Friday Focus

Help reinforce learning with these six tips for increasing retention of information.

Share Strategies for Remembering Information From Textbooks

Beginning in third grade, studying for tests may require learning several chapters information. To do this well, kids need to go over each chapter in detail...several times. Following these steps can help your child:

• Skim through each chapter and look at the review questions before reading.
• Read the chapter in sections. Textbooks often give sections bold-faced titles to break up the information.
• Write down questions about each section on 3" x 5" cards. Write the answers on the backs.
• Make more flash cards for key words and concepts.
• Answer the questions at the end of the chapter.
• Study the facts until they're memorized. (Your child might like you to review them with her.)

Here's a little tip: This work takes more than just one night. Plan to use a week to review and study for tests.

For more information about how to help your child improve her study skills and prepare for tests, check out the resources and ideas at...

www.homeworktips.about.com

April Prayer Breakfast

Sunday April 2, 7-9 a.m. Prayer is the time we can thank God for all He's done, and bring our requests to Him. Have you ever prayed with a group of people for 2 hours? If so, then you already know about the blessing that awaits you. If not, then why not join the dozens of other people that are experiencing the power of prayer? Join the area churches at San Francisco Philadelphian Church at 2520 Bush Street at 7 am sharp. Oh, and there's a great breakfast to follow. See you there!

Address of Philadelphian Church...

Violence in the News

Recently a parent asked me how they should answer their child's questions about all the violence they hear about in the news—daily they hear about the war in Iraq, students walking out of classes, and gang shootings.

Discussing hate and violence with your child is one of the first steps to end hate, violence, bigotry, and discrimination in our society.

Children are quite aware of what's going on around them. They have access to more information than ever before; they are bombarded with news in the media, internet, pod casts, etc. While it's hard for adults to come to terms with violence, it's even harder for kids. Putting things in perspective can help. Yes, people to bad things. Yes, people hurt other people—sometime intentionally and sometimes unintentionally. But we also live in a country where most of us are safe. You can also:

• Limit. You may need to turn off the TV in order to limit the amount of news and media coverage that young children are exposed to.
• Clarify your feelings. Talk with another adult before discussing events with your child. This can help you think through issues and decide how to present them.
• Check in. Ask your child what questions he has about the events. How is he feeling
• Explain. Review the facts—what actually happened—without including upsetting details that your child doesn't need to hear.
• Stay calm. Acknowledge that such violence and crimes do exist. But don't convey the current situation as hopeless.
• Comfort. Tell your child that many people share his concerns about current events. Name people in your community who are making a positive difference.

Although not always fun, setting limits for children is important. More information about how you can deal with hate and violence in your community and school can be found at...

http://www.adl.org/education/

Education Summit Update

On Monday evening, March 20, nearly 70 people from 15 different churches in the San Francisco area met to discuss a shared vision for the future of San Francisco Adventist School. Those present included pastors, school staff, parents, and representatives from our conference administration and Office of Education.

Dialogue that evening focused on the importance of:

• continuing to grow the school
• clarifying the school's purpose and mission
• celebrating diversity in our community

A task force was established that evening that will consist of parents, pastors, and representatives of our school community. Their first meeting will take place later in April. Information from this task force will be shared in upcoming issues of Friday Focus.

Mission Statement

The mission of San Francisco Adventist School is to provide a learning environment that fosters a growing Christian experience in each child, and also nurtures and encourages optimum cognitive, physical, social, emotional, spiritual, and creative development in each child, that will result in increased personal self-esteem needed for a life driven by purpose.

Read it on the website...

The Gift of Stillness

God is present everywhere and participates in all the circumstances of our lives. It is not necessary to shut down the rest of your life or retreat to a distant mountain top to be with him. Driving down the highway, in hospital waiting rooms, at dinner, greeting clients--God's presence fills every moment of the day.

The experience we call "spiritual formation" is essentially nothing more nor less than learning to be sensitive to the divine presence. We can't fix ourselves. We can't find our own way. We certainly can't control life's twists and turns. But we can gradually learn to sense God's presence with us in all things. His love. And his peace. But I confess to having a problem doing it.

As I've tried to figure out why I have the problem, at least this much is clear: I am more comfortable with noise than silence, activity than stillness, struggling than surrender, trying to be strong than admitting my weakness.

It was the French philosopher and mathematician Blaise Pascal who said, "All human miseries come from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone." Could he possibly be right? Do we humans need more reflection than we permit ourselves? Time to take our thoughts and feelings seriously? The courage to bring them honestly before God to see what he may want us to learn? To be?

Last week I was forced to sit still in weather-bound traffic for a while. For Type-A personalities, that is nerve-jangling, finger-drumming time! I had a schedule. There were things to do. So...something told me to pray instead of churn. And I did--about a host of things. The time passed quickly. When I was able to get going on the road again, there was no haste or panic. Just gratitude for an unanticipated time for prayer. And a sense of peace about what lay ahead.

Maybe Pascal was right. And perhaps it would be wise to book a half day each month for silence before God. To use dead time in airports to be alone with God. To turn off the noise of a radio for the chance to hear God while driving to work. It would likely do wonders to focus our lives on being over doing. The meaning of life above its routines. The positives more than the negatives.

Perhaps you live at such a hurried pace that a half day or even a half hour of silence with God seems impractical. For today, put just five minutes of silence between appointments or work two five-minute periods of quiet into your morning.

At the end of the day, you may have discovered the meaning of this text from Scripture: "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10).

--Rubel Shelly