Aaron M. Slack's Blog

I am a reverend, teacher, and supervisor at Grace Community School. I am also a senior team member of our organization, and that means I get to wear a few different hats.

One of the hats I have been wearing increasingly over the past few years has been as marketing manager at Grace Community School.

It is in this capacity that I’m pleased to announce that I’ll be doing an ongoing series of episodes on the Preschool Pioneers podcast, the official podcast of the Grace Community School Apprenticeship Program. The series is called Marketing, Advertising, and Branding your Christian School. I am proud of what I’ve done with our advertising programs at GCS, and I’m happy to have this opportunity to share some of my knowledge with an interested audience.

In the process of honing my advertising skills, I’ve become something of an advertising apologist, so I’ll be explaining the reason for why advertising is so important in addition to giving a lot of practical advice on marketing subjects. I’ve got a wide range of topics planned including social media marketing, Google AdWords, video marketing, direct mail, and branding.

If you are a Christian school entrepreneur or you’d like to be one, this is information you need to know. As we say in the introduction to the series, “Nothing happens until a sale gets made, and a sale doesn’t get made without advertising.”

See the podcast series here.

When I write, I write for a very specific audience. The particular audience depends on on where I am writing. I have published a few articles at the Grace Community School Apprenticeship Program website, and when I write there I am writing for people who truly believe God has called them to the field of Christian childhood education.

Childhood education is a broad field, yet one where there is an amazing dearth of viewpoints. If you think you might want to teach at a public school or secular private school, move along, because what I write is not for you.

On the other hand, if you truly believe you are called by God to grow His kingdom and stay true to Him by becoming a Christian teacher, I have some words for you.

My message is this: If you are serious about going into the field of Christian education, especially early childhood Christian education, I would ask that you NOT enroll in college before reading what I have written here and weighing the pros and cons of it and apprenticeship. I hope that after you do you will be able to look at traditional college and declare as God did with Nebuchadnezzar, “Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.”

Read my article on Apprenticeship vs. Traditional College here.

“Although they might believe it at the time, dropping out of college is not the worst thing that can happen. In fact, it may be the only way for them to become successful.”

I wrote this article for the Chalcedon Foundations’s Faith for All of Life May/June 2014 issue. What I said two years ago remains just as true today. Our youth and our nation are facing an educational crisis compounded by the follies of traditional college. Gary North has written about this. It is a subject worth reading about.

Traditional college is not worthy of our children, especially those who have been educated at home and in Christian schools. One of our duties as parents is to give our children the tools they need for success, in particular a practical trade. We are in the dominion business, and it is high time that we took that business seriously.

Check out the full text of my article here.

Some of my fondest childhood memories growing up involved hiking in state parks and other wilderness areas. I am happy to be able to share this activity with my children now. We celebrated Labor Day 2016 by taking a hike through the Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary.

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Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary 9-5-16












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The organization I work with, the Grace Community School Apprenticeship Program, is holding its first-ever Christian Young Adult and Family Event October 1-2, 2016. I’m excited to be able to show people what we do each day at Grace Community School! I will be there speaking about apprenticeship vs traditional college. Additional speakers will include Rev. Jeremy Walker, my wife Amy, and others from Grace Community School and the GCS Apprenticeship Program. There will be tours of one of our school facilities. I will also be giving away copies of my book, A Full Reward, along with other books and materials related to our ministry.

It’s not all learning: we’ll also be swimming, going to Naples Beach, and playing some games. It will be well worth your time. The Apprenticeship Program will be paying for two-night hotel stays and meals for event attendees. All you need to do is find your way to Naples, Florida.

Those interested in learning about apprenticeship and Christian early childhood education are invited to attend. We already have people registered, and we are capping the event at fifty people, so decide soon! If you are interested in coming, you can find contact and sign-up forms at http://www.gcsapprenticeship.com/event

The Grace Community School American Kenpo Karate Program combines martial arts, physical exercise, and fun!

The Grace Community School American Kenpo Karate Program has been teaching kids martial arts and self-discipline for nearly twenty years. It is our most established special class, and still one of our most popular! Each week our karate instructor, Mr. Pete, comes to every GCS location and does half hour classes for all participating students. Our karate class runs year-round, and while space is limited, we are accepting new students.

Students who participate in martial arts programs like Grace Community School’s have improved reflexes and focus, among other benefits.

One objection we often hear from parents is, “I have enough problems with my child roughhousing and fighting at home without adding karate to the mix!” What we have seen is the exact opposite. What if you could do something to help your child with aggression and improve many other areas of their life, for just $10 per week? You can! The Grace Community School American Kenpo Karate Program builds discipline and self-control. Students who participate in martial arts programs like Grace Community School’s have improved reflexes and focus, among other benefits. Kids need to move, and martial arts are a great outlet to help young bodies get exercise and get rid of pent up energy in a constructive way.

Kids need to move, and martial arts are a great outlet to help young bodies get exercise and get rid of pent up energy in a constructive way.

Self-discipline has far more than just physical benefits. Students have a sense of accomplishment when they find themselves mastering their bodies more and more. This builds confidence. Possessing more self-discipline and confidence improves other areas of life like school work and interpersonal relationships. The American Kenpo variety of karate the GCS karate program uses is characterized by an emphasis on self-defense and self-discipline, not attacking. It teaches kids to avoid trouble whenever possible, but to be ready to handle it should it arise. This goes along with Grace Community School’s moral training, including the Golden Rule: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

Much like Grace Community School’s Reading Circles and Math Circles, the Grace Community School American Kenpo Karate Program is in levels. Kids initially earn stars (up to 8 stars), then work their way up through a series of belts. Karate stars are celebrated with certificates. Students earn stripes as they master a particular belt, then celebrate with a ceremony before taking home their belt.

Grace Community School has a whole-life curriculum, combining academics, non-denominational Bible lessons, and fun extracurricular activities: Karate Class, Music Class, Art Class, and Dance Class. Find a FAQ section and more information on our website. Sign up for one class, or all four! We look forward to helping your child have fun and exercise while building self-discipline, confidence, and physical skills.

The post Grace Community School American Kenpo Karate Program appeared first on Official Grace Community School Blog.

Ever wanted to know ahead of time when special dress-up days are coming? You can!

At Grace Community School, the learning AND the fun don’t stop! We have year-round theme weeks that include special days like parties, dress-up days, and special activities. Check out the schedule below to see all the fun coming up.

See what fun is coming up next with the 2016-2017 Grace Community School Theme Week Schedule!

Downloadable PDF —> GCS-2016-2017-Theme-Week-and-Event-Schedule

Remember, you can also access a special Google Calendar to see our theme weeks and special events at www.gracecommunityschools.com/calendar.html

Theme weeks like Holiday Week keep learning fun. There is always something new to do!

Keep the 2016-2017 Grace Community School Theme Week Schedule handy, and you’ll always know what is coming next!

Hey, did you know that we’re on Instagram? Follow us there to get the best of school photos, behind-the-scenes videos, and school news!

Ready, set, HUT

Reading is one of life’s great joys! The best way to instill a love of reading is to make reading easy and enjoyable.
How Do You Get Kids to Love Reading?

I love reading. I have ever since I was a child. A love of reading has been a part of my life for so long that sometimes I feel like it’s always been there. This isn’t actually true.

I came from a very literate family. My mom and dad are both readers. As I grew up, we always had books everywhere. I knew reading was something I was supposed to do. I picked books off the shelves at home and made an attempt to read them. It wasn’t as easy as my parents made it look! At school, I also tried to read. I was met with frustration until my kindergarten teacher showed us something that made everything easier: words are made up of sounds. You can look at the letters in a word, and know that these letters represent the sounds you need to say to make the word. If you can decode the words into their component sounds, you can read the word!

All of a sudden, reading clicked for me. Instead of frustration, it was fun. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was learning to read using phonics much as the students at Grace Community School learn.

One story that happened soon after illustrates how this translated into my love of reading. My family went on a camping trip, and my mother brought along the first book of the Chronicles of Narnia. I considered this a big grown-up book. She started reading it to my brothers and me. I was very interested in it and kept begging mom to read more. When my mom didn’t read to us from the book as much as I wanted, I took the book myself and looked at the pages. To my surprise, I found out that with phonics, I was able to read most of the words! I soon completed The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and raced through the other Narnia books.

I haven’t looked back. Reading has been one of the great joys of my life. If I weren’t a good reader, that would not be true.

Kids don’t have to wait until kindergarten or elementary school to learn how to read!

Our modern early childhood education system has moved away from the proven phonic methods of reading instruction and substituted things like the “whole language” method and the “print-rich environment.” Current educators have this idea that you can just surround a child with books and magazines and printed labels and posters (that’s the print-rich environment) and they will just naturally become literate. That did not work for me. It took someone who cared enough to show me the right way to read. To teach me. The environment didn’t teach me to read, a teacher did! You can’t learn to read by osmosis; it just won’t work. Reading to your child is good and can help instill a sense of wonder. There is something about hearing the written word spoken aloud (I also enjoy audio books!), but this can’t replace having the skills necessary to read. As a consequence of abandoning phonics, children don’t learn to read until elementary school, if ever. We don’t need to wait!

Instill a Joy of Reading the Grace Community School Way

Reading is something anyone can learn to do, but they need the correct tools. Now as a grown-up, I help kids learn to read at Grace Community School. We start with the basics, just like my teacher and later my mother did.

Unlike me, kids don’t have to wait until kindergarten to learn to read! Grace Community School students as young as two years of age learn that each letter of the alphabet has a sound. The alphabet is broken down into five groups. Vowels are the first group. Once the vowels and their sounds are learned, the children move on to the next until they master the entire alphabet and its sounds.

Learning certificates celebrate children’s achievements and keep parents informed.

This is all at an individual pace, so it doesn’t matter if your child just started at Grace Community, they will begin at the beginning — and we don’t hold kids back, either. They can go as quickly or slowly as they need to. After this the kids learn to put the sounds together (these are called “blends” We send certificates home to help you celebrate your child’s achievements.

Grace Community School’s own letter book program is next. There are 32 books covering all the alphabet, each with blends for the letters the book covers. This book system along with one-on-one phonics instruction produces children who can read fluently, and who as a consequence love reading!

The joy of reading lasts a lifetime. Unlock your child’s full potential and create a life-long joy of reading with a Grace Community School education. Find our more about the GCS Reading Program here, and if you enjoyed this article, please click one of the share buttons below. We appreciate it!

 

The post The Joy of Reading appeared first on Official Grace Community School Blog.

Check out our YouTube video playlist below. As you can tell, the kids did a great job learning our special song, Meghan Trainor’s “Better When I’m Dancin.”

We even did some glow in the dark dancing!

We have found that the best way to keep kids interested in learning is to make it fun! This is one reason why every week is a theme week at Grace Community School. Song and Dance Week is just one of almost thirty different exclusive theme weeks we have for our students. Every single week has its own activities, art projects, themed educational activities, and coloring papers. Many of these weeks also have dress-up and other participation days.

Awesome dress-up days (like you see here from School Spirit Week) allow for maximum participation by Grace Community School students.

One question parents ask frequently is how they can keep up with all our planned activities. In addition to signs and notes in each location’s office and elsewhere, there are other resources to keep parents informed:

www.gracecommunityschools.com is updated weekly with the theme and upcoming dress-up days
Our online school calendar has theme weeks and special events for the month; you can even subscribe to it using Google or Apple Calendar!
We have a yearly schedule for parents; click here for 2015-2016, here for 2016-2017
Subscribe to the Grace Community School Email Newsletter (and get a $5 coupon!) to get school news right in your inbox
Grace Community School social media pages are updated daily with school news, photos, and upcoming activities

The learning never stops, and neither does the fun!

The post Have a Blast With the Grace Community School Kids During Song and Dance Week! appeared first on Official Grace Community School Blog.

Thank you for voting Grace Community School Best of Cape Coral, Bonita’s Best and Best of Southwest Florida for 2016!

 

Our parents have been busy! You voted Grace Community School the best daycare and preschool in three different awards so far this year: Best of Cape Coral, Bonita’s Best, and Best of Southwest Florida.

We are thrilled to see the Southwest Florida community recognize us for our more than 30 years of child care excellence.

Now more than ever, parents are asking, “Instead of Daycare, Why Not Grace Community School?”

Best of Cape Coral
Grace Community School was voted Daycare and Preschool in the Cape Coral Breeze Best of Cape Coral Awards for 2014, 2015, and 2016!
Bonita’s Best
We were voted Best Preschool and Best Child Care in the News-Press Bonita’s Best Readers’ Choice Awards!
Best of Southwest Florida
News-Press Readers chose Grace Community School as Best Child Care and Best Preschool in the 2016 Best of Southwest Florida Awards!
Thank You!

We couldn’t have done it without you.

Help us celebrate! Right now we are running a Flash Sale for new customers. Get Grace Community School child care for just $99/week through November 11. It’s a fantastic deal! Even better: current customers who refer a family earn a $100 referral bonus. Get details here. You and your friends can get the childcare voted Best of Southwest Florida for the best price ever!

The post We’re the Best… Again! appeared first on Official Grace Community School Blog.