Mother of Divine Grace School

Mother of Divine Grace is the most widely used Catholic classical homeschool program in the United States, and it is the curriculum most often recommended when a Catholic family says "we want classical." It is also a full-service school, not just a curriculum, and the price reflects that.

Last updated: 2026-04-20 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Catholic classical (Laura Berquist synthesis of trivium + Catholic tradition)
Worldview	Catholic (orthodox, magisterial; not traditionalist-only)
Grades	K-12
Formats	Syllabi (purchase), consultation service, accredited school enrollment
Cost tier	Premium
Parent intensity	3 (enrolled with consultant) / 4 (syllabus-only, self-directed)
ESA-common	Yes, on most marketplaces
Accredited	Yes (WASC-accredited secondary diploma)
Established	1995
Website	motherofdivinegrace.org

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	5	Among the most demanding Catholic programs; real classical substance
Ease of teaching	2	The syllabus is guided but the reading load is adult-serious
Content quality	5	Laura Berquist's syllabi are the reference point for Catholic classical
Flexibility	3	Grade-level syllabi modular; whole-program integration discourages mixing
Value for money	3	Enrollment is expensive; syllabi alone are reasonable
Worldview scope	2	Catholic throughout; not denominationally expansive
Visual/design	3	Functional; syllabi are text-first documents, not illustrated
Support resources	5	Consultant service, online classes, community, record-keeping, accreditation

Who the publisher is

Mother of Divine Grace was founded in 1995 by Laura Berquist, a Catholic homeschool mother of six and the author of Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum. Berquist built the program from her family's kitchen table in California, initially writing out syllabi for friends and fellow parishioners, then formalizing the service as requests outgrew informal sharing. The school is named for a Marian title that Berquist chose as the patronal name of the program.

MODG sits inside the Catholic classical homeschool movement alongside Kolbe Academy and Seton Home Study. Of the three, MODG is the most explicitly classical in a Dorothy-Sayers trivium sense. Berquist's Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum is the Catholic companion to The Well-Trained Mind, it popularized classical pedagogy for Catholic families in the 1990s and 2000s and remains the standard reference.

Scale is substantial for a service-based program. Our editorial estimate is that MODG serves roughly 4,000-5,000 enrolled families at any given time, with additional syllabus-only customers and graduated alumni that place total lifetime families served in the tens of thousands. Among self-identified Catholic classical homeschool families, MODG is one of the two or three most-used programs in the country.

The core pedagogy

MODG's pedagogy is trivium classical in the sense of grammar-logic-rhetoric stages, integrated with Catholic theology and the Western literary canon. The signature artifact is the MODG syllabus, a document per grade per subject that prescribes a scope and sequence, daily assignments, required books, and evaluation standards.

Scope and sequence: elementary emphasizes memorization, phonics, handwriting, arithmetic, saints, and Bible stories; middle-grade layers in Latin (typically starting third or fourth grade), formal grammar, history as chronological narrative, and classic literature at a child's reading level; high school uses the trivium's rhetoric stage, formal logic, serious literary analysis, theology, and original composition.

Signature mechanics: (1) Syllabi, not textbooks. MODG does not publish most of the books a family uses. It publishes syllabi that prescribe which outside publishers' books to use and how to sequence them. A MODG second-grade language-arts syllabus will require specific pages from specific grammar and phonics books purchased elsewhere. This is both a strength (MODG can recommend the genuinely best book for each subject rather than being locked to in-house material) and a logistical load (parents order from multiple publishers). (2) Consultant service. Enrolled families are assigned a consultant, an experienced MODG parent who reviews grade-level plans, answers implementation questions, and troubleshoots pedagogy. The consultant service is the practical reason to enroll rather than buy syllabi alone. (3) Accredited high school. MODG's high school program is WASC-accredited, which means the diploma is recognized by US colleges and the transcript is formal. Many Catholic classical families use MODG for high school specifically for this reason even if they used other curricula in earlier years. (4) Online classes. MODG offers live online classes for courses where parents cannot credibly teach (Latin, Greek, theology, upper mathematics, some literature), real live teachers, real class meetings, not video libraries.

A day in the life

A third-grader at MODG works through morning prayer and a short catechism reading (15 minutes), Latin (Prima Latina or Latina Christiana, 25 minutes), religion (saints and Bible, 20 minutes), handwriting and phonics (25 minutes), arithmetic (Rod and Staff or Saxon, 40 minutes), reading aloud and narration (30 minutes), and history (Saints and Heroes, 20 minutes). Parent-involved time is about 2-2.5 hours; student day is 4-5 hours total.

A tenth-grader at MODG reads the Iliad in translation with discussion, takes Latin III or Henle Latin II, works through Traditional Logic I and II, reads Shakespeare (Hamlet or Macbeth at this level), takes a theology course (Apologetics or Church History), works through Algebra II from an outside publisher, and takes biology or chemistry through the MODG online program or Apologia. The day is 5-7 hours of serious academic work. Writing is expected regularly; a tenth-grader writes several substantial papers per year.

What they do exceptionally well

Catholic classical integration. MODG is among the very few Catholic homeschool programs that does classical pedagogy genuinely rather than cosmetically. The Catholic theology and the classical Western canon fit together in the syllabi because Berquist designed them that way, history readings align with theology readings align with literature readings. A tenth-grader reading medieval literature is also studying the medieval church and medieval saints.

Consultant service. The MODG consultant is one of the single best support features in Catholic homeschooling. An experienced parent who actually used the program herself is available to answer questions, this is qualitatively different from a customer-service call center. Parents using MODG report the consultant relationship as a primary reason for persistence.

Academic standards for high school. MODG's high school is a real high school. Transcripts are formal, the reading load is substantial, writing is assessed seriously, and college admissions offices recognize the program. Families graduating from MODG's full high school track with solid course completion tend to compete well in Catholic college admissions (Thomas Aquinas, Christendom, Wyoming Catholic, Ave Maria, and the broader Newman Guide institutions) and in secular honors admissions where a well-documented classical transcript carries weight.

What they do poorly

The logistical load of ordering from multiple publishers. Because MODG's syllabi prescribe outside books, a family starting a new grade has a long book order, from Memoria Press, Rod and Staff, Seton, Emmanuel Books, Catholic Heritage, Ignatius Press, and Sophia Institute, among others. Families new to this model find the front-end ordering daunting. MODG does offer bundled book packages to ease this, but the logistics are nontrivial.

Price. Full enrollment with consultant service runs approximately $500-$900 per student per year depending on grade and services selected, plus books. Online classes run approximately $300-$600 per course per year. A family with two high-schoolers taking a full academic load through MODG online can easily spend $4,000-$6,000 per year on MODG services plus books. This is a serious private school tuition number, though still less than comparable Catholic brick-and-mortar tuition.

Steep ramp for non-classically-educated parents. Berquist's pedagogy assumes a parent who can support classical education intellectually, who has read some of the books, understands why Latin matters, and can engage with the literature. Parents who did not receive classical education themselves will invest real time learning the pedagogy. MODG is not open-and-go.

Who it fits

• Catholic families committed to classical education who want a structured program rather than building their own
• Families who want an accredited Catholic high school diploma with a college-recognized transcript
• Families who have one or both parents available for serious engagement with the material
• Families who want real Latin instruction starting in elementary grades
• Families in states where ESA funds can cover MODG enrollment costs

Who it doesn't

• Families new to homeschooling who need open-and-go materials
• Families who want visually-designed, illustrated elementary curriculum (MODG is text-first)
• Families whose Catholicism is primarily devotional rather than intellectual
• Families on tight budgets who cannot absorb $500-$900 per student in program fees plus books
• Families who prefer a single-publisher curriculum over a syllabus-directed, multi-publisher model

Cost honest assessment

Syllabus-only purchase (no enrollment): approximately $25-$50 per subject per grade. A full grade's worth of syllabi runs $150-$300. This is genuinely affordable and is how many families use MODG in elementary grades.

Full enrollment with consultant service: approximately $500-$900 per student per year depending on grade level and services. High school enrollment is at the higher end. Online classes are separate, approximately $300-$600 per course per year.

A family with a middle-schooler using syllabi only and a high-schooler enrolled with consultant and three online classes will spend approximately $2,500-$3,500 per year in program fees, plus an additional $400-$700 in books. Compared to traditional Catholic day school tuition ($8,000-$15,000 per year in most markets), MODG enrollment is a fraction of the cost for arguably stronger academic output. Compared to self-directed homeschooling with Catholic Heritage or MODG syllabi alone ($400-$800 per year total), full enrollment is meaningfully more expensive, families should be honest about what the consultant and accreditation are worth to them.

ESA eligibility notes

MODG is approved on most state ESA marketplaces that cover Catholic curriculum, including Arizona ClassWallet, Florida Step Up For Students, Iowa Student First, Utah Fits All, and Arkansas LEARNS. Syllabus-only purchases process cleanly; enrollment fees require the marketplace to accept service-based line items, which most newer marketplaces do. Online class tuition is usually reimbursable where tutoring or online course expenses are approved categories.

Alternatives

• Kolbe Academy, a family would choose Kolbe over MODG when they want a more traditional, pre-Vatican-II-leaning Catholic classical program and value Kolbe's more structured lesson-plan format.
• Seton Home Study School, a family would choose Seton over MODG when they want a more traditional Catholic program with in-house textbooks and less classical ambition, and when cost is a stronger factor.
• Catholic Heritage Curricula (self-directed), a family would choose CHC over MODG enrollment when they want Catholic curriculum at lower cost, do not need accreditation, and are confident teaching without a consultant.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed MODG's program descriptions and syllabi samples at motherofdivinegrace.org, Laura Berquist's Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum (the pedagogical blueprint), and MODG's online course catalog. We cross-referenced against Cathy Duffy's reviews of Catholic classical programs and community discussion within the Catholic homeschool networks where MODG is most widely used. Pricing reflects April 2026 publisher materials.