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COURSES AVAILABLE:
Art, Cartography (Map Skills), Foreign Languages, Geography, History, Language Arts (Grammar, Phonics, Reading, Spelling, Vocabulary, Writing), Literature (The Good and Great Books Program), Math, Music, Philosophy For Children, Science, Socratic Discussion Group (Listening, Speaking, Understanding)
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LITERATURE: The elementary grades (N-8th) "Good Books" literature program is described at Good Books. The 9th-12th grade "Great Books" program is described at Great Books Seminars.
MATH OPTIONS: Math is offered from nursery through 12th grade. We
have two excellent options for math (which converge in the 7th and 12th grades). One is the Developmental Math which develops independent thinking and teaches basic math. The other is Saxon, which is basic math with applied math. Both use Saxon Algebra 1/2 in 7th grade, allowing a
switchover to Jacobs Algebra, Geometry, Foerester's Algebra II & Trigonometry, Anton's Calculus. Mathematics: A Human Endeavor completes both tracks in 12th grade.
LANGUAGE ARTS: Sing, Spell, Read & Write is a five level, complete Language Arts program,
Preschool through 3rd grade. It includes spelling, reading, singing, phonics and writing. It is an
excellent program for teaching reading and writing, with superb use of memory devices. VocabuLit continues the vocabulary and spelling arts 3rd through 8th grade based on classic works - a perfect
preparation for reading the Great Books. Shurley Grammar is an 8-grade program that teaches
grammar, syntax and writing. The students learn the parts of speech through easy-to-remember jingles, and classifying sentences with questions and answers. Writing with Phonics is extra
handwriting practice (PreK-3rd). Spencerian handwriting and, later Calligraphy are offered after cursive
for students to learn to write beautifully.
FOREIGN LANGUAGES: These courses and materials are designed to be largely self-testing. Power-Glide (Spanish, French, German,Russian) is equivalent to 2-3 years of high school. The Learnables is a good Hebrew program which begins with speaking followed by the grammar. Hey
Andrew, is a six-level Greek program, followed by Homeschool Greek. Latin's-Not-So-Tough is a very
good 3-year beginner's course starting with the alphabet, then into reading sentences, followed by: The Latin Road to English Grammar is ecclesiastical (Medieval) Latin which is a three (year)-level
course by the end of which students are reading the classics.
GEOGRAPHY: is provided in National Geographic Society CDs containing 110 years (1888-1998) of
monthly issues of the National Geographic Society Magazine. References to relevant articles and history are provided in our Geography Lesson Plans. They are used 3rd-8th grades.
CARTOGRAPHY: is a new program offered by the National Geographic Society (1st-6th grades). The
workbooks are very-up-to-date. They come with teacher's manual for each grade, which covers the
workbook in detail plus has many suggestions for projects and further research. Copyright 2000 A.D.
PHILOSOPHY for Children: this program (K-6th) comes highly recommended by Dr. Peter Redpath,
who taught the program for years. The program introduces children to ethics and logic in interesting story formats. Critical Thinking I & II (7th & 8th grades) is a basic, traditional logic course.
ART: Art for Nursery-2nd grade is colorful, seasonal and will be fun for children to learn to cut, paste
and be creative. The art books in 3rd-5th grades are books selected to use with the history programs for those years. The art for 6th-8th grades is Art in Focus, which includes a lavishly illustrated
textbook and a student workbook to test comprehension. The book beautifully covers many centuries
and styles of art and helps develop a refined and cultured artistic sense.
SCIENCE: Levels 1-6 elementary science textbooks are interesting and beautifully done in four-color.
They teach the various sciences in each book: life, earth, physical, astronomy, etc. The books come
with workbooks, answer keys and an assessment book for tests. The Science for 7th-9th grades are four-color, interesting texts of Life, Earth, PhysicalScience, repeated in greater depth 10th-12th
grades as Biology, Chemistry, Physics. This is the traditional order.
MUSIC: The music in Nursery-6th grade consists of listening to classical music, and music
appreciation. These levels come with cassette(s), CDs and/or books. The Enjoyment of Music in the
7th-8th grades is the premier course, which studies the lives of the great composers and the history and theory of music.
SOCRATIC DISCUSSION: These discussion books are used in 3rd-8th grades and were developed by
St. John's College graduates to introduce students into the Socratic method of learning. The readings
are mostly from the classics, organized for 3rd-8th graders, preparing students for the Great Books discussion groups in high school.
HISTORY &RELIGION: It is the responsibility of the parents to instruct their children in the truths of
religion. The directors, staff and students of The Great Books Academy come from differing religious
backgrounds. Consequently religious instruction will be left entirely to the parents to provide. In
Socratic discussion groups students are free to express their views, whether based on religious or
purely rational grounds, however the rules of Socratic discussion groups restrict discussions to the text assigned, or read by the group.
The Great BooksAcademy provides history texts for 2nd--5th grades (Ancient Near Eastern history,
ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, through ancient Rome), but no 6th-8th grade history texts. This is
because ancient history is relatively uncontroverted and historians largely agree on its salient facts, at
least as is presented in the lower elementary grades. However, 6th-8th grade history usually covers
the periods of the Middle Ages to the Modern, and is so controverted, so inherently subject to the
biases and religious beliefs of the textbook authors, that we believe history texts for this period must
be left to the parents to select lest their religious instruction of their children be indirectly subverted, as
happens with public school history texts written for secular publishers. These two areas - religion and
history - are critical to a complete liberal education, but their provision is left to the parents, who have it by right (and responsibility).
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