Owen’s 3D Printing Business Aspirations

Owen’s teachers were so excited about his 3-D printed pens that they asked if he was able to print a Montessori grammar stencil. Over the weekend we found a template on our bamboo printer and he gave it a whirl. He communicated with his teachers over the weekend and they wanted to offer him a fair price for 10 stencils. They offered him $50 for 12 stencils. They were very excited to pay him for his work, effort, and time. He is so excited about this business venture and will be on the lookout to see what else he can print for people for cash. 

Spring Arts Showcase

OFMS Spring Arts Showcase!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for our Spring Arts Showcase. It was a joyful celebration of our students’ creativity, confidence, and growth. We extend our sincere appreciation to our Fine Arts teachers for thoughtfully guiding students in bringing their artistic and musical expressions to life.

Events like this reflect the heart of Montessori education; honoring each child’s independence, fostering creativity, and encouraging self-expression through hands-on exploration and meaningful work. Our students truly embodied these principles as they shared their learning with our community.

Owen’s Learning Fair

Owen chose a learning fair topic that was fairly difficult this year. His topic was “how to make gel pens.”  This was difficult because it was challenging to find any books and resources on this topic to research, let alone have the supplies to create a gel pen. We found some articles and a couple books and some videos to help us. We attempted to make the gel ink from a recipe we found, but this attempt failed multiple times because the ink was too watery or did not have enough color to show up. We opened up a pen and removed the refilled tube and filled it with our ink, hoping it would reach the roller ball, But we could never get the pen to actually work. This happened a couple of times. It was frustrating research, trial and error, over and over again. 

We determined it was too difficult to create our own refill. So we adapted the process slightly. We found a 3-D print template for a clicker pen body. It fit G2 gel pen refills, so we were able to pull the refill tube and spring out of existing gel pens and put them into the newly 3-D printed pens, and this worked. At the store, the G2 refills cost roughly 5 dollars apiece and Owen was determined to make 3-D pens for everyone in his class. We did the math to find that that would cost us over $100 in refill supplies. Plus the springs which we would have to order on Amazon and hope they were the correct size. Again we ran into roadblocks. Finally, we decided to purchase a 28 pack of G2 colorful gel pens on Amazon and we removed their insides and put them into Owen’s 3-D pens. 

The 3-D pens created roadblocks as well because multiple times the print failed. We tried to print six at a time, a few times, and as the pens were being printed, and were getting taller and taller, they would fall over during the print and mess the entire print. One time the printer just went wonky and released strings of plastic all over the place. We had multiple failed prints before we finally had enough for his classroom the morning of the learning fair.

This project was really difficult because we kept running into roadblocks. We would hit a challenge, work through it, get frustrated, and come up with a solution that would then fail. So we would switch gears, research a new way, try it out and watch it fail again. We then would have to come up with another solution, try it out, and hope that it would work this time. If anything, we both learned that you can push through challenges and have lots of trials and errors before you find a solution. It was a learning experience for sure! 

At the learning fair, Owen had about 30 3-D printed gel, pens of all different colors to hand out to the parents and students that came around to learn about his project. He felt so proud of his creation and proud of the challenges we went through. People were mentioning his pens for the next several days, that they had gotten one or that they were hoping to get one. I’m proud of Owen for his efforts, for pushing through and working to figure out a solution.

Cheer 2026

Kaylee's Birthday Party at the Lake House

Owen’s Red Belt

Owen earned his red belt at tae kwon do. This was a big deal because at this level the kids get three tries to break their boards and if they don’t break them then they do not pass and they do not move on. Owen was very nervous. The weak prayer he had a confidence boost when he broke his boards on the first try, both his front kick and his elbow. He realized He may actually pass. He did a great job. He has worked so hard and has learned a lot and has put a lot of time and effort into this. Congrats Owen!

FFA Competitions

Oak Farm Montessori FFA Takes 1st Place! Oak Farm Montessori FFA members competed in the area Envirothon contest sponsored by area NRCS districts. They participated in some sessions on wildlife and forestry topics and then took tests as a team on wildlife, forestry, soils, aquatics and environmental issues.  Two teams participated with one team taking first place this year! Those participating were Nick Mains Ayrton Streich Jorja Lowe Kaylee Routsong Evelyn Brittenham Stella Nivens Lexy Kammerer Killian Grimm The team of Nick Mains, Ayrton Streich, Stella Nivens and Killian Grimm achieved first place and Evelyn Brittenham will join them for the state team of five students with the other students being alternates to state.

Oak Farm Montessori FFA District III @ Central Noble The Oak Farm Montessori FFA competed with 17 other districts in District III last Friday night at Central Noble. Members competed in leadership development events to earn points for the chapter. Our chapter placed 4th this year out of 18 schools. We were very proud to have someone competing in every event.  Here are students that placed in the top three and received awards for their effort. Ivy Witmer placed 1st in talent Cooper Routsong placed 2nd in Ag Business Management Demonstration Derek Hale and Cooper Routsong placed 3rd in Ag Mech Demonstration Avery Cather and Ella Lane placed 2nd in Agriscience Junior Level Milo Reeves, Jack Holbrook, Gretchen Pickard, and Ava Schraft placed 2nd in Discovery Quiz Bowl Parker Wolheter placed 3rd in Discovery Extemporaneous Speaking Other students competing and gaining points for the chapter were Eva Gilley, Venice Hacker, Josephine Pladys, Alyssa Mains, Claire Brittenham, Evelyn Brittenham, Hannah Lautzenhiser, Ana Kochanski, Beckitt Lowe, Reese Wolheter, Breanna Wolheter, Sullivan Fisher, Ayrton Streich, Nick mains, and Autumn Dixon.

Austin & Molly's Wedding

8310 Clinton Park Drive

 Simplx has been outgrowing our space for several years.  We've had to put up portable cubicles in the warehouse to create enough office space for everyone.  Our original basketball court in the warehouse has been smothered by equipment, inventory, boxes and lot of office staff cubicles.  

About 5 years ago, we tried to purchase the building next door, 8310 Clinton Park Drive.  We negotiated with the owner and went back and forth.  They were not very good at compromising and we never came to an agreement.  The topic was dropped and the owner moved forward with leasing the building to four separate tenants.  In the meantime, we purchased another commercial building on Ley Road, thinking that when the leases were up, we'd likely move into that building.  We also purchased 7707 Clinton, a sprawling residential home on a pond with enough acreage to build a brand new building.  With both purchases, we moved forward with inspections and research into how to properly move forward with moving Simplx.  

Well, while we were rezoning the residential property and doing soil borings to check the ground for a new build, 8310 next door was rumored to be going on the market.  Nate hopped on it right away, began negotiating again with the owner and after some hiccups and a few back & forths, we were able to secure the purchase of the building!  

I always felt like we needed that building next door.  It only made sense!  I felt it inside that it would work out somehow.  And over time, when the time was right, it did work out!  

8310 has multiple tenants, but the upstairs east side is vacant and we plan to occupy it and move our office staff out of their portable cubicles and into the brand new space.  Nate's remodeling a few things, touching up paint, redoing cabinetry, and then we will move in soon.  

Kaylee's 15th Birthday

 Kaylee turned 15!!

Jaxton's New World

 Jaxton was at Purdue for 1 semester in the Tarkington Dorms.  He did well, but decided that he did not like the dorm life.  He needed more space, more privacy and wanted to be more in control of his living situation.  He was so dedicated to making a change that he took multiple city busses and walked a long ways to visit some potential apartments up for rent.  He also worked hard on an appeal to get out of his year long housing contract.  The appeal was denied, but that did not stop Jaxton from figuring out the next possible solution.  He got his resume together and went out hand delivering resumes to property management companies hoping to score a full time position which would help his financial situation.  That first impression did him well.  He was pulled into a mini interview right there on the spot.  A couple weeks later he was hired, full time.  He withdrew from Purdue in order to cancel his housing contract, scored an amazing lease at a great apartment with fabulous Chinese roommates, identified Purdue equivalent Ivy Tech night classes, and continued taking pre reqs and general eds to keep his credits on course.  Its been a whirlwind of change in about 1 months time.  Its been heavy, hard, extremely stressful, scary, uncomfortable, exciting, and driven.  Jaxton learned that if he wants change, no body will make change for him.  He has to go out there and chase what he wants.  He has to make change if he wants it.  And he did.  And I am so proud of him for doing all of this adulting; for figuring out solutions to his challenges; for moving forward against major forces and for pushing to get what makes him happy.  Congrats on the new job Jax!  And the new house!   And to have your car back!  And for proving that everything is figuroutable!

New Years Eve 2025

 Happy New Years' Eve!!  The kids had a huge New Years' party at our house with tons of high school, middle school and elementary kids.  So many kids that I lost count, lots of noise, lots of running, lots of ping pong and air hockey, lots of JackBox TV.  We brought out the cash cube for fun and put monopoly. money inside.  Everyone got a chance at catching as much cash as they could.  The winners ended up with some prizes at the end of the party.  As the clock struck 12, Kaylee & her friends, and Cooper and his friends did a polar plunge into the pond.  CRAZY!!  It was memorable and fun.  By 1:30am all the boys left the house and the girls had a sleepover to ring in the new year.  Fun times!!

Christmas 2025

 Christmas was a lot of fun this year.  Jaxton came home for 2 weeks and we loved having him around.  We made Christmas cookies, we opened pajamas on Christmas Eve with the traditional golden tickets attached.  Colton was our conductor this year and off we went in the "Big Van Express" to see the lights at Franke Park.  Simplx has a display for the second year now, and its super fun to see all lit up!  We did not travel this Christmas like we have for the last several years and I enjoyed slowing down and spending time with everyone.  Merry Christmas!