Leaves of Learning

As children we all draw and paint and create grand masterpieces from nothing. Yet the older we become, the more we seem to lose confidence in our abilities. Our goal is to nurture our students' natural artistic inclinations by offering artistic experiences in a wide variety of mediums.

The goal of our history program is to help bring the past alive for our students. In the younger groups we do this by offering classes that actively involve students in reliving the past - through play-acting, dressing up, stories, crafts, games and activities. At this age, children are fascinated by learning about the people of long ago: how they lived, what they ate, what they wore, where they slept, and how the children were raised.

For our teens, we strive to generate a fascination of history through lively discussions, compelling reading, and reports. By using "living books" as opposed to textbooks, our students are treated to the many "stay up late to finish" biographical, fiction and non-fiction books, stories and articles available. During class time, students are challenged to look at the past from many different angles, to share their opinions and findings with others, and to grow in their understanding of how the past continues to affect us today.

Our philosophy for math can be summed up in two words: real-life. We believe that math is best learned when it is made meaningful and relevant to a student's life. Therefore, our classes are designed to incorporate real world applications and hands-on activities.

We offer a variety of math classes to meet a diversity of needs. For our students 7-9 years, we offer math enrichment classes designed to complement math work being done at home. For our students 9-12 years we offer several specific math concept classes using the Key to…Series. For our students 12-18 years, we offer a comprehensive math program-from pre-algebra through calculus based on the Key Curriculum Discovering… Series. We have used the workbooks and texts published by the Key Curriculum Press for several years, and are impressed with the clear, easy-to-understand progression of concepts. We feel strongly that workbooks and textbooks are not enough-and so a critical part of our math program incorporates in-class group and individual activities and projects that bring meaning to the concepts being learned. Paper and pencil exercises are used as outside work, with class time devoted to real life, hands-on applications of the concepts being taught.

Please note: Many of the math classes have prerequisites. We set these to ensure, as much as possible, that students will have the necessary skills to be successful in each class. Please make sure your child meets all requirements listed for the class. For more information, contact the specific teacher.

In addition, while it is anticipated that each class will cover the topics listed in the class description, this may not always be possible. Here's our philosophy:

• We believe it is important for students to work at their own level.
• Depending on the make-up of the class, each year's class may move at a different pace.
• We consider depth of knowledge more important than breadth. Given a choice between "finishing the book" and delving as deeply into each topic as the students need in order to grasp it fully, we will choose the latter every time.

Therefore, we assume that if a class is unable to "finish the book" by the end of the year, families will be responsible to make sure their child accomplishes any additional material they need to move on to the next level. In January, math teachers send home an outline of what has been covered so far in the course, and what they expect to finish by the end of the year. Private or semi-private math tutoring is usually available from our math teachers during the year and over the summer.

The goal of our science program is to create and nurture a lifelong curiosity about the world. We feel this is best accomplished by providing classes that are conducted in an open, interactive atmosphere.

Students are challenged to discover science concepts through concrete methods before formal explanations or definitions are given. The major emphasis of our science program is to assist in the development of an understanding that will become a part of who they are, rather than a blip of information memorized for a test, and soon forgotten.

Science topics are made relevant to students by exploring them through an active process of experimentation and observation-challenging students to figure out scientific principles. Our science classes are a place for active, participatory exploration, as opposed to passive learning.

We aim for a depth of knowledge in several areas versus superficially covering many topics. Our two-day science program should allow you the peace of mind to check science off your list. Of course, if science is a particularly strong interest area, we recommend continuing study at home. This is one of the benefits of homeschooling!