The goal of the Guild Method is to meet and transcend learning standards established on the local and national level by offering opportunities for the apprentice to acquire, respond, and create. The Guild Method provides the structured mentorship that leads to the development of the whole person.
Part-Time Program
Waterhouse Guild is proud to offer exceptional part-time classes to support Kindergarten – 8th Grade homeschooled students. Our core drop-in classes are designed to support and motivate students in diverse humanities offerings: Math, History, Science, Literature, Composition & Creative Writing, Arts, Music, and more. Our program is rigourous and engaging, ensuring that students meet grade-level academic standards and are inspired to reach higher. Students are instructed by expert Teacher-Mentors committed to encouraging and motivating them in the art of learning.
Guild Touchstones
Touchstone: a hard siliceous stone used to test the purity of gold; a criterion or standard by which a judgment is made.
Guild Touchstones represent the markers that provide reference points along an individual apprentice’s academic journey. Integrating the acquisition of knowledge with the practice of Creative Critical Thinking is a one-step-at-a-time process that progressively leads to the formation of Habits of Being and relevant learning above and beyond mere proficiency.
Foundation Touchstones
Phonics
The Guild apprentice will move systematically through the many stages of phonological awareness toward mastery and, in so doing, gain the encoding and decoding skills that enable reading for meaning and writing for real.
Spelling
The Guild apprentice will gain spelling skills that demonstrate retention of phonemic, morphemic, and whole-word concepts, enabling efficient and effective encoding and decoding of language.
Vocabulary
The Guild apprentice will become enthralled with the potential of words through the development of a rich lexicon that will embellish the art of reading and writing.
Mechanics & Grammar
The Guild apprentice will move beyond memorizing rules toward integrating the essential elements of mechanics and grammar into the art of composing an original idea.
Integrated Literature and Writing
The Guild apprentice will practice the art of reading closely and develop the ability and confidence to respond to great literature with writing that is authentic and meaningful.
Math
The Guild apprentice will gain mathematical knowledge and develop skill mastery, moving toward applying this knowledge and skill in diverse contexts, in perceptive and reflective ways.
Exploration Touchstones
Literature and Composition
The Guild apprentice will read deeply and respond to great literature with writing that is authentic and meaningful.
Creative Writing
The Guild apprentice will develop confidence in his or her ability to authentically craft and express an original idea.
Science
The Guild apprentice will experience science from an integrated vantage point and develop scientific literacy through investigation, experimentation, and observation.
History and Geography
The Guild apprentice will develop a widening worldview as they explore the timeline of diverse cultures and history’s relevance to the global community.
Math Lab
The Guild apprentice will experience the vast potential of applied math through individual and collaborative activities.
Research
The Guild apprentice will engage in longitudinal research, awed by the inventiveness and innovation that is part of the human spirit past, present, and future, and thrilled by the prospect of new ideas.
Arts
The Guild apprentice will increase capacity for risk taking, develop and strengthen perception skills as they learn to exert close and extended attention to the processes involved in bringing shape to an original idea.
Common Core Standards
The Common Core details the national baseline shared and expectations for the knowledge and skills students need in language arts and mathematics at each grade level to be academically prepared for the future.
California Content Standards
These standards were designed to encourage the highest achievement of every student, by defining the knowledge, concepts, and skills that students should acquire at each grade level.