Branches & Vine Cottage School
  • ABOUT US
    • Welcome From the Director
    • Parents' Required Reading
    • Calvary South Dayton
    • Charlotte Mason Resources >
      • AmblesideOnline
      • The New Mason Jar Podcast
      • CM's 20 Principles
      • Delectable Education
      • The Literary Life Podcast
      • Habit Formation
  • LIVING CURRICULUM
  • COTTAGE SCHOOL LIFE
  • WHY CHOOSE US
  • ADMISSIONS
    • Full Day & Half-Day Options
    • Fees (2025-2026)
    • Enrollment Steps & Interest Form
    • New Student Application Form
  • PARENT PORTAL MAIN
    • Returning Student Form
    • Online Payment
    • Parents' Required Reading
    • 2024-2025 Portal Docs
    • T3: Wk 5 (Apr 14-17)
    • T3: Wk 4 (Apr 7-10)
    • T3: Wk 3 (Mar 31-Apr 3)
    • T3: Wk 2 (Mar 24-27)
    • T3: Wk 1 (Mar 17-20)

(some of)
OUR COTTAGE SCHOOL
DISTINCTIVES

  • Rich relationship-building across ages, stages, and learning branches
  • Living books, living ideas, and living things - the Good, True, Beautiful
  • Spreading the feast every day
  • Narration (oral and written retelling)
  • Notebooking & Journaling (instead of dry worksheets)
    • ​Bible Notebook
    • Copybook​
    • Dictation
    • My Word Book (Difficult Words, Definitions & Vocab)
    • Grammar Catechism (Rules & Diagramming)
    • Narration Notebook
    • History Notebook
    • Plutarch Notebook
    • Commonplace Book (literary quotations)
    • Nature Journal
    • Book of Centuries (timeline)
    • AMS Journal (Art, Music, Shakespeare)
    • Current Events Journal (3 headline entries per week)
  • "Forms" instead of "Grades"
    • Woodland Friends (PK-K)
    • Form I - ages 6-9 
    • Form II - ages 9-12 
    • Form III - ages 12-15 
    • Form IV - ages 15-18 
  • Nature study through generous outdoor play, observation, gardening, caring for creatures, and nature journaling
  • Handicrafts like sculpting, knitting, sewing/stitchery, drawing, weaving, beadwork, etc.
  • Afternoon Poetry Tea Times
  • Steps toward individual mastery over age comparison assessments
  • Daily fresh air and exercise
  • Skilled and inspiring degreed teachers who carry a variety of specialties and certifications
  • Latin & Greek alongside expanding study of modern languages
  • Winchester Gatherings: delight-directed student clubs and electives
  • All students arranged into our "Narnian" House System for the sake of camaraderie and community, fun competition, reading and recitation challenges, and traditions:
    1. Archenland House
    2. Cair Paravel House
    3. Dragon Island House
    4. Stone Table House
  • Age-old celebrations like All Saints Day, Saint Nicholas Day, Twelfth Night, Speech Meet Week, Shrove (Pancake) Tuesday, St. Patrick's Day Ceilidh, Shakespeare Festival Week, Olympic Games Week, Certamen (Classical Studies Competition), Christmas School, Forest School, Holy Week Celebrations
  • Weekly recitations and reflections with reverence and delight
  • Piano, violin, hymns, folksongs, foreign language songs, classical music appreciation
  • Art appreciation and fine arts study
  • Poetry readings and copywork
  • All Shakespeare plays learned and loved during the course of a child's studies at Branches & Vine 
  • Hands-on science, math challenges, chess, and critical thinking skill development

​Wonder & delight woven throughout our day!

Do you long to see your child
​truly inspired?

NURTURING A LIFE-GIVING ATMOSPHERE
SHEPHERDING HABITS OF WISDOM & VIRTUE
SPREADING A GENEROUS FEAST OF LIVING IDEAS


JOINING THE GREAT CONVERSATION THROUGH
​THE GREAT BOOKS, GREAT THINKERS,
​AND GREAT WORKS OF THE WESTERN TRADITION
EMAIL US WITH QUESTIONS!
All applicants and BVCS parents are expected to have read: For the Children's Sake by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay and In Vital Harmony by Karen Glass. Our families must be supportive of classically-based Charlotte Mason principles and methods to ensure that your hopes for your children resonate with our vision and priorities for B&V, and are in keeping with the philosophical distinctives of our work.
ENROLLMENT STEPS
​[email protected]
​(937) 825 1248
​3150 W ALEX BELL, DAYTON, OH 45449
​
PAY FEES ONLINE
INTEREST FORM & ENROLLMENT PROCESS
​NEW STUDENT APPLICATION FORM
RETURNING STUDENT FORM

Picture
Branches & Vine Cottage School is a four-day Charlotte Mason/Classical Cottage School walking alongside families located in Dayton, Ohio.

Abiding in Christ and His Word, aligning with Charlotte Mason’s classically-based principles, and partnering alongside parents ... we spread a rich and varied feast of a life-giving education (truth, goodness, beauty) through three-fold knowledge with deepening relationships (God, humanity, universe). Our three instruments of education are atmosphere, discipline, and life.

This is to be used by the Holy Spirit in transforming students to genuinely love the Lord and others, lead gracious and flourishing lives of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom, and bear much fruit for His glory. (Deut 6:4-9, Prov. 24:3-4; John 15:1-11)
“I am the VINE, you are the BRANCHES. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." John 15:5

​​

A 501c3 educational
​ministry initiative of
​Calvary South Dayton​
  • ABOUT US
    • Welcome From the Director
    • Parents' Required Reading
    • Calvary South Dayton
    • Charlotte Mason Resources >
      • AmblesideOnline
      • The New Mason Jar Podcast
      • CM's 20 Principles
      • Delectable Education
      • The Literary Life Podcast
      • Habit Formation
  • LIVING CURRICULUM
  • COTTAGE SCHOOL LIFE
  • WHY CHOOSE US
  • ADMISSIONS
    • Full Day & Half-Day Options
    • Fees (2025-2026)
    • Enrollment Steps & Interest Form
    • New Student Application Form
  • PARENT PORTAL MAIN
    • Returning Student Form
    • Online Payment
    • Parents' Required Reading
    • 2024-2025 Portal Docs
    • T3: Wk 5 (Apr 14-17)
    • T3: Wk 4 (Apr 7-10)
    • T3: Wk 3 (Mar 31-Apr 3)
    • T3: Wk 2 (Mar 24-27)
    • T3: Wk 1 (Mar 17-20)