Below is the list of courses that will be offered in the 2026–2027 academic year. These courses are not taught every year. In most of the elementary years, grammar, writing and poetics are integrated in the program; however, starting in Vice and Virtue course, grammar is taught as a separate subject online. Click on the title of the course to access the detailed objectives of the course.
This class is intended for pupils who are learning to read as well as for those students who are currently handicapped by their poor reading, spelling and handwriting. In the course students will learn skills so important for a successful academic career: good handwriting, phonics, reading, and basic writing skills. Students enrolled in the course will use a phonics/reading and a cursive handwriting book. At the end of the year, students will be able to write in the cursive italic hand and read fluidly. The course is intended for younger students who already know their letters and their sounds (but not necessarily blends, digraphs or diphthongs), but may not be able to read fluidly, and for those older students who may have a learning difficulty in reading or handwriting. The course involves reading, dictation and handwriting exercises. I am planning to make a teacher’s guide available for the school year for all parents who want more assistance at home. The guide will include answers to all of the exercises as well as important resource materials, such as a large book list. Suggested class for first graders. View the detailed course description and the assignment page by clicking the hyperlinks.
If there is one general weakness in today’s educational method it is the lack of continuity and drilling in foundational skills. Many students have a good beginning, but it is continual practice that makes perfect. “B is for Bears” is a course intended to drill pupils in those skills learned in “A is for Apple.” The class encourages good handwriting habits and bolsters phonics and reading skills. The course, however, introduces a lot of new material, such as important grammar concepts that will help students in their dictation and writing work. The curriculum also exposes students to a wealth of good history, poetry and literature intended for their level. “B is for Bears” is an excellent course to prepare students for the more rigorous reading and writing assignments. Suggested class for second graders.View the detailed course description and the assignment page by clicking on the hyperlinks.
D is for Dandelion
Like the previous three years of curriculum, D is for Dandelion covers spelling, phonics, poetry memorization, poetics (in the Teacher's Guide), and reading with comprehension questions. Reading selections include a wide variety of genres, including poems, correspondence, journal writing, fantasy, fairytale, allegory, fables, folk tales, myth, biography, history, satire, and realistic fiction. There are dictation exercises that not only teach grammar concepts but also reinforces the spelling and phonics. However, this fourth year course introduces students to important writing formats and works on skills such as writing summaries, organizing ideas in expository writing, and using literature as prompts for story telling.
You may view the assignment page here.
Foundations in History and Literature
Foundations in Literature and History is a comprehensive language arts course that goes over literature, literary terms, grammar, writing, poetics, spelling, and speech-giving. The class literature and independent reading for book reports will provide students a firm foundation in both literature and history and prepare them for a serious study of these subjects in high school and college. The textbook anthology provides a wide variety of reading passages, including history, fairytales, the short story, myths, fables, allegory, and poetry. (Some of the works have been adapted for younger readers, such as the works by Shakespeare, Chaucer and Spenser.) The anthology and study guide were designed to hone particular reading skills through comprehension questions, such as making inferences, understanding the tone of a work, understanding paragraph development, and discovering the meaning of vocabulary through contexts—all the skills necessary for being a good reader and in successfully taking future standardized tests like the SAT. In class, students will take notes on and study the biographies of the authors and, if appropriate, the period and genre of the written works. Authors include classic authors, such as Nathaniel Hawthorne, Livy, William Bradford, Hans Christian Andersen, Charles Lamb, Guy de Maupassant, Edmund Spenser, Isaac Watts, William Blake, William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, John Keats, George Gordon Byron, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Alfred Tennyson, Robert Browning, Christina Rossetti, Robert Burns, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier and others. This year I will not be covering grammar in class, but will be offering a free online course for all Foundations students (see below); however, if the online grammar course is not an option, parents may still purchase the grammar book and work independently with their children and access answers to the exercises and tests online.
Those students who took the Vice and Virtue course would progress to this class, although last year’s course is not a prerequisite. The suggested grade levels for this course are 5-7. You may view the assignment page here and access the detailed course description here.
Personal Narrative: Course in Writing and Literature
This course uses literature as a means of getting students to think about some of the most important aspects of writing, including structure and development, word choice, voice, and theme. The course begins with reading and writing journals, a study that encourages students to discover their voice and to write spontaneously and naturally. From the journal, the study naturally progresses into the personal narrative, the autobiography and lastly, the biography. The course will also include relevant poetry and short fiction. Those students who took the course “English History and Literature” would progress to this class, although last year’s course is not a prerequisite. The reading material, which I will expand to include more American, English and ancient authors, would be appropriate for students ages thirteen and older (although younger students with good reading skills may also enjoy the course). The suggested grade levels for this course are 7-9. You may view the assignment page here. View the detailed course description and the assignment page by clicking on the hyperlinks.
In this course, we will examine the history of the short story and novel and read some of the best English and American examples from the 18th to 20th century. The year will begin with a talk of the short story genre in terms of its literary form, its origins, and sociological implications. Then, individual works will be discussed in the context of the author’s cultural and intellectual milieu as well as the author’s biography. Those students who took the course "Drama," Writing and Speech" or “Classic Works” would progress to this course, although last year’s course is not a prerequisite. View the assignment page and access the detailed course description by clicking on the hyperlinks.
Grammar I
In his autobiography, the Pulitzer Prize-winning Winston Churchill mentioned that it was his English teacher that gave him a keen sense of the structure of the English language by making him parse a sentence through diagramming. This course will be taught with the same purpose in mind. Churchill writes: “Mr. Somervell—a most delightful man, to whom my debt is great—was charged with the duty of teaching the stupidest boys the most disregarded thing—namely, to write mere English [as opposed to Latin]. He knew how to do it. He taught it as no one else has ever taught it. Not only did we learn English parsing thoroughly, but we also practiced continually English analysis. Mr. Somervell had a system of his own. He took a fairly long sentence and broke it up into its components by means of black, red, blue, and green inks. Subject, verb, object: relative clauses, conditional clauses, conjunctive and disjunctive clauses! Each had its color and its bracket. It was a kind of drill. We did it almost daily. As I remained in the Third Form three times as long as anyone else, I had three times as much of it. I learned it thoroughly. Thus I got into my bones the essential structure of the ordinary British sentence—which is a noble thing.”
Every year grammar should be taught as part of a late middle school and high school education. At the high school level, I teach grammar as a two-year course—one generally covering parsing and diagramming, which will give students a thorough understanding of the structure of a sentence; the other, covering the technical aspects of grammar and punctuation, which is very useful in writing and in taking the writing section of the SAT. This year's course will be the first mentioned—a very systematic approach to grammar in which students will learn not only the more foundational aspects of grammar such as identifying the parts of speech (noun, verb, pronoun, adjective, etc.) and parsing sentences, but also the less familiar aspects, such as identifying verbals, clauses and sentences with simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex structures and diagramming them. This course is offered online Wednesdays, 3:30–4:30 p.m.
Online Grammar for Foundations Students
Over the years grammar unfortunately has taken a back seat to other subjects in the classroom, or (to mix my metaphors) has been jettisoned altogether. Some self-proclaimed authorities in teaching English go as far as to say that studying grammar is a complete waste of time and does in no way help students in their writing. There are only two reasons that I can give, as far as I see, to explain such an absurd, counterintuitive claim. Either these authorities do not know what grammar is, or they have never had the stamina or interest to teach it as it should be taught to see results. One cannot half-heartedly slip in some instruction on nouns and verbs in the middle of the year and expect students' writing to miraculously improve. Grammar needs to be systematically taught—the way that Winston Churchill was taught by Mr. Somervell at Harrow (see Online High School Grammar, above). Besides the very practical aspects of learning conventions—or how to use commas, apostrophes, etc. correctly—, a thorough and proper study of grammar involves giving students a certain artistic awareness of language that is akin to the awareness of color and form that the study of painting and drawing can give to art students. My goal in this course is to give a systematic presentation of the material and to complete much if not all of the work in class, so that there is a minimal amount of independent work. Parents may find out exactly what is taught in the online grammar class by reading the detailed course description here. Offered on Wednesdays, 2:25–3:25, the class is free and open to any student taking the Foundations course.
Courses in the Classical Languages and History
Greek I
In this introductory course, in addition to learning the Greek language, students will learn Greek history and myth. Students will begin by learning the letters and sounds of the alphabet, the diphthongs,
the rough and smooth breathing marks, and the three accent marks. Students will learn how to transliterate Greek letters and letter combinations into English. In addition to memorizing a few hundred words of vocabulary, they will study etymology through the English derivatives of Greek words. The Greek grammar will include the present indicative active, middle and passive; the imperfect indicative active, middle and passive; the first and second declension of nouns; prepositions and their derivatives; and any other material necessary to succeed in taking the National Greek Exam at the end of the year.Offered on Wednesdays, 1:25–2:25.
The History of the Greeks and Romans
One reason I am zealous for students to study Greek and Roman literature, mythology and history—is that so many of the greatest works of English literature on some level depend on the reader's exposure to the names of, let us say, Cato, Brutus, Aeneas, Pericles, and Leonidas. Although students receive a smattering of Greek and Roman history in almost all of the language arts and English courses taught in our homeschool program, this course will be a systematic and more detailed study of Greek and Roman history. It will answer such questions as: Who built the Parthenon? What was the Peloponnesian War about and who "won" it? Who was Antiochus Epiphanes and where does he appear in the Bible? What are the laws of Solon? Do we have any record of Jesus outside the Bible? Who was Alcibiades and what is the name of his famous teacher? Who was Tarquinius the Proud and in what Shakespearean play is he mentioned? The course is open to grades 6 through 12. Although the textbooks chosen have been written with younger students in mind, the level of detail will keep any high school student challenged, and will introduce important Greek and Roman accounts in a way that is easy to comprehend and remember.
The History of the Greeks and Romans will be taught on Thursdays afternoons. The class is free to students taking a literature course and is open to middle school and high school students. Offered on Wednesdays, 1:25–2:25, depending on whether or not Greek I will be in session.