A new school year at STAA means new books to crack open, new authors to meet, and a fresh stack of study guides waiting to be explored. It also means a handful of start-of-year steps, and you do not have to figure them out alone: each one comes with a resource or a seminar where we walk you through it. This article gathers the whole sequence in one place, from summer planning through the Preparatory Weeks, so your family can see what is coming and check off each step as it arrives.

You Are Never Studying Alone

If there is one thing to carry away from this page, it is that STAA surrounds your family with support at every step. Your student has several avenues of help, layered from the everyday to the personal:

  • The STAA Study Guides walk students through each week’s readings, assignments, and terms, so the path through every course is already marked.
  • The Student Zone holds a wealth of resources: slideshows, orientation materials, quizzes, and special downloads for your courses.
  • The Q&A forums on every course page welcome questions as they arise about readings, quizzes, assignments, or anything else connected to the courses.
  • Orientation seminars at the start of the year walk students and teaching-parents through the study system together.
  • Open office hours with your high school advisor to handle the quick questions between meetings.
  • Private one-on-one meetings with your advisor give your family personal guidance whenever it is needed.
  • The live classes bring it all to life with lively Socratic discussion and readings from the Great Books and saints and the Doctors of the Church.

Every step in the checklist below connects to one of these. Reach for whichever one fits the moment.

Over the Summer: Packets and Study Guides

The planning that makes August smooth happens over the summer, and it starts here. Your family’s personalized Academic Packet carries the course recommendations, booklists, and ordering information for the year. We prepare one for each student so that the year ahead is mapped before it begins: you can see where each course is going, gather the books with confidence, and spend August getting excited about the reading rather than wondering what to buy. Download it from your private family folder and review it together; see Academic Packets for what is inside.

Order your STAA Study Guides early. The guides are printed on demand and typically take five to fifteen days to arrive, so an order placed in July arrives in time for the Preparatory Weeks. There is something satisfying about a brand-new guide arriving in the mail with a whole semester tucked inside it. See Ordering Semester Study Guides.

August 1: The Student Zone Reopens

The Student Zone closes each year from July 15 through July 31 for our annual maintenance and reset period, then reopens fresh for the new school year on August 1. When it reopens, test your usernames and passwords early so any login questions are settled before your school year begins. If the Web Logins paper has gone missing over the summer, see I have lost my Web Logins paper. How do I sign in?

August 1: Complete the Student Account Activation Form

Each student completes one online policy form per school year covering the Student Behavior Policy and the Academic Integrity Policy. It is how we keep the Student Zone a safe, welcoming place for every student and start the year with clear expectations across the board. Student Zone access is activated after your advisor reviews the submission. The form opens for the new school year on August 1; details and the form link are in Activate Your Student Zone Account.

Preparatory Weeks A and B

The first two weeks of the semester are Preparatory Weeks A and B: ten school days for gathering books, posting your academic calendar, exploring the study guides, and learning the resources that will carry you through the semester. These weeks exist because high school study at STAA involves all sorts of ideas that may be new to your family: pre-reading skills for approaching a serious book, building an academic calendar, identifying Key Courses, and formal academic formats for coursework. Rather than meeting those ideas mid-semester in a rush, you meet them here, at an unhurried pace, before the first assignment is due. The full checklist lives in the STAA Handbook, Part 2: High School Orientation, article “2.0.2. Preparatory Weeks A and B,” available at staahomeschool.com/handbook.

Plan to attend a High School Orientation Seminar as soon as your study guides and books have arrived; students attend with a teaching-parent, and together we turn that stack of new materials into a plan you both understand. Teaching-parents of transcript families will also want a Semester Reporting Seminar, but that one is best saved for a bit later, after the school year is underway. There is no need to squeeze it in while your family is busy settling into the new school year. See Start-of-Year Seminars and Open Office Hours for who attends which and how to register.

Before the Preparatory Weeks end, schedule your first one-on-one advisor meeting for Week 2, 3, or 4 of your school year. Those first weeks with new materials always raise a few questions: how a study guide feature works, how to pace a course, where something lives on the Student Zone. An early meeting lets your advisor help while the questions are fresh, so small puzzles never grow into obstacles. Helping your student find his or her footing is precisely what your advisor is here for.

Live Class Students

Students registered for live classes are automatically signed up for Book Check Meetings in Week B, where we discuss the books for their classes and cover live class orientation topics; it is a first taste of the seminar conversations to come, and no action is needed beyond writing them on your calendar. Students who are new to STAA’s high school courses should also attend a High School Orientation Seminar during their Preparatory Weeks. The live class schedule and the current Live Class and Grading Brochure are available at staahomeschool.com/live.

No need to memorize this page. Work through it one step at a time as August unfolds, and remember that help is always close at hand: a forum post, a seminar, an office-hours visit, or a meeting with your advisor. We are looking forward to studying with you this year.

Resources and Related Reading