Composition lessons are based on the fable exercise of the ancient progymnasmata and imitation of a timeless literary or poetry selection—twelve fables from Aesop, twelve poems, mostly from Robert Louis Stevenson, and four parables of Jesus from the Bible.

Grammar lessons are drawn from the literary and poetry selections, and introduce basic sentence diagramming and beginning studies in poetry, literary terms, and figures of speech.

Teaching Helps provides detailed instructions for conducting copybook, grammar, composition, and literary and poetry analysis lessons, notes and teacher tips for each lesson, and answer Keys.