The Big Things of Learning at Our Christian School

I’m delighted to have students come to my office who want me to come back with them to their classrooms to share what they’ve been doing. I’ve been invited to sample green eggs and ham, see bridge models, watch butterflies emerging, taste homemade bread, or been asked to be an object to measure with a metre stick. Exciting moment of learning happen every day!

How do we shape learning at LCES? Consider the following four pillars:

Connectedness We aim for our students to see God’s creation as an intricate, complex, and amazing example of how purposeful God is. God’s world is something to be studied as a whole, as well as in parts. 

Discernment We want our students to develop tools and have opportunities to practice, under the watchful idea of a passionate educator, figuring out what is God’s truth and what is means for them. God’s world is designed around God’s truth.

Service We strive to have our students live out the truth of biblically knowing as the study the Lord’s handiwork directs them to love their neighbor in every way, in everything they do and say. Community is God’s good gift to us.

Wonder God’s world is a thing of beauty and we wish for our students to meet God in new ways as they learn. God’s world speaks of his greatness.

Big things guide our learning!

SJ

Cold Armour At Our Christian School

As I greeted our students this frosty winter morning, I couldn’t help but smile at their layers. The smaller they are, the more bundled up as their parents attempt to keep winter’s chill out. Some are so bundled up that we don’t know who we have at school until they start to peel off their “cold armour.” Coats, snow pants, gloves, mitts, scarves, balaclava, boots, and more protect their skin and keep them warm against the frosty chill. 

Some of our students, perhaps out of a desire to get outside quicker or frustration at the effort it takes to put it all on, decide not to wear key pieces of this “cold armour.” After some minutes outside they realize they made a mistake in their haste and it has consequences.

Perhaps this is a helpful metaphor for growing in faith and wisdom through the elementary school years. Armed with truth, faith, peace, righteousness, salvation, and the Spirit, our students are being prepared to take on the challenges of learning and living by faith. Much like the tedious process of putting on winter gear, it takes time and discipline to be prepared. It is also true, however, that time and discipline invested equip them to be ready for whatever the Lord calls our students to do today, and in their future.  

In between zipping up stubborn zippers and locating stray mittens, LCES staff are at work as a faithful presence for our students. They shine the light on truth, nourish faith, value peace, demonstrate righteousness, and listen for the Spirit’s prompting. We pray that our children’s amour of God will be an intricate part of their way to love and serve the Lord forever, whatever the temperature. 

SJ

Giving the Greatest Gift at Our Christian School

A favourite Christmas stories to read to my children is The Crippled Lamb by Max Lucado. Joshua, a lamb who didn’t fit in and was broken, believed he had nothing of value to offer the newly arrived King. I won’t share his gift so you can enjoy the story for yourself if you haven’t already, but the gift was one that the lamb hadn’t even considered to be valuable.  

Perhaps the truest delight of Christmas gift-giving (not gift-getting) is recognizing the ability to give something that matches who you are and what you believe is important, and then giving that gift to someone else in way that is a rich blessing to them in ways they didn’t expect.

Prayer It is with great joy that I hear of people who tell me they include the staff and students of LCES in their regular prayer time. We thank you for remembering us in this way.

Money We’ve been blessed with financial means to take care of some pressing needs in our school that our operating budget wasn’t expecting. Thanks for choosing to bless us and our mission.

Time It is one of the greatest gifts we are given by volunteers who offer the work of their helping hands in support of who we are and we what we stand for.

Let’s rejoice together!  We’re also thankful for students sharing their gifts and talents. This Wednesday our students will share the story in word and song of the very best gift ever given.

May God bless our students, families, and staff with a joyous and safe Christmas break after this exciting week. God has great things in store for LCES in 2020!

SJ

Waiting at Advent at Our Christian School

Come, Thou long expected Jesus
Born to set Thy people free;
From our fears and sins release us,
Let us find our rest in Thee.

We make a quick transition to Christmas in modern culture. Once Remembrance Day is through, we hastily take out the special food, music, and Christmas finery. By January the 1^st, most of it is gone and boxes are brought back down to the store room and the Christmas tunes are packed away for another year.

Our family has been reading about the end of the nations of Israel and Judah just before the 400 years that are called the dark or silent years. It’s an intensely sad read as generations of unfaithfulness of God’s people led to being conquered, and nearly snuffed out by neighbouring nations. By the rivers of Babylon a tiny remnant wept over the demise of the temple and the waywardness of God’s people. And they waited. And God was silent.

This is the leadup to John the Baptist, Mary’s angel visit, and then the shepherd’s nighttime angel chorus visit. God with us! What a joy that we can point our students at LCES to the wider, amazing story of God loving us so much that he came to Bethlehem, and has promised that he will came come again. I’m thankful for Christian education which can remind our students in very real ways that they are part of that story and will share in its joyful ending. Come quickly, Lord Jesus!

SJ

Deliveries and Imagination at Our Christian School

Deliveries come to the school nearly every day. Today I had the joy of bringing a special delivery of a large envelope addressed to the SK class. Spot the dog had “written” to the class and he had sent an enthusiastic letter encouraging students to write back. He promised to write the students back if they wrote to him. Some students happily and willingly went along with the teacher’s imaginative ploy to get them to practice writing even though they seemed to understand it wasn’t real, while others seemed to be quite convinced this was all very true.

Upon returning to my desk, I thought this through. Loads of fun to be sure. Was it deception, or fun with imagination?  I’m pretty sure it is the second option, but it made me wonder where the line is between imaginative play and leading students away from the truth. I remember reading a short story with a grade eight class years ago about an imaginary trip to the moon. Poverty gave no space for a family holiday, so the father gave the gift of a what the very young children believed to be an actual real trip complete with home made shuttle, space suits, moon rocks, and a rolling screen outside the “window.” A wise student summarized the story with a question: “What is better, the truth which brings a tear, or a lie that brings a smile?”

As a parent, I know it isn’t that simple. We want our children to know and love God’s truth. Does that crowd out imagination and willing suspension of disbelief? Matthew 18 warns about causing children to go astray by willful choice, however imagination is clearly a gift that God gives us all – especially in the precious years of childhood.

I'm thankful for wise LCES teachers who embrace truth and imagination at once. 

SJ

Walking Straight at Our Christian School

Last weekend I listened to a humorous podcast about a series of experiments conducted in 1920’s and 1930’s on the ability of humans to walk straight without the benefit of sight. While blindfolded, and in several different locations, repeated attempts were made to have someone move straight from fixed point to fixed point without curving off to the side. Most test subjects were able to start off very accurately but, without a visual reference point, would veer off and eventually find themselves close to where they started. Results were much better when there was someone else speaking to them to give them an auditory reference point to gauge their progress. 

What a great illustration for living together and having a place to belong as a part of learning. We need each other! Without the gift of others, we can easily veer off and find ourselves off track, or even worse, not make any progress. God’s gift of community is a blessing to us when we feel the nudge of the Holy Spirit though the words of others and feel comforted or inspired by their actions. We come to realize that we need one another more than we might have known, and are surprised by joy and the coming kingdom when we feel God working in us through others.   

May our children learn to walk well as they listen to voices around them at LCES. 

SJ

Speaking Up at Our Christian School

Twenty-three times per year our student body gathers together in the gym for chapel. Today, the students were the leaders up front.

The unique chapel was led by our LIT (Leaders in Training) team and marked the start of Bullying Awareness Week. Our fourteen member team prepared for chapel by creating a video with scenarios to illustrate what bullying looks like, how not to deal with it, and how one should deal with it. We were directed to the instruction in Proverbs 31 to “speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves” and to “speak up for justice”.

Our school theme (Psalm 24:1) also declares that all people belong to God. Wanting our school playground to also be a place where all students feel like they belong, our LIT team have organized a buddy bench outside on the playground for the week. The LIT team will ensure that if any student needs help or wants a friend, they can have a seat and one of the LIT team members will support them. Later this week, they will be working on an all -school art project that will be placed in the front garden next spring. It will visually point out that each and every student belongs at our school.

It is very exciting to see our students taking charge of important matters here at our school! I’m thankful for the space for our students to practice leadership here, to equip them to be leaders everywhere.

 SJ