As much as I enjoy reading bedtime stories with my kids — in fact, I can’t imagine life without Skippy Jon Jones and Knuffle Bunny — I am really excited that the kids are getting old enough to read novels.
I am thrilled because now I can share my love of the classics, like Nancy Drew and Charlotte’s Web with my kids. Plus, we have all those new classics like the Percy Jackson and the Lemony Snicket series to explore.
As a writer, it is awesome to see your kids appreciating the written word and as a reader, or at least for this reader, it means I now have my own built-in book club.
My daughter just started reading the Harry Potter books and she is really getting into the story; she keeps asking me questions about the plot and she has strong opinions about the story and the characters.
While I encourage reading for pleasure and as a way to pass time, my most favorite thing to tell the kids when they give me the “I am bored” is “Go read a book”; in our house, reading is work, too.
The girls have reading homework, which includes reading a novel and constructing literal and interpretive questions based on the text.
It was interesting to see my daughter really concentrating on her reading, trying to find the perfect questions. Not to mention how I honed my skills as I tried to help her.
In addition, my kids are learning how to write poetry, which I think is wonderful. I wish I knew more about poetry but alas my knowledge of poetry stops at limericks, so I am hoping to learn a few tips from my kids.
Plus, all that grammar homework is helping me sharpen my editing skills. Either that or I can just ask my kids to edit my next short story for me.
Bio: Jennifer Flaten is a Wisconsin-based writer with three small children who understands the delicate balance between home and work. She knows having a healthy, happy family is a priority, and with that in mind, she has a special interest in health, family and technology. Her works have been published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and at various online journals.
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Great post! My mom and I have kind of a book club where we both read a book and talk about it after. The last book we read was Moon Over Manifest by Clare Vanderpool and now we are working on the latest Redwall book. We have another club with a couple friends where we read the book and then watch the movie and compare the two. That’s a lot of fun. It’s good that you tell you kids what you like to read. I like it when my parents tell me about books they like.
Posted by thiskidreviews | May 17, 2011, 14:38