Junior Newsletter
Chores, few of us enjoy doing them, but for a household to run
smoothly these tedious and time-consuming tasks must get done.
It’s a given that as adults and parents, they will do their part around
the house, but when it comes to assigning housework or chores to
children, there’s some debate on which tasks are age-appropriate.
Many times we want to preserve their childhood for as long as
possible and “let kids be kids” however the benefits of assigning
chores cannot be overlooked! Such as teaching your child basic life
skills, for example laundry and washing the dishes, teamwork,
responsibility and self-reliance, time management skills and most
importantly helps to develop a strong work ethic.
This week the Grade 3s have been hard at work learning all about
the wonders of outer space! From moons and stars to satellites and
asteroids, it has been great fun sharing and expanding our
knowledge. We have been discussing the different planets and even
made our own rocket ships in Creative Art!
Senior Newsletter
The Rock, Pebble and Sand story
There once was a philosophy professor who was giving a lecture. In front of him, he had a big glass jar,
a pile of rocks, a bag of small pebbles, a tub of sand and a bottle of water. He started off by filling up the
jar with the big rocks and when they reached the rim of the jar he held it up to the students and asked
them if the jar was full. They all agreed, there was no more room to put the rocks in, it was full. “Is it full?”
he asked. He then picked up the bag of small pebbles and poured these in jar. He shook the jar so that
the pebbles filled the space around the big rocks. “Is the jar full now?” he asked. The group of students
all looked at each other and agreed that the jar was now completely full. “Is it really full?” he asked. The
professor then picked up the tub of sand. He poured the sand in between the pebbles and the rocks and
once again he held up the jar to his class and asked if it was full. Once again, the students agreed that
the jar was full and he agreed.
What does this mean?
The jar represents your life. The rocks represent the most important things that have real value – your
health, your family, your partner. Those things that if everything else (the pebbles and the sand) was lost
and only they remained, your life would still have meaning.
The pebbles represent the things in your life that matter, but that you could live without. The pebbles are
certainly things that give your life meaning (such as your job, house, hobbies and friendships), but they
are not critical for you to have a meaningful life. These things often come and go and are not permanent
or essential to your overall well-being.
The sand represents everything else – the small stuff. Material possessions, chores and filler things such
as watching television or browsing social media sites. These things don’t mean much to your life as a
whole and are likely only done to get small tasks accomplished or even to fill time.
The metaphor here is that if you start with putting sand into the jar, you will not have room for rocks or
pebbles. This holds true with the things you let into your life. If you spend all of your time on the small and
insignificant things, you will run out of room for the things that are actually important. A. Edwards
What can we learn?
Make room for what’s important.
Take care of the rocks first – the things that really matter and are critical to your long-term wellbeing and
happiness. If you deal with the big issues first by putting the rocks in the jar first, the small issues can still
fall into place. However, the reverse is not true