Memoria Press Classical Core Curriculum

The publisher's Classical Core Curriculum page describes it as a complete classical Christian curriculum that emphasizes the traditional liberal arts of language and mathematics and the cultural heritage of the Christian West, with an early focus on reading, writing, and arithmetic and a special emphasis on Latin. It is sold as full-year sets from Preschool through Twelfth Grade, each with a Curriculum Manual that the publisher says has every day already planned.

Last updated: 2026-10-15 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Classical (Every Homeschool classification); the publisher calls its approach classical Christian education
Worldview	Christian; the publisher's FAQ says the entire curriculum is Christian, explicit in some materials and implicit in others. Every Homeschool classifies it as Christian · Ecumenical, a term the publisher does not use to describe its curriculum, and it states no denominational affiliation on the pages we read
Grades	Sets are listed for Preschool, Two-Day and Five-Day Junior Kindergarten, Kindergarten, and grades 1 through 12; the First Grade page calls the program the publisher's planned Junior K-12 Classical Core Curriculum
Formats	Print books and Curriculum Manuals, with streaming instructional videos listed among the contents of many sets; the publisher's Memoria Press App page describes video courses, audio, digital flashcards, and free content for use with the curriculum; the grade pages for grades 1 through 12 each offer the Curriculum Set, a Customize option, and a Consumable set
Cost tier	Premium (Every Homeschool classification); the sets alone run from $165.29 to $1,182.48, retrieved October 2026, and several grade pages also list a New User Add-On Set (see the cost section)
Parent intensity	4 (Every Homeschool rating; the parent teaches from the Curriculum Manual)
ESA-common	Not verified
Accredited	Not applicable: a curriculum product, not a school. Memoria Academy, which the About page calls an extension of Memoria Press and Highlands Latin School, states that it is accredited by the Classical Latin School Association
Established	Not stated for the curriculum
Website	memoriapress.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	5	In our assessment, the grade sets run Latin from second grade through twelfth, add logic courses in ninth (Traditional Logic) and tenth grade (Material Logic), and assign works such as the Iliad and the Odyssey in the eighth grade set, the Aeneid in the ninth grade set, and the Divine Comedy in the eleventh grade set
Ease of teaching	3	Each set includes a Curriculum Manual the publisher describes as having every day planned, and many sets include streaming instructional videos; the parent still teaches from the manuals
Content quality	5	In our assessment, the grade sets follow one plan across grades, pairing literature with Memoria Press guides, Latin, classical studies (for example Famous Men in the fifth, sixth, and seventh grade sets), Christian Studies (Christian Studies II to IV in the same sets), and math from Rod & Staff (in the first grade set, for example) and Memoria Press (Memoria Algebra II in the ninth grade set)
Flexibility	3	Each grade page for grades 1 through 12 has a Customize button (the First Grade page says the buyer makes selections from the different subject modules), and the publisher calls the curriculum flexible; the full sets are built around one day-by-day plan
Value for money	3	Premium-priced: the sets alone are $165.29 to $1,182.48 at current prices, retrieved October 2026
Worldview scope	3	The publisher's FAQ describes its whole curriculum as Christian, explicit in some materials and implicit in others, and the pages we read state no denominational affiliation
Visual/design	4	In our assessment, the Third Grade Curriculum Manual sample is an orderly, plain checklist layout; the publisher's article describes a layout that uses checkboxes for accountability
Support resources	4	Day-by-day Curriculum Manuals, streaming instructional videos in many sets, the Memoria Press App, live classes through Memoria Academy, and a published phone number and email for questions

Who the publisher is

Memoria Press's About page describes it as a family-run publishing company that produces classical Christian education materials for home and private schools. The page says the company has developed a K-12 classical curriculum at Highlands Latin School in Louisville, Kentucky, where it says its programs are written and field-tested. It lists Highlands Latin School, Highlands Latin Cottage Schools, Memoria Academy, the Classical Latin School Association, and Memoria College among the institutions it calls the Memoria Press Family, and it says the Classical Core Curriculum was developed at Highlands Latin School. The page states the publisher's mission as promoting and imparting the classical heritage of the Christian West. The First Grade page says families can have a Highlands Latin education at home using the same materials its teachers use. The About page calls Memoria Academy an extension of Memoria Press and Highlands Latin School, and the Academy's course formats page says its regular courses for grades 3-12 meet weekly in live teacher-led classes and that it offers a limited number of self-paced courses with instructional videos.

The publisher's own words on faith are that its educational philosophy is classical Christian education, and that the entire curriculum is Christian, with explicit references to the faith and Scripture in some materials and implicit ones in others. The same FAQ says the publisher has released a separate line of products for educators in public settings. A publisher article says the curriculum consistently reflects a classical, Christian, traditional identity and serves homeschools, cottage schools, Christian schools, charter schools, students with special needs, and adults. The Kindergarten set page says in its Christian Studies description that doctrine will not be taught but is left up to the church, family, and particular school.

The sets are not all Memoria Press titles. The grade pages list Rod & Staff math in the Kindergarten through Sixth Grade sets, Core Skills Language Arts workbooks in grades 3 through 8 (those pages list no publisher, and the separate Core Skills Language Arts 1 page lists Houghton-Mifflin-Harcourt), and Bible storybooks the product pages credit to other publishers: The Golden Children's Bible (Golden Books Publishing Company) in third grade and The Story Bible (Concordia Publishing House) in the Kindergarten set.

The core pedagogy

The publisher's article on its curriculum says Latin must be studied to justify the word classical in classical Christian education, and calls Latin the core of its curriculum. It says its boxed packages include student workbooks, teacher manuals, and curriculum manuals with daily and weekly lesson plans and a checkbox layout, and that the curriculum is complete and dependable but more than anything flexible and easy to customize.

Each grade page for grades 1 through 12 lists the Curriculum Set under a Books Included heading and has a Customize button and a Consumable button; the First Grade page says the buyer makes selections from the different subject modules, and the Fourth Grade page adds a New Users button. The publisher's First Grade page says the Curriculum Manual provides day-by-day lesson plans. The Latin sequence in the sets, as the grade pages list it:

Grade	Latin in the set
2nd	Prima Latina
3rd	Latina Christiana and Introduction to Lingua Angelica
4th	Latina Christiana Practice Sheets
5th	First Form Latin
6th	Second Form Latin
7th	Third Form Latin
8th	Fourth Form Latin and Henle Latin I
9th	Henle Latin II
10th	Caesar selections
11th	Henle Latin Third Year
12th	Vergil and Pliny selections

Other elements the grade pages list, by grade: the first grade set includes First Start Reading Book E, Traditional Spelling I, read-aloud literature with StoryTime Treasures guides, Rod & Staff math with Memoria Math Challenge drills, New American Cursive 1, and Copybook II. The fifth, sixth, and seventh grade sets include Famous Men of Rome, the Middle Ages, and Greece, with Christian Studies II, III, and IV. The eighth set includes the Iliad and the Odyssey, and the ninth set includes the Aeneid, Traditional Logic I and II, and Memoria Algebra II. The tenth set lists Material Logic, and the eleventh set lists The Divine Comedy and City of God. The twelfth grade set lists Hamlet, King Lear, Anna Karenina, Aristotle's Rhetoric, Mere Christianity, and Orthodoxy, and says science is not included.

The publisher's Third Grade page says its lesson plans stretch D'Aulaires' Greek Myths, Latina Christiana, Christian Studies I, States & Capitals, and English Grammar Recitation I over two years.

A day in the life

The publisher's own materials describe the day. The Kindergarten page says the curriculum is written for five half-days, can be adjusted to fit a family's schedule, and has a manual with lesson plans for a 34-week school year. It lists the areas of study as recitation, phonics, math, copybook and memory work, and literature and enrichment. The First Grade page lists opening recitation, spelling, reading, math, copybook and memory work, cursive, and literature and enrichment.

For third grade, the publisher's Curriculum Manual sample prints a recommended schedule based on a five-day week:

• 7:45 to 8:00 is opening and review, 8:00 to 9:00 is Latin, and 9:00 to 10:00 is math, followed by a break.
• Spelling runs from 10:15 to 10:30, with a spelling test on the fifth day, and grammar and composition run from 10:30 to 11:00.
• Literature runs from 11:00 to 12:00, followed by lunch and recess.
• From 1:00 to 1:45 the schedule has Christian Studies on days 1 and 3, Classical Studies on days 2 and 4, and memory work on day 5; from 1:45 to 2:30 it has American Studies reading, science, or geography, with cursive from 2:30 to 2:45 on days 1, 3, and 5. A note says the memory work time may be used for tests.

The same sample prints week 1 for Monday. It lists Latina Christiana Lesson I, skip counting and flashcard review with Rod and Staff Arithmetic 3 Lesson 1, English Grammar I Lesson 1 (teach Capitalization Rule 1 and copywork), Traditional Spelling III Lesson 1, New American Cursive 3 Lesson 1, Farmer Boy Student Guide Chapter 1, Christian Studies I Lesson 1 (facts to know, vocabulary, and the story on pages 14 and 15), and a read-aloud of Mr. Popper's Penguins, Chapters 1 and 2.

What they do exceptionally well

A planned year in one set. The publisher says each Curriculum Manual has every day planned, and the third grade sample shows that plan down to the lesson. In our assessment, a family that wants a written daily plan will find one described on every grade page; when we read the twelfth grade page in October 2026, its Curriculum Manual was listed as preorder.

Latin as a continuous strand. The grade pages list Latin titles in every set from second grade through twelfth, and the publisher's article calls Latin the core of its curriculum. In our assessment, a family that wants Latin from the early grades through high school will find a continuous sequence in the sets.

Guides for the assigned literature. The grade pages list student and teacher guides beside many of the assigned books, from Farmer Boy in third grade to Hamlet and King Lear in twelfth. In our assessment, that gives a parent teaching literature a structure for each title.

What they do poorly

Cost at the full-program level. At current prices, retrieved October 2026, the Kindergarten through Twelfth Grade sets run from $434.80 in fourth grade, a set the Fourth Grade page says assumes the buyer already owns the third grade books, to $1,182.48 in tenth grade. In our assessment, a family with several students should budget for each grade's set separately, and a family new to Memoria Press should add the New User Add-On Set that several grade pages list (see the cost section).

Parent time. The parent teaches from the Curriculum Manual and the teacher guides. The third grade sample's schedule runs from 7:45 to 2:45, and the Third Grade page says its plans stretch some courses over two years. In our assessment, families who want a program the student completes independently should look at other options.

The sets include other publishers' books, and the top-grade math manuals use texts the publisher does not supply. The grade pages list Rod & Staff math in the Kindergarten through Sixth Grade sets, a Bible storybook credited to Golden Books Publishing Company, and The Story Bible credited to Concordia Publishing House. The eleventh and twelfth grade pages say the precalculus and calculus textbooks their manuals use are out of print and not available from Memoria Press, and the twelfth grade page says science is not included.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick the Classical Core Curriculum if: you are comfortable with a publisher that describes its whole curriculum as Christian; you want Latin as a continuous strand from second grade; you want a written day-by-day plan for each grade; you are willing to teach from manuals and guides.

• Skip the Classical Core Curriculum if: you want a program that does not describe itself as Christian; you want an independent, student-led program; you want the lowest-cost path, since most grade sets run to several hundred dollars or more; you want a curriculum without Latin.

Cost honest assessment

All prices below are the publisher's, retrieved October 2026, from the Classical Core Curriculum page and the linked grade pages. Each price is the publisher's current selling price on the day we read the page.

Set	Current price
Preschool	$235.42
Two-Day Junior Kindergarten	$165.29
Five-Day Junior Kindergarten	$244.88
Kindergarten	$544.91
1st grade	$494.00
2nd grade	$618.73
3rd grade	$821.28
4th grade	$434.80
5th grade	$654.80
6th grade	$704.91
7th grade	$830.31
8th grade	$912.62
9th grade	$1,001.40
10th grade	$1,182.48
11th grade	$656.74
12th grade	$944.36

The prices above are for the sets alone. The First, Second, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, and Eighth Grade pages each say families new to Memoria Press will need a New User Add-On Set. Its current price, retrieved October 2026, is $171.50 for First Grade, $157.30 for Second Grade, $224.19 for Fifth Grade, $206.39 for Sixth Grade, $114.60 for Seventh Grade, and $43.60 for Eighth Grade. The Fourth Grade page lists a separate Fourth Grade Curriculum Set for New Users at $877.54. The Two-Day Junior Kindergarten, Five-Day Junior Kindergarten, Kindergarten, First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Grade pages say the weekly read-alouds for the literature portion can be purchased in a set from Memoria Press or gathered at the library; the Kindergarten Read-Aloud Set is $407.62 and the First Grade Read-Aloud Set is $397.58, retrieved October 2026.

When we read it in October 2026, the twelfth grade page said the set includes an item that is currently on preorder, the Introduction to Classical Philosophy Instructional Videos, and its set list labels the Twelfth Grade Curriculum Manual and the Introduction to Classical Philosophy Student Guide, Teacher Guide, and Instructional Videos as preorder. The publisher also sells Curriculum Manuals on their own; the Kindergarten Curriculum Manual and the Third Grade Curriculum Manual are each $30.00. The publisher says customizing a set may change its price, so the price on the page you order from is the one that applies.

ESA eligibility notes

Whether any state ESA marketplace lists Memoria Press or the Classical Core Curriculum was not confirmed for this review. The publisher's pages that we read do not state which ESA programs accept its products. Families should confirm with their program administrator that the specific items they plan to buy are eligible and whether the program applies restrictions to religious curriculum.

Alternatives

In our assessment, a family comparing classical curricula could also look at these publishers. Each publisher's own site is the place to check its scope and prices.

• Veritas Press
• Classical Academic Press
• The Well-Trained Mind