Happy Friday Friends,
Looking to the weekend, it appears more snow is in our forecast. Having grown up in Pennsylvania and lived in New England for thirteen years, snow was a regular part of my winter experience. As a boy, walking to the bus stop on a snowy day only to see the bus get stuck at the bottom of the road leading toward my neighborhood was a dream come true. “Snow day, baby!”
These magical days meant my mom outfitting me in head-to-toe snow gear where I looked like Ralphie’s little brother from “A Christmas Story.” Snow days meant sledding from dusk to dawn and building anything and everything out of (hopefully) ‘packable’ snow. As I aged out of snow play, snow in the forecast meant making easy spending money shoveling driveways. To this day, when I pick up a snow shovel it’s like being teleported back to 1985, moon boots and all.
At this Wednesday’s Zoom Meeting for Worship during ‘Joys and Concerns’ at the end of the meeting, the undeniable magic of a pending snowstorm was on full display. Student after student shared their collective joy of possible weekend snowfall. If the snow comes as currently predicted, I’m sure many Friends, little and big, will be sledding from dusk to dawn and building anything and everything out of the snow just like I did (please let it be packable snow, the fluffy snow is pretty but a bummer when you’re little!). If this is the case, parents don’t forget…
1. Plastic bread bags make great waterproof socks over regular socks.
2. Buy hot chocolate asap, don’t forget the mini-marshmallows.
3. Asking your child to shovel the driveway or sidewalk is a right of passage for all kids.
4. Enjoy watching your child shovel the sidewalk and driveway from the warmth of your cozy house.
5. Whatever you do, do not triple-double-dog dare anyone to stick their tongue on a cold flag pole, we all know how that ends.
Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!
All the best,
Mike
Head of School
Need-to-Knows
2nd Quarter Grades are Coming…
– Grades will be coming out this coming week. Due to COVID absences throughout the school, teachers have extended the grading period to allow students across levels to turn in late work.
Stepping Up Night, Wednesday, February 9th at 6:00 pm, in-person!
– This is a night when we warmly welcome one parent of each family whose child will be in Pre-Kindergarten, Early Kindergarten, Kindergarten, first grade, third grade, and fifth grade for the 2023-2023 academic year.
-Parents will be able to experience what lies ahead for their children as they move up to a pivotal grade level for 2022-2023. Education at VBFS is a 12-year process from cottage to 8th grade. Programs and systems exist to support each child’s academic, intellectual, emotional, social, and ethical development. It is valuable for parents to be familiar with not only the curriculum at their child’s current grade level but also with the experience of the upcoming school year. Current teachers will set up their classrooms in a way for parents to see what their child will experience in the classroom by going over the daily schedule, curriculum, expectations, and benchmarks.
– This evening, you will receive an invite from SchoolCues to RSVP for Step-Up Night. Please note, that only one parent for each child will be able to attend the in-person Step Up Night.
Financial aid deadline, February 14
– See attached flyer with guidelines and more information.
Enrollment
– Administration is currently working on enrollment for the coming 2022-2023 school year. Please let Candice Jarden know if your intentions are not to return next year. [email protected]
Summer Camp-Registration Opens March 1
– 10 weeks of camp will be offered from June 6-August 12. Full 10 weeks 8am-5pm is $3,300, full 10 weeks 8am-3pm is $3,100, weekly 8am-5pm is $330, weekly 8am-3pm is $310. There will be a 5% discount for siblings and military. Sections include Cottage to rising early k, rising k to rising 2nd, rising 3rd to rising 5th. Examples of theme weeks: cooking, Olympics, art, mindfulness, dance and performing arts, STEAM, music, dinosaurs, water play, Harry Potter, Mad Science, Hollywood, and inventors.
Basketball
– Join us to cheer on the boys middle school basketball team at their next home game on Monday January 31st at 4:30PM.
