School News

A trip to the Grand Rapids Public Museum is like five field trips in one! Here’s just a few of the things our students did last Friday: animal habitat dioramas, carousel rides, streets of old Grand Rapids exhibit, planetarium show, poison temporary installation, river water testing class. Thank you to the parent volunteers who served as chaperones that day.

Thoughtful Reader Book Club is here! An information sheet and book mark were sent home with your student. Christmas break is a good time to read, read, read good books! (Consult our Summer Reading List for suggestions.) Don’t forget to include fables by Aesop and Arnold Lobel (grades K-4) and The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis (grades 5-8). Even if you’ve read these before, there is a special pleasure in re-reading a good book. And even more pleasure in reading it and discussing it together! Watch for discussion questions to be emailed over break.

Parents, don’t forget about your book club opportunity! We’re planning a discussion of C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man for Thursday, January 26 at 7:00 p.m. Watch for details after the break.

Christmas break is a good time to engage with our worship and virtue materials together! Don’t forget to take a few minutes to fill out your November and December forms. They contain links to the various PPC materials as well.

Over the holidays, we will all hopefully have opportunities to spend time with people we know well and even some we don’t know so well. It’s a good time to practice the virtue of COURAGE by talking with family members and others you don’t often talk to. You can share, for example, things about school, recent events, and hobbies. Be sure to ask them about their lives too. You can also practice COURAGE by inviting someone new to be a guest in your home for a meal, dessert, or a fun activity.

We are so thankful for your partnering with us to cultivate lives of faith, reason, and virtue. Our annual fund drive is our single fundraiser and critical to the funding of our operations. We begin each year with 90% in place, and the annual fund closes the gap.

Thank you to each of you who have already participated in setting the pace! We are currently at 21% ($15,372) of our goal of $75,000. This includes taking advantage of $5,124 of the generous offer to match up to $25,000 for all funds received in 2022. Please help us to take advantage of all the matching funds by donating between now and December 31 to achieve our goal of $75,000! Online donations can be made here.

Please invite friends and family to Christmas Lessons and Carols on Friday, December 16. Doors will open at 9:55, and student-performed prelude music will begin at 10:10. Guests should park in the upper lot (access from Maple Creek Ave., not 52nd St.) and enter through the church narthex doors.

Students should arrive at the regular drop-off time in dress uniform. Please check the dress uniform items now to make sure all items still fit well.

PSF will be hosting a time of fellowship and refreshment for guests in Chapel Hall after Lessons and Carols. Volunteers are needed.

Thoughtful Reader (TR) is coming! Look in your student’s backpack for information on our Thoughtful Reader Book Club. Christmas break is a great time to read, read, read. And books make great Christmas gifts! TR runs through February with fun activities, lively discussions, and our annual Book Character Day to look forward to!

We will continue our journey through Dante’s Divine Comedy next semester. Plan to spend some time in Purgatory! Watch for discussion information after the break. We’re also planning a discussion of C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man for Thursday, January 26 at 7:00 p.m. Dante and Lewis both make good reading for the holidays!

During this season of waiting and celebrating with family and friends, try to carve out time and space to mix up the generations a bit. Consider abandoning that “kids’ table” and call the littles (and not-so-littles) up from their basement antics for some time for games and stories and just listening and talking with the older generations. You can read about the importance of intergenerational bonds for faith formation in last week’s post Faith Formation: The Importance of Inter-age Relationships.

The ancient philosopher Aristotle taught that COURAGE can be thought of as a middle path between the two ditches (or vices) of cowardice and rashness/recklessness. He also taught that it is important to know which ditch we are more likely to fall into! Home Connection Materials for COURAGE were sent home last week, but you can also access them here. We hope your family enjoys using them together!