Lesson 159: In 2013, I Learned ... (By Mark Ashbaugh)

Friends, for the first time in I Don't Have a Clue ... But I'm Finding Out history, you get to hear from my husband, Mark!
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In 2013, I learned about ...

1. Priorities: We all know we should have priorities. Typically, we even know what our priorities should be. However, how many of us are actually consistent to live in accordance with our priorities? In a seminary class, a professor compared the trends for teenagers' greatest influences during specific eras in America. The change over the years is subtle, but interesting.

• 1960: Family, School, Friends, Church, Other
• 1980: Friends, Family, Media, School, Church
• 2005: Media, Friends, Family, School, Other 
  
  

Although priorities differ from significant influences, often a list of influences parallels what is most important to us. I like to think I don't act like a teenager (even though apparently I just left adolescence, which current statistics say lasts from age 10 to 30! I was still in adolescence when I got married and had 2 kids).

All this to say, what are my main priorities?

For those who profess faith in Christ and follow him with their words and actions, the Lord is our first priority. He has called all Christians to love him with everything we have and to love our neighbors as ourselves. This is easier said then done. So, though perhaps obvious, my first priority is to serve the Lord with my life. I've known this since I was 16, but am continuing to learn what it means.

Other priorities? Family. Friends. Church. Job. The most important lessons I've been learning this year involve how these various priorities overlap and interact.

When I started my first full-time job in June (right before I left adolescence, so I got that going for me), it was easy to want to jump in head first. However, what the Lord, Katherine, and others have continually reminded me is that when it comes to ministry (my job), family has to come first.

Our church had a youth ministry specialist, if you will, come speak in October. Part of his ministry focuses on missionary kids, who are now referred to as “Third Culture” kids. They don't belong to the culture of their parents' home country or to the country in which their parents minister, and so, they form a culture of their own. A third culture. It's interesting, when third culture kids get together, wherever they are, they feel like they are with their people. 

Missionary kids tend to gauge their relationship to their life overseas in one of two ways. They're either really content and confident in who they are or, they are miserable. There's very little middle ground. It seems the most common denominator for the content ones is that they felt a part of their parents' ministry. These kids are more likely to be confident in who they are in Christ and with their place in life. However, if they perceived their presence to be a burden, not a priority, by their parents, then their experience produced the opposite results. 

I think the same probably applies to pastor's kids, or anyone's kids for that matter. Katherine, Samara, and Hudson are my first ministry, my first ministry priority. I have to minister to them, love them, allow and encourage them to be a part of the Lord's ministry in my life in whatever way they feel most loved and involved. Whether this ends up being a lot or a little.

2. Inadequacy: This is a continual theme in my life and will continue to be. Jesus, the Son of God, said, “the Son [Jesus] can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees his father doing.”

At my ordination, we were blessed to have Katherine's home church pastor come and give a charge specifically to me. We were sitting in the front row when he stared down at me from the pulpit and said something along the lines of, “Mark, this is a higher and wonderful calling the Lord has given you, but with a higher calling comes greater judgment.” Ouch.

Let's step back a decade or so: In high school, the Lord converted me, and it was a fairly easy transition to being a Christian. I was always a good kid, so now, being in Christ gave me a reason for all the good things I already did. Now my good works were not about earning my salvation, but because I loved the Lord and wanted to serve him. The problem was (and continues to be, yet hopefully less so) that I wasn't really convicted of my sin. I never really understood my inadequacy before a holy and perfect God. I was a good kid so I thought I was close to a good God on my own merits even with faith in Christ.

Throughout high school and college, I thought I was pretty great. Yet, since being called to be a husband, father, and pastor, it's becoming clearer by the day how inadequate I am and how great he is. On my own I can do nothing good. In Christ all things are possible according to his will. This leads to my next reflection.

3. Deflectors: Around the time of our graduation, RTS' President, Dr. Kruger, on three separate occasions told a group of us, that ministry is going to be really hard. In more than ten years as a professor one type of consistent feedback he receives is ministers and missionaries telling him how hard ministry is. So, as we're all getting ready and excited to enter full-time ministry my President tells me three times it's going to be hard. Can't wait! 

Honestly, I have few complaints thus far. In fact, this position has been pretty great. But, Jesus suffered in his ministry, and if we're called to follow Jesus and to be like him, suffering will come.

However, for now, we're called to be great deflectors. Ministry isn't about us. Even in the hard times, it's not about us. It never is. It never will be. All three gloomy speeches were coupled with a reminder to keep being deflectors. Want a visual picture of a deflector? It's like the moon is to the sun. The moon has no light of its own, but reflects the light of the sun. Like the moon, like John the Baptist (“He [Jesus] must become more, I must become less”), we are called to use ourselves to deflect others towards the one greater than us, Jesus Christ. 

Transition. 

4. Pirates: I love historical non-fiction books. Recently, I read one that is basically the true story of  the pirates of the Caribbean. Fascinating. However, whenever I read historical non-fictions I generally remember about one fact from the entire book. Here's one. 

The instant the pirates finished building their massive sailboats shipworms would begin eating their hulls, and if not taken care of, the worms would literally cause the ship to sink. In the Caribbean there were often no proper ports to take care of the worms, so they'd drive their ships on shore and lean them against another shored ship. Then, after cleaning one side of the hulls of worms, they'd move the boat around to other side of the grounded boat to clean that side of worms as well. It was a grueling and tedious process.

Here's a second. Apparently, being on a ship was miserable, even the Royal Ships. If you've ever seen “Master and Commander: Far Side of the World,” they made sailing look awesome. Turns out, it was terrible. Especially for the pirates. Still, a very interesting read.

5. Transcontinental Railroad: Another non-fiction book I read since graduating seminary (after 3 ½ years of being told what to read) was on the Transcontinental Railroad. What an interesting time in our history and an amazing feat. In a western section of building the railroad, men had to bore through lots of mountains. The tallest peak with the longest tunnel was drilled into from both sides. It took painstakingly long, but when the two sides connected inside, they were within 2 inches of exactly where they meant to meet! How'd they do that without computers and sonar and everything we have today!? Amazing.

6. Blogs: My wife's blog is the best blog in our family. 

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Editors' Note: On #6, I think the author meant to say, "best blog in the whole world" but he could not be contacted to verify this typo. Therefore, the post was published as is. 

Lesson 156: Steve Jobs and Me.

Do you ever wonder about those people, the ones who are thinking a billion brilliant thoughts simultaneously? Do you ever wonder how it is that their brains don't explode?

I have an acquaintance from high school, who is (to put it lightly) extremely busy on facebook. He posts more links concerning more subjects than anyone else I know.

But it's not just that he posts the links, he comments on the links. He asks questions, seeks dialogue, and follows-up. He argues. He pushes his points. He genuinely seems to care. Perhaps, it amazes me, because half of the time, I have no idea what the articles he posts are talking about.

They just make me tired.

Over my self-imposed Christmas break, I read Steve Jobs' biography. Talk about a fascinating brain.

In the book, he comes across as the most egotistical, manipulative perfectionist, who was a nightmare to work for and frustrating to live with. At one point, I asked Mark, "When am I going to get to the redeeming aspect of this guy?"

I kept thinking, there is absolutely no way Steve Jobs would have ever hired me. I am one of the people he would have "gobbled" out of the room in an interview. If I had slipped into the company somehow, I would have sat securely in his bozo category until he eventually fired me.  

So much of what he fixated upon, so much of his drive, so much of what he cared about does not jive in the slightest with me.

In fact, it mostly makes me tired.

However, on a scaled down, more average Joe, less Steve Jobs level, much of his passion invirgorated a fire within my soul.

It makes me want to stretch, to breath, to open my eyes to possibilities. To think really hard. To sit down, in quiet, and to think. To make my brain hurt with such intense thinking. To discard bad ideas, but to foster good ones. To write down good ideas, and to continue to think about them. To edit, to adjust, to perfect. To grow something. To pour my time, my energy, my thoughts, my intellect into something that really matters. To produce.

Did I just get caught up in the Steve Jobs' reality distortion field for a second?

Y'all, while reading this book, I was totally sucked into the Steve Jobs' RDF. So much so, that mid-sentence, I jumped up, grabbed my idea notebook, and wrote, "Some days are best spent in bed with a basket of Christmas goodies and Steve Jobs' biography. I'm going to break-out in 2014. 2014 is my year."

What does that even mean? I have no idea. It's all cryptic and profound sounding, but more likely, hollow and weird. At least I didn't immediately post to twitter.

Perhaps, this is where the brain-hurting thinking comes into play.

I am no genius. In fact, as demonstrated, my brain gets real tired, real quick.

But neither am I content to idle away, letting potentially good thoughts turn to mush. I am not content to have no goals, no ideas churning, no growth occuring.

Perhaps, "breaking-out in 2014" simply means pushing through to the end of an idea trail rather than succumbing to fatigue and falling asleep. Perhaps it is forcing myself to do the brain work, even if it ends up leading nowhere. Perhaps its thinking through the connections of faith, passion, training, and how these components can be passed on or as Jobs would say, imputed, to the world. (Clarification: Imputation is not being used in a theological sense here.)

Steve Jobs never did marketing research. He was fond of saying that people don't know what they want. It was his job, Apple's job, to show them what they wanted, why they needed it.

Enter iphones.

He was a visionary, a motivator, and a perfectionist. His products were complete packages, they worked in themselves from end to end. The hardware, software, design, power, everything was connected, just like Jobs. He was the complete package.

His work was exact. And successful.

To be honest, my dreams for life, when I can stay awake long enough to dream them, are far bigger than connecting the world through perfectly designed mobile devices. They involve the God of the Universe, the Savior of the human race, and the people that he is lovingly drawing to himself.

The Lord's passions are good and perfect. His vision is one that I can get on board with. His work requires time, attention, thought, care, hard work. He inspires faithfulness and fosters creativity. He provides strength and courage to proceed.

Pray that we would not grow lazy or passive in the work we have been assigned to do.

Pray that we would engage in kingdom work, purposeful living, with faith, hope, love, joy, focus, grace. Not to earn our salvation. But to live fully as a result of it.

This is something worth staying awake for.

Lesson(s) Learned (from Steve Jobs): Focus intently on a few things, rather than a million. Commit to making your output excellent, rather than quick and mediocre. Simplify everything. Then simplify it again.

Lesson 153: Reflections from 2013

For the first half of 2013, I was wrapped up in the seminary world, writing papers, reading books, dialoguing about the church and ministry. Tunnel vision was set. The goal was ahead of me. All of my being was poured into finishing.

After graduation, in a way, I experienced a sense of loss, a loss of purpose. How could my life possibly have meaning without seminary in it? I had always been a stay-at-home mom as well as a student. How was I going to survive if I lost one half of my identity? What in the world was I going to do with all that free time?

Of course, this sounds ridiculous from the outside, but the focus was so consuming for such an extended period of time, that the fear seemed entirely legitimate. I lost many a good night's sleep over this. 

However, after spending four years devoting almost all my time (and energy) to studying Scripture and teaching others, I took a break and gave attention to normal pursuits. For the past six months, I have learned about gardening, finances, minimalism, baking, saving, photography, and interestingly, the piano. I've learned about blogging and small businesses. I've taken a class on public speaking. I've also been blessed with the opportunity to serve and volunteer in a number of ways. I've taken over the majority of the household responsibilities of laundry, doing dishes, cleaning, and meal planning. I take a walk outside most days.

That sounded quite triumphant. The switch did not flip that easily.

In a counseling class this summer, Dr. Tim Lane posed this question. "When was the last time you did something that you did not want to do, but you did it anyway, because you knew it was the will of God?"

Immediately, all my efforts of seeking the Lord in finding contentment in homemaking raced through my mind. I don't ever want to clean the house, but I pray and the Lord gives me strength to pick up the next toy. I don't want to figure out where all our money is being spent, but I pray and the Lord grants me patience to proceed.

Oh, I thought (feeling kind of miserable), there are a million times a day this has happened lately. A million and one even. But, it all feels so useless in the grand scheme of things.

Dr. Lane looked us straight in the eye and said, "You can be confident the kingdom of God is advancing."

Every time you say no to your own selfish desires, to your own agenda, and say yes to the will of the Lord, you are growing in grace, regardless of who is around to see.

It has been wonderful to realize for myself, not just in theory, that the work of the kingdom looks different at different stages of life and that's ok. Making my bed for my husband has become a holy endeavor, a way to serve and love Jesus. Faithfully washing, folding, and putting clothes away has given me a chance to grow in my trust of the Lord. Taking care of my home and family, welcoming people in, giving of our resources, is kingdom work!

I am hopeful that I will be able to utilize my seminary degree in a formal setting someday. In fact, I'll let you in on a little secret. I'm praying that 2014 would include some additional training, in the direction of Biblical Counseling.

But for now, as cliche as it sounds, 2013 was a year of discovering joy in the mundane, purpose in the everyday, contentment in the simple. The Lord has been so gracious.

For this lesson, I am grateful.


Lesson Learned: 1 Thessalonians 4:9-11 "Now concerning brotherly love ... we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more, and to aspire to live quietly, and to mind your own affairs, and to work with your hands, as we instructed you."

This post is linked up to a collection of other wisdom, end of the year posts. Find those posts HERE!

Lesson 149: Picture Perfect(ish)

Loyal readers, you who are ever-so-patient with my photography shortcomings, thank you! A new dawn is breaking, and I will now be making attempts at using photo-editing software. I do hope it improves your viewing experinece.

A girl covered in flour is significantly funnier in high-def!

 

Non-iphone relient suggestions are welcome!

Lesson Learned: For bloggers struggling with dull-colored photos, give this link a lookster!

Lesson 148: So About This Flour ...

I'm sure you've been dying to know the story behind this post and picture. 

It all began last summer when Mark and I decided to become vegans. We were in an almond-milking, nut-snacking, garden to table cooking frenzy! We felt amazing, light, energetic, motivated.

I even started another blog called "I Don't Have a Clue: Vegan." It didn't take off. 

Full-disclosure. We also felt a little hungry.

(My college friends were totally underwhelmed by these meal plans.)

No processed foods. No meat. No cheese. No eggs. No dairy, which means no yogurt and no ice cream. It wasn't difficult to up the portion size of our veggie / fruit intake. We already loved all those healthy foods, but we realized that if we wanted to remain vegans, we had to figure out a healthy (inexpensive) way to incorporate bread.

Ezekiel bread is not inexpensive. 

But according to all this glutten-free literature, isn't bread the enemy?

I don't know, I'm not a doctor. I think the main reason for going glutten-free is because people experience slight (or serious) allergic reactions to glutten. I'm not sure of the benefits of cutting it out if you do not have an allergy.

To be honest, when I cut out dairy, I stopped having stomach pains, slept better at night, and smiled more. (Just kidding about the smiling bit.) So, who knows.

Anyway. A good friend, Lynsie, has been a part of a group of women who mill their own flour and bake their own bread for years. Her eating story is here and is worth a read. I am writing about milling flour after one go at it. She is a real miller!

She directed me to The Bread Beckers, who offer a free cd (yes, it is literally, a listen in your car, cd) that explains a plethora of health benefits from eating bread products baked from freshly ground whole wheat flour.

(Sidenote: The Bread Beckers theologize a lot explaining their reasons for starting their company and baking bread. I have to say, I do not fully endorse the way they use Scripture. However, the health information is incredibly helpful, and I do encourage their desire to serve the Lord with their lives and business.)

All in all, I was sold.

Now about getting wheat berries, a mill, and learning how to bake bread ...

Lucky for me, I have a dear friend, Teresa, who lives in town, who has access to an organic co-op, owns a mill, and loves to teach wanna-be's like me.

(Her husband has been instrumental in helping Mark with our compost pile.)

(Oh, and he married us.)

Together we purchased 50 pounds of wheat berries for $25! I wish I could give you a visual of just how much potential flour that is. Well, so much.

Something went wrong ... I ended up covered in flour!

 Wheat berries are amazing for a couple reasons. First, a wheat berry contains within itself a perfect completeness of nutrition. I'm not really sure what this means in specifics, but it's definitely a good thing. Second, as long as the wheat berry remains unmilled, it will continue to retain its complete nutritional value.

The second the berries are milled, the clock starts ticking and it begins to lose nutrients. This means that once you mill, you have to bake soon after, or else freeze the flour.

I decided that milling, baking from scratch (I'm traditionally a boxed cake kind of girl), and learning to bake bread was too much for a weekend that also included a Christmas party and church play. So, I reduced the grand plan and ended up just baking enough pancakes and muffins for the week.

Using Lynsie's recipes, I put on C. Underwood's Sound of Music in the background (My cliche response is that the remake was a flop.) and got to bakin'.

After 50 pancakes and 36 muffins,

Only a few casualties.

I still had this much milled flour to freeze,

And 48 pounds of wheat berries left at Teresa's.

I'd grade this first experience an A+. Milling was fun, baking was surprisingly simple, and the food was a hit! We are still eating pancakes 10 days later. (Freeze pancakes immediately, and they hold their nutrition.)

Next on the agenda ... bread. I just need to get my hands on a bread maker. I tried the kneading approach once and have completely forgotten the steps.

To complete the update, we are no longer vegans. That phase lasted two weeks. However, we did learn a lot in that time and try to eat a veggie-heavy diet with less dairy, less eggs, and less meat.

Yummy whole-grain breakfasts help with that!


Lesson Learned: I, Katherine Ashbaugh, can in fact bake something from scratch for my family. I do not need to rely on the Little Red Hen for everything!

Lesson 137: We're Composting

A few months ago, Mark and I decided to learn to compost. We knew nothing about it: didn't know why, didn't know what, didn't know how.

You could kind of say, we didn't have a clue. But then, we started to find out.

After some research, we can sort of answer of all these questions.

Why the Ashbaugh's Compost?

1. We don't have a garbage disposal, which means all of our food was going into the trash can (or Mark would scatter it in the yard. Grrr.). This made the trash smell horrible and required that we change bags too often. Now we compost! Food waste goes in a small tupperware next to our sink and is taken out to the pile almost everyday.

(Yup, we love bananas.)

2. We don't have trash service. This means Mark has to load up trash in our car and take it to the dump. Composting helps create less trash, equaling fewer trips to the dump.

3. We're hoping to expand our gardening efforts next summer, and apparently compost has magical powers in a garden.

4. We have a lot of land. This means we can tuck the composting pile on the other side of the tree line and never have to look at it.

What the Ashbaugh's Compost?

We read Home Composting Made Easy by C. Forrest McDowell and basically, we compost what he says to and vice versa.

We do compost: Grass clippings, Leaves, Dead plants, Food scraps, Fruit wastes, Manure, Coffee grounds, Hair, Lint.

We don't compost: Fire ashes, Meat, Bones, Dairy Products, Human Doo-doo, Plastic, Metal, Glass, or Toxic plants.

How the Ashbaugh's Compost? 

We do the "compost as you go" style." As we cook, we collect food scraps in the aforementioned container. When it's full, we empty it into the pile (GREENS). Later that day, Mark will come along and throw a layer of BROWNS on it.

At first our composting pile was contained in a circular enclosure of cinder blocks. (These blocks, like the materials for everything we create, were found on the property.)

However, then Mark learned that the pile needed more air circulation, so this is the set-up as it currently stands.

Isn't it hilarious how excited people get over a pile of waste?

In other yard news, look what has started to grow!

I wonder if this lettuce would be more productive in a salad or as food for the compost pile?


Lesson Learned: Definitely too early in this experiment to have learned much yet. I will say though, composting helps keep our trash from stinking! And that's a good thing.

Lesson 136: Do the Next Thing (Making Time at Home Matter)

There are days when I do not want to do anything.

I don't want to make my bed. Heck, I don't even want to get out of bed. I don't want to wash dishes. I don't want to fold laundry. I don't want to cross anything off my list. I simply do not want to do anything.

Typically, these days are the days when there is the most to be done.

There are random shoes, trucks, and books spread all over the house. There are half-filled cups on every imaginable surface. There is shredded cheese and cereal on the carpet under the kids' seats at the table. There are bills to be paid, phones calls to make, and emails to return. The fridge is empty, the diaper supply is on E, and the kids still need to be fed and changed.

It is on such days as these when I find myself sitting around feeling sorry for my lot in life. How could anyone expect me to get out of bed today, let alone tackle the rigors of running a household?

Honestly, some of these days get completely wasted. The sour mood triumphs, and the house remains a mess until Mark gets home. He swoops in like the hero he is, takes the sticky littles to the grocery store, buys dinner and diapers, cooks the meal, baths the babies, and cleans up the wreckage from the day. He usually rubs my feet as I fall asleep at 9 pm. I remember what a sweet man I married and resolve to wake up with more energy tomorrow.

It is ok if this is how the situation transgresses occasionally.

But, this cannot happen every day. Twinges of the "I don't want to" mindset occur almost every day, but I simply cannot collapse into a useless mess every single day. Taking care of this household is my job. I need to run it well, and I want to run it well.

Is there a way to break the cycle?

I have found that the most successful way to combat these pouty thoughts (while praying), is simply to do to the next thing. That's it. Do the next thing. What I mean is that I try to accomplish just one thing, no matter how small or insignificant. Whatever the next thing is, I do it.

I get up, and I put one toy away.

It sounds so elementary. How will returning one toy to its proper place make any difference whatsoever in the grand scheme of the household? Well, it won't, in and of itself. But I have found that often this simple movement serves as an motivation to keep going.

On the way back from the playroom, I pass an empty water cup. Might as well put that in the kitchen, you know, since I'm already standing.

In the kitchen, I notice a few pieces of junk mail. It's not too much effort, so I throw them out. A space has been cleared. All of the sudden I have the desire for a clean countertop, and I work towards that end.

As I'm clearing away, I spot my list and realize #2 is a simple bookkeeping detail that will not take more than three minutes. I open my computer, enter the data, and cross the item off my list.

Do you see what has happened? By simply making the decision to complete one, small task, I have become motivated enough to complete four more.

On really bad days, these four tasks may be the extent of my day's successes. However, usually the trend continues for a while longer. I may not finish everything (in fact, I rarely finish everything even on a good day), but I've put a dent in the work. I've made gains. I've accomplished something.

If you find yourself in a slump, with loads of laundry looming, stacks of unanswered correspondance, and scattered play things galore, I encourage you, not to do everything but to do the next thing!


Lesson Learned: Slow and steady.

Lesson 89: We Chose Montessori Because ...

As I alerted you yesterday, Samara had her first day of school today! She loved it!

For those who have asked and would like to know a little more, Mark and I have decided to send Julia to a small Montessori school nearby.

Why Montessori?

1. Well, my cousin, Becky, sent her children to Montessori school and her children are awesome. (In Montessori they are called children, not kids, and so we will use the appropriate terminology.)

While this sounds like sort of a shallow reason, it is the reason that our interest was first peaked to Montessori education. From the get-go, my cousin and her husband seemed to parent with quality. They give their children beautiful books to read and read with them often. They include their children in outdoor projects, digging in the yard and riding on tractors. They eat healthy food and have soup parties with their neighbors. They participate as a family in charity walks and fundraisers. Becky sews a lot!

It's all good stuff. There's a healthiness, a wholeness, and a sense of community to a lot of their practical routine, and I really admire that.

And as I said, they sent their children to Montessori preschool.

This is why I initially began researching Montessori.


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Note: I am not going to give you a full history of Montessori or all of its tenets and philosophies. It is so easy to find a million other resources for that on the internet. I am now merely going to give you the ways in which I think that some of the Montessori philosophy fits with Biblical ideas and a few other reasons for why we chose it.

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2. Children were created to work: One of the foundational principles of Montessori is that children are made to work, just as grown-ups are, and that they should spend their time being engaged in meaningful work.

Tell me this doesn't just scream Gen 2 to you! Built into our framework as humans is the idea that we were created to work. God put the man in the garden to work it and keep it. This is prefall. This is before sin had entered the world. Before things went downhill, God had always intended that man should work. Montessori thought definitely taps into this most basic human principle.

The children engage in practical work at school. They care for the classroom, wash themselves properly, tend a garden as a class, and prepare snacks for one another.

The children engage in mental work at school. Based on each child's own pace, they learn about letters, numbers, art, music, and the world.

The children engage in meaningful work at school. This is crucial to the Montessori philosophy. Children get frustrated if they are instructed to do tasks over and over without accomplishing anything. The work the children are engaged in has worth.

3. Children should work hard simply because it is a good thing to work hard: The children at Montessori schools are not given rewards for completing tasks. Rather, they are taught that the expectation is to work hard and to do one's best, simply for the sake of doing one's best, not just to receive a reward at the end. Again, this taps into the idea that we are created by God to work, and that doing our work to the best of our ability brings glory to God. We should seek God's affirmation, not man's.

4. Children must be taught to focus: At Montessori schools, the children are rarely interrupted while they are in the middle of a task. Each child sets about her work and remains with an activity until she is ready to move onto something else. She learns to focus and to take her time. Because there is no ending time, she does not feel the need to rush to get something done. Thus, her quailty of work should be better.

Similarly, all the children in the classroom are doing their own work and focusing. So, the children are learning to focus and work well in the middle of a lot of moving parts. This is a great practical life lesson.

5. Children should be encouraged towards appropriate levels of independence: Maria Montessori believed that children developed in a series of peaks and valleys. Thus, at particular stages of a child's development, she is predisposed to learn specific lessons easier. You can read about this elsewhere, but one of the lessons I have taken from this observation is that children should be given responsibility appropriate to their ability and developmental stage. Parents should not keep doing everything for their children, but should rather be encouraging their children towards taking care of themselves. In some ways, we should be working ourselves out of a job.

Now, clearly, I am not advocating giving up parental obligations. Throughout the entire course of their lives, we should be nurturing and guiding our children, particularly in matters of faith. However, Samara is capable of getting her own dishes out for meals, setting the table, clearing the plates, and so on. I wrote this post a while ago, when I first began to think about this type of thing.

6. Children should think about and respect others: What are the two greatest commandments? Love the Lord your God, and love your neighbor as yourself.

a. I see the "love your neighbor as yourself" happening in two ways in the classroom. First, the way the curriculum is set-up, the children learn about the world first. They spend a lot of time studying different countries, looking at maps, and learning about various cultures. The lessons then move inward, first to one's own continent, country, state, town, school, family, and finally, self. The idea is that by beginning broad, the child gains a larger perspective which will hopefully combat the naturally tendency to focus intently upon oneself.

As I said, I certainly see a benefit to opposing self-centeredness. Thus, this principle of Montessori is not entirely in conflict with a Biblical worldview. However, for Christians, a child's understanding should begin with God being God. The world as a whole is not our foundation, the Lord is! He is the one we are to be loving first and foremost, with all our heart, strength, and mind. Out of our relationship with him, we are able to love others. We know this! This is not spoken about about at Montessori school; therefore, this is one area where Mark and I are aware that we need to focus on during the time that Samara is at home. 

b. Each class has children of a range of ages. Samara's class has 3 - 5 year olds. The idea is that as the class learns together, the younger children come in, without as much experience and know-how. They look up to their older peers, watch the ways they act (hopefully, with a bit more maturity), and are encouraged to try new things. Similarly, as the child gets older, she then becomes a leader in the class. Thus, the children learn to follow and to lead, which I think is really cool!

7. Children should respect their environment, because aestethics are of some importance: Again, this is Biblical. The Lord did not just create, but he created a beautiful world, with interesting animals, bright colors, and a variety of backdrops. Similarly, the children are taught to keep their classroom clean and encouraged to make it beautiful. Each child donates a plant to the classroom, which she is responsiblity for watering and keeping dust free, for the good of the whole class. Once a week, a different child brings fresh flowers for the classroom, and that child receives a lesson on flower arranging. The children are taught to put their materials back exactly where they belong. The classroom is a light, airy environment, and the children are free to get on with the business of their work because it remains so.

8. Children should be taught healthy habits: Montessori education emphasizes healthy eating, lots of fresh air, drinking water, and exercise. Each day a different child brings in either a fruit or vegetable for the class to share. They eat lunch outside whenever the weather is nice enough.

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So, basically, this is why I like Montessori education. A few additional reasons are that the children listen to classical music while they work, their system for learning math is really cool, and as I mentioned in a previous post, the teachers are awesome, loving, and intentional.

I do not think that Montessori is the only way to educate children. When we were still considering this option, a retiring (Christian) teacher friend of mine said that "She appreicated any type of education that really sought to think about children. Montessori education certainly thinks about children." 

Similarly, our ethics professor advised us "to make sure to consider the pros and cons to whatever type of schooling you choose for your children. Pray about your decision. Be sure to seek the Lord for wisdom in selecting the best option for your family and child."

I would like to make clear that if there is an area where we sense that the Montessori philosophy conflicts with Biblical teaching ... the Bible wins. Every time. 

We are so excited for Samara! We feel like the classroom that she will be going to everyday is a place where she will thrive. She will be loved, and she will learn to love to learn.

I welcome questions concerning Montessori and will do my best with my limited knowledge to answer them. We are obviously new to the whole thing!


Lesson Learned: My research into the Montessori classroom has helped provide practical goals and desires for the way I run my home, including a fleshing out of the purpose of a child's day, fostering opportunities for growth in independence, thought to our environment, and an encouragement of healthy habits.

Lesson 63: Pro-Think

The older I get the more impressed I am by the public education I received in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Within the university realm, I have always been and continue to be thoroughly prepared to face the difficulties of college calculus (Mrs. Romberger), the rigors of Biblical Greek (Mrs. Lavelle), and the realities of Theories of Popular Culture (Miss Smith). I am most certainly grateful to all my teachers over the years.

However, I have been far and away the most grateful for my schooling in English, both reading and writing, grammar, vocabulary and spelling. Well done Ms. Kopas, Mr. Blanchard, and all the rest of you! Thank you!

I'll tell you why I'm the most grateful to these people.

In this new age of mass media, texting (blah, blah, blah, how sick are we of hearing bloggers describe this stage in history), the people of my generation (age 28 and older) are amused, confused, depressed about this younger generation's grasp on normal human communication.

Unfortunately, we are not all so amused, confused and depressed, that we don't participate. We all buy into it, so much so that a friend's eighth grade sister recently told her that "Facebook is for old people.

All of this fast-paced, incessant information dissemination has vastly changed the way our culture packages ideas, receives messages, processes data, and ultimately, how we draw conclusions. 

Personally, I think that the worst consequence of so much media is that people have genuinely begun to think in sound bites. One liners. Humorous, ironic, biting one-liners. Most regularly, half-truth one-liners.