Moms' Time Notes - March 29, 2013

Announcements

·       Dad’s Night Out has been finalized: We are planning a night of fellowship for the PSP Dads. 

Monday, April 15, 7-9 p.m. at David C. house (a few miles NW of Grace Church). Make sure to tell your husbands. 

·       If you have a child in the government class, make sure you talk to them about any issues that have come up regarding the election.  We need to make sure that everyone is being kind and respectful and not putting anyone down.  Please proofread any emails your child sends out before he sends them. 

·       There is only one more PSP to order a yearbook (April 12). After that, you will not be able to get a yearbook, and there will be no extras. If you are not planning to order a yearbook, you can put a circle with a line through it, by your name so that they will be able to keep better track.

·       Marina put the surveys in everyone’s mailbox.

o   If you have not already done so, please rank your choices for classes.

o   Number them in the order you want them.

o   If you do not want a class, do not put a number by it.

o   These classes are not set in stone and could change.

o   If you indicate that you want a class, it does not mean you are signing up for that class. This is just your best idea of what classes you would like as of right now.

o   Indicate if you will be in Master’s Kids and if you will be staying after lunch.

o   The church might be renovating the gym next year so there might be no PE.

o   Hopefully, we will have a schedule before the end of the school year.

·       Last week, we heard about the PSP goal of independence. Part of the change, we discussed was the change of name. We will no longer be under the name of Grace Community School. The new name will be Faith Christian School PSP. The many changes we have gone through have helped to trust God more. God has everything regarding the future of PSP in His hands. Hebrews 11 speaks of faith being the “assurance of things hoped for” and “the conviction of things not seem.”

·       Application for enrollment open today (March 29).  PSP is advertising as a K-8 program and will not be accepting new high schoolers. Students already in the program entering high school will be grandfathered into the program.

·       HSLDA membership will continue to be a requirement. Still register under the name Grace Community School until further notice.

·       Tuition and registration will be the same as last year. The financial agreement is the same as well.  Registration will be $50 for the next month. Check should be made payable to Faith Christian School PSP.

·       For next year, all PSP moms should be freed up so they can serve. Moms need to be on campus from 8:30 until 12:30.  This includes putting your younger children in the nursery for the entirety of the morning. Moms should also be present weekly for the moms’ time.

·       PSP leadership wants every family to have a Grace Community Church pastor or elder over them who knows the family.  Please indicate who that is when you re-enroll. 

·       Current PSP members will have preference to re-enroll through the end of April (April 26).

·       In May the registration fee will go up to $75. In the summer, the registration fee will go up to $100.

Angela—Choosing Gratitude, Chapter 7

Chapter 7 talks about gratitude in three main areas.

The first section deals with material blessings. Material blessings are tangible illustrations of God’s goodness to us. He blesses over and above what we need. We need to always be thankful for these blessing but not hold tightly to them. Some tangible blessings the group came up with were coffee, eyeglasses, tissues, dishwashers, washing machines, computers cameras etc. We are surrounded by so many blessing every day.

The second section deals with what we are thankful for spiritually. Several people shared what they are thankful for spiritually: prayer, Christ’s death, salvation, Holy Spirit, conviction over sin, God’s faithfulness, God’s saving work in our lives.

The last section discussed relational blessings. Many ladies shared their thankfulness for friendships in the PSP or in their fellowship groups.

It was an encouragement to hear about the many things we have to be thankful for!

Moms' Time Notes - March 22, 2013

Announcements Brian R.

·       World view class

o   Mr. R. and Mr. A. will be offering a world view class on the survey.

o   If people choose this class, Mr. R. and Mr. A. will be teaching on alternating weeks.

o   The text for the class will be Thinking Like a Christian, which deals with issues in life from a biblical perspective.

o   Students will also read books to supplement the text like the student edition of The Case for Christ.

·       During the last elders’ meeting, some of the details for PSP were finalized.

o   From the perspective of those in PSP, nothing will be changing on Fridays.

o   The way PSP is run will be changing.

§  Even though PSP will still be under the guidance of the elders, the business and accounting portion will be completely separate from Grace Community Church. The leadership of PSP will be taking on more of these responsibilities.

·       Julie S. will be handling accounting.

·       Kristen H. will be the record keeper.

§  David C. and Matt T. will no longer be over the PSP.

o   PSP will no longer be Grace Community School. It will have a new name.

·       Next week, registration forms will be available. You will have a month to turn those in with your deposit for next year for the lowest registration price ($50).

David C.

·       The three goals for PSP remain the same:

o   Affordability

o   Flexibility

o   Independence

·       The third goal, independence, has been fast forwarded more than we initially anticipated.  This will give us clarity on how to move forward. 

·       There will be a change next year for Mr. C., as he will be  “just” a PSP dad and will submitting to the leadership of PSP.  However, he will be available to help in any way possible as a volunteer.  Please do not hesitate to ask him for help. He will be there to help in any way that he can.

·       Please pray for Christy. She may be done working in July, and the C. family is praying to that end.

·       David and Matt will be available all summer. Please pray for them as they start their new ministries at GCC after summer.

·       Thank you for your patience during this time of transition.

Brian R—SAT Testing

·       Everyone should have received a SAT handout in her mailbox. 

·       SAT testing will be Monday, April 22, and Tuesday April 23.

o   Everyone will need to be on campus.

o   All moms will be serving in some capacity.

o   These are uniform days

o   Refer to your handout for more specific details regarding the testing.

·       The scores your student receives are a tool to help you see areas that need to be worked on.

o   The most important scores are the language and math scores.

o   The scores for science and social science are not as important, particularly in the early grades.

·       This is not meant to be a stressful time.

·       Students will receive a raw score, which is determined by the difficulty and number of test questions (max points).

·       Students will also receive a percentile rank

o   Do not confuse this with the percentile of questions that they get correct.

o   The rank indicates how well the student performed compared to other students in his grade.

o   See the handout for more detail on this.

·       Students will receive a stanine which ranges from 1-9. 1-3 is below average. 4-6 is average. 7-9 is above average.

·       Additionally, students will receive a grade equivalent, GE. For example 3.2, would indicate a performance expected of a student in the second month of third grade. Again, you may refer to your handout for a more complete description.

·       If your student’s percentile ranking is 30% or lower in the math or language sections of the test, someone in the PSP leadership will come alongside you to help determine the reason for the low score and help you to develop a plan to work on that area during the next school year.

Sat Testing (Cont.)—Christine R.

·       Have your younger students practice filling in bubbles.

·       Students are not penalized for guessing.

·       The tests are not strictly timed, so if a student need a few minutes to finish that is fine.

·       Make sure your children understand that the goal is not to finish first.

·       Moms who are working in the classroom as a proctor or helper will need to be on campus both days.

·       Moms helping out in another capacity will need to be on campus one of the days. If you leave campus, you must be back to pick up your child at his scheduled dismissal time.  More details to come.

·       Each grade will be in a different classroom.

·       Grace Grill will be closed on that Monday but open on that Tuesday.

·       In your test packet, Christine included some graph paper that might be useful for math scratch paper. This might help your student line up his or her columns.

·       Each student needs to bring a book to read quietly when he or she is done.

·       It is helpful to prepare for testing with some resources throughout the year. 

o   One resource is Scoring High. It is probably too late to order it for this year.

o   There are other test books published by Spectrum that you can purchase at any bookstore.

o   There is also a company called Critical Thinking Press that publishes books on logic and thinking skills.

§  One book, Mind Benders teaches thinking and logic through fun stories and puzzles.

§  They also publish a book on analogies. These resources are helpful to work on throughout the year.

o   Red Hot Root Words is a resource for learning Latin roots, as well as English From the Roots Up, which is a class on the survey for 4-6 for next year.

o   Marie’s Words is a resource for learning vocabulary. It is a box with word cards. The cards have pictures that aid in the memorization of new vocabulary words.  (www.marieswords.com)

General Announcements

·       Prayer sheets were in your mailboxes. Bring them back next week filled out.

·       Next week, we will have our moms’ time from 9:30-11. At 11, we will have a craft time with Lisa A.

·       There are no afternoon classes next week (Good Friday).

·       Survey for new classes will be in your mailboxes next week. You will be ranking your choices. As of right now, it looks as though there will be four rotations next year: K-1, 2-3, 4-6, 7-8. Please be prepared to turn them in next week, if possible.

·       Enrollment should be open next week. The enrollment fee will be $50 in April, $75 in May, and $100 in summer. The fee is non-refundable.

·       For next year the goal is to have every family under an elder. Think about which elder your family is under.

·       Please get 6^th, 8^th, and 12^th grade pictures to Rene ASAP! We want all graduating students represented in the slideshow.

·       Make sure you put your child’s middle initial and birth date on the SAT list.

·       4-6^th grade Ideas

o   We now have many options for the 4-6^th grade survey.

o   Kristen H. is offering to organize a literature co-op. This will involve one book a month.

o   Also, there is one semester class for Latin roots. This will involve learning 10 roots a week.

o   One idea for the other semester is a missions class. Angela has offered to teach this.

o   Another option for the other semester would be an art class taught by Kristen H.

§  Art could also be a yearlong class, but this would be a co-op.

o   There are two writing options.

§  Kristen has offered to teaching IEW’s writing with US history (volume 1).

§  Nancy N. has also offered to teach a creative writing class which would be ½ fiction and ½ poetry.

o   Kristen Harper has offered to teach US history if people would like a history class.

o   The afternoon options include

§  Gracious Girls

§  3-D art

§  Game strategies.

Moms' Time Notes - March 15, 2013

Announcements

·       Grace Grill will be closed next week (3/22), so pack a lunch.

·       Grace Grill will also be closed the two weeks after that (3/29 and 4/5) for Good Friday and Spring break.

·       Registration for Pudewa/IEW seminars will be opening soon. When Christine sends out the e-mail letting you know that registration is open, you will need to act quickly! Many people are anticipating this event.

·       There is a clipboard in the moms’ room with SAT info for each student. Students are listed by grade. Please add your children’s birthdays and middle initials to this list.

·       SAT information meeting will be next Friday at 9:45. Any new parents should plan on being in the room at that time. If you are scheduled to be out of the room, you may try to find coverage.

·       Do not forget the moms’ Monday night planning meeting and fellowship for moms with students in K-4^th grade next year. That will be this Monday, March 18^th at 6:30 p.m. at Kristen’s Home

·       Jen T. is putting together yearbooks. Order your copy soon.

o   Jen will be putting the orders in April.

o   The cost is $29.

o   This year there will not be any extra year books because they are ordering them from an outside company. Be sure to order your copies soon.

·       Matt T. will not be teaching PE next year. If there are any moms who might like to teach PE, please let Christine know!

·       There is a sign-up sheet for advancement night. The committee needs to have a general idea of who is coming including guests like grandparents, friends, aunts, uncles, cousins etc. Please give them your best guess.

·       Next week, we will have a craft time with Lisa A.  Plan on being at moms’ time.

·       The Children’s Hunger Fund field trip deadline is next Friday.

·       Progress reports are coming out. If you have any questions about grades, please speak to Christine R.

Speaker Anna

Anna and George S came to Grace Community 20 years ago.  Her husband is an elder at Grace as well as a physician. Anna has a background as a nutritionist/dietician and has raised their two children (now grown). Both of her children are hearing impaired. Anna reminded that we are wives first! After our children are grown, we will have our husbands. The idea of an “empty nest” is a lie. Husband love their wives to be their encourager and best friend and to show them affection. We need to be kind to them and friendly to them. Our husbands also love good food.

Anna encouraged us to put a little energy into something we are already doing. We can excel still more and see it as a joyous adventure.

For anyone interested in the details of nutrition, a good resource is The Complete Food and Nutrition Guide. For a general overview, Anna gave a handout called “A Guide to Good Eating.”  There are two basic principles to remember. 1) Eat foods from all five food groups. Avoid diets that eliminate an entire food group. Exercise prudence, balance, and moderation.  For long term health, be moderate and eat small portions.  No one food is off limits; simply exercise portion control.  2) Try to eat different foods from each food group every day.

For children, do not make issues out of food/dieting.  If you want them to eat a particular food, start with a very small portion so they can feel successful. Relax. Try not to push food on them.

With our children, remember the “law of kindness.”  Proverbs 31: 26, “She opens her mouth with wisdom, And on her tongue is the law of kindness.”

Ephesians 6:4, “⁴ And you, fathers, do not provoke your children to wrath, but bring them up in the training and admonition of the Lord.” Endear yourself to your children. A book related to this is Don’t Make Me Count to Three by Ginger Plowman.

Menu planning ought not to be a burden but a way to be generous with our love. Don’t leave the special meals and pretty table settings for guests only.

When thinking about menu planning, think about what days you are out. Think about what days, you have more time to cook and what days you need to keep things simple. Plan accordingly. Try planning for two weeks at a time. Try to have beef twice a week, and chicken a few times a week. It is also good to plan seafood weekly.

For questions, recipes, tips, Anna kindly gave out her cell number and e-mail address. If you would like it please ask someone who was there (Julie S has it :).

Note: Cindy C. said her goodbyes today, as this was her last PSP. The Choo family is leaving on March 18^th. Let’s remember to be praying for them.