find and create the basic shapes for complex works of art. He starts with a still life and goes on to more complex subjects. In one page he shows how to make the grass in landscapes look natural, and how to add flowers. Then there is an introduction to drawing and painting trees. He talks about color, and quickly gives the reader a sophisticated understanding of color and how to use color values in painting landscapes. He teaches how to paint skies and how to make clouds look realistic. He shows in simple terms how to handle perspective and light source. There is an introduction to painting water and reflection, and much, much more, including using digital cameras and computer software such as Photoshop.
The book will be ready to ship on Monday, December 19th. Also ready at the same time are thepractice pads that allow the budding artist to work on specific subjects: landscapes, buildings, barns, cars and trucks, boats and shore buildings, sailboats, still life, butterflies and flowers.
How To Draw a Straight Line and other Objects, is in color, 8.5 by 11 inches, with more than 120 pages. The Art Practice Pads are 11 by 17 and have basic instructions as well as five pre-printed practice sheets and five totally blank pages. They are without hard backing and are stapled along the 17 inch side. Initially they are inexpensively priced and sold in minimum quantities of five or more.
In the next months, there will be many more practice pads, and we will add a strand designed to give an in-depth understanding of the great artists and schools. Using pads, we will walk budding artists through the steps that show how to paint in a style like the Impressionists, or in the manner of a particular artist.
We are particularly excited about this new Art Curriculum for many reasons. First, it is art, and we think that it is very important for children to be exposed to art and to get many opportunities to express their creativity. Second, it is very empowering for children; it will enable them to produce works of art that are more sophisticated and satisfying. Third, it will combine doing with greater understanding and appreciation. As children are introduced to the techniques that enable them to emulate the great artists, they will get a far better eye for the masterpieces they will see in museums and for the approaches that artists took.
HOW TO DRAW A STRAIGHT LINE by Donald Skier. Code: 8250 Price: $25.00
The ART PRACTICE PADS are $3.00 each. Minimum quantity: 5
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Posted on: 12/08/2011
This holiday season we are emphasizing important works of culture with an icing of Arctic and Antarctic adventure. A number of our novels will be half-price through December 11th.
At Royal Fireworks Press we use historical novels to introduce children to significant events, cultures, and literature. We endeavor to give children an enriching alternative to the trivia that is so prevalent in their environment. The novels we have chosen are about important themes, relationships, and people, together with adventure in the most challenging environments on Earth.
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Posted on: 03/29/2011
THE NEW Magic Lens Volume 1, IS HERE
This, the Third Edition of the first grammar book in the secondary level of our Language Arts Curriculum, is entirely based on the four-level sentence analysis. This analysis (parts of speech, parts of sentence, phrases, and clauses), is Michael Clay Thompson’s enormously successful and original approach to teaching grammar. Now the Student Books and Teacher Manuals are in full color with an improved layout, and include enhanced sentence diagramming, whilst the “loops” and class tests are on a CD with the Teacher Manual for school use. Punctuation is dealt with at each level of the analysis.
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Posted on: 12/13/2010
GIFTED EDUCATION AWARD TO MICHAEL CLAY THOMPSON
Michael Clay Thompson has won this year´s prestigious Richard W. Riley Award for “superior services to the gifted community.” Given by the South Carolina Consortium for Gifted Education at their annual conference, President Marva Tigner, presented the award to Michael for his unique contribution to teaching gifted children, nationally and locally. His grammar, vocabulary, writing, and poetics programs have inspired teachers and students for more than twenty years.
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