Why do we keep church attendance? The first place I would start with answering this question is by reminding you to read the form that went home in the report card envelope. This details our philosophy of why our school stresses the importance of regular worship. Please note that we do not record church attendanc on your child's permanent record nor do we keep it on file. The only record is in your Friday folder and in the quarter reports. The form in your folder is a way for your to track the worship opportunities available at St. John and to compare it to your family's worship practices. At the end of each quarter you will have the opportunity to reflect on whether or not your family could improve their worship/Bible study habits. We talk often in my class about how we can find more opportunities to study God's Word and pray. I also like for my class to know that even though I teach God's Word daily that I have plenty of improvements to make myself. One thing that I share is how often I forgot to pray and thank God when things in my life are going well. It seems so easy to remember to turn to Him when we are stressed or feeling overwhelmed by this world's troubles. However, I have a long way to go in remembering to reflect on my life and thanking God for all of the many blessings he has given me and my family. Another area where we all could improve is how often we study God's Word in our home. Family devotions are a great way to come together around God's Word. Can we find 5-10 minutes to give God each day? Of course we can and we should strive to make it a priority. This is an area that has been largely neglected in the Bunn household in the past. Lately we've been trying The Young Learner's Bible Storybook: 52 Stories with Over 100 Activities. At this point, I'm unsure of how much my son remembers or learns from these stories, but we are establishing a pattern of regularly listening to God's Word and learning the pattern of prayer. See me if you'd like some ideas for family devotions books. I've even picked up a few good titles from Scholastic in past years!
Another question:
Why does my child struggle with non-fiction books in Accelerated Reader? The simple answer to this question is that they are harder. It is a rare child that can read/listen to a list of facts and recall them all. Non-fiction selections do not have stories with characters, setting, and plots all woven together to support one another. Non-fiction is usually just a book on a topic with explanations or lists of facts about that topic. There is a lot of information in those books and students should read them differently than they would fiction titles. Currently, we are working on how to read non-fiction with our weekly National Geographic for Kids lessons. Last week, we read an article about animals who live in extreme environments and the unique adaptations they need to survive in those situations. We use before, during, and after reading strategies to read these articles. Another neat feature with Nat.'s Geo. for Kids is that it has a lot of ways to incorporate technology into the lessons. (The interactive white board lessons have really made me want a device like a SmartBoard, but I've figured out a way to adapt them to our current technology resources.) Your child's Christ Light lessons also teach non-fiction reading strategies since we emphasize that our Bible lessons are not just stories, but the truths of God's Word. Again, we employ many before, during, and after reading stratgies when studying God's Word as well.