BAYWOOD LEARNING CENTER
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The BLC Program
The child is not a vessel into which facts and figures are to be poured, but a voyager, an explorer, a seeker of knowledge.

Baywood Learning Center is "The Definitive Model" for the education of gifted children.  It is a completely unique "Model of Education" designed by gifted children for gifted children.

 

Baywood Learning Center programs are designed to serve the special educational and emotional needs of gifted children, to help them understand the world they live in, become contributing members of our society, to learn how to connect and cooperate with others, and to understand their own strengths and challenges.   Each student is supported as they define, pursue and fulfill their goals and move toward achieving a lifetime of success and happiness.

 

Gifted children have an intense need to understand subjects of study at a deeper level and to find personal meaning in their academic endeavors.  These children are often overwhelmed by emotional and physical sensitivity.  Some psychological risks for gifted students can include, “dumbing down” to try to be more “normal”, developing symptoms related to emotional stress, underachieving and/or refusing to do school work and being paralyzed by perfectionism. 

 

At Baywood Learning Center, we understand the role of the emotions in achievement and we guide our students towards academic excellence while striving to maintain emotional well-being.  Intellectual performance is encouraged, but not pressured, and we do not treat intellectual performance as separate from emotional factors.  Our priority is to focus on individual development and the learning process, rather than on what the individual can do -- process over product.  Students participate in determining the course of their curriculum with the guidance provided by the learning team.

 

This is a school in which the child’s interests, abilities, learning styles and emotional needs drive the learning process.  Each learner's individual learning plan is overseen by a caring lead mentor, whose role it is to help encourage and facilitate the student on their path of discovery.  In the process, the learner retains their natural passion for learning and is an active participant in the learning process.  The gifted child thrives in this environment and is able to accelerate quickly to academic levels according to his or her ability regardless of chronological age.

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Copyright 2007 BLC

 "I owe all of its success to the children, whom I think of as my partners and as the architects in the design of this highly successful model.  As a mom of a gifted child, I became frustrated with how most schools were not able to serve my daughter's needs - not even close!  There was no school I could place her where her educational, emotional and social needs would be met.  I had a different kind of learner and schools are just not set up to serve the needs of gifted learners, traditional schools must serve the masses, not individual learners.  Gifted children are, by definition, rare.  They do require individualized learning plans, a special environment and social opportunities with others like themselves.  In this Model, any child would flourish, but the Gifted child NEEDS this model for emotional health and appropriate educational advancement."

- Grace, Director of Baywood Learning Center

 

Program Features:

Children's individual education plans are designed by the Educational Planning Team.  This team is comprised of the child, the parents, the child's assigned Mentor and the BLC Director.   Working together, the team members outline the general education expectations.  Every effort is made to align educational goals with the child's learning level, interests and emotional ability to handle specific academic challenges.  Adjustments can be made during the year as needed.

Each child is assigned a Mentor who oversees the implementation of the child's learning plan.  The Mentor assists the child on a day to day basis and is a partner in the learning process.  Additional teaching is offered on a daily basis by specialists and experts in the fields of science, history, art, math, music and language.

Through this model we are able to offer highly advanced academic material in an emotionally safe environment.

Program Highlights: 

8 to 1 student teacher ratio

Field trip

Community Resources

In-depth studies of personal interest

Appropriate Acceleration

Social Skills, Verbal Communication skills

Creative Writing, Literature, Composition

Individualized math programs

Sciences: Biology, Chemistry, Environmental, Astronomy 

Nutrition, health, organic gardening, cooking

Hands-on projects

Visual Arts: painting, printmaking, drawing, sculpture, crafts

History

Computer Lab

Physical Fitness: hiking, swimming, free play, gardening, trail blazing, martial arts, fitness, balance and core strength building

Discussion groups; group and individual projects

      Child-Based, authentic learning