Parents are delighted with their ability to completely customize the curriculum to best suit their child. In traditional schools, including many independent study programs, students are handed a stack of grade-level appropriate texts and a list of assignments. An River Springs student can cheerfully work in a 7th grade math book and a 2nd grade reader, as his needs dictate. Students can progress through material at their own pace and focus on their interests.
Here’s an example of one type of learning from a parent who was unhappy with her local district’s independent study program and switched to River Springs when it began in February of 2000.
Our 10th grade son, Tommy, took an archeology class during the fall semester at the local community college. He became so interested in this topic that he sectioned off part of our yard and performed his own little "dig." He and his elementary-aged brothers, Travis and Derrick, excavated 6 sections. They charted the quadrants and classified all kinds of materials including old tools, bones, old fabric, glass and pottery. They researched the stuff using the worldwide web and tried to figure out what type of bones they found. Finally, they took the bones to a local veterinarian who identified them as horse bones. The reading, plotting, studying, excavating and categorizing took a couple of weeks. It was very exciting for all the kids! The best thing about River Springs is that all of this counts as "school". At our old ISP, Tommy would have been marked "truant" because he did not complete the textbook assignments given at the beginning of the month by the ISP teacher. River Springs believes, as I do, that this type of student-initiated learning is the kind that will stick with children throughout their lives.
For our adult populations, this parent choice philosophy equates to a "student choice" structure. In SAIL, our students’ backgrounds, career goals, academic ability and their desires determine their "Personal Education Plan." Within SAIL, students can meet the high school graduation requirements through traditional textbook-based Carnegie Units or they can choose other methods including EPCS demonstrations, student created demonstrations or a variety of testing options.
We believe these learning options provide the most respectful environment in which children can learn.
Our Education Specialists are trained about the numerous curriculum resources available to home schoolers. Parents and teachers can find a broad range of curriculum materials available to them on the worldwide website. An example of the menu of our curriculum webpage links is showcased below.