Should K-12 education be rigorous? What comes to your mind when you think of “rigor”—dusty books, lists of names to memorize, and an exacting school marm holding a ruler? Or is it a responsive class of students who are engaging in a lively conversation with the teacher? Controversy or Emphasis? Early last year, I heard […]
Habit
Cultivation of Virtue
Key to our mission statement is the word “cultivate.” Our mission states that we assist you as parents by cultivating in students the intellectual and moral virtue necessary for a well-ordered understanding of God, human nature, and the world. What does it mean to cultivate virtue? This fall, I have been meeting weekly with parents to discuss C.S. Lewis’s Abolition of Man. In […]
Why We Say “Well”
Every morning at Cedar Classical Academy, the Cedar community—staff, students, and parents—gathers together in the Great Hall for Opening Ceremony. During Opening Ceremony, we sing a hymn, recite a patriotic recitation or sing a patriotic song, pray together, and sing again while students walk to class. Sometimes students or staff share an individual or all-class […]
Homework Habits
As we soldier on through the second quarter of a new academic year, it is worthwhile to consider how we, as parents, can help our students establish good homework habits. Recovering Delight in Homework? I had the pleasure of being present in the first grade math class at the beginning of the 2022-2023 school year […]
Handwriting
Within the first week of school in my classroom, I begin teaching the first and second graders how to hold their pencils correctly and how to form their letters properly. Why do I begin so early? Because many of them enter my classroom putting their index and middle fingers on their pencils. The longer they […]
Why We Have High Expectations in Kindergarten
This is adapted from a talk that Mrs. Ackerman gave at a parent education event called Lightning Talks on September 28, 2022. Watch it here. Download our Kindergarten Readiness Checklist here. On the front end I want to warn you that this talk may make kindergarten sound like a battlefield, but in this short time […]
The Adventure of Reading Alone
Congratulations! Your child can read. He has mastered the first stage of reading: decoding and recoding. Now that he can sound words out, he has even started reading chapter books on his own. Supporting your child in this next big step is a little bit like un-babyproofing the house. Once the baby gate is stowed […]
Cedar Hallways
You come into Cedar Classical Academy for the first time and many unique practices fill your first impressions. You notice our uniforms, the orderliness of the students’ boot mat, the friendly greetings of students when you enter a classroom. You say, “Wow! A school in a church!” (To see how the Lord orchestrates this weekly, […]
The Magic of Reading Aloud
Think of the turning points in great stories that have shaped you. What are the moments you remember? These moments still feel as vividly real to me as my own childhood memories: Bilbo in the tunnel just before he meets Smaug, Aslan coming back to life, Mole apologizing to Rat after upsetting the boat, Puddleglum […]
Family Worship
Jason Helopoulos is a Cedar dad since 2019 and pastor of University Reformed Church. He is author of A Neglected Grace: Family Worship in the Christian Home which calls parents and church leaders to reclaim the practice of family worship. To encourage Cedar families to build strong family cultures in their own homes, we asked […]
“Because we are given more than we are”: Good habits, good stories, and why we need both
“Stewardship.” “Inheritance.” “Heritage.” We keep returning to these words when we talk about classical education. Add up Shakespeare, Euclid, Augustine, and Laura Ingalls Wilder, and it equals a rich inheritance that can help teach us to be human and point us toward our Maker. We don’t have this heritage — these books and disciplines and […]