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Curriculum

Our curriculum combines the best of a variety of home education approaches, all unified under Catholic Truth and magisterial teaching. We make the classical disciplines that are pivotal to a free mind possible for the family through our unique combination of family work (Opus Familiae) and individual work (Opus Solus). We provide curriculum rooted in story, and all through the lens of the greatest story ever told, the Gospel. Our curriculum, particularly on Academy Days and Monthly Enrichment Days, emphasizes incarnate, hands-on experience, honoring the Aristotelian principle that all knowledge begins in the senses.

 

Finally, we are more than just an at-home curriculum, we are a community oriented around Truth - providing a weekly group learning environment, nurturing friendships, living the Liturgical Calendar, developing skills and crafts outside of the conventional education checkbox, and supporting Mother-Teachers and parents as they undertake this sanctifying work. 

CATHOLIC

Did you know the Catholic Church has specific guidance on education, including defining its goals and addressing methods both ancient and modern? We have carefully structured our work under the banner of Mother Church's direction. Not only do we include curricular elements such as Scripture Study, Hymn Study, Lives of Saints, and Catechesis weekly and Academy Day studies in Choral Music, Catholic Culture, and Virtues, our study of every discipline is imbued with Catholic Truth. Our methods, from the books chosen to the incarnate materials available on Academy Day, align with the Church's vision for the cultivation of the full person, yet honoring the particularity of our place and time.

CLASSICAL

The classical model is more than just memory work or logic puzzles. It is a map, simple in its unity yet complex in its distinctions, to the cultivation of the mind as designed by our Creator. The Ancients reached toward Truth in a time when the whole world was groaning in anticipation of the Incarnation. The height of the Catholic intellectual tradition, the medieval Cathedral schools that produced scholastics like St. Thomas Aquinas developed these methods within a specifically Catholic worldview. The Classical elements in our curriculum include specific instruction in the Trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric), the base of the ladder of classical thought that is crowned by Philosophy and Theology. These disciplines teach students attentiveness and observation in order to make distinctions - habits of mind critical to navigating the difficulties of the modern world, whether you are raising a farmer, a statesman, or anything in between.

WORK AS A FAMILY

No more agonizing over a long list of students all studying different content and wondering how you will get it all done and put supper on the table! No more wondering if you're doing a disservice to your students because you're grouping siblings of different ages into conventional "grade levels" to streamline prep work for yourself. We've thought through a complete curriculum (currently Pre-Primary through middle grades, but with plans to expand to high school as interest demands). This curriculum unifies many studies for the whole family with our Opus Familiae plans to promote dialogue and growth within the home together. Our curriculum also provides discipline-specific work in our Opus Solus plans, grouping students in age ranges, yet providing a seamless year-by-year plan in a cycle to ensure that no one inadvertently ends up with gaps. Our four-day program (three days of home curriculum and one Academy Day) also provides families the time to pursue their own interests & labors each week.

WORK IN COMMON

No more sitting at home wondering if there is anyone in the world like you. No more cherry-picking affinity groups and co-ops where you never feel like you are known and your children struggle to make lasting friends. At Saint Thomas More Academy, we offer a community rooted in what is most important - our Faith. No more wondering if the families around you are "on the same page." We continually grow together as mothers - learning from one another and Mother Church through The Holy House. We are working together to rebuild Catholic culture - in part so that we can hand on to our students a community of common knowledge, common practice, and common belief. While we are building a common knowledge through a common curriculum, we still honor the family as the first school of virtue and unique gifts that every family brings to our community. Commonality without rigidity, community without uniformity. In other words, truly Catholic community.

What's Included

See our Prospectus below for full details

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  • Three 12-week terms of Opus Familiae plans (3 days/week)

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  • Three 12-week terms of Opus Solus plans (3 days/week)

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  • Guides for teaching each discipline

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  • Recommended timetables for a three-day week of home curriculum

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  • Blank timetables and templates for planning and recordkeeping to adjust to the particulars of your family

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  • Special Studies Book Lists by division for History, Nature Study, and Literature

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  • Recommendations for Arithmetic programs and a guide for choosing the right fit for your students

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  • Weekly attendance at Holy House & access to all past and current curriculum for The Holy House for Mothers Education

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  • Weekly attendance at all Academy Days and Monthly Park Days & Field Trips

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Home Curriculum Elements

Family Work

(Opus Familiae)

Prayer & Hymns

Memory Work

Scripture, Catechesis, Saints

Latin

Geography & Mapwork

Handcrafts

 

Spine Reads: 

History, Art History, Nature Study, Literature, Shakespeare Stories, Fables & Tales


Studies: Poets, Composers, Artists

Pre-Primary Work
(Opus Solus)

​Catechesis

Stories & Nursery Rhymes

Nature Study

Phonics

Arithmetic

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*Participate as able in Family Work

Primary A&B Work
(Opus Solus)

Catechesis

Phonics & Spelling

Rhetoric (Begins in Primary B)

Language Lessons

Personal Read & Reading Log

Art Sketchbook

History Stories & Book of Centuries

Geography

Nature Lore & Notebooking

Arithmetic​​

Junior A&B Work
(Opus Solus)

Catechesis

Grammar

Rhetoric

Logic (Begins in Junior B)

Personal Read & Commonplace

Art Sketchbook

History Stories & Book of Centuries

Geography

Nature Special Studies & Notebooking

Latin Grammar

Arithmetic

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