Our engaging Community Homeschool Investigators of the River Park (CHIRP) Program provides an interactive, outdoor environmental education experience. This is a drop-off program. We utilize our river, famous Heritage Rose Garden, Historic Orchard, and exhilarating park as tools to teach exciting educational themes. Our students build a community with one another by working together with experiments, observations, and other hands-on activities.

Lessons take place outdoors, but will be moved indoors in the case of inclement weather. Our lessons structurally encourage students to form their own connection with nature while reinforcing environmental objectives and concepts.

CHIRP is proud to be an activity-based, question-driven program with the newest Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) as a model.

We are moving to a monthly model! This will allow us to build knowledge throughout a longer time period, scaffolding student discoveries into deeper, more authentic learning while also allowing for increased flexibility for students and families.

Email homeschool@grpg.org with questions or for more information, including regarding errors or technical difficulties with your registration form.

 

When
Weekly on Mondays, excluding GRPC-observed calendar holidays and office closures

Time
1:00 PM – 3:00 PM

Location
GRPC Visitor & Education Center

438 Coleman Ave, San Jose 95110

Sign-In and Sign-Out takes place at the Visitor & Education Center Backyard Gate

Age
Designed for children ages 5-12

Cost

Become a Friend of GRPC Member Household by making a $50 yearly donation, and save money on GRPC education programs, including CHIRP! Click here to learn more about Friends of GRPC membership.

CHIRP registrations may be purchased as full season packages, or as monthly series. Individual session costs are listed below:

Member Households: $30 per student per session

Non-Member Households: $40 per student per session

Other Important Information
GRPC adheres to California State and Santa Clara County Guidelines for schools regarding Covid-19 health and safety protocols, and where guidelines may differ, CHIRP follows the stricter of the two.

This is a drop-off program; students are expected to be able to attend class independently and respectfully. Programs and POs for future dates available upon request; please email homeschool@grpg.org for more information.

Using Purchase Orders for CHIRP
Welcome Ocean Grove, Connecting Waters, Peak Prep Academy, and Valiant families! GRPC is a registered vendor. (Please note: POs cover the program fee but NOT the $30/semester/child registration fee.) If you’re interested in using these funds, please follow this structure:

• 1. Copy us when you request the funds from your education specialist.

 

• 2. Your education specialist will send us the Purchase Order(s) for your child(ren).

 

• 3. We will then send you our payments page for the $30/semester/child registration fee and our Family Information Form.

 

4. Once we receive your registration fee(s) and you have completed our form, we will send you a confirmation email.

Please note that your spot is reserved only when you have completed our form and paid your registration fee. All registration will be on a first come, first serve basis. As such, we recommend you reach out to your education specialist prior to registration opening.