Our schedules are much like the trellises gardener uses - firm when necessary to promote positive growth, yet gentle enough to allow life to flow. This flexible structure is designed to encourage spontaneous curiosity; our teachers are trained to observe and guide, suggest and balance. They help kindle the spark and then focus it as it ignites into a blaze of true learning. The mysteries that surround us provide an inexhaustible source of fuel to keep it burning. Love, joy, and wonder motivate our daily exploration of these mysteries. In this atmosphere children naturally accept the guidance they need. They quickly learn that poor choices limit freedoms, while mature, intelligent decisions expand them. While we always fine-tune our schedules to accommodate individual needs, preschoolers generally thrive with a more organic, flexile schedule; as they mature, the elementary ages gradually need and enjoy more structure; by middle school, academic needs naturally require a lot of scheduling, and by high school the students readily see the need to have a great deal of scheduling to juggle the various disciplines they are engrossed in studying. Our approach has produced a long, consistent track record of academic excellence and, more vitally, happy, successful adults!