Class Offerings

In Children’s Choir, students age 7 to 12 sing and perform hymns, folk songs, and other classic choral works. Students learn the basics of vocal technique, sight-reading, and music theory, along with musical games. The program focuses on music appreciation, enjoyment, and the glorification of God through music. Choir class meets weekly, and choir students will participate in special performances once or twice a year.

In this interactive, multi-sensory, hands-on class, Form I Students delve into phonics and cursive penmanship, discover and apply spelling rules with grade-level spelling words, learn parts of speech, practice oral reading, and hear and recite classic works of poetry. With our commitment to incorporate the best of both classical tradition and contemporary research, this course uses researched-based best practices for helping students of all abilities and grade levels. Instruction will be individuated for students at various levels within Form 1. As space allows, parents of younger students are encouraged to sit in as often as possible to enjoy learning and engaging in the activities together with their students.

This class keeps it kinetic as students use large motor skills to draw cursive letters and multi-letter phonograms in salt boxes and to water-paint them on sidewalk before moving on to fine motor skills with pen and paper. Students will play games and relays, compose original sentences, and listen to beautiful literature read aloud.

Learning outcomes include growth in the foundational operations of language—listening, speaking, reading, and writing—as students learn to read so they can read to learn.

“Historically cursive was taught first to our nation’s children. Today, reading and dyslexia experts are rediscovering that teaching cursive first–before print or manuscript–improves long-term penmanship skills, helps children learn to read, virtually eliminates reversals, and enables children to read what is written by others. Cursive First introduces children to writing numerals, the cursive alphabet, and the most common phonograms of the English language.”

Cursive First will be used in conjunction with the coordinating instruction in Spell to Write and Read by Wanda Sanseri. Both curricula can be used with the beginning reader and writer or with older students transitioning from print to cursive.

In this 2.5-hour block class, our youngest learners enjoy a kaleidoscope of delights for the mind, ear, eye, heart, and hand:

Folksong, Hymn, and Solfa—Students learn folksongs and hymns to sing together. We focus on one hymn and one folksong for 4 weeks and we listen to a variety of folksongs on rotation. The folksongs generally follow the AmblesideOnline Curiculum rotation.

Recitation—Students recite Scripture together. We focus on one Bible passage for 8 weeks, and this passage is also recited together in the Lunch Assembly. Each week students are invited to prepare a short poem, Bible verse, or passage of interest to recite for the class.

Nature Study—Students take nature walks outside and also observe and study objects from nature brought to class by the teacher. Students are encouraged to bring specimens from nature for study also. We study the specimens through discussion, nature journaling, and interaction with the object.

Artist & Composer Study—Students study classical music and works of art through observation (attentive looking and listening) and discussion. They also practice copying master paintings both by sight and from memory as they are able. We generally follow the AmblesideOnline curiculum rotation for Artist & Composer Study.

Handicrafts—Students learn a variety of handicrafts and the proper techniques that apply to each. We spend 4 weeks on each handicraft, but students are encouraged to take supplies home to continue working on a handicraft at home. Some handicrafts we have done in the past have included: origami, kirigami, sewing, embroidery, rock painting, weaving, loom knitting.

Math Games—Students play a variety of math games to reinforce math concepts that they are learning at home. We use the RightStart Math Games curriculum.

In this multi-sensory and interdisciplinary block class, students will learn Latin through song and play, hear and narrate living history stories, study art and artists related to the history they are studying, and make their own original works of art in response.

Bluebonnet Scholars offers history on a rotating three-year cycle with studies synchronized across Forms 1 through 4 (grades K through 12th) so that all students are studying the same time period together. History spine texts for Form 1 (grades 1 to 3) are as follows:

• Cycle Year 1: Ancient History (creation to c. 476 AD)—The Story of the World, Vol. 1
• Cycle Year 2: Medieval History (c. 476 AD to 1368)—The Story of the World, Vol. 2
• Cycle Year 3: Early Modern History (c. 1368 to 1850)—The Story of the World, Vol. 3

In addition to the narrative history text in The Story of the World series, the Form 1 students will also study artists chronologically through the Artistic Pursuits Early Elementary series and make creative works of their own in response. For the Latin portion of this block class, students will use Song School Latin from Classical Academic Press.

Using interactive and conversation-driven learning, this course will lay the foundation for learning to speak Spanish fluently. Students will enjoy a multi-sensory approach to learning as they sing, make art, converse, and maybe even try making authentic Mexican food. In order to gain mastery and grow toward fluency, students will be expected to complete some work outside of class each week such as playing Spanish games, listening to Spanish songs and passages, and completing some light coursework. 

Note: This class is for students in grades 2 and 3. The Kindergarten/1st-grade Spanish class information can be found here.

Using interactive and conversation-driven learning, this course will lay the foundation for learning to speak Spanish fluently. Students will enjoy a multi-sensory approach to learning as they sing, make art, converse, and maybe even try making authentic Mexican food. In order to gain mastery and grow toward fluency, students will be expected to complete some work outside of class each week such as playing Spanish games, listening to Spanish songs and passages, and completing some light coursework. 

Note: This class is for students in Kindergarten/1st-grade. Information for the Spanish class for grades 2 and 3 can be found here.

Students will explore a variety of art media and techniques and deepen their understanding of the elements of design as they respond to historical master artists with their own original work. Each week, students will learn a new visual art technique and create original imaginative work with a variety of mediums such as oil, acrylic, and tempera paints, ink, pastel, crayon, metal, and clay. They will come to understand the elements of design through practice. Students will evaluate their own work based on simple rubrics, and seek to improve as they are able. Students will also have the opportunity to present and share completed artwork outside of class on their own.

Students encounter works by master artists and composers in this multi-sensory class. Over the course of the year, students learn about the lives of 4 artists and 4 composers and study multiple works from each. Students gain a listening repertoire of over a dozen classical scores and receive over a dozen full-color art prints, which they study in class through group discussion, written narration, and notebook drawings.

In Children’s Choir, students age 7 to 12 sing and perform hymns, folk songs, and other classic choral works. Students learn the basics of vocal technique, sight-reading, and music theory, along with musical games. The program focuses on music appreciation, enjoyment, and the glorification of God through music. Choir class meets weekly, and choir students will participate in special performances once or twice a year.

In this course, Form II students will learn and apply spelling rules, review parts of speech, diagram sentences, practice penmanship, practice oral reading, and read and recite classic works of poetry. With our commitment to incorporate the best of both classical tradition and contemporary research, this course uses researched-based best practices for helping students of all abilities and grade levels. Instruction will be individuated for students at various levels within Form II. Learning outcomes include growth in the foundational operations of language—listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

The geography class will read, narrate, and discuss portions from Prisoners of Geography: Our World Explained in 12 Simple Maps as well as other living geography read-aloud books. Each week students will spend some time working on maps. Students will have opportunity to research and present on one country in a year-end World Fair.

This class meets every other week alternating with Handicrafts.

Both beautiful and useful, handicrafts allow students of all ages to develop skills while improving habits of attention, orderliness, and tenacity. Mrs. Estes will help students experiment and develop skills with several different handicrafts over each semester. Previous handicrafts have included weaving corn husks and fabric, paper crafts such as quilling, hand sewing, leather and wood crafts, kite making, and more.

The instructor works with each student to personalize projects at the student’s level of ability and experience. By the end of the semester, students will have created both decorative and practical items including an item for charitable donation and/or gift-giving.

This class meets every other week alternating with Geography.

The bestselling Cambridge Latin program provides an enjoyable and carefully paced introduction to the Latin language, complemented by background information on Roman culture and civilization. The story begins in the town of Pompeii shortly before the eruption of Vesuvius in AD 79 and follows the fortunes of the household of Lucius Caecilius Iucundus.

Owl pellet dissections, live butterfly studies, and microscope adventures are a few of the activities that await fifth- through eighth-grade students in this fun, hands-on class.

Life Science at Bluebonnet Home Scholars Collaborative uses Exploring the World of Biology by John H. Tiner, along with the accompanying materials from Memoria Press. The curriculum harmonizes with our gentle, Charlotte Mason, nature study approach while still offering substantive coverage of the subject at an age-appropriate level. Concepts covered include classifications, bacteria and protista, fungi, plant life, energy, digestion, insects, arachnids, aquatic life, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

Delightful games and healthy competition will help Form 2 students gain speed and accuracy with basic math facts. Students will learn strategies to aid them in deftly solving mental math problems, and the class will read aloud inspiring stories of real-life mathematicians.

This course does not replace the student’s main, traditional math class but rather serves to deepen and enrich the student’s understanding and appreciation of math. This class has no homework.

Prerequisites: understanding of the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) with single-digit integers.

Students in the Medieval & Early Modern History class will build beautiful keepsake Record of Time notebook binders and follow the narrative of history through The Story of the World, Volumes 2 & 3. They will read, narrate, and discuss passages from Story of the World and possibly other living history texts. In addition, students may work on developing outlining skills as they build their timeline of world history with illustrations and notes. There may be some at-home reading assignments given so that the students will be able to complete the time period under study by the end of the academic year.

Bluebonnet Scholars offers history on a rotating three-year cycle with studies synchronized across Forms 1 through 4 (grades K through 12th) so that all students are studying the same time period together. Spine texts for Form 2 (grades 4–6) History are included below:

• Cycle Year 1: Ancient through Early Medieval History (creation to c. 860 AD)—The Story of the World, all of Vol. 1 & part of Vol. 2
• Cycle Year 2: Medieval through Early Modern History (c. 860 AD to 1797)—The Story of the World, part of Vol. 2 & part of Vol. 3
• Cycle Year 3: Modern History (c. 1797 to today)—The Story of the World, part of Vol. 3 & all of Vol. 4

In the fall semester, students will work toward developing foundational skills of expression, projection, acting, singing, and dancing. In the spring, the class will prepare and perform the musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Each week after a short drawing or nature lesson, students will study a landscape or an object from nature to capture in a nature journal. On every “tolerably fine day,” students will be encouraged to take their journals outdoors to explore, observe, and record details from trees, flowers, bushes, birds, insects, rocks, or any other natural creation that intrigues them. When weather prevents outdoor time, the instructor will bring specimens into the classroom for study. Students will gain experience working with a variety of drawing mediums such as graphite, charcoal, pen, marker, pastels, and water color pencil. Students will also paint with watercolors using an aqua brush. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to present and share nature journaling pages they completed outside of class on their own.

On alternating weeks, the class will read, narrate, and discuss passages from Plutarch’s Lives and Shakespeare’s plays. Over the year, students will read two plays and two lives, studying one of each per semester. Students will have opportunity to dramatically read selected passages, to reenact key scenes, and to prepare and recite optional memory work.

In 2021-22, Form 2 (upper elementary) students will read and study two of Plutarch’s lives as well as Shakespeare’s King Lear and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Students in Forms 3 & 4 (middle and high school) will read two of Plutarch’s lives as well as Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Much Ado about Nothing.

Using interactive and conversation-driven learning, this course will lay the foundation for learning to speak Spanish fluently. Students will work through Spanish for You!, a theme-based curriculum that engages students through a variety of activities and techniques for both new and experienced students together in the same class: “Students learn how the language works so they become language users. They learn vocabulary, verb conjugation, and grammar concepts as language components to be put together in different ways to understand, speak, read, and write in everyday life.”

In order to gain mastery and grow toward fluency, students will be expected to complete some work outside of class each week such as playing Spanish games online, listening to Spanish songs and passages, and completing some light coursework. 

Let your students’ imaginations soar while enjoying classic children’s tales and learning to write with structure and style!

The Institute for Excellence in Writing’s Fables, Myths, and Fairy Tales Writing Lessons offers a “wide variety of adventures” to “supply a rich foundation for imaginative and enjoyable writing.”

With the support of guided group discussion, brainstorming, and critique, upper-elementary students will learn to write with appropriate structure while enlivening their prose with stylistic flare. Over the course of the year, students will focus on developing vivid vocabulary and sentence variety in a range of compositions including both fiction and non-fiction. Students will also have the opportunity to participate in an ongoing typing challenge and to develop skills and habits essential to competent communicators.

To receive the full benefit of the writing class, students will need sufficient time and a handful of supplies. In addition to weekly class sessions, students should plan to spend another 1 to 3 hours each week completing assignments at home.

This high school introductory physics & chemistry course combines up-to-date science with a Christian worldview and an educational approach that aims for wonder, integration, and mastery. Concepts covered include the nature of scientific knowledge, motion, Newton’s laws, variation and proportion, energy, heat and temperature, waves, sound, light, electricity and DC circuits, fields and magnetism, chemical substances, atomic models and density, atomic bonding, and chemical reactions. (Visit the publisher’s FAQ to learn more about how this publisher approaches the subject of evolution.) The Novare curriculum aims to nurture fascinated students who deeply understand and remember their science. Meeting Tuesday mornings and afternoons, this course will include both lab and lecture/discussion components.

Prerequisites: must be concurrently enrolled in Algebra I or above.

In this course students study algebra through imaginative applications and clear problems derived from the real world. Technology tools are used to assist with time-comsuming calculations and to integrate graphing and problem-solving skills. Students will study expressions and equations, operations with negative numbers, distributing: axioms and other properties, harder equations, some operations with polynomials and radicals, quadratic equations, expressions and equations containing two variables, linear functions/scattered data/probability, properties and exponents, more operations with polynomials, rational algebraic expressions, radical algebraic expressions, inequalities, functions, and advanced topics. To add to the wonder and creative problem-solving side of math, Mrs. Panam will supplement the traditional textbook approach with additional challenge problems drawn from sources such as SAT practice exams and The Art of Problem Solving curriculum.

Students encounter works by master artists and composers in this multi-sensory class. Over the course of the year, students learn about the lives of 4 artists and 4 composers and study multiple works from each. Students gain a listening repertoire of over a dozen classical scores and receive over a dozen full-color art prints, which they study in class through group discussion, written narration, and notebook drawings.

This Earth Science course is designed to draw middle-school students into close engagement with the subject matter and provide a solid education while fostering a sense of wonder and responsibility for God’s amazing world. Within the context of the fascinating study of landforms, minerals, and planetary phenomena, many other timely and important topics are covered including conservation of natural resources, climate change, pollution, environmental justice, with the current scientific consensus concerning geologic history.

Author Kevin Nelstead regularly draws the reader to appreciate the intricacy and excellence of God’s works, tying in scripture without becoming heavy-handed.

This class is offered on a rotating basis rather than every year. It will not be offered in the 2021–22 school year.

In this class with Mrs. Hartenburg that incorporates both report-style and descriptive writing, students will learn the structure and style of various essay formats and will produce original essays including integrated quotations, MLA in-text citations, and a properly formatted “Works Cited” page. An intensive overview of style elements will assist students in developing vivid vocabulary and sophisticated sentence variety. Throughout the course, students will gain an awareness of sentence structure and grammar that goes hand-in-hand with their growing ability to amplify and manipulate the parts of a sentence. Students will also write short fiction and poems of various forms.

In addition to weekly class sessions, students should plan to spend another one to three hours each week completing assignments at home.

The geography class will read, narrate, and discuss portions from Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World. Each week students will spend some time working on maps. Students will have opportunity to research and present on one country in a year-end World Fair. This class meets every other week alternating with Handicrafts.

Both beautiful and useful, handicrafts allow students of all ages to develop skills while improving habits of attention, orderliness, and tenacity. Mrs. Estes will help students experiment and develop skills with several different handicrafts over each semester. Previous handicrafts have included weaving corn husks and fabric, paper crafts such as quilling, hand sewing, leather and wood crafts, kite making, and more.

The instructor works with each student to personalize projects at the student’s level of ability and experience. By the end of the semester, students will have created both decorative and practical items including an item for charitable donation and/or gift-giving.

This class meets every other week alternating with Geography.

In this tuition-free class led by Dr. Gary Hartenburg, students will develop critical thinking, listening, and discussion skills as they grapple with foundational questions of faith and existence. Students will read and discuss a variety of classic literature along with selected works of the writers known as the Inklings, especially C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, as well as similar-minded contemporaries such as Dorothy Sayers and G. K. Chesterton.

For 2021–22, the focus will be on significant works of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation/Counter-Reformation ages, spanning from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century. While focusing on western civilization, the book list also includes a few significant voices from the East/Middle East.

Students will be expected to complete reading assignments in preparation for class, and there may be optional writing assignments.

Both new and experienced Latin scholars will be challenged in this class where students will read and study a novel written entirely in Latin. Students will enjoy reading about the antics and adventures of a Roman family in the 2nd century A.D. while they learn an impressive amount of vocabulary and grammar through a natural language-learning approach. With twice the vocabulary of many Latin textbooks, Lingua Latina helps students begin to read and speak Latin with ease from the beginning. Lingua Latina is so rich that we will spend two years completing the text.

Hans Ørberg’s Lingua Latina per se illustrata series is the world’s premiere curriculum for learning Latin via the Natural Method. Students first learn grammar and vocabulary intuitively through extended contextual reading and an innovative system of marginal notes. It is the only textbook currently available that gives students the opportunity to learn Latin without resorting to translation, but allows them to think in the language. Familia Romana (the main book of Pars I of the Lingua Latina per se illustrata series) contains thirty-five chapters which culminates in readings from classical poets and Donatus’s Ars Grammatica, the standard Latin school text for a millennium. Each chapter is divided into two or three lessons (lectiones) of a few pages each followed by a grammar section (Grammatica Latina) and three exercises (Pensa). Hans Ørberg’s impeccable Latin, humorous stories, and the Peer Lauritzen illustrations, reproduced in full color, make this work a classic. The book also includes a table of declensions, a Roman calendar, and a word index (index vocabulorum).

Advanced Latin students will continue their Latin studies with the sequel to Familia Romana, Lingua Latina: Roma Aeterna. All students should plan to spend up to an hour a day on Latin homework three or four days per week.

Owl pellet dissections, live butterfly studies, and microscope adventures are a few of the activities that await fifth- through eighth-grade students in this fun, hands-on class.

Life Science at Bluebonnet Home Scholars Collaborative uses Exploring the World of Biology by John H. Tiner, along with the accompanying materials from Memoria Press. The curriculum harmonizes with our gentle, Charlotte Mason, nature study approach while still offering substantive coverage of the subject at an age-appropriate level. Concepts covered include classifications, bacteria and protista, fungi, plant life, energy, digestion, insects, arachnids, aquatic life, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

In this literature and composition course, middle school and highschool students will explore elements of literature and develop beginning skills in literary analysis. With step-by-step instructions, Windows to the World teaches students how to analyze elements of literature: setting, plot, characterization, imagery, allusions, parallelism, and much more.

Bluebonnet’s tuition-free logic classes taught by Dr. Gary Hartenburg help equip students to reason well so that they can be critical thinkers and successful scholars across a wide range of disciplines and fields of study and throughout all areas of their lives. As a handmaid to Wisdom and Theology, Logic can assist students with discerning truth, avoiding falsehood, and communicating winsomely, like St. Paul, as ambassadors for the Gospel.

Since logical reasoning skills and habits require time and practice to hone, BHSC offers a multi-year logic sequence. For the 2021–22 academic year, returning students will finish a multi-year logic rotation:

Medieval & Early Modern History studies will involve both reading primary history sources and also building a keepsake timeline book with illustrated timeline figures which students can color and personalize. In 2021-2022, students will read primary source material by Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus. There will be short research/writing assignments each month, and students who want to round out their history study for a full year of high school credit can tackle further suggested research and writing assignments.

Bluebonnet Scholars offers history on a rotating three-year cycle with studies synchronized across Forms 1 through 4 (grades K through 12th) so that all students are studying the same time period together:

• Cycle Year 1: Ancient through Early Medieval History
• Cycle Year 2: Medieval through Early Modern History
• Cycle Year 3: Modern History

In the fall semester, students will work toward developing foundational skills of expression, projection, acting, singing, and dancing. In the spring, the class will prepare and perform the musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Each week after a short drawing or nature lesson, students will study a landscape or an object from nature to capture in a nature journal. On every “tolerably fine day,” students will be encouraged to take their journals outdoors to explore, observe, and record details from trees, flowers, bushes, birds, insects, rocks, or any other natural creation that intrigues them. When weather prevents outdoor time, the instructor will bring specimens into the classroom for study. Students will gain experience working with a variety of drawing mediums such as graphite, charcoal, pen, marker, pastels, and water color pencil. Students will also paint with watercolors using an aqua brush. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to present and share nature journaling pages they completed outside of class on their own.

On alternating weeks, the class will read, narrate, and discuss passages from Plutarch’s Lives and Shakespeare’s plays. Over the year, students will read two plays and two lives, studying one of each per semester. Students will have opportunity to dramatically read selected passages, to reenact key scenes, and to prepare and recite optional memory work.

In 2021-22, Form 2 (upper elementary) students will read and study two of Plutarch’s lives as well as Shakespeare’s King Lear and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Students in Forms 3 & 4 (middle and high school) will read two of Plutarch’s lives as well as Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Much Ado about Nothing.

At Bluebonnet Home Scholars Collaborative, the study of math is rooted in wonder. Students are invited to delve deeply into the beauty of math and to undertake mathematical study as an act of worship in which they can catch a glimpse into the mind of God. Bluebonnet’s Pre-algebra course reviews basic math concepts and skills, introduces equations, and prepares students for high school math.

Using interactive and conversation-driven learning, this course will lay the foundation for learning to speak Spanish fluently. Students will work through Breaking the Spanish Barrier, a curriculum that engages students through a variety of activities and techniques. In order to gain mastery and grow toward fluency, students will be expected to complete work outside of class each week

Exploring different mediums, students will learn various advanced techniques while focusing on design, color theory, and composition. Techniques presented in this course include various drawing and painting processes. Depending on time and interest, more techniques may be covered in this course. Students will present their work to the class and describe their inspiration behind their work. The main objectives of this course are to help students develop their eye for beauty and understanding of the principles of visual communication while engaging in a variety mediums, and to further develop the skills they may already have with familiar mediums.

Art Instructor, Callan Clark, earned a bachelor’s degree in Studio Art from Houston Baptist University where she also studied in the Honors College. She is currently working on her Master’s Degree in Painting at HBU.  Though well-versed in a variety of art methods, her favorite mediums are painting and drawing. She especially loves creating lifelike portraits, and she is passionate about sharing her love of art with students and budding artists.

This high school introductory physics & chemistry course combines up-to-date science with a Christian worldview and an educational approach that aims for wonder, integration, and mastery. Concepts covered include the nature of scientific knowledge, motion, Newton’s laws, variation and proportion, energy, heat and temperature, waves, sound, light, electricity and DC circuits, fields and magnetism, chemical substances, atomic models and density, atomic bonding, and chemical reactions. (Visit the publisher’s FAQ to learn more about how this publisher approaches the subject of evolution.) The Novare curriculum aims to nurture fascinated students who deeply understand and remember their science. Meeting Tuesday mornings and afternoons, this course will include both lab and lecture/discussion components.

Prerequisites: must be concurrently enrolled in Algebra I or above.

This advanced high school chemistry course combines up-to-date science with a Christian worldview and an educational approach that aims for wonder, integration, and mastery. Meeting Tuesday mornings and afternoons, this course will include both lab and lecture/discussion components.

From the textbook publisher’s website:

“Chemistry for Accelerated Students is an ideal text for students who love science and aspire to a STEM-oriented college program. This book contains up-to-date chemistry information, beautiful illustrations, and lucid narrative. It also supports Novare’s trademark mastery-learning paradigm.

This accelerated text is a more intense treatment than our General Chemistry text. This text includes additional chapters on thermochemistry, chemical equilibrium, and a glimpse into organic chemistry. Ample exercises are included in each chapter giving students plenty of opportunities to develop skills. Explanations move along a little faster and go into a little more depth than the grade-level text.

Although the mathematics involved in chemistry are generally not advanced, Chemistry for Accelerated Students is recommended for students who are concurrently enrolled in Algebra II. As with all Novare textbooks, our Textbook Philosophy guides the layout and composition of the text. Colors and images are attractive without being distracting.”

In Algebra II, students will broaden their knowledge of quadratic functions, exponential functions, and systems of equations. In the class textbook, algebra and trigonometry are presented as a study of special classes of functions. In the process, relationships betwen theory and real-world applications are thoroughly explored, bringing the material to life. To continue kindling wonder and creative thinking, Mrs. Panam will supplement the traditional textbook approach with additional challenge problems drawn from sources such as The Art of Problem Solving curriculum.

Students encounter works by master artists and composers in this multi-sensory class. Over the course of the year, students learn about the lives of 4 artists and 4 composers and study multiple works from each. Students gain a listening repertoire of over a dozen classical scores and receive over a dozen full-color art prints, which they study in class through group discussion, written narration, and notebook drawings.

In this college-preparatory literature and composition course, highschool students will survey British literature and develop skills in literary analysis and research as they read and write upper-level essays and critiques.

Prerequisites: Prior IEW experience or writing class with Mrs. Hartenburg, or by permission

The geography class will read, narrate, and discuss portions from Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Explain Everything About the World. Each week students will spend some time working on maps. Students will have opportunity to research and present on one country in a year-end World Fair. This class meets every other week alternating with Handicrafts.

In Geometry, students strengthen their mathematical reasoning skills in geometric contexts. The comprehensive content and varied real-life applications covered give students a strong mathematical foundation. This series introduces students to theory and application of formal and informal reasoning, as well as to synthetic, coordinate, and transformational approaches. This comprehensive course covers Points/Lines/Planes/Angles, Deductive Reasoning, Parallel Lines and Planes, Congruent Triangles, Quadrilaterals, Inequalities in Geometry, Similar Polygons, Right Triangles, Circles, Constructions and Loci, Areas of Plane Figures, Areas and Volumes of Solids, Coordinate Geometry, and Transformations. The course emphasizes logic and offers a good amount of worked-out examples, hands-on activities, real-world applications, exercises, chapter and mixed reviews, and a technology strand that includes calculator and computer applications for geometry. To continue kindling wonder and creative thinking, Mrs. Panam will supplement the traditional textbook approach with additional challenge problems drawn from sources such as The Art of Problem Solving curriculum.

Both beautiful and useful, handicrafts allow students of all ages to develop skills while improving habits of attention, orderliness, and tenacity. Mrs. Estes will help students experiment and develop skills with several different handicrafts over each semester. Previous handicrafts have included weaving corn husks and fabric, paper crafts such as quilling, hand sewing, leather and wood crafts, kite making, and more.

The instructor works with each student to personalize projects at the student’s level of ability and experience. By the end of the semester, students will have created both decorative and practical items including an item for charitable donation and/or gift-giving.

This class meets every other week alternating with Geography.

In this tuition-free class led by Dr. Gary Hartenburg, students will develop critical thinking, listening, and discussion skills as they grapple with foundational questions of faith and existence. Students will read and discuss a variety of classic literature along with selected works of the writers known as the Inklings, especially C. S. Lewis and J. R. R. Tolkien, as well as similar-minded contemporaries such as Dorothy Sayers and G. K. Chesterton.

For 2021–22, the focus will be on significant works of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation/Counter-Reformation ages, spanning from the thirteenth to the seventeenth century. While focusing on western civilization, the book list also includes a few significant voices from the East/Middle East.

Students will be expected to complete reading assignments in preparation for class, and there may be optional writing assignments.

Both new and experienced Latin scholars will be challenged in this class where students will read and study a novel written entirely in Latin. Students will enjoy reading about the antics and adventures of a Roman family in the 2nd century A.D. while they learn an impressive amount of vocabulary and grammar through a natural language-learning approach. With twice the vocabulary of many Latin textbooks, Lingua Latina helps students begin to read and speak Latin with ease from the beginning. Lingua Latina is so rich that we will spend two years completing the text.

Hans Ørberg’s Lingua Latina per se illustrata series is the world’s premiere curriculum for learning Latin via the Natural Method. Students first learn grammar and vocabulary intuitively through extended contextual reading and an innovative system of marginal notes. It is the only textbook currently available that gives students the opportunity to learn Latin without resorting to translation, but allows them to think in the language. Familia Romana (the main book of Pars I of the Lingua Latina per se illustrata series) contains thirty-five chapters which culminates in readings from classical poets and Donatus’s Ars Grammatica, the standard Latin school text for a millennium. Each chapter is divided into two or three lessons (lectiones) of a few pages each followed by a grammar section (Grammatica Latina) and three exercises (Pensa). Hans Ørberg’s impeccable Latin, humorous stories, and the Peer Lauritzen illustrations, reproduced in full color, make this work a classic. The book also includes a table of declensions, a Roman calendar, and a word index (index vocabulorum).

Advanced Latin students will continue their Latin studies with the sequel to Familia Romana, Lingua Latina: Roma Aeterna. All students should plan to spend up to an hour a day on Latin homework three or four days per week.

In this literature and composition course, middle school and highschool students will explore elements of literature and develop beginning skills in literary analysis. With step-by-step instructions, Windows to the World teaches students how to analyze elements of literature: setting, plot, characterization, imagery, allusions, parallelism, and much more.

Bluebonnet’s tuition-free logic classes taught by Dr. Gary Hartenburg help equip students to reason well so that they can be critical thinkers and successful scholars across a wide range of disciplines and fields of study and throughout all areas of their lives. As a handmaid to Wisdom and Theology, Logic can assist students with discerning truth, avoiding falsehood, and communicating winsomely, like St. Paul, as ambassadors for the Gospel.

Since logical reasoning skills and habits require time and practice to hone, BHSC offers a multi-year logic sequence. For the 2021–22 academic year, returning students will finish a multi-year logic rotation:

Medieval & Early Modern History studies will involve both reading primary history sources and also building a keepsake timeline book with illustrated timeline figures which students can color and personalize. In 2021-2022, students will read primary source material by Marco Polo and Christopher Columbus. There will be short research/writing assignments each month, and students who want to round out their history study for a full year of high school credit can tackle further suggested research and writing assignments.

Bluebonnet Scholars offers history on a rotating three-year cycle with studies synchronized across Forms 1 through 4 (grades K through 12th) so that all students are studying the same time period together:

• Cycle Year 1: Ancient through Early Medieval History
• Cycle Year 2: Medieval through Early Modern History
• Cycle Year 3: Modern History

In the fall semester, students will work toward developing foundational skills of expression, projection, acting, singing, and dancing. In the spring, the class will prepare and perform the musical, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.

Each week after a short drawing or nature lesson, students will study a landscape or an object from nature to capture in a nature journal. On every “tolerably fine day,” students will be encouraged to take their journals outdoors to explore, observe, and record details from trees, flowers, bushes, birds, insects, rocks, or any other natural creation that intrigues them. When weather prevents outdoor time, the instructor will bring specimens into the classroom for study. Students will gain experience working with a variety of drawing mediums such as graphite, charcoal, pen, marker, pastels, and water color pencil. Students will also paint with watercolors using an aqua brush. Additionally, students will have the opportunity to present and share nature journaling pages they completed outside of class on their own.

On alternating weeks, the class will read, narrate, and discuss passages from Plutarch’s Lives and Shakespeare’s plays. Over the year, students will read two plays and two lives, studying one of each per semester. Students will have opportunity to dramatically read selected passages, to reenact key scenes, and to prepare and recite optional memory work.

In 2021-22, Form 2 (upper elementary) students will read and study two of Plutarch’s lives as well as Shakespeare’s King Lear and A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Students in Forms 3 & 4 (middle and high school) will read two of Plutarch’s lives as well as Shakespeare’s Hamlet and Much Ado about Nothing.

“A nationally recognized author team developed this program around The Rule of Four: concepts are presented through a balance of algebraic, numerical, graphical, and verbal methods. Students learn to solve problems by one method and then support or confirm their solutions by another method.” —Pearson

This course provides a study of fundamental topics needed for calculus. Topics include applications of algebra and trigonometry, elementary functions and their graphs, polynomial, rational, exponential, and logarithmic functions, solutions to equations and inequalities, trigonometric functions, inverse trigonometric functions, analytic trigonometry, and polar coordinates.

Using interactive and conversation-driven learning, this course will lay the foundation for learning to speak Spanish fluently. Students will work through Breaking the Spanish Barrier, a curriculum that engages students through a variety of activities and techniques. In order to gain mastery and grow toward fluency, students will be expected to complete work outside of class each week

Exploring different mediums, students will learn various advanced techniques while focusing on design, color theory, and composition. Techniques presented in this course include various drawing and painting processes. Depending on time and interest, more techniques may be covered in this course. Students will present their work to the class and describe their inspiration behind their work. The main objectives of this course are to help students develop their eye for beauty and understanding of the principles of visual communication while engaging in a variety mediums, and to further develop the skills they may already have with familiar mediums.

Art Instructor, Callan Clark, earned a bachelor’s degree in Studio Art from Houston Baptist University where she also studied in the Honors College. She is currently working on her Master’s Degree in Painting at HBU.  Though well-versed in a variety of art methods, her favorite mediums are painting and drawing. She especially loves creating lifelike portraits, and she is passionate about sharing her love of art with students and budding artists.