“Instill in the young a taste for true joy in every area of life, for family, friendship, solidarity with those who suffer, self-renunciation for the sake of the other, love of knowledge, art, and the beauty of nature.”
Pope Benedict XVI
Montessori
Primary
The Montessori approach offers a broad vision of education as an aid to life. It is designed to help children with their task of inner construction as they grow from childhood to maturity. It succeeds because it draws its principles from the natural development of the child.
Montessori Lower
Elementary
The Lower Elementary class continues the Montessori foundation begun in Primary and gently introduces students to Classical education. Each morning begins with a work cycle, during which students are responsible for choosing hands-on academic work.
The Pre-Grammar
School
The curriculum of the Pre-Grammar School has its heaviest emphasis on the Language Arts. Because the skills of both competent and artful writing and reading are so essential to the work that follows in the Classical tradition, we have placed the acquisition of these skills as the highest priority.
The Grammar
School
Having developed the essential skills of concentration and laid the necessary academic foundation in their Montessori and Pre-Grammar studies, coupled with the spiritual formation of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd, the children of the Grammar School continue in their rigorous pursuit of Truth in the Classical tradition.
Catechesis of the Good Shepherd
Throughout all our programs there is the unifying theme of the Catechesis of the Good Shepherd. This is a unique approach to the Christian formation of young children. It is deeply rooted in the Scripture and the Liturgy of the Church and finds its structure in the educational principles of Maria Montessori.
About Our School
“What greater work is there than training the mind and forming the habits of the young?” — Saint John Chrysostom
At Divinum Auxilium Academy the children begin their journey in a beautifully prepared Montessori environment directed by an Association Montessori Internationale trained directress. Upon completion of the Kindergarten year the children then transition to a more traditional academic setting. In the Academy’s Pre-Grammar and Grammar schools they will begin the rich and rigorous training in the Classical Liberal Arts, while retaining a Montessori experience of the environment and orientation to their unique plane of development.
The Pre-Grammar One of the main applications of this orientation is in the multi-age classroom experience, which allows for the unique interaction observed by Montessori between children of different ages: a beautiful and supportive interaction between youngers and olders, which all but disappeared in classrooms of segregated ages as we have now in most public and private schools. Interestingly, this is similar to the model of the one room schoolhouse and master teacher model found in the Classical schools of old.
You are invited to a weekly Open House for Divinum Auxilium Academy
The Catechesis of the Good Shepherd is included through all grades and also as a stand-alone offering. Come observe our multi-age classrooms (grades PreK through 8th), meet our staff, and tour our 13-acre farm campus.
Come any Wednesday from March 20th to May 15th (closed April 17th for Easter break) between the hours of: 9am and 11am. Parents and nursing infants only please.
For more information: (540) 631-0086 or kdelaney@divineassistanceacademy.com