In addition to our virtue focus on COURAGE, we are spending time in January on the following Discipline with Purpose skills: Figuring out on your own how to accomplish a task and Leadership. A good reminder for both of these is, “Think and look before asking.” And, instead of being quick to give your child the answer to something, ask what he or she thinks an answer could be. It’s also good to ask your child what the first or next step in a task is and have him or her do it instead of doing it yourself.
School News
Virtue Update – COURAGE
January 12th, 2023CCE Corner – In the Beginning: World(view) Formation
January 12th, 2023At the beginning of the new year, we turn our attention to The Beginning by looking briefly at two creation accounts. One thing a good Christian education should do is provide a keen awareness of both the familiarity and foreignness of Christianity (as G.K. Chesterton put it, both the “welcome and the wonder” of it). As we are prone to take Christian teachings for granted, they can lose their power in our lives, so it is an important act of the spiritual imagination to occasionally stop to appreciate the strangeness of it all. * A brief comparison of the Babylonian creation story, the Enuma Elish, with the account in Genesis can do this for us.
Before we compare those accounts, there is another reason for this exercise. There is an expression that “ideas have legs” and this is certainly true of origin stories—they have an impact not only on our thinking about how the cosmos came into being but also about its present and future states, as well as our place and purpose in it. In other words, creation accounts are not only about a world but also a worldview. As we’ve noted before, Trinitas students in the logic stage (grades 5-8), learn to ask “Ultimate Questions.” As they engage history, scripture, literature, and popular culture, they are encouraged to ask what is being said about God, Humanity, and Nature, and what are being identified as problems and proposed as remedies. In this post, we conduct something like a logic-stage exercise, looking at the two creation accounts to see what answers they give to such questions.
Annual Fund Goal Surpassed!
January 6th, 2023We are filled with joy in announcing that we have surpassed our annual fund goal of $75,000 by receiving gifts of just over $100,000. We praise God for his provision and thank our whole community for faithful prayers and generous donations!
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen. Ephesians 3:20-21
Thoughtful Reader Book Club
January 6th, 2023We hope your family enjoyed reading many good stories over break! A preparation guide for this year’s activity/discussion books was emailed during break and a hard copy went home with your student this week.
Reading with your child for Thoughtful Reader Book Club counts toward your Parent Partnership Credit. Middle schoolers are not too old to enjoy reading aloud with family members!
Virtue Update – COURAGE
January 6th, 2023We continue to focus on the virtue of COURAGE throughout the rest of this quarter. The new year is a good time to remember that courage, like all virtues, is a habit that is built over time through repetition, often through things that seem like small actions. Talk together as a family about ways to practice courage.
Studying Words? “Bee” Creative!
January 5th, 2023The Spelling Bee is next Wednesday, January 11. Classroom bees will begin immediately after Morning Prayer. Three to five finalists from each room in Grades 3-8 will go on to compete against one another in the school bee starting at approximately 10:15 a.m. Students are encouraged to continue studying the 2023 Spelling Bee Lists. Consider turning those Bee words into a creative family game of your own design!
Starting the New Year Together in Morning Prayer
January 5th, 2023Thank you to Mr. Marth, Sam H., Joanna L., and 2016 graduate Owen T. for leading us in Morning Prayer on Wednesday. What better way to start 2023 than by coming together in a service of Scripture and song.
Annual Fund Update – Week 2
December 16th, 2022
We are pleased to announce that we are halfway to our fundraising goal of $75,000! There are still $12,249 of matching funds available until December 31. Online donations can be made here.
Please keep the school in your prayers as we continue to seek out and receive annual fund gifts and, even more importantly, as we use those gifts to provide an education that’s rooted in the desire to be good stewards of all the good gifts God has given. Remember: Every dollar counts. Every gift matters. Every donor makes a difference!
“Bee” Prepared!
December 15th, 2022It’s not too early to start preparing for the 2023 Spelling Bee which will be held on Wednesday, January 11. More details about the Bee will be coming, but we want to share the word lists with you before the break. Please note that students in grades 4–8 who hope to advance to the all-school round should study all the lists. Lists with definitions will be added the week of December 18.
Grade 1 Word List
Grade 2 Word List
Grade 3 Word List
Grade 4 Word List
Grade 5 Word List
Grade 6 Word List
Grade 7 Word List
Grade 8 Word List
Chapel on January 4
December 15th, 2022Please note we will return from Christmas break on Tuesday, January 3. (When January 1 falls on a Sunday, the break extends through January 2.) Parents are invited to join us for a special “re-gathering” chapel on Wednesday, January 4. Mr. Marth will lead us that morning in a service of Scripture and song.