Dear Parents and ACCS Friends,
This is already Week 12––only 28 to go! For this month’s instalment, let’s let Scripture speak to us about being steadfast (Hebrews 12:3).
This is already Week 12––only 28 to go! For this month’s instalment, let’s let Scripture speak to us about being steadfast (Hebrews 12:3).
For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls. Consider Him. You mean, consider all that happened to him? Consider Him. Consider Who He was? Who He is? Consider Him. Or does it mean, His mission to seek and to save that which was lost–the “Mission Seemingly Impossible”? Or how His haters and detractors continually tried to trip Him up but never succeeded? Consider Him. How in the end, it was not the end: how He truly died, but truly rose from the dead again as He said? Consider Him. His John 17 “High Priestly Prayer”? His Matthew 5-7 “Sermon on the Mount”? Consider Him. His humble birth? His family tree from Adam all the way to His earthly father? Consider Him. That He was sent. That He set aside His glory. That He, as the Creator of all, suffered and died at the hands of His own subjects. Consider Him. That He said, Greater love has no man than this, than that he lay down his life for his friends. Consider Him. That He even invites us–all who labour and are weary–to come to Him and find rest for our souls! Consider Him. It is the secret to being steadfast.
Let’s tie these ideas to what we will examine later this month, namely the truth that Kindergarten is so much more than playing. While the basic educational benefits of Kindergarten are tangible, the advances children achieve towards becoming well-rounded individuals are truly invaluable. They learn through playing. “The benefits of play-based learning are many. Through play, children learn to delay gratification (always a hot issue for parents of young children), take turns, negotiate with peers, solve problems, cope with disappointment, listen to others, and empathize. And the benefits don’t stop there. Have you ever watched a group of young children engaged in high-level play? Imaginative play in kindergarten requires planning, higher level thinking, cognitive skills, math skills, and language skills. Ask a group of 5- and 6-year-olds to open a new restaurant and see what happens. If given sufficient time for sustained imaginative play, that group of kids will use anything they can find to set up the restaurant, advertise, and create some form of currency for their customers. If that’s not considered learning, I’m not sure what is. If play-based learning is the best way to reach our young children, why the push for early academics? “Adults consider play frivolous — a waste of time,” explains Carlsson-Paige. “Adults don’t understand that play is the cornerstone of learning. Play builds the foundation for conceptual learning.” (from Momtastic)
Have you been following other trends in education? Maybe you’ve heard of this one: Why Millions Of Kids Can’t Read And What Better Teaching Can Do About It. Sometimes advice to a beginning reader is based on an influential theory about reading that basically says people use things like context and visual clues to read words. The theory assumes learning to read is a natural process and that with enough exposure to text, kids will figure out how words work.Yet scientists from around the world have done thousands of studies on how people learn to read and have concluded that theory is wrong. One big takeaway from all that research is that reading is not natural; we are not wired to read from birth. People become skilled readers by learning that written text is a code for speech sounds. The primary task for a beginning reader is to crack the code. Even skilled readers rely on their decoding skills.
Partnering with you for a Christ-centred education,
Mr. Richard Sommer, Principal
PS. In the last few weeks, we shared this and we thought we should pass it on to you. There is no doubt that all of us have needs that differ from the needs of others. To pretend we are all identical – or at least close enough so we can all roughly fit into the same mold – is to kid ourselves. But there are also some needs that are true for us all. I’m thinking of the need for food and water and shelter in the cold Canadian winter. But I’m also thinking of the need to feel like we have a place here in God’s world; that we aren’t just an accident, but that we belong. There are many people who have committed suicide even though they had ample food, water and shelter. Sadly, they have felt like others would be better off without them – that they just didn’t belong. At Alliston Christian School, there are lots of people with lots of special needs. But that one need – that one very common and important need – to feel like we belong, is a need we see in every student. That’s why our school is a Community of Belonging school.
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