Structure of Our Day

We feel a serious approach to academics helps raise the bar for our homeschool families. Our families like how the Tour Guide helps prevent holes in their education while reinforcing what they are doing at home. With Catholic Schoolhouse’s scope of academic work (in our Scope and Sequence chart), you can be sure that your elementary student has a comprehensive education.

Typical Schedule for Grammar (Elementary) Students

8:45 – 9:00 Prayer & Pledge of Allegiance, Chorus
9:00 – 9:30 Academics in Individual Classes
9:30 – 10:00 Art
10:00 – 11:00 Academics, Student Presentations
11:00 – 11:30 Hands-On Science
11:30 – 12:00 Finish Academics in Individual Classes

Subjects for each year and stage coordinate with the Tour Guide to unite the family in studies.

We meet once a week for three hours. Our 24 week school year is divided into 6 week quarters, meeting 3 weeks on, one week off with ample time off for Christmas and Easter. We begin each day with morning prayers, Pledge of Allegiance, and chorus. After this we break into classes of 8-12 children based on age and development. Elementary tutors use the Tour Guide (memory items) to introduce the children to the weekly topics with a variety of fun activities, songs, writing, drawing, Montessori techniques, stories, and games. During this time the children learn to raise their hands, take turns, and address one another respectfully. The topics introduced provide a framework and great springboards for further study at home as well as hooks on which the students hang future learning. Exposure to the classical music at snack time rounds out the morning.

Upper Level students are given additional opportunities. You can look at the Charlotte tab of the CSH website to see a sample schedule. CSH does not cover “core” subjects, as one morning a week, 24 times a year would be a disservice to the students. Our focus is on developing Catholic culture and thought, and providing the interaction with peers that is unavailable at home. Middle schoolers briefly review the topics in the Tour Guide as a last review before moving on to high school. Older students study topics related to the Tour Guide in more depth, maintaining family cohesiveness in studies. Additionally, middle and high school students continue to study music and art with Catholic Schoolhouse at a deeper level. As we did with our elementary (Grammar) program, our Upper Level program is in a testing phase. We will release it only after we are sure of its quality and success after a full 3-year cycle of testing. If your Catholic Schoolhouse has older students, your director will work with Catholic Schoolhouse to determine a program suitable for your students.