Filed under: teaching
From one of my little ones:
I’ve changed my mind about being a princess when I grow up. Instead, I want to be a mommy.
Filed under: Uncategorized
This is mainly for my CG friends (I love you guys!), but if anyone else finds it useful, all the better.
I’m sometimes asked about Bible reading as a discipline. I don’t have anything brilliant to share, but I can point you to some tools that have helped me.
I think it is extremely helpful to have some sort of plan to guide your Bible reading. Before I had one, I would either a) not know what to read, so read nothing or, b) read things out of context and miss the bigger picture, or c) read the parts of the Bible that I liked best (i.e. the epistles and Proverbs) while neglecting other parts.
Then I started following a plan. I didn’t have to decide what to read every day, so I read. Sometimes I veered off into other passages after the planned reading, but it gave me a starting point. I read all of the Bible, so I understood the whole thing better and got a more fuller understanding of truth. Life is better this way. I never want to go back.
I am partial to Discipleship Journal’s Book at Time plan. It doesn’t divide my attention in as many directions as M’Cheyne’s plan, and it also gives you only 25 days to read each month, leaving some flexibility for missed days or extra study. This used to be free, but now you have to pay for it. I think it’s still worth it.
Here are some other plans, some of which are for much less than a year.
This past year, I used Robert Murray M’Cheyne’s plan, which requires daily reading and takes me through the OT once and Psalms and the NT twice. It has readings in 4 different books every day, which is a perk for people who don’t like reading nothing but Numbers for a week or more. I still the DJ plan, but D.A. Carson wrote devotional books that align with M’Cheyne’s plan, and I’ve been using those. After a few years of the 25 days a month plan, I was surprised at how easy the transition to 365 readings a year was. It just becomes part of the day, like eating. Also, M’Cheyne divides his plan into private readings and readings for family worship, so if you’re overwhelmed by the 4-5 chapters a day, you can choose just one category and read half as much. That would still be a great accomplishment! Robert Murray M’Cheyne has no use for any royalties in eternity, so his plan is free. You can even make the daily reading your start-up page.
So, what if you fall behind? My advice would be to just keep doing a day’s worth a day, and then make an effort to catch up on the weekend. If you’re more than a week behind, skip what you missed and just jump in with that day’s reading. Remember, the Bible reading isn’t saving you; it’s nourishing you.
What if you get lost in the content and can understand what you’re reading? First, remember that you don’t have to understand everything before you can apply what you do understand. Also, there are many good resources out there, but one of my favorite is Mark Dever’s collection of overview sermons. There’s one sermon per book of the Bible, giving you major themes and messages to look for. My experience has been that they enrich my reading. A good commentary is a great tool, too. If you want personal help understanding what you’re reading, I can’t think of a leader or pastor who wouldn’t be thrilled to get coffee with you to talk about the Bible.
I hope these are helpful to you! May your soul flourish in 2009!
My Pre-K class is entirely blonde. Some of the moms have noticed this and tease that I screen all students to make sure they’re tow-heads. Recently, one of the students noticed this lack of diversity.
Student A:”Hey, I have blonde hair, and B. has blonde hair, and C. has blonde hair, and D. has blonde hair. . . (and so on until each child was named)”
Me: “You all have blonde hair, but it’s all a little different, isn’t it? B.’s is darker blonde and curlier, and E.’s hair is straighter and lighter. God made each of you unique. Different colors of skin and hair were God’s idea. He could have made us all look exactly the same, but He chose not to.”
Student A: “But you can change it.”
Student B: “You can’t change your hair!”
Student A: “Yes you can! My aunt went to the hair store and got red hair.”
Student B: When I go to the hair store, all they do is cut mine.
It was hard to tell whether he was indignant or relieved that he only got a trim, but he was amazed by this new information.
After a series of experiments on depth perception:
Me: So, why do you have two eyes? [The expected answer is that it helps you judge how far away an object is.]
Student A: Because if you only had one, you’d be really scary-looking.
Student B: But if everyone only had one eye, we’d be used to it, and it wouldn’t be scary to us.
They think outside of the box.
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From #6, on vacations:
When I have kids, I’m going to surprise them and get them up early in the morning and take them on surprise vacations. And if I don’t have a family, I’ll try to surprise myself.
Filed under: teaching
I teach my younger class (Pre-K) a little bit of Art History. Mainly, I want them to be exposed to good art and comfortable with terms like “Early Renaissance” or “Impressionism,” and love art for life. I don’t expect them to recite which dates a particular master lived or his five most famous works. (Deep down, though, I like to imagine that I will get these children will give their parents the satisfaction my friend did when, as a grade-schooler, she saw a sculpture of a reclining figure and said, “Hey, that looks like a Henry Moore.” It was. Her mom was thrilled.)
On our second day of reviewing Botticelli, one bright young student piped up, “And he lived in Florida.” (She was really close; Florence was Botticelli’s home.)
Our reverent Advent ceremony quickly degenerated into a request session for #4 (my oh-so-talented musician brother). We knew just how far we’d drifted when #5 piped up, “Play ‘Angels we have Heard on High’ like Journey!”
Aside from, “Good job!” the words I utter most in a work day are, “Don’t pick your nose. Do you want a tissue?” Snot is just a part of a teacher’s life, and I’m beyond being grossed out by it. I imagine this is how doctors feel about blood.
A couple of weeks ago, I’d reminded a student not to pick his nose and handed him a tissue box, when he said brightly (as if this alternative to tissues might be the most brilliant idea he’s had all year), “Oh, sometimes I just like to pick my nose and wipe it on my pants.” Sometimes efficiency isn’t a good goal.
The next week, I asked a student if she could do some drill work. “No,” she said firmly, “and the reason I can’t is that there’s a giant booger in my nose.” We took care of that right away. She wasn’t kidding.
My all-time favorite snot memory (and yes, there are a lot) happened last year. I was reading aloud and paused to correct a child, “Don’t pick your nose.” He’s generally compliant, so I was surprised that a few seconds later, he’d started again. I corrected again, more firmly. He held evidence up for inspection, and defended his actions: “I was just trying to put it back!” Lesson for the day: some actions can’t be reversed or undone.
Bad puns run in my family. Some of us are more especially afflicted. #4 and I used to be pretty bad, but now we just keep our mouths shut (most of the time). #5 and #6 join my dad in bad pun sessions and slip a zinger into conversations now and then.
A propensity to car sickness is also a part of my genetic make-up, but not shared by any family members. Sunday, the whole clan carpooled to a family party and my lunch ended up neatly deposited in a waste basket my mom keeps in her car.
Everyone was fairly tolerant, but when our family light drive came around, #3 mentioned that she wanted recognition for getting into a car with me so soon after an episode. I apologized again, and, without missing a beat, #5 exclaimed, “You didn’t need to bring it up.”
From #3 while we were all gathered over Thanksgiving weekend:
“I’ve already told Mom this, but just so you all know, when Mom kicks the bucket, I’m totally taking Peter Spier’s Christmas.”
If you’ve never seen this delightful, wordless gem, it’s worth finding an out of print copy for your family. Give your kids an inheritance worth fighting over.
