Happy New Year

Well, friends. We have put 2021 in the books. God is good! All the time, God is good! Having said that, it feels pretty OK to turn the page and prayerfully look forward to all God has in store in this new year! I pray Christmas break has allowed you to slow, breathe, fellowship, make warm memories and offer thanksgiving to God for all of the goodness bestowed in this life and the promise of the next. I look forward to seeing each of you soon and working together to grow our children again! 

Chapel times

We've had some staffing adjustments in our kindergarten classes. Due to this, we're going to try an experiment. Would you be willing to rework our chapel time on our scheduledWednesdays? Can we try for 2:30-3:00ish rather than 8:30? This will allow for five full days of academic support for our littlest learners. Here is our chapel schedule for the rest of the year. 

Collaboration Days

Black History Month

It feels a little funny to start thinking of planning and resources for learning in February, but it IS a new year and February will be here before we know it. Black History Month is an important time for our children to learn familiarity and respect for ALL people, races and tongues, as God calls us to love like He loves. Part of celebrating ALL people is learning about others' stories. This includes the celebrations and the struggles. Here is a small library of books with online links to read-alouds so you can familiarize yourselves with some suggested titles for your learners. Please tap me if you have questions or wonderings about resources for the learning you have planned in your class during this month or any month truly! 

Discovery Day

We've got another one on tap in January. This will be an active Discovery Day, however. Tours will be scheduled for Tuesday, January 18 all day long. You just keep on keeping on with your students and plans as they are! I'll bop around with any families who have scheduled a tour. All you are asked to do is smile, greet a child if he/she is along and keep on with the business of the day. I'll handle the rest. No more evening events for our Forest people! 

Tulip Time

I know! WHAAAT?!?! A lot has had to change but Tulip Time is still in May...RIGHT?!? Yes....rest assured Tulip Time has undergone a few changes but it's still in May. This note will be going out to families in our January Blog. We'll talk about what this means for our 1st-4th classes and how we'll care for our little parade celebrities during this special event! 

Tulip Time Choices

In 2018, Tulip Time reframed their mission statement to read “Mission Statement: To celebrate Holland’s tulips, Dutch heritage and community.” To better align ourselves with their mission statement as well as with the goals here at Holland Christian our Rose Park and Forest School students will be given two options for dressing up and walking in the the 2022 Kinderparade. More details will be forthcoming as we get closer to Tulip Time but we want you to be aware of the options well in advance of the Tulip Time season. Our students from Rose Park and Forest School will be given the option of walking in either our new “tulip” section of the parade or our “Dutch heritage” section. The whole of our two groups walking together will be a celebration of our “community”.

• If your first through fourth grade student chooses to opt into the “tulip” section of our parade, your child will design and construct his or her own tulip to carry and then dress as a gardener based around our "Rooted" t-shirt. This gardener costume might include gardening boots and gloves, overalls, a wide-brimmed hat, etc. Anything you have handy at home that helps your child look like a busy gardener tilling the tulips will fit the part perfectly!
• Students who opt into the “Dutch heritage” portion of our student body will wear their own dutch costume and carry the parade props our students have carried in the past.

All of our students from Rose Park and Forest School will be walking together as one big community in the aforementioned subsets. More details about logistics, costumes and timing will be coming soon. Don’t hesitate to email Miska with questions or wonderings at mrynsburger@hollandchristian.org

Merry Christmas

It stirs my soul to peek in and watch children participating in the ritual of advent in their classrooms with you. We do the same with our children at home. I'd like to share an excerpt from a devotional for Christmas Eve.

"On this Christmas Eve, the day that marks the end of the Advent season, we light the Christ candle, the candle that all the other Advent candles have foreshadowed and pointed toward. The Christ candle signifies that the fullness of God's light has come into our world. It reminds us that God has not forgotten his promises to us. Even though we wait in the "darkness," even though the darkness may feel overwhelming at time, God's light shines in the darkness. "The darkness has not overcome it". The darkness will not overcome God's light. The Christ candle offers a reminder of this hope. We light the Christ candle on Christmas Eve when the amount of daylight we receive is at its lowest point in the year. In the midst of darkness that almost seems to overwhelm, God's light still shines.

As you extinguish the Christ candle and go to bed (please extinguish all candles before going to bed), take time to remember that just as your house will suddenly be at its darkest, God's light will continue to shine. Thank God that you will wake to house full of light in the morning. Thank God that even when the world seemed to be at its darkest, when Jesus' life was extinguished, there was still hope. God's light would shine once again in Jesus' resurrection, and God's light will shine again when Jesus returns. Even if the world feels at its darkest for you right now, God's light will shine. You can rest in God just as you rest in your bed at night. You can do so with the assurance that Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again.

Sarah Essenburg

Our ESS assistant will be starting full time on Monday, January 3. I will meet with her in the afternoon to begin her onboarding process. As you know, this is a new position for us so we'll grow slowly into this support for our children in the Forest. I'm THRILLED she will be joining us. We'll keep her caseload of students limited to those who have gone through an 'in take' process. Right now she has three students in second grade and one for consultation in first grade. Lynae Stielstra and Christy Haig will also help her with training and support strategies. I'm eager for each of you to meet her and work with her! 

Collaboration Days 

Chapel Change

We had some staffing movement in our kindergarten programming. Due to this, we're proposing that we try moving chapel to Wednesday afternoons from 2:30-3:00. This is a very different time for us to gather. Given that we will be meeting at the END of the day, we might decide to change the format (less 'church' feel perhaps and more 'walk and talk' potentially). Thank you for your flexibility as we try this change and see how it works. Because we are making this change, we can keep our kindergartners growing and advancing academically with support. Thank you! 

Here are our dates:

1/12 - Mrs. Hicks

1/26 - Miss Spoelman

2/9 - Third Grade

2/23 - Mr. Scott

3/9 - Kindergarten (Wierenga)

3/23 - Mr. Russ

4/13 - 2nd Grade

4/27 - 1st Grade

5/11 - Kindergarten (Harig)

5/25 - Convocation

6/1 - All School Chapel

Mary Terpstra

God created our Mary to flourish in creation. Her life's passion has been to bring children into God's outdoors and find his beauty. She has a WEALTH of knowledge and creative ideas to engage children in creation. She was thrilled to join our Forest team this year as a part-time teaching assistant with Emily. We were thrilled to have her join in our work "officially". And then one injury after another has happened. Emily and I received her regretful resignation this week. I hurt for her. She LOVES this program and wants to support your work in bringing children into nature and flourish is God's care. Please keep Mary in your prayers and, if you have time, drop her a line of encouragement. Feel free to bounce ideas off her! She LOVES to help and has SO many ideas for our learning experiences. You can connect with Mary at 

dterp50@chartermi.net