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On any given weekday, a number of children can be seen piling out of their parents' cars with backpacks, lunch boxes and violins.

Two things are required of Whiteman Primary School students. From kindergarten to eighth grade, students study Spanish and play the violin.

And one thing is required of Whiteman Primary School parents -- participation.

"Parent involvement is a requirement at this school," said Debbie Gooding, director of admissions and student services for Whiteman Primary. "They are not allowed to pay their money and drop off their kid."

For the past month, parents and students have been decorating and setting up the "Learn your ABCs: Anything But Chardonnay and Cabernet" fund-raiser.

This is the 10th year for Whiteman Primary's annual wine tasting fund-raiser for its scholarship fund. Tuition at the private elementary school is $8,875 a year. Of 56 students attending the school this year, 28 percent attend on some kind of scholarship. In the past, that number has been as high as 41 percent.

"Scholarships make it possible to attend for some students who could never attend," Gooding said.

The wine-tasting fund-raiser offers wines that are "new and different" from the traditional chardonnays and cabernets usually served as table wines. Australian, Spanish and German wines have been donated for the event.

For the silent auction, each parent is required to donate two items.

"That's what makes this fund-raiser work," Gooding said.

Students also make donations. This year, there will be a hand-crocheted hat made by two boys at the school. Students are offering chess lessons, baby-sitting and dog walking.

At the fund-raiser, students also serve food made by chef Steve Carlson, who has cooked for the fund-raiser since its inception.

Fund-raiser co-chairwoman Nora Parker sends her 8-year-old daughter, Nissa, to Whiteman Primary.

"I like that no kid is ever thought of as a bad student," Parker said. "They just find a way to make them a great student."

Teachers at Whiteman teach the subject of their expertise to all the grades -- kindergarten to eighth grade. Students change classes from subject to subject beginning in kindergarten, just as they do in high school. This means that students have some of the same teachers for all nine years.

"Nissa has the same math teacher she did when she started," Parker said. "That teacher knows how she learns and what she's capable of and how to push her."