The House of Christmas

And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy” (Luke …

TCS – A Window to Our Community

It’s Thursday night. Perhaps you have spent your day wiping noses and bottoms while also convincing your five-year-old to write row after row of a lower case ‘e’ that looks like English instead of ancient Sanskrit. Meanwhile the baby is trying to drop her morning nap, and the toddler is obsessed with the math manipulatives and executes a flop tantrum …

TCS House System and Communitas

The House System is a time-honoured structure of student body organization originating in British boarding schools and still prominent there on many campuses.  Students were initially grouped according to the actual boarding house in which they lived and a structure of leadership, social interaction, and competition grew up around that organization.  Implementation of a House System at non-boarding boarding schools …

Rome 2019

MAMMA MIA! HERE WE GO AGAIN… When people ask about my trip to Rome, I am never sure what to tell them. The problem is not that I don’t have enough to say but rather that I don’t know how much I should say. Surely they do not want a gushing monologue about my trip. And how can I do …

Why We Should Read Sad Books

Whenever I try to convince my daughter to read a new book, the first question she suspiciously asks me is: “Is it sad?” If I say yes, she refuses to read it. Then we have the same argument we’ve had countless times. I remind her that all of her favorite books have made her cry. She tells me that she …

A Glimpse into TCS Reading Week

TCS spends a week each spring with an intense focus on reading. We want TCS to be full of students, parents, and educators who love to read. We believe this is the basis of a great education and a thoughtful life. We want to read well, be shaped by what we read, share what we have been shaped by, and …

Making Old Things New

Filmmaker Peter Jackson, of Lord of the Rings fame, has a “new” movie out called They Shall Not Grow Old. The movie is made out of footage from World War I, brought back to life after a century of storage in the Imperial War Museum’s archives. If you stay in your theater seat past the credits, you will see a …

Six-Year-Olds Can Make A Difference

Over the last several years, TCS parents have come together and started book clubs for the students in each grade level. There are several objectives in forming these book clubs. We want to foster reading for pleasure in our students. We want to promote thoughtful discussion among friends. We want to provide a social gathering that strengthens unity within the …

Michelangelo In A Cup

Foam rides a darkened sea becalms its bitter storm laps against porcelain coasts. This is the single extant stanza from a poem I am trying to write. Of course, I have been toying with the words. “Blankets” is the main alternate to “rides,” and “roasted” to “darkened.” Should I reveal the subject more bluntly by describing the foam as “milky”? …

The Joy of Every Longing Heart

Are you one of those crazy people who sets up the Christmas tree before Thanksgiving? I am.  Perhaps it’s my love of Christmas songs that puts me in the mood early. Or the little girl in our household who asks me about it every seven minutes. Or maybe because Target got the jump on me and I feel like I …