Learning Objectives
Early Years Objectives
The Early Years Program follows two primary goals outlined by Charlotte Mason for children under 6: “To form in children right habits of thinking and behaving …and to nourish a child daily with loving, right, and noble ideas.” (Vol. 2, p. 228). We believe that in this age group, our goal is simply to instill good habits and feed our children’s mind with loving, right, and noble ideas.
Our Early Years Care Coordinator structures mornings with these children to include free time, story time, snacks, outside walks, music, rest time, and crafts. Formal lessons and learning objectives are intentionally avoided, as learning, discipline, exploration, and submission to authority happens in an organic and relational way at this age level.
Our Early Years Care is exclusively available for children of tutors who are teaching in the program due to Department of Health and Safety laws for childcare of children under 6 years old. One parent must be on campus and be legally the primary caretaker.
Form I Objectives
Form I introduces our students to the wonders of the world and walks alongside these young ones as they form dispositions, sensibilities, attitudes, and categories about the world. This form is the least abstract and most tangible in its approach. We want our Form I students to delight in the books they are beginning to read, find joy in their new abilities and skills, receiving a solid foundation for intellectual habits, and learning self-control and attention through listening and following instructions from their tutors. Special attention will be made in teaching reading and writing, alongside instilling a love for story and curiosity for God’s beautiful creation.
Form I is made up of 6-8 year old students. Parents of 5-year-old students who want to be in Form I, will consult with the director whether the Early Years Program or Form I will be more appropriate for their child. At St. Benedict Hall, we believe that children in this form should be given afternoons to be structured at the parents’ discretion. We do not believe in keeping Form I students in the program through the afternoons. Also there is very little homework load for these students during program nights, and work is only given to be done in the mornings of non-program days.
We believe that 20 minute blocks of instruction times are ideal for this age group with two times in the morning to move and be outside (gymnasium and nature studies).
Form II Objectives
In the upper elementary level, we believe students have the ability to look beyond just what is in their backyard and become aware that they are part of larger societies: the Church and America. We want our Form II students to begin to find their identity as sons and daughters of King Jesus, and not in becoming slaves to popular culture, social media popularity, or video games. We focus these students toward an embodied flourishing that involves books, ideas, art, music, imagination, worship, singing, dancing, etiquette, and feasting.
Form II is made up of 4th-6th grade students. Our Humanities curriculum focuses on American history and literature in these years, with the goal that our students will have a deep love for their Mother Country, while still realizing that she is not perfect. We only assign little-to-no homework for the afternoons on program days, and only assign continuing education work for the mornings of non-program days.
By 5th and 6th Grade, students are beginning to become aware of belonging and not belonging. We are not surprised when students begin to experiment with these boundaries as they have “best friends”, try to exclude others, and publicize others’ vulnerabilities. Our children are sinners and it is naïve for parents to believe our children will not make these mistakes. It is our hope and goal at SBH, to have loving and wise tutors and staff to lovingly shepherd these students through these sins, so that they will not make a habit of hiding their sin, but find the joy of a life lived in humility and reconciliation.
Form III Objectives
Form III consists of the 7th grade and 8th grade middle school years. In these years, our students begin to individuate and gravitate more toward what they are “good at”, and try to make sense of their place in the larger communities they are a part of. Rather than feeding our students with quips like “Be yourself!”, “Follow your dreams!”, or “You can be whatever you want!”, we seek to direct our students to die to themselves, seek the good of others before themselves, to consider how their gifts, abilities, and talents may be used for the Common Good rather than simply as self-expression.
In these years, students become more aware of the narrative and story that they are part of. We hope that our students will leave our program to enter their high school years with a deep and secure sense of their place in God’s family and his Church, and confident and secure in their relationships with God, their parents, pastors, and teachers. These students crave approval, validation, and encouragement. We want to be lovingly honest with them about their successes and failures. If they are struggling with laziness, we will not excuse them, but call them to perseverance and the satisfaction from hard work.
We do give our Form III students homework in the evenings, and an increasing amount of continuing education work to do at home on non-program days, which we expect they are capable of doing without the constant monitoring of their parents. We hope to gently challenge them beyond their comfort zone and give them confidence that they have the ability to overcome academic challenges.