At this stage of a child's life, the physical brain and the cognitive thinking skills haven't matured yet. That's why the focus needs to be on solid information. To put it another way, children at this phase just need facts.
Although children often like to know "why" and "how," their young minds can really only process "what." You can address your children's "why" and "how" questions, but keep in mind that they are not the focus of the first stage.
The whats are important for creating a foundation for the higher-leveled thinking and philosophical questions of the hows and whys later. Children in the grammar stage simply don't have the ability to process reason.
This is largely due to their own lack of experience and background knowledge: They don't yet have the tools to process reason.
And therein lies the beauty of the grammar stage in classical education curriculum. Because the grammar stage is built up solely of facts, it builds the foundation upon which all other forms of learning will take place in the next two stages.
For the following two phases to be successful, they need this foundation in place.
The next phase in classical education curriculum is the dialect stage. Children can start this phase usually between grade 5 and grade 7.
A child's mind at this stage develops noticeably, exhibiting cognitive skills that allow him or her to mature to analytical learning.
When a child moves from stage to stage, the previous methods are not abandoned. The classical education curriculum is cumulative. Analytical though is simply added and developed side by side with concrete learning.
The grammar stage focuses on delivering concrete information, the facts. The dialect stage switches focus to the whys and hows. In this second stage, these questions become very important.
The dialect phase sets the stage for the child to apply the facts he or she has already learned, testing to see whether they are actually true. Encouraging this exploration and self-examination is an important step in developing the child's thinking skills.
Children learn to understand the importance of asking questions, judging, examining, and analyzing with respect and honor. In classical education curriculum, disrespect is an attitude you don't need when you're asking questions.
When children in this phase start asking questions, teachers and parents can instill positive attitudes by not getting defensive. Setting a positive example helps children understand that you can indeed disagree and still be respectful about it.
The rhetoric stage, or last phase in classical education curriculum, usually begins somewhere around 9th grade and ends with 12th.
The subjects most often covered include math, writing, science, oratory, philosophy, language, history, literature, and music. This is the stage where all the phases are woven together and put into practice.
