The Tara Schoolhouse curriculum includes mathematics, language arts, science, literature social studies, Spanish, art, music, dance and theater.  It is designed to engage a child’s love of learning, spark personal creativity, promote ties to the broader community, and provide a strong academic foundation for middle school.

Children develop their reading skills through systematic instruction in phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension.  In combination with sequenced readers, teachers use a wide variety of supplemental materials to make reading enjoyable and meaningful. 

Careful attention is paid to spelling, grammar, and punctuation throughout the curriculum.  All children work on printing and cursive writing skills.  Creative and expository writing are important parts of our curriculum at all levels. 

Children are introduced to number concepts, measurement, spatial awareness and problem solving.  These areas, in addition to computation skills, are progressively developed throughout the math curriculum.  By the time children graduate from Tara, they have a solid understanding of computation skills, including fractions, decimals, percentages, and ratios.

Teachers provide hands-on math experiences that promote math intuition.  Math manipulatives play an important role in our program.

The science program develops children’s process and inquiry skills.  We encourage students to experiment and to investigate.  Through hands-on learning situations, students gain exposure to four major disciplines: life science, physical science, earth science, and the human body. Our science program includes an extended one-week field research project each year.  Past field projects include biological fieldwork at the Keystone Science School in Colorado and archeological exploration at Ghost Ranch in Abiquiu, New Mexico. 

The social studies curriculum helps children understand their world and their heritage though the study of history, geography and cultures. Students study New Mexico in separate social studies lessons and integrated into other areas of the curriculum.  Through community service projects with local organizations, including the Santa Fe Animal Shelter and the Wild Spirit Wolf Sanctuary, children experience a new connection with their community by giving back to it.

Spanish, art, music, dance and theater are all critical, integrated components of our curriculum.  We invite parents and community members to share their experience and expertise in these areas to build children’s cultural literacy, create broader understanding of their community and ensure children have a variety of modes for learning to explore.