A Day in the Classroom

The lesson begins with a brief breathing routine that helps the child settle, focus, and prepare to learn.

The teacher prays with the child and speaks the weekly identity declaration: “We are children of God, and He gave us minds that can learn.” Before a child is asked to learn anything, they are reminded of who they are.

The child then practices the skill in several ways through movement, prediction, hands-on building, visual reference, speaking, and writing.

The child blends the new phoneme with known graphemes to form words. After the Predict phase, the child pauses to notice whether the word feels secure or uncertain: “Does your body feel sure or unsure about that word?” Self-awareness is being built alongside phonics.

The child reads a short decodable text — a story about a biblical figure, written using only phonemes introduced so far. After reading, the child retells the story in their own words from memory. The teacher listens without correcting. Comprehension is assessed through narration, not multiple-choice questions.

Timed phonics practice — steady, repeated practice that builds fluency and speed. The child’s personal-best time is recorded on their 36-week tracker. Previously learned phonemes appear alongside the new one — nothing disappears after the test.

Independent application of the skill. During the final encoding phase comes a second pause: “Does your body feel like it knows this?” The child compares personal confidence with actual performance — learning to recognize when a skill is secure and when more practice is needed.

Previously learned material cycles through the five-box spaced repetition system. Cards the child knows well appear less frequently. Cards they struggle with appear daily. Spaced review is built directly into the daily routine — not as an afterthought, but as a structured daily system.

The teacher poses one open-ended wonder question: “If you could only use three letters to write a message to God, which three would you choose?” The question is designed to remain unresolved. The child carries it home. An open question keeps a child curious and thinking long after the lesson ends.