- 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:
- Archenland House
- Cair Paravel House
- Dragon Island House
- 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 37 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?
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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 |
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 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.
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Branches & Vine Cottage School is a classical Charlotte Mason Cottage School walking alongside families located in Dayton, Ohio.
Guided by the Word, and informed by Charlotte Mason principles, we spread the feast of a “life-giving education” (living books, living ideas, living things) through three-fold knowledge (God, man, universe) with depth of relations and habits of thought & life, to be used by the Holy Spirit to transform students (Branches) in loving, serving, and abiding in Christ (True Vine). |
“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
The Cottage School Branch of our TRUE VINE CM NETWORK An educational ministry initiative of Calvary South Dayton |