Calvary Christian Academy’s School of Grammar classrooms are fun and engaging, so that students learn through guided discovery, exploration, games, songs, chants, movement, recitations, and repetition.  Subjects are integrated, so students may make connections between them.  Coursework focuses on memorizing factual information in a variety of subject matter, including phonograms, math facts, maps, scripture, quotes, and poetry.  This approach fits grammar students well as students are characterized as:

• Excited about new, interesting facts
• Easily memorize
• Enjoy games, stories, songs, projects, chants, and rhymes
• Want to touch, taste, see, feel, smell
• Imaginative and creative
• Like to discover, explain, problem solve, talk
• Want to relate topic to their own experience
• Like collections and organizing items
• Easily assimilate other languages

Memory Period 

One way CCA implements the classical approach to learning is through the Memory Period.  In our School of Grammar, teachers begin each day with memory work (i.e., Latin, poems, quotes, memory verses, spelling, and more) and engaging songs, hand motions, chants, and call-outs.  Taking time to go over this material on a daily basis enables students to learn valuable memory skills in a fun and engaging way.

The Influence of Charlotte Mason (K-2nd)

CCA’s educational philosophy and methods for the lower elementary are also derived from the British educator, Charlotte Mason (1842-1923).  Ms. Mason, a renowned “teacher of teachers,” founded a number of grammar schools, as well as a college to train teachers.  The elements of Charlotte Mason’s educational philosophy that we have incorporated into CCA are as follows:

• Parents are the primary influence in their children’s lives, and they must accept and fulfill this responsibility—it cannot be delegated.  In Mason’s words: “More than anything else it is the home influences brought to bear upon the child that determine the character and career of the future man or woman.”
• Children are born as individuals of worth and, as such, should be valued and respected.  Curriculum for children, therefore, should reflect their value and potential as human beings and should never be “dumbed down.”  Rather, the curriculum must be full of books and experiences that exemplify and teach truth, beauty, and goodness.  In particular, a school’s curriculum should be filled with “living books” and not simply textbooks, leveled readers, or vapid works.
• The teaching and reinforcing of mental and moral habits help students automatically learn to do what is right, which will aid them in their future development.
• Nature study should be an integral part of children’s grammar school years.  The study of nature allows children to develop all of their senses and trains them to observe, count, classify, interpret, draw, and record.  Nature study helps children love and appreciate the magnificence of God as the Creator of all.  Moreover, nature study is foundational to developing skills in inquiry, observation, and analysis that are integral not only to scientific investigation, but also to fields as diverse as the study of history and of the visual arts.
• The use of oral and written narration develops students’ overall language skills.  Students tell back or “narrate” a story they have heard or read.  They retell, as much as possible, word for word.  As students narrate, they learn good writing technique, as they often recite or write in the same style as the author. Narration also strengthens and develops their vocabulary and memory skills.

CCA’s educational approach is uniquely based on a classical, Christian model while incorporating several teaching philosophies of Charlotte Mason primarily during the early grammar years.  With a proven model, methods that support children to grow in moral character, and ultimately the guidance of our Lord Jesus Christ, Calvary Christian Academy is recapturing education. 

K: Hundreds Day
1st: Prairie Day
2nd: Egyptian Day
3rd: Greco-Roman Day
4th: Medieval Day
5th: Adventure Day