Moving to tumblon!

For the past several months, I have been maintaining two personal blogs, this one, and (without any publicity) my tumblon blog. That time has come to an end, as I will now use the tumblon blog exclusively. Why am I making the switch now?

1. Integration.
• Tumblon is integrated with Elisabeth's developmental milestones.
  
• Tumblon integrates stories and photos (and soon video) in one service.
  
2. Security.
• Tumblon has 3 tiers of security for every milestone, memory and photo: private, friends & family, and public. Now I don't have to be nervous about publishing because I control the content - and I can write for each audience.
  
• Tumblon uses a static url (mine is http://scharf.tumblon.com). Registered friends see all the friends & family content, while unregistered folks see only the public posts.

There are lots of other benefits of tumblon over blogger, but these two are the reason that I'm making the move now. So, reset your feed readers to the new blog, and feel free to email me at leavened (a) gmail.com to request an invitation to see all of our friends & family content there.

For the sake of full disclosure: I am co-founder and community manager of tumblon, and so I'm very excited to share the service with family and friends. We are making many improvements, and adding many new features as we move toward a public beta (very soon), and then a public launch (in a few months). So you will get to see many of those improvements and features over the weeks and months to come. If there's something you think would make tumblon better, you can email me, or use the support email on any of the tumblon pages to let us know how to meet the needs of parents.

UPDATE (Nov 3, 2008): Our public beta is going well, and now includes video!

Art

I love it when friends recommend good children's books. So I was delighted yesterday when my friend, Lauren, recommended Art to me.

Art is a masterful blend of simple text and simple illustration that unfolds the dynamics of artistic expression. Patrick McDonnell has produced a worthy piece of art in Art.

Good literature teaches more than we know

"Good literature teaches more than we know. Example always speaks louder than precept, and books can do more to inspire honor and tenacity of purpose than all the chiding and exhortation in the world" (Honey for a Child's Heart p53)

The challenge for parents is to be well-acquainted with such a corpus of good literature that we can pull out the book, poem or short story to meet the hour.

"The orcs have been here"

Families who share literature together have a rich history and vocabulary with which to communicate depth of feeling, as Gladys Hunt captures well:

"When we went to visit a favorite spot and saw that much of hat we remembered as beautiful had changed, our son said, 'The orcs have been here,' and we didn't need to say more." (Honey for a Child's Heart p76)

That expression alone captures for me the power of literary allusion.

Inconceivably a better condition

If you can persevere through his tortuous sentence structure, John Owen's insight can take your breath away:

"A design in Christ shines out from [the Father], that was lodged there from eternity, to recover things to such an estate as shall be exceedingly to the advantage of his glory, infinitely above what first appeared, and for the putting of sinners into inconceivably a better condition than they were in before the entrance of sin. . . . To save sinners through believing, shall be found to be a far more admirable work than to create the world of nothing." (Communion with the Triune God, p195, 196)

Poetry

For some reason, I never enjoyed poetry as a child (or at least I don't remember enjoying it). So now I find it strange that poetry speaks so deeply to me. Words like these, of James Russell Lowell, stir me deep within:

They are the slaves who fear to speak
For the fallen and the weak;
They are the slaves who will not choose
Hatred, scoffing and abuse,
Rather than in silence shrink
From the truth they needs must think;
They are the slaves who dare not be
In the right with two or three.

Hard core hymns

For those who appreciated hymns with brutally honest words, here's another that rattles my cage, called Jesus, I my cross have taken:

Go, then, earthly fame and treasure,
Come disaster, scorn and pain
In Thy service, pain is pleasure,
With Thy favor, loss is gain
I have called Thee Abba Father,
I have stayed my heart on Thee
Storms may howl, and clouds may gather;
All must work for good to me. (igrace)

It takes courage to sing those words: "Go, then, earthly fame and treasure . . ." yet I don't know a better way to wean my heart of those things than to sing words like those in worship.

[The other five verses are just as potent, for those who are interested.]

More tulips

The tulips are fading, but I hadn't yet posted this picture . . .

All that feeds my busy pride . . .

In our family worship times, we have been singing Jesus Cast a Look on Me from the Indelible Grace 3 album. (Then we can sing along to the CD, as Matthew Perryman Jones is a much better guitarist than I am.) The second verse has been ringing in my ears:

All that feeds my busy pride
Cast it ever more aside
Bid my will to thine submit
Lay me humbly at thy feet

"Busy pride" is a good description of my pride. I need daily to pray and sing these words, and I pray that they will shape Elisabeth as she sings and hears them.

The privilege and responsibility of parenting

I love reading with Elisabeth. That discovery has been one of the greatest joys of parenting. Gladys Hunt captures well my sentiments:

"Children and books go together in a special way. I can't imagine any pleasure greater than bringing to the uncluttered, supple mind of a child the delight of knowing the may rich things God has given us to enjoy. Parents have this wonderful privilege, and books are their keenest tools. Children don't stumble onto good books by themselves; they must be introduced to the wonder of words put together in such a way that they spin out pure magic and joy." (Honey for a Child's Heart p17)

I would nuance what she has said to state that it is the privilege and responsibility of parents to teach children to delight in God and His gifts. For she is surely right that children don't stumble onto good books by themselves. Yet that in no way negates or diminishes her point that it is a tremendous privilege to discharge this responsibility. Our job as parents is to enjoy the goodness, truth and beauty of God in all things, and to introduce our children to this delight. That is a gloriously happy responsibility.

Sunshine and Flowers

Developing 'the taste buds of the mind'

At the grocery store recently, I was appalled by one family's shopping cart. It was heaped high (quite literally) with all manner of processed food. I couldn't help thinking, "Those are going to be fat kids." Their parents, who are responsible for their health and well-being, are shaping their taste buds for life. Growing up on potato chips and sugar water will not help them savor the foods that are really good for them.

What may not be as obvious as a family walks through the grocery store is how parents influence their children's taste for truth, goodness and beauty. Gladys Hunt observes:

"Good books have genuine spiritual substance, not just intellectual enjoyment. Books help children know what to look for in life. Reading develops the taste buds of the mind as children learn to savor what is seen, heard, and experienced and fit these into some kind of worthwhile framework." (Honey for a Child's Heart p21)

A diet of 'junk food' literature cripples the mind and soul just as a diet of lousy food disables the body. If you're wondering how to build a balanced literary diet, the annotated book lists in Honey for a Child's Heart is a great place to start.

Well-chosen words

"Every child ought to know the pleasure of words so well chosen that they awaken sensibility, great emotions, and understanding of truth. This is the magic of words - a touch of the supernatural, communication that ministers to the spirit, a true gift." (Honey for a Child's Heart p18)

Art on Top of the Met

I can do it!

Elisabeth has been timid to try this hanging aparatus, as it rotates with the weight of the child. Finally she tried it, and (not surprisingly) was just fine. She announced with glee, "I can do it!"

Rich language, or poverty-stricken vocabulary?

Last night I was re-reading Honey for a Child's Heart (yes, again), and came upon this selection:

"The right word in the right place is a magnificent gift. Somehow a limited, poverty-stricken vocabulary works toward equally limited use of ideas and imagination. On the other hand, the provocative use of the right words, of a growing vocabulary, gives us adequate material with which to clothe our thoughts and leads to a richer world of expression." (Honey for a Child's Heart p18, emphasis mine)

In the phrase poverty-stricken vocabulary, I experienced precisely what Gladys Hunt was describing: 'provocative use of the right words.'

As I walk through our neighborhood, and scarcely hear a sentence without the f-bomb, I cannot think of a better description than poverty-stricken vocabulary. There is no question in my mind that words and imagination are tightly knit.

This is the cycle of poverty: language, imagination and life. To break that cycle, there must be a profound change in all three. Yet in order not to suck those leaving the cycle of poverty in to the whirlpool of greed, there must be conversion. The new words, imagination and life must be characterized by visions of the Kingdom and its King, and not visions of 'progress.' That is precisely the role that literature, and Christian literature in particular, can and should play.

Gardening

Elisabeth tried her hand at gardening this week!

We love this kid

Overheard at our house recently:

"Elisabeth, would you like ice cream or applesauce for dessert?"

"Applesauce, please, Daddy."

"Elisabeth, what would you like to listen to at bedtime?"

"Bach, please, Mommy."

Not a compelling vision

A recent letter to parents from our principal closed with these words:

"Reading, writing and math are lifetime skills we should all continue to sharpen."

It struck me that those words, while true, are not at all a compelling vision of education. What teachers, to say nothing of children, get excited about the mechanics of reading and writing, or the ability to perform mathematic procedures? Those skills are the means to meaningful ends, and when they are employed to meaningful ends are exciting. Using math to solve a real problem provides satisfaction; using words effectively to persuade someone to stop littering is gratifying; reading literature that provides a compelling vision of what is good, true and beautiful is a delight.

I pray that we, as parents, would be gripped by a compelling vision of truth, goodness and beauty (rooted in the gospel) that shapes our understanding and pursuit of education - and our dialogue with those who are intellectual descendants of John Dewey.

What does "fear" mean?

Recently I was reading with Elisabeth from a portion of the Bible that calls on the readers to "fear the LORD your God."

Elisabeth turned and asked me, "What does fear mean?"

I answered almost reflexively, "It means to honor and respect." But as soon as the words were out of my mouth I realized that I had spoken the same words that dissatisfied me when I was young. The fear of the LORD certainly entails honor and respect, but it also means something closer to the common meaning of that word (which is why we continue to translate it that way).

Does anyone have suggestions on how to explain the fear of the LORD to a 4 year old?

Sitting pretty

Of course I couldn't let her take all the pictures.

My little photographer

Elisabeth took this one!

Taking action

For some time I have been on a mailing list for avaaz, an activist organization that seek to affect global policy through lobbying of various sorts. They craft their messages well enough to satisfy even me (I'm a terrible nit-picker) in pushing decision-makers toward responsible and sustainable policies.

So, first, I'd encourage you to check them out. Second, I'd commend this petition as one that tries to affect change in global food shortages by changing public policies (like encouraging westerners to burn food instead of oil).

Environmentally friendly parenting

My friend Jennifer is blogging this week about environmentally friendly parenting. She has some very helpful and concrete suggestions. And although her target audience is admittedly moms, most of what she has to say here is just as germane to dads.

So read, reduce, and enjoy!

Lobbying for the intentional use of words and books

I've been re-reading Honey for a Child's Heart for my work on tumblon. [I've been blogging more actively there than here.] I'm rediscovering why I loved it so much the first time. Here is one tidbit from Gladys Hunt:

"Every parent by words and choices furnishes the heart and mind of a child, for good or for ill. I am lobbying for the intentional use of words and books to influence a child in the best possible way. What do books bring a child? A recap is in order: a big world with all its possibilities - people to know and understand, places to imagine, eyes to see beyond the obvious, words to stretch the mind and heart, and a lasting stewardship of language used in the right way. (p101)

Sitting with tulips

The tulips are in bloom!

The trickle up effect

Lesslie Newbigin, explaining the theology of Augustine, states:

"Thus love creates order first in the family and among neighbors and then, by extension, in the city and the nation." (Foolishness to the Greeks p104)

Love creates order, beginning first in the family. Where parents love their children by calling them to love Christ, the proper order of all things is established: 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength.' Then the second commandment falls in place, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' As Augustine says:

"Consequently, since he is ordered to love his neighbour as himself, he advises his neighbour [and children] also to love God." (ibid. p104)

Thus, notes Newbigin, "It is love that creates justice."

As a parent and educator, I marvel at the divine wisdom of this 'trickle up effect.' It begins in the home, in every home, where faith works through love. Love establishes order in the home, by which justice reigns, and character is formed. Those who experience such love and justice in the home are there prepared, by faith, to love their neighbors. The neighborhood is thereby infected with the love and justice of God through faithful parenting. And as the leaven works through the dough of society, love for God creates order "by extension, in the city and the nation."

The establishment of justice in society is not distinct from, but must flow from, faith in Christ shown in love, beginning in the home. Of this justice, John Owen rightly says,

"The greatest mercies and blessings that in this world we are made partakers of, next to them of the gospel and the covenant of grace, come to us through this channel and conduit ['the proper work of magistracy' i.e. good government]" (Overcoming Sin and Temptation p352).

In this season where all eyes are on presidential candidates, it is wise to set our hands also to the work that we can do in the home that is the gospel way to the just governance of the next generation.

Leap forward in figrative drawing

This is an enormous leap forward for Elisabeth in drawing what she sees! Until now, her drawings have consisted essentially of girls, flowers and rainbows. If you asked her to draw you somethinge else, you'd get a girl, a flower or a rainbow (or maybe all 3). Now maybe you'll get a mantid instead.

In Mom's boots

Leaving the ghetto

I'm re-reading Lesslie Newbigin's Foolishness to the Greeks, and am functionally blogging through it at gospel entrepreneurship, but can't resist posting a couple of quotes here as well.

"Christians can never seek refuge in a ghetto where their faith is not proclaimed as public truth for all." (p115)

Amen.

Back in the sandbox

Yesterday was the first day of spring in the sandbox!

Discipline pays dividends

Tonight I had a conversation with a friend in which he asked me, "Are you still enjoying fatherhood?" My answer was an emphatic yes.

I've been particularly conscious lately of just how worthwhile the difficult discipline of the second and third years has been. Now when I give Elisabeth a direction, I know that she will do it without the directive being repeated. When she disobeys, she knows that the way out is confession and repentance. It is the exception, rather than the rule, to hear a request not accompanied by please. And when she comes to me with a complaint about another child, I know that she has already tried to talk with the other child about it. All those things make fathering a delight.

So when we go to the playground and I see parents frustrated that their four-year-olds (not to mention the older kids) won't listen to them, I am all the more convinced that setting and enforcing clear expectations early has made parenting a joy for us, and has allowed Elisabeth to blossom.

Fun on the merry go round

Dying Easter eggs with Uncle Frank

Elisabeth had a fantastic time coloring eggs with Uncle Frank, and I failed to post any pictures . . . until now.

Hopscotch

I was quite surprised to find that Elisabeth can no do the entire hopscotch board without extra little jumps!

I think I need some onion food

On Monday, Elisabeth had her first filling. We went to the pediatric dentist a month or so ago, and were horrified to learn that she had several cavities. So we scheduled an appointment to have them filled as quickly as we could, and Monday was the big day. She was very brave, and the filling went really well, although her lip is swollen from the procedure.

On the way home we were talking about good foods to keep her tooth healthy and she announced,

"I think I need some onion food."

[She hates onions!]

Where did you get your name?

Last night as I was putting Elisabeth to bed, she asked me,

"Daddy, where did you get your name?"

I asked her who she thought gave me my name. She guessed and aunt and uncle before settling on Granddaddy and Grandmummy. Of course, that prompted another question:

"Who gave Mommy her name?"

Again, I turned the question on her. The same aunt and uncle topped the list as Mommy's name-givers. But eventually she figured out that Pop-pop and Grandma had given Mommy her name.

After I had tucked Elisabeth in, she wanted Mommy to tuck her in as well, and continued the same line of questions:

"Mommy, where did you get my name?"

Mommy explained that we had chosen the name because it means devoted to God. Elisabeth persisted:

"But how did you know how to spell it; you know, E-L-I-S-A-B-E-T-H?"

We still have a little ways to go on teaching phonics . . .

The Call of Stories

The Call of Stories is a powerful call to stories and through stories. Robert Coles, a pediatric psychiatrist and prolific author, writes brilliantly on the role that stories play in shaping character. He writes from the experience of teaching literature at Harvard to undergraduates, and in almost every one of Harvard's graduate schools. Time and again he recounts how stories affected his students in ways that challenged and changed them - in a way only stories can do.

Although Coles isn't dealing here with children's literature, the implications are clear. We engage in stories in a unique way, identifying with the characters, feeling outrage at wrong, and even coming to see our own hypocrisy. Stories, both oral and written, can and should play a significant role in the education, and moral and spiritual formation of children. To neglect great stories is to dispense with the most powerful and vital tool of education.

For parents interested in children's literature, this is an excellent book. I'll warn you in advance that for all its merits, the conclusion is decidedly lacking. Coles clearly perceives the powerful role that literature plays, but doesn't have a larger framework of purpose within which these forces make sense. Even with first rate insight, he comes up lacking because he doesn't see the ultimate purpose behind moral formation. However, for those who see that purpose, this book will be immensely helpful.

What is the 'earth'?

Elisabeth asked a question about geography recently, and I began by answering, "We live on planet earth . . ."
She quickly interrupted me, "What is the earth?"
I explained that the earth is the planet on which we live.
She stopped me again, "What is a planet?"
I said, "It is shaped like a ball."
"Where we live is like a rectangle [meaning flat], not a ball!" she retorted.
Apparently I'm going to have to pull out the simple activities through which we see evidence that the earth is, in fact, a sphere. I love teaching science!

That's the book I was looking for

I found a book of poetry in the "reading room" at our local public library, and immediately had to find out if they had the book in the lending collection. Favorite Poems Old and New is an anthology of excellent poetry for children that includes poems of Longfellow, Wordsworth, Keats, Kipling, Emerson, Eliot, and Dickenson among hundreds of others. After being so long frustrated with poorly written poetry for children, I was delighted to find an outstanding anthology of fun poetry!

Elisabeth's zoo

Elisabeth has taken an interest in painting animals in the past month or so, and the collection of them has come to be referred to as "Elisabeth's zoo." It is amazing to me how her intrest in animals has helped her learn to control the brush far more than she does when painting free form.

The Easter Story

Yesterday I read aloud Lilly's Big Day in Elisabeth's class. I also gave her teachers The Big Picture Story Bible to preview the sections on the Easter story. I explained that I wanted to be able to share with the class what Easter is about through a book written for children. I want them to understand that it isn't about bunnies and eggs.

After previewing the book, they declined (although the teacher's aid was riveted by The Big Picture Story Bible and I left it with her to read). It was a good reminder to me of where tolerance ends. As Lesslie Newbigin states:

"But if we are talking as the Bible talks about God, who is Creator and Governor of all things, who acts in specific ways, and whose purpose is the criterion for everything human, whether in the public or the private sectors, then there is an inevitable conflict." (Foolishness to the Greeks p67, emphasis mine)

The death and resurrection of Jesus call the entire modern world into question. I could not read it to the kids as a nice story (it can hardly be called 'nice'), or even merely a good piece of literature (and I think it is excellent children's literature). I would be reading it as the true story about the defining event in the history of the world - and that is a dividing line.

So I look forward to sitting with the teachers privately, away from the kids, and talking about this event that defines all of human existence. And I pray that the nonsense of the Gospel will penetrate their hearts, and give them life.

The end of an era

Today Elisabeth had her first ever haircut!

Prayer of Confession

On Sunday, I was struck by how true our opening prayer was:

Lord, some of us walk home on these streets,
and some of us call these streets home.
We are a community of struggle.
Some of us are rich people trying to escape loneliness.
Some of us are poor people trying to escape the cold.
Some of us are addicted to drugs, and others are addicted to money.
We are a broken people who need each other and God,
for we have come to recognize the mess that we have created of our world
and how deeply we suffer from that mess.

We come before you asking you to help us work together
to give birth to a new community within the shell of the old.
We believe that another world is possible.
We believe that another world is necessary.
We believe that another world is already here. Amen.

Palm Sunday

I love holy week. Until yesterday, I had forgotten how much I love it.

At our Palm Sunday service, we began the service outdoors with the Gospel reading and then walked around the block singing worship songs. Where I live, that's just plain weird. It is more acceptable to be gay than to be Christian. I couldn't help but think that our procession was a proclamation of another reality that our culture treats as a myth.

When we returned to the steps of our church, we had a second reading outside the church. I knelt on the sidewalk next to Elisabeth as I heard these words:

'And when [Jesus] drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”' (Luke 19:41-44)

I couldn't help but shudder at the phrase "you and your children within you" as I held Elisabeth. These are solemn and terrible and fearful words of our Lord.

We entered the chapel together and continued in worship, which included a lengthy dramatic reading of the betrayal and denial in which we, the congregation were the voice of the throng asking for Barabbas. When offered Jesus, we said, "Let him be crucified!" and "His blood be on us and on our children!" More shudders.

This is the reality of the crucifixion. It is not simply a nice "Bible story." It is a gut-wrenching tale of betrayal, denial, and death of the One who is utterly faithful and kind, who went willingly to the cross.

I love holy week not because it is full of happy feelings, but because in it I see the invincible love of Jesus over our sin by the cross. The heights of resurrection morning are more pronounced for having seen during the week our sinfulness over which he triumphed.

God's love and ours

I love reading John Owen. I found this gem yesterday:

"The love of God is like himself - equal, constant, not capable of augmentation or diminution; our love is like ourselves - unequal, increasing, waning, growing, declining. His, like the sun, [is] always same in its light, though a cloud may sometimes interpose; ours, as the moon, has its enlargements and straightenings. (John Owen. Communion with the Triune God p120)

You're not a child!

Elisabeth turned to me yesterday in worship and said,

"You're not a child!"

Several times when we have talked about being children of God, she has been confused and said, "You're not a child. You're a grown-up." Her perplexity is understandable. Where else do we ask grown-ups to be children? Yet this is precisely where I am humbled in her presence and have to say,

"The only way for Daddy to enter God's kingdom is to become like you. There is no room for grown-ups in the Kingdom. God only accepts people who receive His Kingdom like children. That's the way that I need to be a child - and the way that you need to stay a child."

New tumblon feed in the sidebar

I'm going to be more actively blogging on the tumblon founders' blog on items that may be of interest to my readers here. So I've added a feed to the sidebar of this blog, or you can add it to your own feed reader here.

The great news is that before long, I'll migrate all of my blogging and photo sharing to tumblon! I'll let you know when that happens.

She's reading!

This morning on the bus, Elisabeth and I looked at her latest issue of Highlights, which just arrived in the mail. It contains an array of simple poems, stories and visual puzzles for young children. One of the pages was a very simple, six-sentence story about a dog. I encouraged Elisabeth to sound out the words and read them.

She took the sounds one at a time, put them together, and read word after word! We kept reviewing the phrase of each 5-6 word sentence, because by the time she reached the last word, she had already forgotten what the first two words said, and had to sound them out again! However, I was amazed, because this is the first time that she has read a story. She has been decoding simple words for some time now, but hasn't shown interest in decoding even simple sentences - until today.

What a world of fun is just around the corner!

Unkindness of unbelief

"'He himself loves you' . . . . Resolve of that, that you may hold communion with him in it, and be no more troubled about it. Yea, as your great trouble is about the Father's love, so you can no way more trouble or burden him, than by your unkindness in not believing it."

(John Owen Communion with the Triune God p109) I love reading Owen's writing because of sentences like that. In one sentence he captures how faith and love intertwine - and how unkind (and therefore wicked) it is not to believe God's great love for us.

"Chunky Cheese"

Elisabeth looked forward with great anticipation to her first trip to "Chunky Cheese." (We tried consistently restating it as "Chuck E. Cheese" for her to hear the proper pronunciation, but she hasn't picked it up yet.) The highlight of the day was when she accidentally threw a ski ball into the pool of the water pistol game!

Wipe clean books

Elisabeth received two wipe clean (dry erase) books for Christmas that we have been using frequently. This is one of the first times that she has written her name with only the first letter capitalized.

My parents' names

Recently when Rebecca picked Elisabeth up from school, the teacher greeted her at the door and said,

"Today Elisabeth told me that her father's name is Graham, and her mother's name is Mommy."

Turn off my imagination

Two nights ago Elisabeth was up frequently during the night. One of those times, she called me into her room and said to me,

"Daddy, can you stop my imagination?"

I smiled and said we could pray, and we did. Then she looked up at me and said,

"Can you turn off my imagination?"

We prayed again, as I tucked her in, and she was soon back to sleep.

Let the little children come

Recently we have been listening to Hide 'Em in Your Heart. The first song on the CD is called "Let the little children come," and Elisabeth has been singing along like this:

"Let the little children come.
Let the little children come.
And do not forgive them.
And do not forgive them!"

We need to add the word forbid to her vocabulary so that the song makes sense.

Turn of phrase

Recently Elisabeth was seated in the bathroom with the lights off and called out the door,

"Can someone turn off the dark?"

Hooray for snow!

The snow (which has now melted from the railing entirely) brought Elisabeth great delight.

Web 2.0 parenting

I have loved spending the past two and a half years with Elisabeth and watching her explore and develop on a daily basis. I have loved taking thousands of pictures and keeping this blog to be able to record our memories. Learning how she is developing, and finding appropriate ways to encourage and stretch her has been a delight.

As I spent hours perusing book lists, searching the shelves of libraries and bookstores, and wandering (mostly frustrated) through toy stores, I wondered if there was a service that told you what skills your child was currently developing, and recommended great books, toys and activities for each developmental stage - in short, a service to make parenting simple, so parents could spend more constructive time with their kids.

So I looked, and came up empty. There are lots of lists: lists of milestones, lists of books, lists of toys, and lists of activities. But no one had pioneered web 2.0 parenting, by providing parents a simple, customized, interactive environment to learn about and support each stage of their children's development.

At the same time, my childhood best friend, Jonathan, had seen that although parents (like me) take thousands of digital pictures, and there are many services for printing and sharing photos on the web, no one seemed to realize that the rate of computer replacement by home users would mean that parents needed a better and more reliable way to store their memories and photos for the long haul.

Thus tumblon was born. We could provide parents a simple, customized, interactive environment in which parents could learn how to support their child's current development and save those memories in stories, photos, and videos. It would be an interactive online 'baby book' so that grandparents (and other friends and family) could enjoy all the memories 24/7 - and for many, many years to come.

As an educator, I believe that parents are the key players in the education of children. I also believe that their greatest responsibility lies in the first five years of life (thought it certainly doesn't end there), as those early years mold the character, shape the personality, and even affect the intellectual capacity of children. So the prospect of creating a service that enabled parents to fulfill their responsibility, celebrate all of the milestones along the way and create a rich archive of memories is a dream come true.

In the not-so-distant future, that dream is going to come true when we launch tumblon. There is a teaser site up now, where you can sign up to learn more. And I'm posting on the founders' blog as we get closer to launch. Before too long, I'll start posting on my new tumblon blog, so you'll know that the transition has arrived, when this blog redirects you there!

Snow covered gloves

Elisabeth's gloves are snow magnets.

Snow!

It snowed again! So we took full advantage of playing in the snow (and will again later today).

Foolishness to the Greeks

It is a rare thing for me to reread a book. I often return to a good book and reread passages from it, but I cannot remember when I last finished a book and picked it up to start reading it again from the beginning.

However, when I finished reading Foolishness to the Greeks, I returned to the beginning and started rereading. On my first encounter with Newbigin, I had to reread just to understand what he was saying because his paradigm was so different from mine. (I daresay my outlook was so syncretistic that I couldn't understand another Christian who didn't share my syncretisms.) Now that I've undergone a sort of Newbiginian revolution, I am reading voraciously to understand. In Foolishness to the Greeks, he explores this question in depth:

"What would it mean if, instead of trying to explain the gospel in terms of our modern scientific culture, we tried to explain our culture in terms of the gospel?" (p41)

In doing precisely that, he has completely upended my world view. My understanding of education, commerce, and the church have undergone a seismic shift.

"The former statement (i.e., that the tomb was empty) can be accepted as a fact only if the whole plausibility structure of contemporary Western culture is called into question." (p62)

In other words, "it is idle to suppose that any kind of peaceful coexistence is possible between these two ways of understanding history" (61). The truth of the good news of Jesus says that the modern Western vision (its plausibility structure) is not only inadequate; it is false because it claims to see truth. It is not merely an invitation to adopt a belief system. It is a call to conversion "in which the most real of all realities is the living God whose character is 'rendered' for us in the pages of Scripture" (64).

If you haven't recommend Newbigin, I highly recommend starting with Foolishness to the Greeks.

Snappy

Elisabeth has developed a fascination with snapping. She practices snapping her fingers throughout the day, without any sort of encouragement. She has the motion now, and can make a soft snapping sound. I don't think it will be long before they're nice and loud.

Teaching Truthfulness

A friend just sent me an article on Learning to Lie, which presents fascinating research on the rate of lying in children, and the reasons they lie. Two of their observations especially impressed me:

1. Parents teach their kids to lie. The way we confront infractions can incite a child to lie. If we burst out, "Did you do that?" a child is inclined to self-protect by lying. But we can be even more outright in our incitements to lie, particularly in how they respond to receiving and undesirable gift.
   
2. Lying is a pattern that builds. The author puts it this way:

   Many parenting Websites and books advise parents to just let lies go—they’ll grow out of it. The truth, according to Talwar, is that kids grow into it. In studies where children are observed in their natural environment, a 4-year-old will lie once every two hours, while a 6-year-old will lie about once every hour and a half. Few kids are exceptions. (source, emphasis mine)

   New York magazine is telling parents the dangers of letting their children lie! Now if we jump on the bandwagon because "studies prove . . ." that kids grow into lying, then we've missed the point. Research is behind the curve in parenting advice. Teaching your children not to lie, and modeling integrity, have been wise in every age and every place.

After reading this article, I was all the more grateful that Elisabeth regularly comes to me (unsolicited) and says, "Daddy, I did _____ [that was forbidden]." O how I would rather have an honest child who repents than a seemingly flawless child who is a liar!

Happy Valentine's Day!

We're a day late, but a very happy Valentine's Day to all!

It snowed today!

Children's Bible Stories

I love The Big Picture Story Bible, but have been looking for an illustrated children's Bible that contained more Biblical stories so that Elisabeth would see more of the stories that fit into the Big Picture. I was sorely disappointed with the New Bible in Pictures for Little Eyes, which is probably only appropriate for children under 3 rather than the claimed age range of 4-7.

Happily, we received the Illustrated Family Bible Stories as a gift, and have found a middle ground children's Bible that is not overly simplistic, but still has ample illustrations.

The authors do a remarkably good job of summarizing the Biblical stories. Sometimes there is very little editing at all, and is simply the Biblical text. (I've noticed how well they have stuck to the text as I have been reading through Genesis and Exodus in my devotions at the same time that I have been reading those accounts to Elisabeth.) There have been a few occasions that I questioned the way that they simplified a story for children, but for the most part I'm impressed. So, if you're looking for something to give more of the stories than the Big Picture Story Bible, check this out.