Painting Coal



So I've been standing in the kitchen for the past 30 minutes painting pieces of dough black to look like coal. I first tried a large sponge brush, but it wasn't getting the black paint into the nooks and crannies, so I had to go find a small paint brush to finish the work. And as I was standing there with black paint on my fingers, making these coal pieces for a lesson (involving a mining activity) on coal tomorrow, I wondered, "Why?" Why was I spending so much of my precious time mixing and baking and painting dough coal? If I had to put a price tag on my time right now, it would be around $100 a minute. Is a lesson on coal THAT important? Do I even remember learning ANYTHING about coal in school? The short answer? No. Sure, there's a 1% chance one of my girls will become a geologist and I can point to this coal lesson as the spark for their geology passion. But, chances are, they will not become geologists. So, I had to search my heart to find the answer to why I was standing in the kitchen apparently wasting my time. And then it came to me. It's not about the coal. It's about sparking a love for learning. It's about showing my girls how to dive into any subject and enjoy learning about that subject. Something I hope will last them a lifetime. At least that's what I'm telling myself. : )

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