The Stonehaven School

At the heart of classical education is the idea that we ought to teach with the grain of a child...

The scope and sequence to Stonehaven's curriculum follows a distinct classical Christian model. The primary goals to this curriculum design include integration of disciplines, a liberal arts focus, and alignment with the developmental phases of the Trivium. The Lower School Curriculum seeks to leverage the natural curiosity and wonder in young children by equipping them with the knowledge they need to be prepared for the Logic and Rhetoric school.

Subjects

Reading

In Kindergarten and First Grade, students are grounded in a rigorous Phonics education. Upon this foundation, students are gradually exposed to great literature nurturing in their souls a love for reading. Teachers at Stonehaven carefully select each book ensuring it is consistent with the school's vigorous pursuit of all that is true, good, and beautiful. A favorite event for students each year is our D.E.A.R (Drop Everything and Read) Day where a majority of the school day is dedicated to reading and enjoying good books. Grammar level reading prepares the child for the demanding reading expectations in Stonehaven's Upper School program.

Writing

A key objective throughout Stonehaven's academic program is training our children to become excellent communicators via the written word. Writing is a crucial piece in the development of articulate and winsome communicators, and spelling, grammar, and handwriting are essential tools to that end. We use Shurley grammar in the early years to help the students learn the parts of speech allowing them to organize their thoughts and ideas in an orderly manner. In the early years the focus is on writing clear and expressive sentences. In the middle years those sentences are turned into strong and informative paragraphs, and during the latter years of Grammar School, those paragraphs become papers that communicate coherent ideas.

Math

The grammar school math program seeks to immerse the child in the consistency, harmony, and uniform nature of mathematical principles. The Singapore-based Think! Mathematics program uses the Concrete-Pictorial-Abstract approach to facilitate the transition from pictorial to symbolic understanding.

History

History is taught at Stonehaven in a four-year cycle through different periods of history: Ancient, Medieval, Early Modern, and Modern. The study of history enables students to see God's redemptive work in times past and present as they explore other civilizations and how those gave rise to the world as we know it today. Stonehaven's history timeline provides students with 120 dates, memorized from kindergarten through eighth grade. These dates provide intellectual pegs in their mind which help frame the various time periods of history.

Science

The foundational principle of the Grammar School science curriculum is the development of curiosity about God's world. Students are challenged to observe, question, and analyze in the science class. They experience all aspects of the discipline of Science, developing skills in using the scientific method as a way of questioning and thinking as they study God's creation.

Latin

Latin is a core subject at Stonehaven beginning in the third grade. A central aim for our students is that they become masters of language and words. The learning of Latin helps a student understand the fundamental nature of language. Upon this foundation, students are better equipped to learn English and other languages.

Art & Music

Art classes for all grades in the Lower School track with the history curriculum so students can model their budding artistic skills on great works of art from the past. For music, choral training is the foundation of our music program, and students begin working on singing in rounds and harmonies starting in Kindergarten and continue throughout their time in the Lower School. Additionally, all students in Grades 1-3 take piano lab, students in Grade 4 practice the recorder, and students in Grades 5-6 work on a band or orchestra instrument of their choice.

Physical Education

The physical education program ensures that our students are training healthy habits in their physical bodies. Students are exposed to a variety of physical skills and challenges that foster hand-eye coordination and muscle development. Team games are an opportunity to nurture sportsmanship, courage, and teamwork towards a common goal.

Dorothy Sayers on the Grammar Stage, Lost Tools of Learning:

The Poll-Parrot stage is the one in which learning by heart is easy and, on the whole, pleasurable; whereas reasoning is difficult and, on the whole, little relished. At this age, one readily memorizes the shapes and appearances of things; one likes to recite the number-plates of cars; one rejoices in the chanting of rhymes and the rumble and thunder of unintelligible polysyllables; one enjoys the mere accumulation of things.

Language

Latin should be begun as early as possible--at a time when inflected speech seems no more astonishing than any other phenomenon in an astonishing world; and when the chanting of "Amo, amas, amat" is as ritually agreeable to the feelings as the chanting of "eeny, meeny, miney, moe."

Stories

In English, meanwhile, verse and prose can be learned by heart, and the pupil's memory should be stored with stories of every kind--classical myth, European legend, and so forth.

History

The grammar of History should consist, I think, of dates, events, anecdotes, and personalities. A set of dates to which one can peg all later historical knowledge is of enormous help later on in establishing the perspective of history.

Geography

Geography will similarly be presented in its factual aspect, with maps, natural features, and visual presentment of customs, costumes, flora, fauna, and so on; and I believe myself that the discredited and old-fashioned memorizing of a few capitol cities, rivers, mountain ranges, etc., does no harm. Stamp collecting may be encouraged.

Science

Science, in the Poll-Parrot period, arranges itself naturally and easily around collections--the identifying and naming of specimens and, in general, the kind of thing that used to be called "natural philosophy."

Mathematics

The grammar of Mathematics begins, of course, with the multiplication table, which, if not learnt now, will never be learnt with pleasure; and with the recognition of geometrical shapes and the grouping of numbers. These exercises lead naturally to the doing of simple sums in arithmetic.

Observation

Observation and memory are the faculties most lively at this period.

Recitation

Recitation aloud should be practiced, individually or in chorus; for we must not forget that we are laying the groundwork for Disputation and Rhetoric.

"Without education, we are in a horrible and deadly danger of taking educated people seriously." - G.K. Chesterton