Reading Aloud with Your Kids: It's Worth It

 

Hi. 

I'm Adriane. I'm 33 years old. And I still give my mom grief about the fact that she fell asleep reading the Little House on the Prairie books to us every.single.day. 

Not that I can blame her. We'd sit in the sun in our dining room after lunch, and before Mom would get a page into the next chapter, she was nodding off and I was sitting there staring at her, wondering if I should wake her up or hope she'd jolt herself awake. 

Of course, now that I'm a mom, I get it. Post-lunch naps are the best -- if you can get them. 

But this isn't a post about sleepy moms and sunshine. It's a What We're Reading This Week: Micro Version (aka the kids' version). 

 

We have a lot of children's books, which I love, because we are a house of readers. The bookshelf in the kids' room is jammed full, so until we have more space, I packed up all the Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas books, not to be brought out until next fall when they will seem exciting and new. 

I've also started our own little version of a library cart. Hey. I have worked in three libraries in my life: during high school, during college, and during grad school. Let's just be happy I don't have books organized by the Dewey Decimal System, mmmkay?

Every week or ten days, I swap out books from the bookshelf with books on the Ikea cart and then return it to its place in the living room where  we can grab a handful of books to read if little brother is napping or we're winding down before bed or any time in between. Books with tearable pages are on the top shelf for big sis, books that can be slobbered on and manhandled are on the bottom shelf for little brother.

My current favorites are the BabyLit series.  (English major alert.) We've got board books from Pride and Prejudice to Anne of Green Gables. You cannot start them too young, people! This week it's Huck Finn, next week we are reading in iambic pentameter in preparation for Shakespeare!

Ok, maybe a bit much for a two-year-old. I'll give her another . . . week. 

Georgia's current favorites (this week anyway) include:

• the Llama Llama books (thanks to the kickstart from Megan and to Ludacris for getting that book stuck in my head for the rest of eternity and to my husband who now tries to rap the song every time he reads the book)
• The Mitten
• The Gingerbread Baby (clearly we still have a few winter books out)
• Go, Dog, Go!
• The Itsy Bitsy Duckling, The Itsy Bitsy Bunny . . . I think you can see where this is headed . . . 
• and a random Search and Find book where big sis points out trash cans, seesaws, globes, donuts, potties, and bananas.

I'm a firm believer in reading out loud to kids, no matter what age they are, every single day. When my farmer doesn't come home for lunch, I read Little House on the Prairie (currently) to the kids while they're eating. When brother lays down for a nap, sis and I take at least ten minutes to read books on the couch, just the two of us. Before bed, Chris reads a book to both kids while they sit on his lap . . . and while big sis tries with great disappointment to get her little brother to hold her hand.

Reading outloud is also good for calming temper tantrums. (NOT THAT MY TWO-YEAR-OLD EVER HAS THOSE NO SIR.) If I sit down in the middle of the floor with a book and start reading quietly in the midst of a wail, she will almost always stop mid-cry to come sit by me and listen along.

It's also helpful in expanding vocabularies -- for little people and big people alike. Sister recently learned what a panther is from one of our books, and her new favorite game is to growl at her dad while he either hops in the air like he's terrified or growls back. 

And it's also worth noting that our pediatrician even promotes reading. She gives each of the kids an age-appropriate book each time they go to the doctor AND gives me information each time on why it's so important to read to them. It's a really lovely and kind encouragement to a mom!

 

If you don't currently do much reading to your kiddos at home, you can check out the Read Aloud Revival website. She offers book lists for each age group, month, etc. that you can print off and take to the library. It's a helpful resource that keeps you from having to read through each book before you check it out to make sure it isn't quirky or . . . just plain weird. You know which books I mean.

Whether your bookshelf is overflowing and the librarian knows you by name or she's never met you at all and your one book has never been cracked, it's always a good time to incorporate more reading into your day. The laundry can wait. It'll still be there tomorrow. Trust me. Mine never goes away.

So, let's hear what your current favorites are this week -- whether you're two or 60. Tell me, tell!

PS Also, if you too now have Ludacris and Mama Llama stuck in your head, I'm sorry. (Heyyyyy!) 

When Imaginations (Fail to) Run Wild

POLL!

Who here loves Lord of the Rings? Or Redwall? The Chronicles of Narnia? 

I'll wait while you leave your vote in the comments below.

True confession?

I don't love any of those -- or any of fantasy-esque books -- at all. Maybe I can give you A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. Maybe . . . on a good day.

My husband, on the other hand, has always loved that genre of books. He gets lost in them more easily than I get lost without Google Maps in a big city.

And that is very easily.

We tried to figure this out the other day -- why it is that I'm an English major who wrote and edited words for 10 years but who can't get behind books that aren't "believable."

Trees don't walk. Beavers don't talk.

And there's no such thing as an elven language. (Please don't send me hate mail, LOTR people.)

I'm contending that my husband loves that style of book because it follows the quest genre of literature -- the hero who's been displaced and has to contend against hardships and difficulties to find his way back home -- and that that style of writing could potentially resonate better with men because they are problem solvers and fixers who overcome challenges and enjoy it.

The farmer says, "No dice."

Maybe it's because I've been writing for too long and I know the tricks too well. Or perhaps it's because I'm just too tightly wound and can't loosen up enough to let my imagination work in a book of that style. I've been reading biographies and autobiographies and history books since I graduated from college . . . because they are (mostly) factual enough to be believable.

My husband has too, but he also loves to read books that conjure up ideas and images and his imagination, and I'm over in the corner saying, "But it's not real. That's just a literary device meant to draw you in! And how does that split infinitive not drive you nuts? And he just used the same verb three sentences in a row! Mix it up, man!"

#killjoy

So I'm looking for help. How does an adult learn willful suspension of disbelief? I want to like that style. I'm just, well, failing at it.

Do I need to try the audio version of one of these books? Stop being so analytical? Hope that my enjoyment of this genre develops as I read these books to my kids?

Please advise, rebuke, encourage. Whatever it takes. I'm listening!

(And reading . . . just not the classics apparently. So please send help.)

commonplace books and letting the laundry go for a day

"As one New York Times story about millennials in the workplace put it, managers struggle with their young employees' 'sense of entitlement, a tendency to overshare on social media, and frankness verging on insubordination.'"

I wrote this quote from Ben Sasse's The Vanishing American Adult in my commonplace book about a month ago. Looking at it again today, I had a great big "yep" followed by a mental "Note to self: You may be a millennial, but NEVER BE ANY OF THOSE THINGS."

Gah.

Just reading it again makes me want to delete Instagram and call my parents to thank them for raising my sisters and me with plenty of resilience.

That's part of the benefit of keeping a commonplace book: It allows you to go back over what you've read, what you've thought on or discussed, what stuck out to you as you thought through ideas or worked through concepts, and revisit them as often as you'd like.

Especially if you're like me and have about four books going at the same time.

Not to mention the audio book on Geronimo I started today.

Did you know his wife, mom and children all got killed by Mexican soldiers?

Me neither. This is why we read.

Also, why are there not more hours in the day? Asking for a friend.

There's two things I should mention here because now I'm thinking about reading, which always gets me off track, because -- well -- I want to go read.

(1) If you're a stay-at-home mom like me, I highly recommend setting aside 15 minutes or 30 minutes or whatever you can spare to read each day. This was a struggle for me, even though I love to read, because there is always laundry to do or dishes to put away or basement steps to sweep, but my sister reminded me that that was just the point: They will ALWAYS be there, and if I was always doing them, I'd never make time for the things that stretch my brain, like reading. So, when both the kiddos lay down at 1:00 p.m. for nice, long naps, this mama finishes the lunch dishes and then takes 20 minutes to read.

And tries not to feel guilty about it.

(2) I keep my commonplace book handy while reading. That, too, was my sister's brainchild. If you don't use one already, you can find plenty of websites that fill you in on how to start and maintain one, but the gist is this:

• Buy a blank journal or index cards or a notebook, and start reading. 
• As you find quotes or thoughts or ideas that stand out to you, write them down. 
• Find a way to organize them, perhaps by category or by the author or whatever works for you. But develop a system so that you can find those ideas back when you want them for your own writing or edification. 
• Now, millennials, don't panic but . . . don't use your cell phone for this. Yes. That is correct. I'm asking you to kick it 1880s style (or 2000s style) and actually use this thing call a PEN. You'll be amazed at how you'll retain the concept you're writing. 

It's really that easy. Read widely. Mark things of interest to you. Write them down. Develop a book -- or a resource center really -- of other people's thoughts and writings that have impacted how you think.

People have been doing this for centuries. Napoleon, Thomas Jefferson, Ronald Reagan -- all commonplace book keepers. Why not you too?

I finished reading Sasse's book a month ago, but I'm still thinking on lines and thoughts that reinforced what I already believed or that opened up an idea to me I hadn't considered before. And that, I suppose, is the end goal of the commonplace book: To keep your brain in a perpetual desire for growth, truth-seeking, and knowledge.

Are you a millennial? Well, then, if you feel the need to overshare IG stories or snark at your boss, let it at least be something worthwhile, something thought by someone long before you, something time-tested, something -- I hope -- you've written in your commonplace book.