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Learning about Mosaics at the Franciscan Monastery

Fourth grade has been studying Byzantine art and architecture recently. In particular, we have studied the reign of Byzantine Emperor Justinian the Great. During his reign, mosaics and icons were typical works of art seen in churches. Mosaics took careful planning and attention to detail. Thousands of glass or stone pieces were carefully selected and placed to create intricate designs and pictures.

To better appreciate the complexity and beauty of mosaics, our class made their own mosaics using colored glass and ceramic tiles. They also had the opportunity to visit a Franciscan monastery this month, which features multiple mosaics depicting the life of Christ. God has gifted people throughout history with the ability to create beautiful works of art. When studying art, our hope is that students learn to appreciate not only the work involved in creating art, but the Creator who bestowed such creativity.

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Psalms and Perfect Marshmallows

By far, my favorite part of the week was the Psalm sing and marshmallow roast. There are few things I enjoy more in life than sitting around the fire, looking into the flashing flames and glowing embers, drinking in the delicious aroma of hardwood smoke, feeling the toasty warmth of the blaze roast my toes as I rock in my hammock camping chair. I love spending hours sitting around the inviting warmth of the fire, talking with friends and family and singing a capella or with a guitar. These times reawaken sweet memories of my youth group camping on the shore of Lake Huron and my youth director leading us in "Come Thou Fount." Add to these sweet memories roasted marshmallows, melted chocolate and cinnamon graham crackers, and you have an experience fit for a king.

Since not everyone knows how to roast a marshmallow to perfection, I would like to share what I have learned from nearly thirty years of practice. The most important part of roasting a marshmallow properly is finding the righ

Copious Benefits of Copywork

Copywork Simply stated, copywork is the process of copying words or a passage. While this exercise may seem simple and unimportant, copywork is a time-tested method for learning grammar, penmanship, and spelling. Subjects we use for copywork span anywhere from Bible verses, poems, hymns, literature, or sentences from our current topic(s) of study. One of our main goals in copywork is for students to read and write well-written passages. These passages provide excellent sentence structure that give students good and worthy ideas to think and meditate on.

Classroom Routine In third grade, students begin each day with copywork. This fall we are currently copying spelling words, Bible passages, select lines from a hymn, and a couple of definitions for some new words. The process students use in their approach to copywork is simple and systematic. First, they read the passage. Next, they carefully trace it

Which Side of the Culture Wars are Your Children Being Trained on?

At the Olympics, we just saw the shocking results of teaching rebellion. The Last Supper was openly mocked. Marie Antoinette, the queen in 1793, in a picture that I won’t post here was ritually beheaded in a glorification of violence and a love of disregarding the law. https://twitter.com/i/status/1816904363769528547

Are we training our children with wisdom? Our kids must learn not to rebel but to gratefully build on what God has given us. We seek to reform our families, our churches and our civil government in terms of the Bible and in ways that are lawful. In the time around 1776 Americans loved God. We defended our churches, our culture, and our 150-year old colonial legislatures against a lawless king. Resistance was led not by a mob or self-declared authority but by our proper colonial governments.

The French Olympic organizers are glorifying an ungodly revolution. Besides the king and queen, 100’s of thousands were killed or mercilessly executed. The calendar was end

Peaceful Classrooms

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

Book nooks and couches and good working areas await Oak Hill students as summer ends and they come back to school this coming week.

If you Google “Peaceful Classrooms” you will see that more and more educators are talking about the benefits of tranquil and positive learning spaces.

This isn’t just a façade. It also pervades our curriculum and our teaching. And, the peace which we are pointing our students toward is not a mere childhood luxury. We are pointing them to faith in the only one who is bringing his people eternal victory over strife and bitterness, Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace.

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