Below is a sampling of some of the academic options provided by Developing Minds. Feel free to pick from these classes, or let us design a class based upon your child’s specific needs.

Academic Advantage for Pre-K, K, and 1st Grade Students

This class is designed to help early learners excel in school. The goal of this class is to build confidence in school through fun and meaningful challenges. At the Pre-pre K level, emphasis will be placed on letter, number, and sound recognition, as well as basic fine motor skills. At the Pre-K and K level, emphasis will be placed on phonemic awareness, phonics, and basic math skills. At the first grade level, classes will build upon reading knowledge children already have acquired and focus on building increased reading fluency. Children will also practice writing sentences and further developing math skills.

Radical Readers for 2nd,3rd,4th, 5th, 6th and 7th Grade Students

This class is designed to build upon previously learned skills to build fluent readers with strong comprehension skills, as well as to develop a love for reading and analyzing stories. Students will focus on expanding their vocabulary, increasing their reading fluency, and learning test-taking strategies for understanding, remembering, and communicating what they have read. Children will also enjoy discussion based on age-appropriate chapter books.

In Other Words… Writing for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th Grade Students

The primary focus of this class is to become strong and confident writers. This class focuses on effective writing strategies. It will include the five stages of writing: prewriting, drafting, revising, editing, and publishing. The class will also focus on teaching various types of expository, persuasive, descriptive, creative, and narrative paragraphs, poems, and essays. Students in grades 2 and 3 will focus on developing one or more quality paragraphs, while 4th, 5th, & 6th graders will build towards writing strong multiple paragraph essays.

Magical Mathematicians for 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th ,6th, 7th and 8th Grade Students

This class focuses on teaching new math challenges in a fun and interesting way. Students will further develop mental math and problem-solving skills, increase critical-thinking, computation, number sense, measurement, test-taking skills and geometry through written and oral practice and games. Assignments are individualized for each student. If preferred, students may bring school math assignments to work on during class.

Children’s Book Clubs

This book club is designed for children who enjoy reading and analyzing stories. The class focus will include a vocabulary discussion, reading comprehension, and development of personal opinions. Book syllabus will be provided by Developing Minds, but book purchase and reading are done outside of class. Themed-based snacks are an enjoyable way to further enjoy the stories. Book clubs are a fun way for students to do required reading for school! In order to promote maximum student discussion, book clubs may be a larger sized group if you wish. Most book clubs meet once a month or bi-monthly during the school year.

Gifted and Talented Classes

Students work on enrichment activities designed to promote outside of the box thinking. Students will work on challenging math problem solving, vocabulary development, and enrichment projects. Children will be provided an opportunity to look at solutions through various perspectives.

Power Projects/ Homework

HelpersIn this class students will bring homework, long-term book reports, projects, and study materials to class and be able to work on the materials in a quiet, guided manner. The class will focus on organizational skills that will allow students to pace their projects/studying, as well as working on the activities themselves. Finally, homework without a headache!