The Grammar Stage
Kindergarten - 6th Grade
Children learn in three stages: grammar, logic, and rhetoric. In the grammar stage, children are naturally able to memorize through repetition, songs, and chants. Students learn the fundamental rules of each subject. The grammar stage of learning does not just expose children to a myriad of information but requires of them mastery. The grammar stage is the foundation of future learning.
“For the sole true end of education is simply this: to teach children how to learn for themselves.”
CLASSICAL CHRISTIAN EDUCATION
Classical education began in Ancient Greece with Aristotle as one of its first teachers. Greeks learned about freedom in terms of having virtue and an independence of mind. For two millennia, classical Christian education quietly and instrumentally laid the foundations for Christian culture and the West. It is precisely this kind of education that has produced countless great leaders, inventors, scientists, writers, philosophers, theologians, physicians, lawyers, artists, and musicians over the centuries. Then, a century ago, that all changed.
“Today, some individual will come up with some “innovative” educational idea. This will probably be a theoretical model. Schools across the country will then implement the idea, never asking questions about the previous success of the new theory, method, or technique. Is this not truly amazing? Think about it. Would you consider undergoing a new medical treatment that had not been carefully researched? Would you be willing to purchase a new product that producers had not tested? After four or five years, educators will realize that the new theory is not working. Meanwhile, they have shortchanged our children. We cannot give children their wasted years of education back.”
-Repairing the Ruins by Tom Spencer
The Good, the True, and the Beautiful
CURRICULUM
Christian Studies
The Old and New Testament presented as a single narrative of Creation, Rebellion, and Redemption. Students memorize weekly bible verses to help deepen their faith and live in obedience.
Phonics & Spelling
The primary purpose of a phonics program is to teach the child to read. Identifying letter sounds and the different sounds they make when combined together helps students decode words as they read.
Reading / Literature
Literature selections are comprised of classical literature that teach morals, virtue, and truth.
Latin (Beginning in 2nd grade)
The study of Latin provides many distinct benefits to the students. One benefit is a student’s enhanced understanding of the structure of the English language. In addition, Latin vocabulary will enhance a students understanding of science, literature, and vocabulary of other related languages.
Math
Mastery of addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and other related skills are achieved through repetition.
Science
Children naturally observe and wonder at the world around them. The science curriculum is focused around this natural tendency through the study of astronomy, insects, birds, and trees.
History
The foundation of Western Civilization is laid through the study of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and the Middle Ages.
Grammar / Composition
Students learn to write using the classical progymnasmata. The progymnasmata is a twelve stage program that prepares students to write well and speak persuasively.
The curriculum at the center of Gulf Pointe Latin School is the Memoria Press Classical Core Curriculum.