Catholic Schoolhouse is designed to help homeschool families enrich their educational experience through a flexible approach to learning, inspired by classical elements. A classical homeschool experience is a journey you walk with your child, engaging in joyful conversation. The classical method recognizes that your child goes through stages and uses those stages to your advantage. From birth through adulthood, your child is growing through classical stages–stages where their brain changes.
During the grammar stage, you child’s brain is wired for memory! Classical education grabs the opportunity to create hooks and pegs in your child’s brain through classical memory work of learning facts and information. Catholic Schoolhouse creates these pegs which become hooks on which your child will hang and depend upon with future learning.
The Dialectic stage (approx. middle school) the focus is on helping students analyze in a respectful way. In the Rhetoric stage (approx. high school) students work on gaining confidence with communication skills.
The Pre-Grammar Program
The Catholic Schoolhouse Pre-Grammar program is designed with the youngest scholars in mind (approx. 2.5 to 5 years old). The focus is on virtues, attention, exploration and good habits.
The Pre-Grammar program prepares students to learn week-by-week alongside their siblings and sets them up for future success in the Grammar program.
At this age, we will not and should not expect mastery. The experience should be experiental, relaxed and joyful through activity based learning activities that are appropriate.
Visual memory is reinforced with the use of classroom displays, Saint badges to engage students and sensory bins for math, science and art. Weekly lessons follow along with the Tour Guide used in the Grammar program.
The Grammar Program
The Catholic Schoolhouse Grammar program goes beyond memory work. It’s a foundation to build a true one-room schoolhouse. The Grammar program is organized into units and presented in a three-year cycle. Children are guided through sequential topics including religion, history, geography, math, classical languages, music and language arts. This program is cohesive and other subjects like Art and Science are all based on the Tour Guide which contains the historical timeline.
Utilizing a three-year rotation allows homeschooling students to encounter all of the information twice during the elementary years, once during primary (ages 2.5 to 5) and again during the intermediate years (ages 6 to 12) to deeper and fortify learning.
The Dialectic & Rhetoric Programs
Catholic Schoolhouse engages the whole person. The Dialectic and Rhetoric programs have simple goals that focus on what teens need:
- To grow in virtue in the company of other saints
- To study the true, good and beautiful
- To prepare students to enter adulthood with the courage and confidence to bring other souls to Christ
Upper-level education is accomplished through relevant book discussion, Socratic seminars, memorized speech selections and writing assignments that grow students’ communication skills in a fun interactive environment.
Catholic Schoolhouse, Dialectic and Rhetoric students stay connected to the family. By following the same general sequence found in the Tour Guide but with a deeper scope, your homeschooling family maintains unity. Family projects, field trips and discussions around the dinner table continue to include the entire family.
The whole family has a place with Catholic Schoolhouse
Why Join a Catholic Schoolhouse Chapter?
While the Catholic Schoolhouse program can be used at home, joining a Catholic Schoolhouse Chapter is more than just a day out of the house. By providing support for your whole family a Catholic Schoolhouse Chapter can help bring structure and cohesiveness to your entire homeschool experience. Immerse yourself in Catholic culture and join us!
Catholic Schoolhouse Merrillville meets weekly to offer support, accountability, and fun! Please get in touch to arrange a visit or attend an information session to learn more.