The Family That Reads Aloud
Several months ago my close friend (and blog reader) Laura suggested that I talk about good books to read. I thought of her idea again when Dr. Carson encouraged everyone in his audience to spend thirty minutes a day learning something new.
Good idea, Laura. I’ll start with a book that made a powerful difference in our homeschooling adventure: Honey for a Child’s Heart, first published in 1969 and now in its fourth edition. I read it not long after our life-changing summer of 1997.
The lessons I took away from Honey for a Child’s Heart are:
Families should read aloud together.
Couples should read aloud together.
Children are never too old to listen to a parent read aloud.
I had read aloud to our children a great deal when they were very young and when homeschooling in the elementary years, but I needed to hear what this book said about the late elementary grades and high school. I don’t really agree with all of the book title suggestions that Mrs. Hunt offers, but I applaud her philosophy. After reading Honey for a Child’s Heart, reading aloud became a top priority for me and for Ray, too.
I had the thrill of meeting Gladys Hunt when she spoke at the Indiana Association of Christian Homeschoolers convention several years ago. It was exciting to tell her face-to-face: “Your book changed our family’s life.” In our conversation, she told me that when she and her husband see a child who is having trouble in life, they say to one another, “That family must not read together.”
In 2013 Ray and I did it with our friends Ethan and Isabel Reynolds.
Ethan is an integral part of Notgrass Company every day.
Some of my favorite family memories from the time our children were all teenagers were the times the five of us gathered in the den to listen to Ray read David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, or some other classic. Bethany, Mary Evelyn, and I embroidered or did another handcraft. John built with Legos. Read-alouds continued well into our children’s adulthoods–and when the grandchildren get old enough to be awake long enough all at the same time, I hope we can start it again. Precious, precious memories.
The Lord will reign forever,
Your God, O Zion, to all generations.
Praise the Lord!
Psalm 146:10
Read-alouds were a life-saver when my boys were 6 and 4 and I had a newborn. I even mastered the skill of holding the book with one hand while I nursed! It kept my active boys still for a few moments each day. My kids are now 18, 14 and 11. They have such fond recollections of reading Ralph Moody books, The Hobbit, the Narnia series, Across Five Aprils and too many more to list. I love that they associate family memories with great literature.