The years a child spends in grade school are critical in their development. So much is learned through their senses, feelings, imagination and socialization. Intellectual and emotional development is achieved by a blend of academic and artistic experiences by engaging the child’s head, heart and hands. Handwork projects such as knitting, modeling, and wood carving are basic elements of the curriculum and are essential builders of motor and intellectual skills as well as working to develop concentration, self-confidence, patience and self-expression.

As children progress developmentally, the curriculum transforms to meet their changing inner requirements. The young child’s need for imitation develops into the older child’s need for discipline and loving authority. As children become ready, the world is probed and explored through scientific inquiry, culture, art, language, music and history.

Each day begins with a concentrated two-hour block of instruction called Main Lesson. Main Lessons focus around one academic subject for a period of three to four weeks, allowing children to completely immerse themselves in the material.

Arts, drama and speech enrich Main Lessons, and help the children integrate beauty, form and intellect. Each student creates an ongoing record of his studies in Main Lesson books, which he fills with compositions, observations, diagrams and illustrations. In addition to academic excellence, teachers encourage colorful, artistic presentation.

First Grade
Fairy, folk and nature tales; reading approached through writing, form drawing; addition, subtraction, division and multiplication.

Second Grade
Legends of saints and heroes, animal fables; cursive writing, reading; broadening of math concepts.

Third Grade
Old Testament stories, Hebrew studies, practical life: farming, housing, clothing; spelling, introduction to grammar; long division, weights, measures, money, higher multiplication tables.

Fourth Grade
Norse mythology and sagas; composition, letter writing, spelling, grammar; fractions; local history, geography, map making; zoology.

Fifth Grade
Ancient India and classical Greece; composition and grammar; decimals, ratio and proportion; North American geography, agriculture and economics; botany.

Sixth Grade
Roman and medieval European history, world geography; composition, grammar, spelling; geometric drawing, compound and simple interest, business math and percentage; geology, physics (acoustics, static electricity, optics, magnetism and heat), astronomy.

Seventh Grade
Renaissance, Age of Exploration, world geography; poetry, biography, composition, grammar, spelling; pre-algebra, geometric drawing; physics (mechanics, electricity), physiology, inorganic chemistry, astronomy.

Eighth Grade
Modern history, world geography;literature (short stories, letters, Shakespeare), composition, grammar, spelling; algebra, solid geometry; physics, meteorology, chemistry; nutrition and hygiene.

Special Subjects
Field trips, Spanish, music (singing and recorder, orchestra, band, string groups), handwork, crafts, woodworking, organic gardening, painting, drawing, sports and games, eurythmy, clay and beeswax modeling.