Academic Approach
Summit Homeschool Community's educational philosophy is based on mankind’s natural progression of learning as designed by God in creation. While ancient cultures spoke of the Trivium (Grammar, Logic, and Rhetoric), or three roads of learning, the Bible describes three similar steps: Knowledge, Understanding, and Wisdom (We use the Scriptural Trivium as described by Harvey and Laurie Bluedorn, Teaching the Trivium: Christian Homeschooling in a Classical Style (Muscatine, Iowa: Trivium Pursuit, 2001). Our senses enable us to know things in the natural world. With our minds, we seek to understand relationships between the facts we have learned. With time and practice, we can begin to wisely express ourselves. Our instructional methods align with these stages of a child’s development and promote a strong educational foundation aimed at teaching your child how to learn any subject.
In the Knowledge stage, ages 4-12, children absorb information easily. Students will be guided through multi-sensory activities to sharpen their observation skills to build knowledge for later use. Methods in Basecamp include kinesthetic activities, auditory and visual observations, verbal recall exercises, and memorization techniques. The Traverse program spans this stage and the next as students begin to delve deeper into language and the connections between areas of study.
In the Understanding stage, ages 12-15, students seek to understand the relationships between ideas and information they have been exposed to in the Knowledge stage. Students need to learn how to ask questions, experiment, research, and analyze. With plenty of time for discussion, our Ascent program fits well with this stage that is focused on developing reasoning skills.
In the Wisdom stage, ages 15-18, students desire to express knowledge as a key process for solidifying truths. To this end, they will be given ample opportunities to participate in dialectic discussions and present research from personal study. Students will be encouraged to take individual initiative in their studies. Throughout the Summit Seekers program, our aim is to teach the skills of prudent judgment and effective communication while applying godly principles, values, and goals.
“By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; by knowledge the rooms are filled with all precious and pleasant riches.” Proverbs 24:3 & 4
Summit Homeschool Community is not affiliated with a host church or denomination.