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Our curriculum emphasizes humanities, mathematics,
and science. Humanities, a broad discipline, includes reading, writing,
languages, literature, history, geography, poetry and Scripture
recitation, music and art but subjects are taught as an integrated
whole with God’s truth as the core. We teach children to think
critically about every aspect of life from the perspective that
all events follow The Sovereign plan, and not to treat spiritual
matters as a separate part of life.
MEMORIZATION AND RECITATION
Exercising the memory makes our minds more agile, so The Cambridge
School uses memorization techniques including writing, oral repetition,
gesturing and playacting, singing, and acronyms. Through recitation
students put memorization into practice and learn to be confident
speakers.
NARRATION
A child will listen better and remember longer when “telling
back” is a part of the reading process. Before a story is
read, children are invited to pay close attention. They are responsible
for narrating events in their own words after the reading. As children
grow older (around 4th grade), written narratives can supplement
oral narration.
IMITATION IN WRITING, DRAWING, AND PAINTING
Imitation enhances a child’s observational powers and gives
a foundation for individual expression. Written imitation includes
studying a passage of great literature and attempting a verbatim
recapture. On a more sophisticated level, the writer can put the
passage into his own words or imitate the style of the passage.
The same method applies to drawing and painting.
NATURE WALKS
Our science curriculum is nature and experience based. Nature slows
us down, increases our powers of observation and increases our wonder.
We live in a time of accelerating information, sound bites, and
3-4 second images on television. It takes time for children to learn
to sit still and “consider the lilies” or “go
to the ant.” Careful observation is a skill we nurture in
your children during their time at The Cambridge School.
SOCRATIC METHOD OR DIALOGUE
Socratic dialogue is a question-and-answer “flow” between
the teacher and students. The idea here is to get students to rely
on their internal resources for answers—to take inventory
of what they know—before providing them with new or “deeper”
knowledge. Socratic dialogue with students can help them to defend,
and better understand, what they believe and develop the discourse
of why they believe it.
JOURNALING
A journal provides a non-judgmental medium for self-expression and
the opportunity to practice writing ideas. According to some studies,
daily journaling improves a child’s language processing, especially
when used as a written “conversation” between teacher
and student. Teachers may grade effort, but do not grade grammar
and spelling.
FINE ARTS
The Cambridge School provides art, music, and drama (theater art)
instruction. The teacher plans art projects and activities to coincide
with the students’ humanities curriculum, rather than teach
these as separated and disjointed. The classroom teacher also supplements
the humanities curriculum with materials from the visual arts and
picture studies.
Drama, as a theater art, is a tool for expression
rooted in the need for children to portray their creativity on the
stage in order to inform, persuade, and instruct. The Cambridge
School students learn to view, critique, create, and perform through
drama. In the acquisition of these skills, students learn to appreciate
the value of theatre as a reflection of society and culture as viewed
through a Christian worldview.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE
The Cambridge School offers Spanish to all students from kindergarten
through fourth grade and Latin and Greek to students from the third
through eighth grade. The foreign language program seeks to expose
the children to another language in the early elementary years.
The Cambridge School offers formal Latin in the later elementary
years because Latin helps children develop a strong vocabulary in
English root words and teaches a basic method of learning. Latin
follows the grammatical rule in sentence construction and it is
very precise and mathematical in form.
PHYSICAL EDUCATION The physical education program
at The Cambridge School is designed to heighten the child’s
awareness of and desire for physical fitness. P. E. instruction
seeks to encourage development of good sportsmanship, help the student
learn to function in a group activity, put winning and losing in
perspective, improve physical fitness, and develop character in
a practical environment.
DIVERSE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
All children learn in unique ways because we are “fearfully
and wonderfully made.” Thus, we celebrate and embrace each
child’s unique gifts and personality, believing that this
is part of the intelligent, purposeful design with which our Creator
endowed all humanity.
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