You can learn more about Heritage Christian School on their website which can be found here. Some brief facts, from the site, follow:
"Heritage Christian School is a Christian school offering instruction to students enrolled in Pre-K through grade 12, located in Battleford, Saskatchewan Canada. We are an Independent Christian School in association with the Living Sky School Division of Saskatchewan."
"Heritage Christian School is dedicated to the mental, physical and spiritual well-being of all our students. Our school challenges our kids in a small student to teacher ratio in a cooperative learning environment. Our curriculum meets provincial requirements, is fully accredited, and includes a Biblical focus in all subjects. Our school takes regular educational, yet fun field trips. Heritage Christian School is dedicated to enhancing family relationships through hands-on, parent involvement in their child's education, and to this end we have regularly scheduled Home School days each month where children can work on specially designated assignments to be completed at home, keeping parents involved with, and aware of what their children are doing in school."
In order to attend Heritage Christian School, many changes have had to be made to our family routines. Alisdair will have to "board" at Grandma and Grandpa's house approximately four days per week and will take a bus from a nearby corner store to Battleford for school. It will mean a lot of driving back and forth, dropping him off and picking him up, but we trust this is the right decision for this time in his life.
Yesterday, Alisdair's class had a "burial" ceremony as part of their first day of class activities. Each child in the room wrote on a piece of paper something that they couldn't do. For example: "I can't do my times tables." The sheets of paper were then put in a mayonnaise jar and sealed. The jar was then wrapped in several plastic bags, to keep it from getting wet. This "package" was then buried on the school grounds. To make sure no one dug the jar up, they put a marker indicating there was an underground power line at the site. Then, at the end of the school year, the class will go out and dig up their "I Can'ts" (as an illustration of death and resurrection). And, I am sure many of the "I Can'ts" will, by then, be "I Cans!"
Meanwhile, Isobel is excited to be attending Grade 1 at the local elementary school. Yesterday was "Muffin Morning" when the parents drop off their children and socialize over coffee and go to a short assembly, introducing the new teachers and outlining a little information about the new school year. Isobel has one of the "new teachers" -- Miss Massey (who has come from Ontario) as both the regular Kindergarten teacher and the Grade 1/2 teacher are out on Maternity Leave for the 2011/2012 academic year.
We look forward to discovering how the new school year unfolds. We plan to continue our blog -- just in a slightly different direction. We will still read interesting books, do experiments and make lapbooks etc. - especially since Alisdair and I will have time "alone" on Fridays when he is off school and Isobel is still attending regular classes. Stay tuned for upcoming posts!
