Play-Centered
Research confirms play is the young child’s work, supporting them in exercising their creativity and imagination and laying the groundwork for a life-long love of learning. Through play, young children gain a sense of the world and themselves. The simple, natural toys found in our classrooms provide endless possibilities. A rock from the basket of river rocks is handed to a shopkeeper as payment, boards and wooden boxes are transformed into airplanes, doctors cure baby dolls and forts are built. In our outdoor play spaces, especially Geneva Peeps, the children enjoy climbing trees, building teepees and playing house in the homes they built, being gnomes by crushing rocks, or building a fairy home in one of our garden spaces.
Fine and Gross Motor Skills
The kindergarten and lower elementary classes take daily nature walks to support motor development. At Geneva Peeps a log becomes a balancing beam and a tree limb becomes the perfect place for students to climb and reach new heights, developing skill and balance that are so important for their growing bodies to acquire. Music and circle time provide opportunities for healthy movement, running, crawling, rolling and crossing midlines while playing games and singing songs. Outside, on the playground the children are encouraged to try the monkey bars, jump rope and practice other milestones. Fine motor skills are acquired through the practical arts of sewing, finger-knitting, cooking as well as through artistic endeavors such as clay modeling and watercolor painting. The children also participate in meaningful, physical work: chopping vegetables, raking leaves, planting and picking vegetables and feeding the chickens. With each task work becomes joyful. Such activities develop responsibility and foster a sense of self-confidence and achievement. The children are capable and proud when they know they can do real work and serve others.
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Technology Policy
Why do we identify as a low-tech school? During tours many schools eagerly show parents the smartboards, and provide iPads and Chromebooks as evidence of cutting-edge, “individualized learning.” This is not our definition of individualized learning. An impressive amount of money is spent on their effort, but in our opinion does not enrich the learning environment. Teaching with tech has yielded disappointing results.
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The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, released a comprehensive study in 2015, Students, Computers and Learning. Finding that, “most countries that invested heavily in education-related IT equipment did not witness an appreciable improvement in student achievement over the past 10 years.”
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Unlike flashy tech, art, music, movement, and note-taking by hand, are all scientifically proven to support brain development when integrated into the curriculum. The lure of electronics impacts the emotional and physical development of children at many levels and detract from their ability to create meaningful connections with others and the world around them. Brain research tells us that media exposure can result in changes in the actual nerve network in the brain. This can affect such things as eye tracking (a necessary skill for successful reading), neurotransmitter levels, and how readily students receive the imaginative pictures that are foundational for learning. Media exposure can also negatively affect the health of children’s peer interaction and play. CHS educators strongly believe it is far more important for students to interact with one another and their teachers, and work with real materials than to interface with electronic media or technology. By exploring the world of ideas, participating in the arts, music, movement and practical activities, children develop healthy, robust bodies, balanced and well-integrated brains, confidence in their real-world practical skills and strong executive-function capabilities.
Multi-Age Classrooms
Classes are grouped in two to three-year age spans. This model allows for individual students to observe a variety of learning styles. Students stay with their teachers for multiple years. This concept is sometimes called looping and has been adopted by many schools nationwide. Curriculum is implemented in a 2-3 year cycle so students are not repeating material, this also ensures that there are no gaps in learning. Staying with one teacher for 2-3 years gives the teacher the gift of growing with the student. It also eases transitions into new academic years for students who return to a familiar, trusted environment and gives the student and teacher more time to focus on learning.
Individually-Paced Learning
Because classrooms are multi-age, they are able to support a broader spectrum of learning levels. Lessons are carefully presented and thoughtfully supported with classroom materials. Students may then absorb the subject matter on a number of planes and are encouraged to apply their learning across multiple disciplines. Students go beyond memorization and repetition to true understanding and application of knowledge, skills and concepts. Supporting students in this way allows the individual student to progress, without self-consciousness, at his or her own rate, either moving ahead without having to wait for the rest of the group, or taking the time he or she needs to internalize the material.
Intrinsic Motivation
We operate from the understanding that intelligence, creativity and imagination can be found in every child. The true challenge of education is to keep the spark of human intelligence and curiosity alive. The teachers create captivating lessons and fascinating materials so that learning does not need to be forced. We help children to choose work wisely, to focus their attention, and to come into a setting ready to learn. Students are given the time to reflect and play with ideas until they figure out how things fit together. They practice new skills until they are mastered. They are encouraged to do their own research, analyze what they have found, and come to their own conclusions. As individuals move up into high grades, classes are instructed on how to present information during Socratic seminars and begin to actively put together their portfolios. This emphasis on inspiration and intrinsic motivation instills much greater self-discipline and a love of learning.
Curriculum
Our curriculum combines academic and artistic experiences that engage a child’s head, heart and hands. As each grade advances, a special curriculum is designed to deliver a developmentally appropriate and academically challenging material, which is carefully integrated with work in the arts, science, geography and culture, music and extensive time spent in nature. Our hope is to provide a curriculum that will educate children in a supportive, creative manner and send them forth as compassionate, emotionally healthy, and confident individuals. Applied learning and projects extend beyond the classroom. The elementary program teaches history through hands-on experiences: students may build shelters, cook over a wood fire, churn butter, hike, work with a map and compass, go on a boat ride, or take an archery class. Science often takes place outdoors. Classes grow flowers and vegetables and study the effects of various conditions on their growth. Students take part in planning and organizing field trips which extend and enrich the curriculum.
Language Arts
The children experience the richness of language through the art of storytelling. During the kindergarten and first grade years there is a focus on multicultural fairy tales and fables. There is magic in these stories; teachers make the words come alive. The children are presented with the archetypes of the human being through fairy tales. The characters in each story represent positive attributes, such as courage, honesty and goodness that can influence the young child’s emotional intelligence and social development.
Bushcraft
While learning the techniques of bushcraft, classes gain the ability to utilize natural resources to provide for their basic needs – fire, shelter, water and food. Bushcraft offers much more than basic survival skills. It is a massive grouping of skills and knowledge which encompasses botany, cookery, craftwork skills, fire craft, fishing, mycology, navigation, outdoor safety, tracking, trapping, wood carving, zoology and much more.
Math
Mathematical abstraction is mastered by manipulating the concrete. The learning process moves from simple to complex and concrete to abstract. Materials relate to pattern recognition, sorting, sequencing, and matching. The concepts build on one another to inspire confidence.
Daily Routine
During the morning work period, children make out their own work plans, with assistance, and are able to decide what learning activities they would like to do. This is why students become completely immersed in their learning. Students are very intrinsically motivated. They do not want to stop and be pulled away from their important work. In our classroom children get to ask the question, What if,,, and get to go on an adventure to find that answer, every day. If a student wants to count to 1,000 using Legos, they can do that! If they want to draw and label every different kind of tree or dinosaur, they can! As students are working on their work plans, main teachers work with students 1:1 in reading and math.
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In addition, children receive a variety of enriching specials: outdoor Ed program, music, library, foreign language, taekwondo, physical education, sewing and handwork, yoga, meditation and art. Frequent field trips and hands-on learning experiences make concepts come alive for the students on a daily basis. Parents are often amazed at the deep concentration and focus the students have. Whole-class instruction is minimal with lessons being given to individuals or in small groups. Independent learning and responsibility for one work are easily mastered in a classroom environment that is inspirational and skillfully organized. Students use daily and/or weekly work plans to keep track of assignments and work accomplished. They work closely with their teachers to set goals. The student’s involvement in determining their learning objectives leads to ownership and self-motivation. Teachers use their knowledge of each child’s interest and abilities to guide them into new areas and areas of increasing challenge as they master skills and show signs of readiness to move on.
Homework
On any given day, your child has the opportunity to select their work. Children are presented lessons and then given the opportunity to practice it themselves until they master it. The teacher records their progress as they practice and learn a lesson. Children develop concentration through practice and repetition. This can last a short period or span a few days or weeks, depending on its complexity. Your child is constantly working, observing, and learning in the room. It just may not be physical work that goes home frequently. A progress report will be sent home three times a year.
Community Oriented
There is always an occasion to express gratitude and to come together. We have many festivals and celebrations together that unite us as a learning community. There seems to always be something to look forward to and prepare for. Parents form close bonds through field trips or time spent after school together while the children play.
The Classroom Environment
Our classrooms are filled with extraordinarily well-organized materials. You will see resources that are not typical in other schools, like antiques, artifacts, sewing needles and classic paintings on the walls. Classroom shelves contain objects from nature, follow-up exercises, materials and original source materials which all complement the themes being studied. Much of the work of our teachers occurs in the preparation and organization of materials and the careful follow-through of a lesson or concept. This allows the student to unlock the door to learning through his or her own exploration of the supporting materials. The teacher spends considerable time gathering, creating and changing these supporting materials, and in general, keeping the classroom environment inviting for discovery.
Reverence
The classrooms are warm, colorful, cared for and filled with nature’s beauty—a place where kids let their imaginations soar while feeling nurtured and secure. Our toys and classroom materials are natural and mostly wood, glass, silk and wool. These materials provide the children with a real sensory experience and provide a greater appreciation for the natural world around them. We show our gratitude in the way we care for our resources and the environment, taking care to roll up silks and tuck in our baby dolls. We believe in honoring the natural world. At Geneva Peeps we treat the chickens and the plants with great care. We strive for the children to live with a sense of wonder and to be filled with awe and joy in the beauty found in the world.
