House Fridays are a time commitment that could be used for learning more science, but there are some deep life lessons and Godly maturity being modeled each week during our games and competitions that we wouldn’t necessarily see or be able to nurture in science class.
Read MoreUniforms are a traditional part of the classical and Christian education movement across our nation and even worldwide. I think our students look especially sharp! But it’s not just about looking nice, TRA students wear uniforms for several very important reasons.
Read MoreIt’s dark, and the disciples are shaken. Their Master–the one whom they’ve seen silence storms and raise corpses, the one from whom horrific demons flee and to whom tiny, trusting children flock–the God-Man who has spoken light and love and healing right down to their very bones–the One who has promised to give them life everlasting–this Jesus, has just told them (again) that He must leave them–tonight.
Read MoreOn October 31, 1517, Martin Luther–a law student turned monk–nailed his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the church in Wittenburg, Germany. In short, these Theses (a thesis is an argument or an assertion–ask your TRA junior-higher or high schooler!) were Luther’s way of protesting against corruption within the Catholic Church and reminding the church of an oft-forgotten truth: that by grace and grace alone have we been justified from the consequences of our sins (Galatians 2:21; 2 Cor. 5:21). Any good works we might do are the reflection of our God-given grace upon our sinful state of being (Eph. 2:8-10). The sound of his nails fastening the Theses to those church doors was also the sound of the Protestant Reformation bursting forth.
Read MoreThe mission of The River Academy is to partner with parents to educate the next generation of Christian leaders. How does this partnership for leadership work? Primarily by building on the foundations you have laid as your child’s primary educator. As parents teach and train their children to be obedient and to love and honor God, those students will naturally be primed to learn more about God, and love Him and His Word. Such students learn to honor their teachers and classmates by being responsible for their actions and thinking of others more than themselves, which are key traits of Christian leaders.
Read MorePrior to all the disruptions to learning caused by Covid, The River Academy had a budding school-wide music program. As with many schools, Covid killed the music program at TRA and we lost our music teacher. Last fall, TRA began advertising and praying for a new music teacher to revive our music program. We had few applicants and the one who best met all of our qualifications and matched our distinct classical, Christian culture was Jessica Morlan.
Read MoreChapel is a time to gather weekly as an entire elementary team, grades K-6. We will pray, worship God by singing psalms, learn more about God and the Bible, sing the TRA Mission Statement as well as elementary Scripture memory verses, and celebrate the good works students have been doing around the school each week to bless others. We are also learning a 13 minute history timeline song together this year so we’ll have a common reference point for what students will be learning about in history and Bible throughout their years at TRA. Occasionally chapel will be replaced with an assembly on a specific topic (like why we celebrate Reformation Day or to showcase some of the memory work learned in different classrooms).
Read MoreAs a Classical Christian school, we pride ourselves on a few things: wrestling with difficult scientific and mathematical concepts, delivering eloquent speeches, and–of course–reading many, many hard books. We also live in a world in which standardized exams for things like scholarships and college entrance have long been the norm (though that might be changing!). The problem with previous standardized tests, particularly for schools like The River Academy, is that they do not reflect the type of learning that we do here. So we had to look for an alternative, which we found in the CLT–the Classic Learning Test.
Read MoreEach September, while the students (and teachers) are shaking the summer from their minds in hopes of focusing on the newborn school year, the TRA Secondary students (7th-12th graders) head into the mountains for their Fall Retreat, traditionally at Tall Timber Ranch. It’s a time of resetting, renewal, and relationship-building, and it’s possibly the most important time of the secondary school year…
Read More300 plus students arrived this morning with big smiles, and a few sleepy eyes and jitters, to catch a glimpse of all that God has planned for them as part of The River Academy (TRA) community. They met new teachers, learned new routines, visited our new lunchroom (and new locker areas for secondary!), and started their 2022-23 journey of growth here at TRA.
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