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Building Grit Versus Stealing Grit (by Dr. Charles Fay) Grit is the ability to persevere in the face of challenges and difficulties and it is something that is learned primarily through experience. Love and Logic contrasts two very common parenting styles—Helicopter Parents and Drill Sergeant Parents. Both parenting types steal the opportunity for kids to develop grit through experience.  Helicopter parents steal this experience from their kids by protecting them from struggling with problems. Drill Sergeant parents also steal this experience through sending the message that their kids can’t think and do for themselves, so the parent must do this for [...]

A Peek Into First Grade by Mrs. Deb Volberding First grade has been a bunch of busy bees! We have been working hard on our reading, writing, and math skills. Students have been reading lots of decodable books, great stories from our reading books, and fantastic stories from the library. Our goal is to read at least 10 minutes every day. Many of the first graders are reading lots more than that!  We even have one student who has already read 100 books this year, and a few more students are well on their way to making this optional goal by [...]

CHECK OUT OUR NEW LOGO!! It’s exciting to announce that we have refreshed our school logo!  Thanks to the talented design skills of Mr. Stephen Krause, we have a variety of formats to meet our many school spirit and marketing needs.  Our past school logo will always be a part of us and our rich school history.  (Many of us have now become instant owners of “vintage” school wear!)  Thanks to all of the people who helped to make this a reality.  Get in on the action by purchasing your new spirit wear for the whole family! To read our full [...]

Congratulations, Preschool! Dear Families, I want to personally thank our director, teachers, and aides for their devoted care of our preschool program!  The Dept. of Human Services conducted an unannounced visit for a comprehensive inspection on Wednesday, October 26. This visit focused on our physical setting, staff knowledge and competency, program policies and procedures, health and safety measures, paperwork organization and thoroughness, and much more that covered over 400 checklist items. It is an honor to announce that our preschool scored a 100% which is no small feat!    It’s far too easy to take excellence for granted, but I want to [...]

Hearts that Give Dear Families, Thank you for your generosity toward our school, our staff, our students, and those we seek to help.  I have been a witness to this for many years now.  Thank you also for joining us in our efforts to teach our students about Christian charity and service to others.  We have been intentional about encouraging students to give freely from their hearts without placing a reward in front of them.  This week, I am coming to you with a goal I’d like for us to tackle together.   As you know, our offering dollars this year are [...]

The Joys of Kindergarten “When you teach kindergarten, you never have to grow up.” I was told this by my cooperating teacher while I was student teaching a couple years ago, and it has stuck with me since. The minds of these five and six-year-olds help me to slow down and take in each day as a Kindergartener. As adults, we get caught up in all our responsibilities and what’s happening on the weeknights and weekends, even worrying about all the things coming in the distant future. I find that I remind myself quite often to take a breath and enjoy [...]

STJ Goes to LEA Last week your St. John’s faculty had the wonderful opportunity to attend the national Lutheran Education Association (LEA) convocation in Milwaukee, WI. For three days, over 3,000 Lutheran educators and administrators came together to learn and worship, laugh and brainstorm, encourage and support one another.  Tori:  It was AMAZING, and the Together theme was perfect for such an uplifting and fulfilling experience. However, as phenomenal as the actual convocation was, and as empowering as it was to be among 3,000+ fellow Lutherans, the absolute best part of the entire event was experiencing it with my friends and [...]

Fun Times this Fall Our school year is off to a FUN start for the students with a myriad of activities and field trips!  Our 5th-7th graders enjoyed learning and memory-making at Osprey Wilds this month.  The 3rd/4th graders headed to River Rendezvous last week.  Mrs. Kuehne and I were invited to the 2nd grade Apple Party this week.  Plus, we will sit as family groups tomorrow for our second All-School Chapel and later gather in the gym for our first Family Group activity of the year where students will engage in a Minute-to-Win-It showdown with their classmates!  Does it get [...]

IMPORTANT FACTS PAYMENT COMMUNICATION Now that we have worked with the FACTS billing system for a bit, we want to clarify how incidental items and accounts will be billed at St. John’s.  Please become familiar with your financial account via FACTS.  You can log into your FACTS Family Portal at any time to see your financial account via the Financial tab.   The following is the schedule for billing: Tuition Billing: Tuition billing follows the schedule you created at time of enrollment or reenrollment during back-to-school.   Incidental Billing: Lunch and ESP charges will be posted to your account once a week [...]

A Very Special Chapel Offering Project Dear Parents, We have made the decision as a school that all of our chapel offering dollars for the 2022-23 academic year will be given to support the Loeslie family. Please read their story on the next page, and talk with your child about our plan to share our gifts with another family in need of our help. Our support plan is three-pronged for each trimester this year: Term 1 – give toward a GoFundMe campaign set up to secure housing for the family, Term 2 – support the family and children for various holidays, [...]