Kindergarten &
Junior Kindergarten
Charlotte Mason Education in Kindergarten & Junior Kindergarten
The atmosphere should be peaceful and joyful in junior kindergarten and kindergarten classrooms. It is important that the environment include focused attention, outdoor play, and guided work.
In the Charlotte Mason method, students use Froebels, a method of exploring the nature and movement of objects that affords early opportunities to understand mathematics and science.
Students also begin Handwork, a subject that helps children form good habits and inspires them towards good and worthy ways to engage with the world around them. Children in our programs also learn early how to mix colors, paint, and form enjoyable relationships with nature through Nature Study.
The Charlotte Mason model of education helps students grow in all learning styles and abilities. Whether it be kinesthetic learning, visual learning, or auditory learning: it is important for children to grow in being able to learn and grow through all of these mediums. This aptitude begins at the earliest grade levels and continues throughout their time at school.
Junior Kindergarten
Calvary Schools of Holland offers a junior kindergarten program for 4- and 5-year-olds who are ready to engage with the learning process employed by our school.
Junior Kindergarten is a time of joyful learning and purposeful discovery:
- Fine and gross motor skill development
- Outdoor time daily
- Structured and unstructured play
- Beloved story time followed by student narration
- Phonics, spelling, and reading
- Working with their hands
- Using the letter arc
- Math and science foundation-building through Froebels Gifts
In junior kindergarten, parents may choose a half-day or full-day schedule for their 4- and 5-year-olds in conjunction with assessment findings. In kindergarten, parents may choose 5 mornings or 5 full days. Placement decisions are made in partnership with parents according to the child’s developmental readiness, assessments, and family needs.
Junior Kindergarten schedule options
2025-26 rates shown. Full afternoon programming is also available. Contact us at 616-396-4494 for more information.
Kindergarten
Kindergarten children begin their formal education earnestly yet gently at Calvary. In phonics, spelling, and reading instruction, they begin working with the letter arc and learning to write. They learn about letter combinations and sight words but they also learn sentence structure through narration. They enjoy reading the Flicka, Ricka, Dicka series, as well as the Bright series.
Kindergarten children also explore the world around them through Nature Study, through which they start to develop sketching and drawing skills. They are encapsulated by Aesop’s Fables, Bible stories, Johnny Appleseed, and the Velveteen Rabbit.
They memorize scripture and poetry, practice using fine and large motor skills, and develop strong number sense and basic counting skills. They also learn about fine art (John J. Audubon, Edouard Manet), classical music (John Philip Sousa, Robert Schumann), and how to work with their hands (weaving, lacing, and tracing).
Kindergarten schedule options
2025-26 rates shown. Additional information on Charlotte Mason’s educational philosophy and the curriculum we use can be found at Ambleside Schools International.