Christmas 'Break' School

Some of us in the school worked hard to get some housecleaning and schoolwork done. We have had a busy couple of weeks and look forward to the routine on Monday!

Painting the Library

While half of campus was gone for the holidays, we took advantage of the fact that we needed less space (and that the students left here wanted to have as much 'vacation' as possible from homework) and painted the library. We are almost finished with the new arrangement. These students helped for almost eight straight hours and we got it done in one day.

Hard Work and Play At CRA!

Hey there, Walt here. I was recently handed the photo flash drive and was told there were several new pictures that could be put on the blog. Since I'm caught up on my items so far this week and I felt in a blogging mood, I thought I'd share them with you and yours! The activities range from our three-time-weekly karate class to our STAR Reading tutors to Nicolette's high school graduation to our very own boys basketball team! Here are the pictures...



The STAR Reading tutor team! From left to right; Porter, Noah, Shelby, Nisty, Nicolette, Morgan and Rafael. Read more about it at www.cedarridgeacademy/newsletter.html.


Shelby tutoring a student...



Rafael working hard with a student...


Porter helping tutor a young girl...


Noah engaging in some STAR tutoring...


Morgan helping this young lady with tutoring...


Nicolette's high school graduation! Congratulations Nico!


Zane and Alex V. gettin' down and dirty!


Shelby going in for a bump!


The P90X crew, led by Christine. Look at those fierce faces!


The proud and determined Cedar Ridge Shotokan class after passing their kyu exams. Congratulations everyone! From left, going up first, Sensei Christine, James, Brendan, Zane, Jake, Evan, Matt and Ryan. Going down, Jamie, Shelby, Morgan, Aly and Sensei Rob.


That's it for today! I hope you enjoy the pictures and hope they give you an idea of how your children are doing! Look for more coming soon... peace! Happy Hanukkah to those who celebrated!

Girls High Level Activity and Other New News

Hey it's Jamie. So the girls had another high level activity last Saturday to say goodbye to our Student Council President, Kat. We went to Marion's for dinner (which was so good as usual) and then we saw the new Disney movie Tangled. I personally loved the movie and I know the other girls did too. Everyone had fun and it was just a good time. Something really surprising but cool happened though. When we went into the movie theatre, we saw a couple of Christmas trees and guess what? One of them was...OUR CANDY TREE!! The movie theatre apparently bought a couple of the trees from the festival and they decided that a candy tree was a perfect fit for a movie theatre. I was so excited to see our hard work out in public somewhere. It was definately a pleasant surprise. Well, the holidays are here and the girls home is doing all sorts of fun things to enjoy the season such as decorating, making gingerbread people, coloring christmas pages, and so much more. It's going to be a fun Christmas this year. I am going to be taking over Kat's role as president in our student council when she leaves on Friday the tenth. I'm going to miss her more than words can describe...but I know she's happy and she's going to be successful in whatever she does outside of Cedar Ridge if she continues to apply what she has learned and gained here. I know she will. I wish she could stay, but this is only a small fraction of her life and it's time for her to move on, like other past Cedar Ridge graduates. It really gets me thinking about this place and how it's so full of love and healing and how I'm so grateful to be here and have this experience. I know Kat is too. Well, enough blabbing, we'll miss Kat and I'll update you guys sometime next week. Bye.

Hey everyone! It's Kat. Well like Jamie said I'm leaving on Friday so this will be my last blog post. I've really enjoyed student council and all of the opportunities it has given me. I'm going to miss all of the students and staff here and am so grateful for the support they have given me. I'm excited for the next chapter of my life and the journey ahead of me. Stick in there parents, the end is worth all of the hard work. I wish the best for all of you. Wish me luck!

What's up? It's Walt; I haven't posted in a while. Figured I'd post something about the boarding school since I'm the representative over there. I believe since my last post, we've gained about 3 students; two that were originally on the RTC side of campus and one that came straight from home. We now had staff on the weekends and things seem to be falling into place more. We've had a lot more rules put in place since we've started but a lot of them are there because of our actions. Anyways, the overall vibe is going great and I know for myself, I'm excelling by a far amount with my school items. I haven't been on since around Halloween time so I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving; I know we did!