Dear Parents and ACCS Friends,
“Stay committed to your decisions; but stay flexible in your approach.” –Tony Robbins. Take a moment to reflect on that quote, especially in connection with the focus verse of the week and the theme of good works (Galatians 6:9,10): And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. The two thoughts tie together quite well, I must say. Do you ever set out on a good course and then lose heart and abandon it? Do you every think that no one notices the good anyway, and grow weary? It happens easily. An additional thought arises: be on the lookout for others in the community who are losing heart and growing weary, and encourage them about the harvest. That would qualify as a good work in itself!
“Stay committed to your decisions; but stay flexible in your approach.” –Tony Robbins. Take a moment to reflect on that quote, especially in connection with the focus verse of the week and the theme of good works (Galatians 6:9,10): And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith. The two thoughts tie together quite well, I must say. Do you ever set out on a good course and then lose heart and abandon it? Do you every think that no one notices the good anyway, and grow weary? It happens easily. An additional thought arises: be on the lookout for others in the community who are losing heart and growing weary, and encourage them about the harvest. That would qualify as a good work in itself!
Keep those thoughts in mind now as we connect them to our small class sizes and the blessing it is to be able to focus on the individual needs of each child. True, it is harder in our present circumstances, but even so, I am so appreciative of the energy that goes into making sure that no student at ACCS “falls off the wagon.” We are blessed!
As part of my effort to keep us abreast of educational issues, consider this. Hard Words: Why aren’t kids being taught to read? According to all the research, what you should see in every school is a heavy emphasis on explicit phonics instruction in the early grades. There is no evidence this turns kids off to reading or makes reading harder. In fact, it’s the opposite. If you do a good job teaching phonics in the early grades, kids get off to a quicker start. “And they accelerate their progress faster and read more and like it better and so it becomes a self-reinforcing cycle,” Moats said. “Whereas the converse is [also] true. When you don’t give kids insight into the code and don’t arm them with insight into language, both spoken and written, what happens is, ‘This is a mystery. I’m not sure I’m getting what these words really say. Therefore, I’m uncomfortable. And therefore, I don’t really like it.'”
On the lighter side, can you solve this little brain teaser? Three men walk into a hotel and rent a room for 30 pounds. But the hotel manager realized the room should have been only 25 pounds. So he sent the dishonest bellboy and told him to give 5 pounds back to the men. The bellboy cheated and said to the three men the room was actually 27 pounds and gave them 3 pounds back and donated the other to his favourite charity. Where is the missing pound because 25 + 4 =29? (solution below) …And, did you know? A photon would take 40,000 years to travel from the core of the sun to the surface of the sun. But it takes just eight minutes to travel from there to the earth.
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. Have you considered the importance of protecting those in your family from online threats lately. Yours may be a family where your eldest child is just now starting to surf the net or have his/her own mobile device. How will you protect you and your family from stumbling upon temptations? There are several options to consider. Covenant Eyes is a program that uses the strength of relationships for mutual accountability. My favourite is called Open DNS: it is free, simple and effective. Every internet request you make goes to a DNS interpreter to convert the words of the site name to an ip address. Open DNS sends your request to their server which simply refuses the connection if it is not family safe according to your settings. It is fully customizable and protects everyone who comes into your home and uses your wifi. There’s no need to configure every device. Many pop-up ads get blocked before they even try to pop up! Using a search service like DuckDuckGo (I don’t like the name either, but it works great!) is a great idea too! They do not collect and sell your data like Google does. I have enjoyed using the Brave browser to add another level of safety and freedom. These are simple changes that cost you nothing and can save you and your loved ones much pain and grief.
Solution: There is no missing pound! There are 25 pounds in the till, 2 pounds in the messenger’s pocket, 3 pounds = 1 in each of the men’s pockets and they have paid 9 pounds each (= 27 pounds) and there is one pound in their pockets (3 pounds in total) This makes 30 pounds in total. The messenger’s 2 pounds should be added to the manager’s 25 pounds or subtracted from the men’s 27 pounds, not added to their 27 pounds.