Students who come to us learn differently, and many have failed to learn by regular classroom methods. We believe that every child is teachable. The challenge for us is to make each of our students believe that they are capable of learning. Emotion functions as a switch that either closes or opens the brain's pathways to thinking and learning. Our students are nurtured in a loving and positive environment, where they feel secure and confident. Frequent positive feedback helps our learners to feel successful.

It is also our belief that a positive relationship between parents and teachers (in reporting progress, exchanging information, and planning goals) leads to improved self esteem in students. The time required for remediation differs for each individual. If the student wants to learn, and if parents support the learning process with drill work and additional study time, noticeable progress occurs.

The majority of our students have difficulty with language. They may be gifted in other ways, but need an alternative teaching approach to acquire language skills. We use an Orton-Gillingham based program called LANGUAGE! which is structured, and multisensory. This develops the weaker senses and maximizes the stronger senses. The instruction is interactive. The teacher voices the fact aloud, the student repeats it, the student sees it, and writes the fact. LANGUAGE! directly teaches all aspects of language arts, presenting phonemic concepts in a sequential and cumulative concept-based format. Students learn how to break written words into their distinct phonemes and identify phoneme/grapheme associations. Progress is dependent upon concept mastery. The LANGUAGE! materials include:

Phonemic awareness
Decoding/encoding connected text and isolated words
Syllabication in word structures
Comprehension
Pragmatic language
Syntactic variations and sentence patterns
Grammatical structures of English and their interrelated functions
Mechanics
Principles of composition
Morphology
Vocabulary expansion

Students enter the LANGUAGE! program at their initial proficiency levels, and their progress depends upon their understanding, applying and mastering the concepts in a unit of study. Assessment tools are provided for the instructor to effectively gauge a student's progress.

How we teach Reading, Writing, and Mathematics

Small Groups- Students are placed in a class averaging about 10 children. Students are provided frequent interactive time with a teacher on a one-to-one basis.

Small Bytes - Each individual skill is broken down into the smallest possible component or "byte" of information. Skills are taught to mastery before the student moves on to the next "byte". We directly teach the skill. We don't assume our students will figure it out. We do not let any student miss something or become overwhelmed.

Systematically - Each fact is taught incrementally, step by step. The structured environment provides students with the consistency they need, and teachers keep drilling concepts long after traditional schools would have moved on to other material. Teachers use the latest teaching techniques, but also use some old standards like drills to help students commit ideas to memory.

Taught to Mastery - We test students frequently and re-teach any skill not mastered.

Students are placed in Science and Social Studies groups based on their language placement. National Curriculum Standards in both Science and Social Studies are used to create the framework for the units studied each year. Our students work best with a multisensory approach to learning. Therefore, the program includes carefully selected hands-on experiences, with fieldtrips, art projects, and teacher created programs, video presentations, guest speakers, games, and class work. Units are created by the classroom teacher. Our desire is that, through the study of history, geography, social studies, and science students will come to understand God's truth. We want our children to see that from creation and all through history every story is HIS STORY.

Physical Education is more than just an opportunity for the students to play, although that is a part of it. Our goal is to provide a variety of activities that build physical skills, develop self-esteem and confidence, improve inter-personal relationships, and help students learn to function as a team.

Art class sparks the creative talents of many of our students. The instructor teaches the fundamentals of drawing, and provides students with materials in which they can produce a variety of art and craft projects throughout the year.

Music and Drama are two areas we often incorporate into the curriculum.  Students dramatize the life of individuals in our Wax Museums and/or recite poetry pieces they have memorized at our Poet's corner.  Puppet shows, reader's theatre, choral readings, and skits are used as learning tools.  We incorporate singing into chapel time and students can even learn their multiplication tables to music.

Field Trips offer hands on experiences with the facts being learned in the classroom, particularly in Social Studies and Science. Students have attended the Baltimore Symphony and local theater productions as exposure to the arts. These trips change every year to add variety to the learning experience. A few field trips a year are reserved just for fun. We encourage teachers to plan for at least one field trip a month.