Simply Classical Curriculum

Simply Classical is Memoria Press's adaptation of classical Christian education for students with significant learning differences, a curriculum built around the conviction that the great books and the trivium belong to every child, paced and scaffolded for the one in front of you.

Last updated: 2026-04-24 · Every Homeschool Editorial Team

At a glance

Method	Classical / literature-based
Worldview	Christian-Lutheran (confessional Lutheran author; CCLE-endorsed; ecumenically usable across traditional Christian lines)
Grades	Readiness Levels A-C (ages 2-5), Levels 1-12 (elementary through high school)
Formats	Print, workbook
Cost tier	Standard
Parent intensity	5
ESA-common	Yes
Accredited	No (publisher is not accredited; Memoria Press Online Academy is separately available)
Established	2013, when author Cheryl Swope's program joined Memoria Press
Website	memoriapress.com

Our scoreboard (1-5)

Criterion	Score	One-line reason
Academic rigor	4	Classical content at a deliberate pace; the ceiling is real, not reduced
Ease of teaching	3	Daily lesson plans are detailed; parent presentation is required and often intensive
Content quality	5	The curriculum manuals and reading selections are among the strongest in classical Christian publishing
Flexibility	3	Levels progress by readiness rather than age; within a level, the sequence is tight
Value for money	4	Level sets are priced in the mid-hundreds; the special-needs scaffolding is included
Worldview scope	3	Confessionally Lutheran author; the materials are usable across Catholic, Orthodox, and broadly Protestant families
Visual/design	4	Clean Memoria Press house style, warm colors, readable layouts, traditional illustrations
Support resources	4	Cheryl Swope's companion book and active Memoria Press community; Online Academy available for some courses

Who the publisher is

Simply Classical is authored by Cheryl Swope, M.Ed., a Lutheran classical educator who holds a master's degree in special education with lifetime K-12 state certifications in learning disabilities and behavior disorders. Swope adopted twins with significant special needs and homeschooled them through high school using classical methods, and that experience is the direct origin of the Simply Classical program. Her companion book, Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child, now in its second edition, is the theoretical spine of the curriculum and is used in classical-education teacher training programs.

The curriculum is published by Memoria Press, the Louisville-based classical Christian publisher best known for its Latin program (Latina Christiana, Henle Latin), its Prima Latina early Latin materials, and its integrated K-12 classical core curriculum. Memoria Press sits in the Christian classical publishing tradition alongside Veritas Press, Classical Academic Press, and Logos Press, with a house style that leans ecumenical Christian rather than denominationally specific. Swope's author voice is specifically Lutheran, she authored the Curriculum Resource Guide for Classical Lutheran Education, and the Consortium for Classical Lutheran Education (CCLE) lists Simply Classical among its recommended curricula, but the curriculum materials themselves are readily used in Catholic, Orthodox, and broadly Protestant homeschool families, with Lutheran doctrinal specificity confined to Swope's companion book and to individual scripture selections rather than embedded in the daily lessons.

The program was originally developed for children with special learning needs, and that remains its distinctive market position. Typical learners who benefit from a slower, more repetitive classical sequence, younger children, second-language learners, or children whose parents want a gentler on-ramp to Memoria Press's full Core Curriculum, also use Simply Classical. The program is available as full level sets through Memoria Press directly, and select Simply Classical courses are offered through Memoria Press Online Academy.

The core pedagogy

Swope's design premise is that classical education, phonics, copybooks, arithmetic, Latin, literature, Bible, is not reserved for the academically strong but is the patrimony of every child, and that students with learning differences benefit from the repetition, the oral-recitation rhythm, and the concrete-to-abstract progression that classical methods already prize. The program is organized into Readiness Levels A, B, and C for ages approximately 2 to 5, and then into Levels 1 through 12 that roughly correspond to grades 1 through 12 but are pitched to the student's readiness rather than to the student's age. A twelve-year-old working in Level 4 is a normal Simply Classical student.

Each level ships as a curriculum manual that schedules the year's daily lessons, paired with component workbooks and readers for phonics, copybook, arithmetic, literature, and Bible. The Level A Readiness Set retails at approximately $240 per Memoria Press pricing as of April 2026, and the Level 1 Set, the first-grade-equivalent package, retails at approximately $393 with regular promotional pricing from an original list near $489 as of April 2026. Upper-level sets rise modestly as the literature and Latin components deepen.

Signature mechanics: (1) Readiness-based placement, the publisher provides a detailed readiness checklist covering language, cognition, social-emotional, and motor skills, and placement is by skill rather than age. (2) Oral repetition and recitation as the core instructional mode, memory work is substantial, songs and rhymes carry content, and Teacher Notes in each manual advise parents to "say or sing along" with a child who has limited expressive language. (3) Copybook and penmanship as daily discipline, classical copybooks (handwritten reproduction of short, dignified texts) anchor language arts from Level 1 onward. (4) Latin from Level 3 or 4 onward. Prima Latina and then Latina Christiana enter as the child is ready, which for some students is age nine and for others is age thirteen. (5) The great books, paced, literature selections are canonical (Aesop, Grimm, the classical myths, Little House, The Wind in the Willows), read aloud by the parent when the student's independent reading is not yet ready.

Swope's approach is explicit: the classical content is not watered down. The pacing is. The student learns Latin; the student might take three years to do what a neurotypical student does in one.

A day in the life

A seven-year-old with a language-processing delay working through Simply Classical Level 1 begins at 8:30 with a parent-led phonics lesson from the Memoria Press First Start Reading series (20 minutes, sound review, new sound introduction, oral blending, short workbook page with the parent guiding). Copybook practice (10 minutes, the student writes a short verse or rhyme in a Simply Classical copybook, the parent corrects letter formation). Bible and memory work (15 minutes, recitation of the week's verse, hymn or Scripture song, a short Bible story read aloud). A break. Arithmetic from Rod & Staff or Memoria Press Numbers (25 minutes, the parent presents concretely with manipulatives or number cards, then the workbook page). Read-aloud literature (20 minutes, the parent reads from the Level 1 literature selection, the student narrates back what they remember). Afternoon: picture study, a nature walk, a second read-aloud. Total formal instruction: approximately 90-100 minutes, with one-on-one parent time occupying most of it.

The parent intensity is real. Simply Classical is not a program the child does independently while the parent checks in. It is a program the parent presents, scaffolds, and reviews at every step, with substantial daily one-on-one time. This is the design feature that the parent-intensity-5 rating reflects.

What they do exceptionally well

Classical content at the student's actual readiness. The program's signature accomplishment is holding the classical ambition. Latin, copybook, the great books, while meeting the student where they are cognitively. A Simply Classical student with Down syndrome working in Level 3 at age eleven is doing Latin, reading Aesop, and memorizing Psalm passages. Other special-needs curricula tend to abandon the classical ceiling; Simply Classical keeps it and climbs toward it slowly.

Detailed, scaffolded daily plans. Each curriculum manual reads as a thorough day-by-day script with Teacher Notes that anticipate the specific challenges of special-needs learners, short attention, weak working memory, limited expressive language, motor-planning difficulty. The Notes tell the parent what to do when the child cannot sit still, cannot recall the previous day's content, or resists the work. This level of specific guidance is rare in any curriculum and nearly unique in classical publishing.

A companion book that is itself a teacher-education text. Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child is used as a primary text in classical-school teacher training programs. Families using the curriculum are, in effect, also being trained in special-needs classical pedagogy through the companion volume, which many find transformative even if they were not initially drawn to classical methods.

What they do poorly

Parent intensity and sustained presentation load. Simply Classical is, in practice, a one-on-one tutoring program. Parents with multiple children or limited availability for sustained daily one-on-one instruction find the program difficult to carry, and the program does not pivot well to a child-independent model. Families with two or more students in different levels often need to stagger instructional blocks across a long morning.

Limited middle and upper levels for students with significant needs. The upper Simply Classical levels (8 through 12) map more tightly to Memoria Press's mainstream Core Curriculum pacing, and students with significant cognitive delays sometimes find that the higher levels outrun them by early adolescence. The program does address adaptations for older students who are still working at lower levels, but the upper-level materials themselves are less specially scaffolded than the lower levels.

Lutheran authorship, ecumenical materials, and occasional translation work. Swope's companion book is explicitly Lutheran; the curriculum manuals are written for a general Christian audience and draw on the Book of Common Prayer, the Westminster Catechism, and Scripture memory passages in ways that most traditional Christian families can use directly. Catholic families sometimes substitute specific prayers; Orthodox families sometimes adjust the liturgical calendar integration. None of this is difficult, but the base materials are not denominationally neutral.

Who it fits / who it doesn't

• Pick Simply Classical if: your child has a learning difference, autism spectrum presentation, Down syndrome, or a developmental delay and you want classical Christian content at their actual readiness; you have the availability for sustained daily one-on-one parent-led instruction; you value the great books and Latin and are willing to pace them across multiple years; you are Lutheran, Catholic, Orthodox, or broadly Christian and comfortable with an ecumenical-traditional tone; you want a curriculum that anticipates special-needs challenges in its daily plans.

• Skip Simply Classical if: you want a program your child can do largely independently; you have limited one-on-one instructional time; you want a secular special-needs curriculum; you prefer a mastery-spiral math approach rather than the classical recitation-and-copybook rhythm; you want a digital-native or video-heavy program.

Cost honest assessment

A complete Simply Classical level set, the curriculum manual plus phonics, copybook, arithmetic, literature, and Bible components, ranges from approximately $240 at Level A to $390-$500 per level at Levels 1-8 per Memoria Press pricing as of April 2026. A representative Level 1 family will spend $390-$500 on the level set plus roughly $50-$100 on consumables and manipulatives, for a total of approximately $450-$600 for the school year. Memoria Press runs regular promotional pricing that typically discounts sets by 15-25 percent from list, so a discerning family ordering during a sale can land under $400 for a Level 1 complete package.

Compared to Sonlight at the same grade ($800-$1,100 for a complete literature-based package), Simply Classical is moderately priced. Compared to Abeka ($700-$850 for a third-grade print kit), Simply Classical is comparable to slightly less. Compared to Timberdoodle's special-needs packages (typically $600-$900 for a complete year), Simply Classical is somewhat cheaper while offering more detailed special-needs-specific guidance. The value proposition sits in the specific special-needs scaffolding, not in cost competition with generalist programs.

ESA eligibility notes

Memoria Press, the parent publisher, is a listed vendor on several state ESA marketplaces as of April 2026, including Arizona's ClassWallet and Florida's MyScholarShop, which brings Simply Classical materials under those state programs for qualifying families. Arizona's ESA and Utah Fits All both currently extend to students with qualifying disabilities at ESA award levels substantially above the base award, which can fully cover a Simply Classical level set and pay for parent training and supplemental therapy materials. The Simply Classical designation as a special-needs curriculum is advantageous in states that reserve supplemental ESA funds for students with disabilities. Families should verify their specific state's vendor-of-record status and current reimbursement rules with their state administrator before ordering.

Alternatives

• Memoria Press Core Curriculum, a family would choose the mainline Memoria Press Core over Simply Classical when the student is a neurotypical classical learner working at grade-level pace; Simply Classical is specifically Memoria Press's slower adaptation.
• Classical Conversations with Essentials+ tutor, a family would choose CC over Simply Classical when they want a weekly community co-op structure and a family-style classical model rather than a one-on-one special-needs-specific sequence.
• Timberdoodle Special Needs Kits, a family would choose Timberdoodle over Simply Classical when they want a hands-on, kit-based approach with substantial manipulatives and non-classical content, rather than Simply Classical's book-and-copybook classical spine.

How we verified this

Our editorial team reviewed Memoria Press's Simply Classical catalog, the Simply Classical About page, and the Level A and Level 1 set product pages in April 2026. We cross-referenced Cheryl Swope's biographical details with the CCLE Recommendations page and with Cathy Duffy's review of the Simply Classical Core Curriculum. Pricing reflects Memoria Press retail listings and Christianbook.com third-party listings as of April 2026; families should confirm current pricing and any active promotional discounts before ordering.