Well, it's not precisely a textbook, but I thought that Bill Bryson's A Brief History Of Everything was both fascinating and a good grounding in much of the essential science.

DK

Posted by: Devil's Kitchen at September 29, 2006 10:37 AM

I agree with the Bryson recommendation. That book was fascinating and very readable. He doesn't go very in-depth, of course, but I think you'll find it to be a great jumping-off point for further study on your own.

Posted by: TheBizofKnowledge at September 29, 2006 11:56 AM

EH Gombrich's Little History of the World is great so long as you tear out the pages about the twentieth century - they have a somewhat naive attitude to socialism.

Can't help with Italian.

I don't know about books, but there are some good websites for Science. In particular the American Chemical Society used to have pages devoted to experiments you could do at home. I have a copy of Backyard Ballistics set aside for when my boys are a bit older. This is a book on how to make things like a potato cannon.

Posted by: Bishop Hill at September 29, 2006 12:59 PM

'The Trivum: the liberal arts of logic, grammar and rhetoric' by Sister Miriam Joseph. If you want to know why, read 'The Lost Tools of Learning' by Dorothy L. Sayers, which is quite short, the text of a lecture and is available in full online. Peter Kreeft's 'Socratic Logic' is the best intro to natural language logic. As for inspiring an interest in science, the three 'Science of Discworld' books are surprisingly comprehensive and I would say more rigorous than Bryson, but might appeal more to schoolage boys. You could try some Feynman: "The Meaning of it All" has some good stuff. But to teach science you need a textbook, I should think. Maybe there's a 'Teach Yourself' guide?

Posted by: Marc Sidwell at September 29, 2006 07:31 PM

'A Short History of the World' by Geoffrey Blainey, an Australian historian.
Is a history of humanity but whether it would be any good for schooling I don't know. A very easy rolling read and like most of his work a factual account without judgement
The influence of dramatic changes in climate are interesting and of course topical and this puts our current trivial obsession into perspective without explicitly setting out to do so.
There is also a short review on the Amazon website that says a little more.

Posted by: Robert Hookway at September 30, 2006 09:34 PM

Some very good suggestions already, especially Bryson, Backyard Ballistics, and the Sayers essay, which is available online, http://www.gbt.org/text/sayers.html

Without knowing what branch of science you and Alex are looking for:

The "How Things Work" series, from Reader's Digest, including "How Science Works", "How Math Works", "How the Body Works", "How the Earth Works", How the Universe Works";

"Science Is..." by Susan V. Bosak;

Kingfisher have some good encyclopedias, including "The Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia" and "The Kingfisher History Encyclopedia";

"The Way Things Work" by David Macaulay;

A few out-of-print Isaac Asimov titles worth tracking down: "Asimov's Chronology of Science and Discovery", "Asimov on Astronomy", "Understanding Physics";

"Handbook of Nature Study" by Anna Botsford Comstock; very unwieldy for a paperback, but a wealth of information;

"The Stars: A New Way to See Them" by H.A. Rey (the author of the Curious George books).

Other than math:
A useful book, intended for North Americans, is "The Complete Home Learning Sourcebook" by Rebecca Rupp, which gives a variety of resources, from books and movies to websites and computer programs;

for English, though of course these are all more American English: "The Elements of Style" by William Strunk and E.B. White (now available in an illustrated edition, possibly more interesting for younger children); "On Writing Well" by William Zinsser; "Woe Is I" by Patricia T. O'Conner; and of course "Fowler's Modern English Usage";

Dover Publications, www.doverpublications.com, have a variety of inexpensive books on a variety of subjects, from Andrew Lang's "Color Fairy Books" to musical scores, and just about everything in between;

For maths, Singapore Math, at www.singaporemath.com ; there may well be European vendors, as there are dozens throughout North America.

And for online lists of resources, friends near London have recommended these sites in the past,

http://www.education-otherwise.org/Links/Resources-Qualifications/PrimRes.htm
http://home-ed.info/sitemap.htm
http://home-ed.info/heresources.htm
http://home-ed.info/science.htm

I tried to preview this comment, and it came out all running together, so hope I will have better luck when actually posting it.

Posted by: Becky at October 1, 2006 05:37 AM

I have found the Michel Thomas French (and other language) tapes very good, athough not everyone agrees.
They are most effective for teaching real grammar to people who have learnt some French, but haven't got the knack of making proper sentences etc.

That said, I think anyone who wants to learn to speak French would benefit from them.

Posted by: dfgdf at October 2, 2006 01:09 PM