Academics

Without the ability to pay attention, students cannot learn.  We understand and consider this as we lay the groundwork for exercising and growing the human mind to its full potential.

We cultivate our students' ability to pay attention through time tested tools such as narration, nature journaling, memorization, time for contemplation, and honoring attentive learning.

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In addition to cultivating attention, we provide our students with a broad cultural heritage through the reading of timeless literature that gives us visions of greatness. We continually immerse our students in the true, the good and the beautiful through reading Bible stories, fables, fairytales, and stories of those who have been true to their ideals in the face of impossible odds. By sharing the foundational stories and fables of our culture and other cultures we provide a frame of reference for all of their future studies and life decisions. This prepares them for understanding the references and analogies in the work of the higher grades and allows them to  progress without barriers in their ability to read and comprehend the greatest literature and ideas of all time.  

The seven liberating arts of the Trivium and Quadrivium form the foundations of a powerful, free mind. Western civilization has been carried on the shoulders of those who have embraced and taught these liberating arts for over 2000 years.

Arguably the ideas contained within the liberal arts tradition form the foundation of what it means to be civilized, not just in the Western sense of the word, but in the foundational sense of what it means to be a civilized human being.  Every culture that is in any sense civilized, has tapped into the rules and civilizing influences that the Western Liberal Arts tradition most fully embraces and promotes.

By teaching these arts to our students, they are empowered to "do justly, love mercy, and walk humbly"* as we cultivate their ability to understand the order and beauty of the created universe (quadrivium), interpret signs (grammar), recognize  inconsistencies in their own ideas and those of others (logic), and make wise and considered decisions in community (rhetoric).

Our goals define our approach to arithmetic and science.  Those goals include a deeper understanding and appreciation for God's created order.  We recognize Christ as the ordering principle of our universe, as the Logos or center of the Creation.  Thus we teach from the perspective that ultimate or absolute truth exists and that it is knowable. Science is approached first by allowing and cultivating our students' sense of wonder and progresses toward conceptual mastery.

Arithmetic is taught using a multi-faceted approach that takes into consideration the differences in how students understand and apprehend the ideas of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. Games, manipulatives, friendly competition, and personalized teaching are used to allow every student the best opportunity to achieve mastery.