Goodies with Grandparents This Friday, Sept. 28  

CDS cordially invites all grandparents of CDS students to attend our special Grandparent's Day events on Friday, September 28. There will be an Open House with refreshments in the classrooms from 1:30 until 2:10. A program will follow beginning at 2:15 in the Worship Center. If a student doesn't have a grandparent that can attend, we invite grandparent "stand-ins" like aunts, uncles, friends-even mom and dad. All grades will participate in the program in the Worship Center. Students will sit with their classmates and teachers. Parents are welcome to attend the program as well. 

• Parking - Parents, please communicate to grandparents our parking procedure.  Guests may park in the east or west parking lots, but not in the circle drives. There are handicap spaces in both the east and west parking lots. Grandparents who need assistance entering the building may be dropped off in the circle drive.
• Locating classrooms - The CDS staff and National Junior Honor Society students will be greeting grandparents and escorting them to classrooms.
• Siblings - The Open House format allows grandparents to go from room to room on their own schedule from 1:30 until 2:10 p.m. Grandparents who are visiting siblings' classrooms may visit one for a while and then go to the other. We prefer students stay in their homeroom, but if a grandparent needs assistance getting to a sibling's classroom, the student may go with the grandparents.
• Checking out - Some grandparents may want to check out their grandchild following the program. Students will need to return to the classroom and be checked out with the teacher. Parents, please send a note if the grandparents are not already on the pickup list.
• Special Assistance - If a grandparent needs special assistance, please contact Lisa Crisp in the school office for help. Please call 255-8134 or email lisacrisp@centraldayschool.com.

Attire for Goodies with Grandparents

Mrs. Land requests that all students dress in 1950's attire to go along with the theme of our Grandparent's Program. Girls may wear dresses, poodle skirts or other longer skirts, cropped jeans and blouses or shirts or sweaters with accessories such as scarves, pins, etc. reminiscent of that era. Boys may wear jeans, khakis, plain T-shirts, Oxford cloth shirts, jackets, and sweaters representing the 1950's. Both boys and girls must wear shoes and socks . No sandals or flip flops. These may be worn to school on Friday, Sept. 28 as a part of our program. All uniform guidelines pertaining to the appropriateness of the clothing will be applied. If a student chooses not to participate he/she must wear their school uniform. However, their participation in the program is not optional unless there is a medical reason. Mrs. Land is requesting additionally that students bring a pair of sunglasses to wear in the program on that Friday if they have them. Please direct any questions to Mrs. Land at susanland@centraldayschool.com.

Proofs were sent home last Tuesday. If you have not received one, it's time to check the backpack or locker. Pricing for the pictures is included in the proof. Checks should be made payable to Holland Studio. The deadline to order pictures is this Friday, September 28. If you have any questions, please contact Teri Ford at teriford@centraldayschool.com 

Student Council Elections 

CDS offers the opportunity for students in grades  

4 - 8 to develop leadership skills, a heart for service, and good character by serving as a Student Council classroom representative or officer. Student Council also promotes school spirit by sponsoring a pep rally each semester. Through service activities, students also raise funds to support the school in various ways. The Student Council is sponsored by fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Bradshaw.  Students may pickup a form from their homeroom teacher beginning this week if they would like to run for classroom representative. The following dates are also important to keep in mind for students interested in participating in Student Council:

Election of Representatives (Grades 4 - 8)

Sept 17-Sept 28 - Students may pick up an application from their homeroom teacher.

Sept 28 - Applications due to run for classroom representative

Oct 1-5 - Campaign week in classrooms for representatives

Oct 5 - Elections for classroom representatives in homeroom (Grades 7-8 elect 4 from each grade, Grades 4-6 elect 2 from each homeroom). Winners will be announced in each room before dismissal.

Instant Messages by Cheryl Gradone  

Is Anybody Listening to Me?

My dear friend just returned from a visit home. She told me about her fifteen year old niece, Sydney who is experiencing what most teen-agers and young children experience on a daily basis:  nobody is listening to her!  Sydney's mother rants and raves at her, takes her phone away, sends her to her room, grounds her for life, but never listens to what she has to say. Sydney is confused and angry! Consider yourself highly favored of the Lord if your parents listened to you!  When kids try to share their hearts when being corrected, they usually get scolded for being sassy or for being disrespectful.  They are not allowed to speak.  They can never explain.  They get trite responses from overly tired, uninterested parents, parents who don't have answers. This is the sad truth.  Most parents do not listen to their children.  Parents bark commands all day, but never stop to engage with their child to see what's going on their heart.  Day after day the child grows more and more discouraged and angry toward their parent. Day after day they are sent to their room with no hope. Sydney even went as far as telling her mother she was mean in an attempt to get her attention.  She was grounded! Is it any wonder kids don't want to follow their parents in the Lord? Parents have the wrong impression when they think parenting is controlling their child or just getting them to shut up.  Parents wrongly believe they are to 'lord' themselves over their child.  "Because I said so!" is not the high calling of parenting that Jesus commands.  Parents are not Jesus.  Nor are parents the Holy Spirit.  Parents are ambassadors of Christ, His agents on earth to show the beauty of life with Christ, walking in love with their child. Most kids would probably say, "If this is life with Christ, I don't want any part of it!"   Parents are commanded to teach, rebuke, correct, and train their children so they will be fully equipped, ready for every good work (II Timothy 3:16-7). James 1:19-20 says, "Let every man be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger. For the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God." Proverbs 18:2 says, "A fool (parent) has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart." In that same chapter, verse 13 says, "He who answers a matter before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him." I heard recently that when teenagers graduate from high school that they high-tail it as far away from church as they can possibly go. This ought not to be!  Parents have the high calling of standing with their child at the cross of Christ and of leading them down the narrow, but beautiful path of life with Jesus.  For both parent and child, this first requires committing wholeheartedly to following Jesus in absolute abandon, in submission to His ways, in denying personal rights for the sake of their child's upbringing.  It is written in Philippians 2:3-4, "Let nothing (no thing) be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind (that is, thinking humbly of yourself), let each esteem others (notice it is the opposite of self-esteem) better than himself.  Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others." This means your child. Colossians 3:8 commands that we are to "put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth." And in verse 12 it says, "Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering; bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do."  If this is you, you might ask, "What can I do?" You can begin by making plans to listen.  Set aside time where you will listen to your child with the intent of hearing their heart, not airing your opinions to him. Are you afraid of what they might say?  Are you prepared to give answers that will make the difference?  Another thing you can do, is take time to pray with your child.  They are trying hard to interpret life from a very young perspective.  Life can be very confusing for them.  If you don't have an answer for them in the moment, be honest with them.  Then tell them you will find an answer.  Whatever you do, give them the Word of God!  Isaiah 55:9-11 gives great hope:  "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.  For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, but water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall My word be that goes forth from my mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it."  To sum it up, you have a huge task in parenting. You must listen to your child. You must give them truth, with sincerity and honesty. You must forgive and seek to be forgiven.  Turn and go another way, the way of denying self, taking up the cross of parenting, dying to self for the sake of your child's soul and spirit.  One day you alone will give an account of your deeds in parenting.  The only answer is found in Jesus, in His Word, and in time spent in prayer.  For heaven's sake, listen to your child! You cannot rebuke what you have not taught.  You cannot teach what you do not know.  You cannot correct or train without a foundation.  It is never too late to start again.