Grammar Levels 1 through 5

A strong foundation begins early, and this core study is designed to foster your student’s natural love of learning from the start. Students will learn to use the tools of excellent communication while they are fed with stories of great heroes and adventures from the Bible and Western Civilization. The focus is on memorization of facts and foundations: history facts, Latin vocabulary, basic grammar and composition, and the primary elements of literature. Students receive classroom instruction three days per week, and then parents, equipped with study tools and specific instructions for each subject, guide the student’s home study.

The Sequence of Courses:

• Grammar Level 1 (typically 2nd-3rd grade age): Old Testament/Ancient Egypt
• Grammar Level 2 (typically 3rd-4th grade age): New Testament, Greece and Rome
• Grammar Level 3 (typically 4th-5th grade age): Medieval, Renaissance and Reformation
• Grammar Level 4 (typically 5th-6th grade age): Explorers to 1815
• Grammar Level 5 (typically 6th/7th grade age): 1815 to Present or History Transitions

(Note: Targeted grade level of any of these classes may vary from year to year based on the make up of the class.)

Collegium Elective Courses for High School Students

The elective courses offered are offered at the rhetoric level only and allow the older student to customize his studies to suit his particular interests or needs. At this age students begin to work more independently, but success still depends on appropriate parental involvement. Parents are encouraged to communicate frequently with the instructor and to discuss course content with their students to keep connected.

Because the courses are taught for advanced students, all prerequisites must be met prior to enrollment or instructor permission is required. Additionally, some courses may require concurrent enrollment in coordinating courses.

Dialectic Levels 1 through 3

Dialectic level students should be ready to question and examine the world they’ve inherited. This program will channel that energy productively as “we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” (2 Cor 10:5). Students will examine the ideas that have shaped Western Civilization, measure those ideas against a Christian worldview, and then express their findings as they learn to handle the tools of communication. Students continue to build on the factual knowledge acquired at the Grammar level, but go further adding skills in analysis using logic, and writing skill using imitation of great writers of the Western tradition.

The Sequence of Courses:

• Dialectic Level 1 (typically 7th-9th grades): Omnibus 1: Ancients
• Dialectic Level 2 (typically 7th-9th grades): Omnibus 2: Medieval through Reformation
• Dialectic Level 3 (typically 7th-9th grades): Omnibus 3: Enlightenment to Modernity

Rhetoric Levels 1 through 3

Rhetoric level students are thoroughly equipped with facts and the tools of analysis and imitation, and now are prepared to use those tools with dexterity as they develop their style. The classical elements at this level include studies in Western Civilization and rhetoric for both written and verbal communication. For the convenience of our students we offer a range of other classes in language, science and math as well.

The Sequence of Courses:

• Rhetoric Level 1 (typically 10th-12th grades): Western Civilization 1: Ancients
• Rhetoric Level 2 (typically 10th-12th grades): Western Civilization 2: Medieval through Reformation
• Rhetoric Level 3 (typically 10th-12th grades): Western Civilization 3: Modernity