Upper School

About the Upper School

For students in grades 7-12, we offer a variety of classes with the flexibility to mix and match subjects to suit your family’s needs. Parents can choose for their student to participate in one class, all classes, or any combination that will be useful. Our school year runs thirty weeks: two fifteen week semesters.

Our Humanities and Science classes are Honors Level classes.

We are a homeschool community and not a private school. As such, Upper School tutors do not provide grades for student transcripts. They may provide feedback on assignments to guide you as the parent and primary educator in assessing your student’s work and choosing a grade for the course work.

Parents are not required to remain on campus during classes, however, each family in the community is required to contribute to the community in some way on Monday during our Community Day. In addition to tutoring classes, some family roles include: building set-up or clean-up, community event planning, or yearbook organization. Parents sign up for their helper roles upon registration. If you have any interest in tutoring a class please reach out to us.

---

Classes Offered

Humanities

Students pursuing our full program for Junior High and High School will complete the following sequence of humanities blocks. Minimum age is 12 years old or 7th grade for Logic levels and 15 years old for Rhetoric levels. These are all honors-level classes with a rigorous level of independent reading required.

Pre-Humanities: This introductory humanities class is for 6th and 7th graders and meets from 11 am-12 pm on Mondays. This class introduces students to Socratic dialogue, reading for deeper meaning, and writing weekly reflections. It is a literature-only class, which will read diverse, age-appropriate novels. It is not specific to any particular historical period or world region.

FRLC level	Suggested Grades	Literature	History	Liberal Arts
Logic 1	7th/8th grade	Ancient Literature	Ancient History, Geography	Informal Logic
Logic 2	8th/9th grade	Medieval Literature	Medieval History, Art History	Formal Logic
Logic 3	9th/10th grade	American Literature	American History Survey	American Government
Rhetoric 1	10th/11th grade	Ancient Literature	Ancient History	Salvation History & Mere Christianity
Rhetoric 2	11th, 12th grade	Medieval Literature	Church History A, Medieval History	Ancient & Medieval Philosophy
Rhetoric 3	12th grade	Modern Literature Senior Thesis	Church History B, Modern History	Modern & Post-Modern Philosophy

Science

Our Upper School Science offers two honors level, lab-based classes for Logic and Rhetoric students. These courses cycle for each age group.

Logic Level students use digital textbooks from cK-12 in addition to weekly lab reports written specifically for our program

Rhetoric Level students use Novare textbooks along with the corresponding lab work. Rhetoric Level Science meets outside of Community Days for a select number of additional lab experiences, usually on Tuesdays. These will be announced at the beginning of the year.

	2026-27 2029-30	2027-28 2030-31	2025-26 2028-29
Logic (7th -9th)	Physical Science	Life Science	Earth Science
Rhetoric (10th-12th)	General Biology	Chemistry	Physics

Economics and Personal Finance

Coming for the 2026-2027 school year. One semester of economics and one semester of personal finance.

Advanced Communications

We offer a three-year rotation of classes to teach students to speak well. Debate, Moot Court/Mock Trial, and Speech rotate every 3 years. These classes are recommended for Logic 3 or Rhetoric Level students.

	2026-27 2029-30	2027-28 2030-31	2025-26 2028-29
Public Speaking	Moot Court/Mock Trial	Speech	Debate

Speech: includes 1 semester of instruction on the physical elements of giving a speech including breathing, hand gestures, eye contact, handling nerves, and more. Recitations and short presentations will let student practice as they learn. The first semester will culminate with the students giving a 5-7 min speech. 2nd semester will follow the IEW Public Speaking course to introduce students to the various types of speeches.

Debate: This class is for students who have completed Logic 2 or are high school age. We use Everyday Debate & Discussion from Classical Academic Press. This is the third book in their Logic Collection. We use the previous books from the series in our Logic 1 and Logic 2 classes to teach informal and formal logic.

Writing

Students can choose from one of the following classes for Writing. We recommend students who have not participated in our Lower School Illuminate class take at least one year of grammar and all students take Lost Tools of Writing 1 Persuasive Essay twice.

For students new to the Faith and Reason community, a writing sample must be submitted for placement.

	2026-27 2029-30*	2027-28 2030-31	2025-26 2028-29
Recommended Intro Level	IEW- Window to the World*		Grammar (if there is interest)
Writing with Structure (Recommended to take twice)	Lost Tools of Writing 1: Persuasive Essay*	Lost Tools of Writing 1: Persuasive Essay	Lost Tools of Writing 1: Persuasive Essay
Creative Writing	Cover Story from Clearwater Press (7th-9th grade)	Reading and Writing Expo (see description below)	Reading and Writing Expo (see description below)

Reading and Writing Expo (special offering returning for the 25-26 school year): Students will learn the process of analytical reading using the ideas of context, themes, literary devices, and styles. As they explore a variety of short stories and poetry, they will deepen their understanding of literature through discussion and writing. Starting with the basics of selecting a subject and culminating in a short paper at the end of the year (we would love to see 7-10 pages), students will acquire techniques and formulas for writing effective expository compositions and learn how the process can be enjoyable.

Fine Arts

Upper School Art
This year we are happy to announce we will be offering a semester of water color study and a semester of drawing and sketching.

Film Appreciation (special offering for the 25-26 school year): This class will be offered for our Rhetoric Level students. Students will engage with compelling films through an exploration of the building blocks of movie making as well as discussions on spiritual and moral themes. R-rated films (no sex or nudity!) may be included in the curriculum, and parents will be made aware of the syllabus before the beginning of the year.

Languages

Based on student request and teacher availability we offer foreign languages. At this time, we offer Latin which meets on Tuesday mornings, separate from our other Monday classes.

Religion

A 2-year scripture survey class led from a common Judeo-Christian perspective. Old Testament and New Testament are offered in alternating years. Old Testament study includes the seven deuterocanonical books.

	2026-27 2028-29	2025-26 2027-28
Religion	Old Testament	New Testament

---

Daily Schedule