Here's the whole schedule. Children are grouped by age, not grade, because half of us don't do "grades" the way the public school does, and the other half do and argue about it. Every room has a teacher and, wherever we could manage it, a helper. The nursery (babies and toddlers under three) runs all morning with Penny Forster, who has six of them this fall and has not once raised her voice.

This fall's children: 6 in the nursery, 9 in preschool, 12 in K-2, 11 in 3rd-5th and 9 in middle school. That's 47. Third period is an elective for the older two groups: everybody from 3rd to 8th grade picks choir, art or Spanish.

Circle Time & Stories (preschool) · Jennifer Rosati · no fee. The calendar, the weather, a Bible story, a picture book, and a lot of wiggling. Jennifer reads with all the voices. Our Bridget (4) came home the first week and said Mrs. Rosati is "the best reader in Georgia," which Lynda, a former kindergarten teacher, chose not to take personally.

Music & Movement (preschool) · Melissa Bristol · no fee. Rhythm sticks, scarves, marching, and songs with motions. Loud. Joyful. Directly over the dissection lab, unfortunately.

Crafts & Play (preschool) · Ruby Brogdon · $5. Glue, paper plates, cotton balls, and a lot of things you will find on your car seat for weeks. Ruby sends every project home in a labeled bag, which is more organization than most of us manage in a lifetime.

Science Experiments (K-2) · Christine Dejesus · $8. Magnets, seeds in wet paper towels, sink or float, ice that melts faster with salt, and the baking soda volcano, which is scheduled for the last Friday of October and which Christine has asked us to stop calling "the eruption."

Art (K-2) · Laura Stiltner · $8. Colors, shapes, and a different artist every month (September was Matisse and his paper cutouts). Wear old clothes. We mean it.

Choir (K-2) · Lynda Lockhart · no fee. Singing on pitch, singing together, and standing still at the same time, which is the hardest of the three. They're learning four songs for the Christmas program. Olivia (7) is in this one and says her mother is "stricter at choir than at home." Correct.

Georgia History (3rd-5th) · Linda Stansberry · $7. From the first people who lived here through the colonists, the Revolution, the Trail of Tears, the Civil War, and on up through the twentieth century, with maps, a timeline down the hallway, and a field trip to the State Capitol. Clarence (9) has memorized the counties and will tell you about them whether you ask or not. Georgia has 159 of them, so plan to sit down.

Science Experiments (3rd-5th) · Kelly Nickerson · $10. The scientific method, for real: question, guess, test, write it down, and test it again. Plants growing toward the light, homemade barometers, crystal gardens, and a bean plant experiment that has been going since August in the windowsill. Mark (9) is in charge of watering. The beans are alive. Mostly.

Speech (middle school) · Jill Cordell · no fee. Every student gives a short speech every other week, from a two-minute introduction up to a five-minute persuasive speech in December. Jill grades on eye contact, organization and "not saying 'um' forty times." Brennan (11) gave his first one on his grandfather's tractor and got a standing ovation from the third period choir, who were waiting in the hall.

Dissection Lab (middle school) · Pamela Allen · $15. Pamela was a surgical nurse for eight years before her kids were born and is completely unbothered by anything. This fall: an earthworm, a crayfish, a grasshopper, a perch, owl pellets, and a frog in December. Gloves and goggles every time, and nobody has to cut who doesn't want to; you can be the one who reads the lab sheet and draws the diagram. Erica (14) named her crayfish Gerald and then dissected him anyway. That's science.

Choir (3rd-8th elective) · Victoria Kimbrel · no fee. Two- and three-part singing, reading music, and warm-ups that sound like a car alarm. They'll sing three songs in the Christmas program. Gloria Gilliland accompanies on the church piano, which is in tune for the first time since 1994 because the Gillilands paid for the tuning.

Art (3rd-8th elective) · Heather Flynn · $8. Drawing what you actually see, then perspective, shading, watercolor and clay. Amber (10) has drawn the same oak tree outside the fellowship hall window every Friday since August and says she will keep drawing it until it's right.

Spanish (3rd-8th elective) · Jon Carmona · $6. Jon grew up speaking Spanish at his grandmother's table in Tampa and teaches it the same way: talking, eating, and laughing. Greetings, numbers, colors, the family, and food words (with food). The $6 buys the workbook. Gabriel (9) picked Spanish over art and now says buenos días to the dog.