Here is a broad outline of the major curricula we use for each form in each subject for our lower school, or the first six years of study. Remember, however, that classical education integrates curricula. This means in practice they will not stay as neatly within the children’s minds as they do in the boxes below, and that’s a good thing.

It also means we deliberately integrate many subjects across the curricula in many ways. For example, nature study is a blend of science and art, besides a plethora of character qualities such as patience and attentiveness. For another, we pair geography and some literature selections with history.

Our curricula incorporates and either meets or exceeds the recommendations of Core Knowledge, Ambleside Online (Charlotte Mason curricula), Memoria Press, Veritas Press, Classical Academic Press, Classical Conversations, and Hillsdale Academy.

Integrated Literature and History Curricula

Here is an overview of what the children read in each form from A-2, or ages 5-10. This sequence is proprietary and copyright (C) 2018 Redeemer Classical School.

Form A

Literature: Classics and Fairy Tales

Classic Literature:

  • Winnie the Pooh, A.A. Milne
  • Velveteen Rabbit, Margery Williams
  • Ugly Duckling, Hans Christian Anderson
  • The Frog Prince
  • Hansel and Gretel
  • Pinocchio, Carlo Collodi
  • Tales of Brer Rabbit
  • Aesop’s Fables, selected
  • The Red Fairy Book, Andrew Lang
  • Peter Rabbit and more, Beatrix Potter
  • Princess and the Goblin, George MacDonald
  • Billy and Blaze, Clarence W. Anderson

Read-Alouds:

  • Bremen Town Musicians
  • Cinderella
  • King Midas
  • Little Red Riding Hood
  • Snow White
  • The Wolf and Kids, Brothers Grimm
  • The Pied Piper of Hamelin
  • Puss in Boots
  • Rapunzel
  • Rumpelstiltskin
  • Sleeping Beauty
  • Chanticleer and the Fox
  • Paul Bunyan
  • Pecos Bill
  • The Princess and the Pea

World History: Old Testament
U.S History: Discovery to Pioneers

Primary Texts: “A Child’s Garden of Bible Stories,” Arthur Gross (Concordia Publishing); “The Story Bible,” Edward Englebrecht (Concordia Publishing); “Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans,” Edward Eggleston (Memoria Press); “Stories of America, Volume 1,” by Charles Morris (Simply Charlotte Mason).

Read-Aloud and Supplementary:

  • Leif the Lucky, Edward and Ingri D’Aulaire
  • Columbus, Edward and Ingri D’Aulaire
  • Pocahontas, Edward and Ingri D’Aulaire
  • Jamestown: New World Adventure, James Knight
  • Pilgrims of Plimoth, Marcia Sewall
  • Samuel Eaton’s Day
  • Sarah Morton’s Day
  • Squanto, Friend of Pilgrims, Clyde Bulla
  • George Washington, Edward and Ingri D’Aulaire
  • George Washington’s Rules of Civility
  • Winter at Valley Forge, James Knight
  • The Fourth of July Story, Alice Dagleish
  • Benjamin Franklin, Edward and Ingri D’Aulaire
  • A More Perfect Union, Betsy Maestro
  • Paul Revere’s Ride, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
  • Obadiah the Bold, Brinton Turkle
  • Courage of Sarah Noble, Alice Dagleish
  • David and Goliath, Leonard Fisher
  • The Boy Who Drew Birds, Jacqueline Davies

Form B

Literature: Classics and Fairy Tales

Classic Literature:

  • Beauty and the Beast
  • A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
  • Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White
  • Just So Stories, Rudyard Kipling
  • Aesop’s Fables, selected
  • Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame
  • Arabian Nights: Aladdin and Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves
  • King of the Golden River, John Ruskin
  • Blue Fairy Book, Andrew Lang
  • Little Mermaid; The Nightingale, Snow Queen; The Steadfast Tin Soldier; Thumbelina; and The Tinderbox, by Hans Christian Anderson
  • The Happy Prince and Other Tales, Oscar Wilde
  • Sarah, Plain and Tall, Patricia MacLachlan (Easy Reader)

Read-Alouds:

  • The Blind Men and the Elephant
  • The Emperor’s New Clothes
  • The Fisherman and His Wife
  • Apple and the Arrow: William Tell, Conrad Buff
  • Saint George and the Dragon
  • John Henry
  • Stone Soup
  • The Little Match Girl
  • Casey Jones
  • Johnny Appleseed, Will Moses

World History: New Testament
U.S History: Civil War to Cold War

Primary Texts: “A Child’s Garden of Bible Stories,” Arthur Gross (Concordia Publishing); “The Story Bible,” Edward Englebrecht (Concordia Publishing); “Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans,” Edward Eggleston (Memoria Press); “Stories of America, Volume 2,” by Charles Morris (Simply Charlotte Mason).

Read-Aloud and Supplementary:

  • Abraham Lincoln, Ingri and Edward D’Aulaire
  • Buffalo Bill, Ingri and Edward D’Aulaire
  • Picture Book of Sitting Bull, David Adler
  • Meet Abraham Lincoln, Barbara Cary
  • Abe Lincoln: The Young Years, Keith Brandt
  • Young Abe Lincoln, Cheryll Harness
  • Go Free Or Die, Jeri Ferris
  • Walking the Road to Freedom, Jeri Ferris
  • John Henry: American Legend, Ezra Keats
  • George Washington Carver, Tonya Bolden
  • A Weed Is A Flower, Aliki
  • Song of the Swallows, Leo Politi
  • Thomas Alva Edison, Louis Sabin
  • Wilbur and Orville Wright, Louis Sabin
  • Marie Curie, Brave Scientist, Keith Brandt
  • Picture Book of Louis Braille, David Adler
  • The Amazing, Impossible Erie Canal, Cheryll Harness
  • When I Was Young and In the Mountains, Cynthia Rylant

Form 1

Classic Literature

Novels:

  • Peter Pan, J.M. Barrie
  • Little House on the Prairie, Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • Farmer Boy, Laura Ingalls Wilder
  • Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers
  • Caddie Woodlawn, Carol Ryrie Brink
  • Courage of Sarah Noble, Alice Dagleish (Easy Reader)
  • The Jungle Book, Rudyard Kipling
  • At the Back of the North Wind, George MacDonald
  • The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S. Lewis
  • Swallows and Amazons, Arthur Ransome
  • Bambi, Felix Satten

Short Stories:

  • Gulliver’s Travels (selections), Jonathan Swift
  • Legend of Sleepy Hollow, Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Rip Van Winkle, Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • The Boy at the Dike
  • Wonder Book for Boys and Girls, Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • Tanglewood Tales, Nathaniel Hawthorne
  • American Tall Tales, Adrian Stotenberg
  • Classic Myths to Read Aloud, William Russell
  • Gilgamesh the King Trilogy, Ludmila Zeman

World History: Ancient
U.S History: Discovery to Pioneers

Primary Texts: “Story of the World, Volume 1,” Susan Wise Bauer (Well-Trained Mind Press); “Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors,” Lorene Lambert (Simply Charlotte Mason); “Famous Men of Greece,” John Henry Haaren (Memoria Press); “Famous Men of Rome,” John Henry Haaren (Memoria Press); “A Child’s First Book of American History,” James Earl Miers (Beautiful Feet Books).

Read-Aloud and Supplementary:

  • Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky, Barbara Schiller
  • First Voyage to America, Christopher Columbus (Santa Maria log)
  • Of Plymouth Plantation, William Bradford
  • Paul Revere: Son of Liberty, Keith Brandt
  • Pyramid, David MacAulay
  • Tales of Ancient Egypt, Roger Lancelyn Green (selections)
  • Cleopatra, Diane Stanley
  • Seekers of Knowledge, James Rumford
  • Riddle of the Rosetta Stone, James Cross Giblin
  • Children’s Plutarch, F.J. Gould
  • City, David MacAulay
  • The Great Wall of China, Lenard Everett Fisher
  • Archimedes and the Door of Science, Jeanne Bendick
  • Herodotus and the Road to History, Jeanne Bendick
  • Athanasius, Simonetta Carr

Form 2

Classic Literature

Novels:

  • Heidi, Johanna Spyri
  • Robin Hood, Howard Pyle
  • The Secret Garden, Frances Hodgson Burnett
  • The Prince and the Pauper, Mark Twain
  • King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, Roger Lancelyn Green
  • Stories from Don Quixote, James Baldwin
  • The Railway Children, E. Nesbit
  • Penrod, Booth Tarkington
  • Stories of Fairie Queene, Mary MacLeod

Short Stories:

  • Alice in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll
  • A Cricket in Times Square, George Selden
  • Charlotte’s Web, E.B. White
  • A Door in the Wall, Marguerite D’Angeli
  • Canterbury Tales, Barbara Cohen

World History: Medieval
U.S History: Civil War to Cold War

Primary Texts: “Story of the World, Volume 2,” Susan Wise Bauer (Well-Trained Mind Press); “Famous Men of the Middle Ages,” John Henry Haaren (Memoria Press); “Trial and Triumph,” Richard Hannula (Canon Press); “A Child’s First Book of American History,” James Earl Miers (Beautiful Feet Books).

Read-Aloud and Homework:

  • Viking Myths, Ingri and Edward D’Aulaire
  • Viking Tales, Jennie Hall
  • Foxe’s Book of Martyrs
  • Castle, David MacAulay
  • Joan of Arc, Diane Stanley
  • Cathedral, David MacAulay
  • Adam of the Road, Elizabeth Janet Gray
  • Gregor Mendel, the Friar Who Grew Peas, Cheryl Bardoe
  • Abraham Lincoln Grows Up, Carl Sandburg
  • Turn Homeward, Hannalee, Patricia Beatty
  • Narrative of the Life of Stephen Douglas
  • Amos Fortune, Free Man, Elizabeth Yates
  • Teddy Roosevelt, Rough Rider, Edd Winfield Parks
  • Riding the Pony Express, Clyde Bulla
  • The World at Her Fingertips: Helen Keller, Joan Dash
  • Louis Braille, Margaret Davidson