Learning Options

Do not confine your children to your own learning, for they are born in a different time.
    - Hebrew Proverb

Recognizing the need for stimulating and diverse learning environments, Dr. Butler established Learning Options I in 1980 in Brookings, South Dakota. (Learning Options and Ethical Testing opened in November 2001). Here she presents a colorful world filled with extraordinary materials in which learners experience the joys of hands-on learning.

What Is Learning Options?

Learning Options is an instructional program that gives students choices about what they will learn and how they will learn it, based upon an assessment of their strengths and instructional needs.

It all begins with assessment.

After determining where a child should be placed at a comfortable, yet challenging, level, we select a curriculum and select specific objectives. Both curriculum and instructional objectives are based on students' learning goals and abilities.

One youngster summed up Learning Options nicely, saying, "Dr. Butler has all kinds of cool stuff." But she knows that while learning can be fun, it's more than that. Dr. Butler described Learning Options as "an integration of specific test-taking skills into daily academic instruction."

Who can benefit from Learning Options?

Anyone! Learning Options offers its services to students, parents, teachers, and school administrators.

What services does Learning Options offer?

• Custom-designed learning activities
• Custom-designed curriculum materials
• Computers and the Internet
• French and Spanish Language Instruction
• LEGO^® MindStorms^™ Robotics Inventions
• Mathematics - the universal language
• Science - Serious science from simple materials
• Total Literacy - listening, speaking, reading, writing, and nonverbal communication
• The Art of Presentation, using the latest technology
• Preparation for the ACT and SAT college entrance exams.

Dr. Butler also offers professional growth and development workshops and seminars for teachers and school administrators on a variety of subjects. Teachers can gain hands-on experience in developing classroom instruction to meet identified student needs.

Additionally, she addresses the needs of parents of home-schooled children and she offers services such as computer and Internet training to lifelong learners.

"Knowledge is only part of understanding. Genuine understanding comes from hands-on experience."
    -- Seymour Papert, MIT Professor

Who are the teachers at Learning Options?

For working one-to-one with children, Dr. Butler is the only instructor. However, for seminars and workshops several local teachers, professors and artists lend their experience and talents:

Dr. Dean Isham
SDSU Professor - Computer drawing

Kari Prest
Children's art instruction

Dr. Lois Widvey
Distinguished Professor of Education at SDSU - Human Relations; Learning Styles surveys; Tests for Multiple Intelligences

Jackie Bjerke
Administrative Assistant

For more information on class schedules and workshops, please Contact Learning Options.

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Learning Options and Ethical Testing
306 4th Street, Suite F, Brookings, SD 57006
Telephone: (605) 692-5249