Hymn of the Week, April 20
Every week, we will share a hymn for you and your families to reflect on and familiarize yourselves with. On Fridays, we will use these “Hymns of the Week” in our Chapel videos.
Please use this music, created by our Music Instructor, Sarah Wilcox, as best fits the rhythms of your household.
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Welcoming Holy Week
Here is the scripture and art from today’s Ambleside Notes, to serve as a meditation for the beginning of Holy Week. Holy Week begins with Palm Sunday, April 5, the events of which are represented in the artwork here and in the account from Matthew below.
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Friday Chapel & Passover Chapel
Here you will find a video from our Head of School with the Hymn of the Week and scripture reading, followed by a video of our Passover Chapel teaching.
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"The Children's Feast:" Preparing for Passover
Tomorrow, we will post the Passover Chapel video, where Deb Perry and Kate Perry guide us through the liturgy of a Passover meal.
But there is more to the feast than the moment of the meal itself. Kate Perry explains here how she and her family prepare the elements of the Passover meal and how the act of preparation can be spiritually instructive for both adults and children.
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How to Participate in Passover Chapel on Friday
Every year, Ambleside holds a special chapel service near the beginning of Holy Week to teach our students about Passover, the Jewish festival to commemorate God’s deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt [Exodus 12]. The Passover meal is doubly significant for Christians, as the last moment Jesus shared with his disciples before his trial and crucifixion [Mark 14]. One way we prepare to enter Holy Week at Ambleside, which is structured to help us remember events from Christ’s life, is to corporately engage the liturgy of the Passover.
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Hymn of the Week
Hi students! I miss you all and hope you are doing well. Here is our hymn for the week: O Sacred Head, Now Wounded. When you listen during the week, I hope you will take a minute to reflect on the words and use them as a prayer. You can also sing along with the harmony if you want!
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A Prayer for Peace in Our Limitations
O God of peace, who hast taught us that in returning and
rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be
our strength: By the might of thy Spirit lift us, we pray thee,
to thy presence, where we may be still and know that thou
art God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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Friday Chapel for At Home Learning
Every Friday at Ambleside, we hold a community Chapel service that we share with teachers, students, and parents. While we cannot gather for chapel in person, we wanted to offer our families some resources to join in spirit and share chapel at home. We invite you to use this video as an anchor for your own chapel service as a family today.
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Message from Our Head of School
Dear Ambleside Parents,
Thank you for all your gracious patience as we respond to the new situation with COVID-19.
Due to the Governor’s Executive Order yesterday, Ambleside will end instruction in the building for the remainder of the school year as we join the effort to suppress this virus. We find ourselves in the unique position of accomplishing our mission in a different way than planned, but we are moving forward with “undaunted courage.”
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Narration During At Home Learning
Dear Ambleside Parents,
During these days of Ambleside At Home Learning, it is important to invite your children to tell back throughout their morning work to secure their attention and their understanding. One of the distinctives of a Charlotte Mason education is the use of narration, the simple method of “telling back” whatever has been read, seen, or heard…
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Working with Multiple Children in At Home Learning
Dear Parents,
The greatest challenge for parents of multiple children during At Home Learning is managing all of their individual needs. What follows is an outline of how the work may be coordinated and accomplished with multiple children at once. Remember, more important than book-learning is maintaining an atmosphere of peace and joy in the home…
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Children's Literature and the "Suitability" of Children's Books
“This New Yorker article chronicles the development of “children’s literature” as a distinct genre in the context of children’s readership at the turn of the 20th century. It’s an interesting read especially for those seeking to provide children with access to good books.”
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Advent at Ambleside
We have entered the season of Advent in the church calendar, the time when we all look forward to Christ's coming. At Ambleside, we look for ways to turn our students' attention to the significance of this time. In assembly, we sing carols and retell the story of the thread of redemption through the Jesse Tree. In our classrooms, we create an atmosphere of expectation by reading classic Christmas stories, and decorating with a wreath, a crèche, or Christmas lights. We practice music and readings for our Candlelight Lessons and Carols Christmas Service…
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Exams at Ambleside School
This week we enter our time of exams- a time of gaining a window into our students' minds. This is an opportunity for us to see how your students are organizing knowledge, synthesizing ideas, and mastering skills. We can also gain valuable insight into the habits of learning that are formed or lacking in the young scholar.
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Veterans Chapel
At Ambleside, we aim to inspire our students to servant leadership. Our Veterans Day Chapel is one way we do this by exposing our students to men and women veterans who have served our country in times of war and in times of peace. These individuals have chosen of their own accord to put their lives in a position where at any moment they may be called upon to stand in harm's way in order to protect others. For our students, veterans are excellent examples of sacrificial servant leaders.
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The Mind and The Brain
I have been fascinated re-reading Masons' ideas on the mind of a child in the context of recent discoveries in neuroscience. Leading psychiatrists (Jeffrey Schwartz, Dan Siegel, Curt Thompson, and Karl Lehman) have been exploring the power of "mindsight" over the function of the brain. Such research has led to transformed living in persons who have long been held captive to addictions, compulsions, depression, and other unhealthy psychological maladies.
Mason, a "psychiatrist" in her own right, draws the same clear distinction between mind and brain….
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Helping Middle Schoolers Grow
We are aware of the middle school years, 6th, 7th, and 8th grade, as significant years as students move from childhood toward adulthood. This season in a young person's life is rich with opportunities for connection with their parents and understanding of themselves.
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