Creating a Book Club Culture (Read Aloud Family)

“Home is the only place where our children have a fighting chance of falling in love with books. “

When our children are small, it is so easy to read to them for their enjoyment. We sit down and we read picture books with them and point out all of the animals or trains. Sometimes reading the same books over and over again at their request. I loved watching their eyes light up when they brought me a book to read.

As children get older and start formal schooling (be that at home or in a public/private school building) reading tends to become less about pleasure and more about work. It is so easy during this time for children to lose that love of books. Don’t get me wrong it is important that children learn to read and I think it’s ok to sometimes specify what book they need to read. However, I think and this chapter affirms that it is so important that they be able to just sit back and relax with fun books that they choose.

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Sometimes it is easy to fall into the mindset that they need to be focusing their time on challenging books or nonfiction books that correlate with our studies. There is nothing wrong with those types of books but we don’t need to forget that they need the chance to read what they enjoy if we truly want them to love reading. For my daughter that meant sticking with shorter chapter books long after I thought she should be reading more challenging material. For my son, that means reading the Little House on the Prairie series more times than I care to count. At times it was frustrating but now they both love reading.

I told the ladies in my book study that this might be my favorite chapter because it combined brownies with books! I love how she talks about making those memories and making books fun. Howe much fun is it to sit around the table with tea and cookies while reading or to curl up on the couch with brownies and milk. We even sit on our front porch with lemonade and snacks to read a good book. This helps foster a love of learning and make memories that will last a life time.

What is your favorite suggestion for making your home a book club culture?

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Reading Goals Update

It has been awhile since I’ve done a reading update but not because I haven’t’ been reading. I am still not picking up a book quite as often as I’d like but I’m meeting my goals and with summer coming I’m hoping to pick up the pace (its always a little easier when I take some of the homeschooling off my plate).

Last time I updated I had finished Heroes Next Door and Finding Selah. I was also getting ready to start Eat with Sinners: Loving Like Jesus. That is a great book that I got a bit side tracked on when the baby came but I’m going to go back and finish it soon. I have also completed reading The Unhurried Homeschooler which was not in my original list of six but proved to be a great book and an easy read.

I’m currently reading Do Hard Things, The Lifegiving Parent, and Read Aloud Family. I am leading a book study on Read Aloud Family and it is a truly great book. Even for those parents that already enjoy reading aloud it has a wealth of information in an easy to read style that is sure to encourage. In the fall I will be leading a study of The Lifegiving Parent but I’m going ahead and reading it now. It is a little more dense than some of the Clarkson books and it takes me a little longer to read and work through what is written but it is time well spent. The third book, Do Hard Things, I’m working on I’m actually reading with my son. We are each going to read a chapter and discuss it before moving on to the next chapter. My husband read the book last summer and we are hoping to use this book to challenge my son as he approaches his teen years.

When I finish those books I plan to enjoy some fun summer reading. I want to read at least one and maybe two more of the Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter. They are such fun books that make me want to relax on my front porch with tea and scones. They are clean and wholesome with a bit of adventure. For my more educational reading I am hoping to get into Pocketful of Pinecones. This book is designed to help teach about nature study but it written in a warm story fashion which should make for great summer reading.

If I complete all of those books by the end of August, that will put me at nine or ten books with four months left to complete my goal of twelve books. When I was younger my default activity when I had down time was reading. Unfortunately, I’ve found that I tend to default to e-mail or social media these days and I’m still working on breaking that habit. I do find that the more I read the easier it becomes to make that my default. I have also been doing more reading aloud with the children and they are really enjoying the books we have been able to read together.

I would love to know what books you have been reading and what recommendations you might have! Tell us in the comments about a book you have read recently.

Friday Deals and Freebies!

Peter Rabbit Collection Audiobook for only .48 cents! (at the time of posting always check prices)

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Read Aloud Family Chapter 2

Whether we are visiting Podo’s Garden in Aerwair, a snowy hovel in Narnia or Ramona Quimby’s Cellar on Klickitat Street, a little spark is lit. We all know it only takes a spark to start a wildfire.

What do a walrus and an ant have to do with reading aloud? I won’t spoil the story in case you haven’t read this chapter in Read Aloud Family but it was a great reminder that we need to be able to notice the little things. We don’t need to miss those small important moments waiting for something big. To often I’m missing the ants waiting for the walrus. I don’t take the chance to look at the flowers with my son, to watch bubbles blowing through the air, or to take that five minutes to read a chapter in our book together.

In the interest of transparency, sibling relationships is something that we’ve been really trying to work on in our house. I love the part about how those stories we read become something that they shared and help to create deep friendship between siblings. I can already see how some of the books we have read have given my children a common language and inside jokes that bring them closer together. For example, my husband likes to joke around and use his Aslan voice to get their attention, calling out ” Oh Children’.” Every time we go to hotel that has a wardrobe in the room it is the first place they run to, climbing in for an adventure to Narnia. We are still working on those relationships, but I love the idea that my time reading aloud can benefit those relationships and help to draw them closer.

Stories are comfort food. Stories are inside jokes. Stories are ant moments. They bond us together even when life is hard. When we pull a child on our lap and break open the pages of a book, we’re taking them by the hand and walking them into a quiet garden in the center of a noisy polluted city.

Life can get so busy and our days so full of the urgent things in life: dishes, laundry, bills, cleaning, work, school, etc. We can get disconnected from the ones we love and care about most. Reading aloud is an easy way to bring us all together, to leave the business behind and enjoy some moments together. It doesn’t take a lot of preparation or money, just a few moments and a good book.

When my head hits the pillow each night I want to know that I have done the one most important thing: I have fostered warm, happy memories and created lifelong bonds with my kids– even when the rest of life feels hard.

This chapter hit home and stepped on my toes a little bit. Too often I get busy and I’m rushing around and I miss the little things the important things. I’m going forward with a renewed determination to enjoy the everyday moments and be focused on the here and now. I want to know that I spent each day doing what was most important even if what is most important are the little things. I leave you with this quote from chapter 2, “success in parenting my kids means showing up and giving my best to what matters most right now. Which means, of course, that I have to know what matters most right now.”

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Deals and Freebies!!

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Weigl Book Review

For this review I had the opportunity to check out three different types of books from Weigl Publishers and the digital content that accompanied each book. We reviewed Glaciers, A Lion’s World, and There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant. These were digital books with interactive content. For each book you receive a PDF of the book and inside the PDF there are instructions for going to the website and entering in the book code to access the digital features of the book. You do need internet access in order to use the digital content and extras but you can view the PDF of the book without internet access once you have it downloaded.

The first book was Glaciers from the series “Earth’s Water” published under their imprint Lightbox. This book was geared towards upper elementary and middle grades students and packed with information. While it technically is a nonfiction book, it was so much more than a book. There were awesome web links, videos, and other activities included as you read through the book. I could have done an entire unit study on glaciers based off of this book and the extra activities and information that were linked in the book. There were maps and even quizzes included with the book. The illustrations were excellent including real photographs as well as diagrams that were beneficial to understanding the science concepts. The end of the book included a cool science experiment. We thoroughly enjoyed this book and plan to go back and revisit it later when it ties into our regular science curriculum. I do want to mention one thing that may be an issue for some of my readers, it did discuss a timeline for glacier movement that spanned millions of years.

The second book we looked at was A Lion’s World belonging to our “EyeDiscover” series. Weigl says that it is intended for a K-2 interest range which I believe is appropriate but my four year old also really enjoyed it. It was much shorter with more basic (age appropriate) information. It included audio aspects that were a great way to keep younger children involved and interested. Benjamin (4) said when reading about lions and watching them run, ” That is like how fast I can run with my big strong legs.” Each page had one sentence and the sound and movement made the book a wonderful experience for my son. After I showed it to him initially he asked several times to read it again.

The third book was a fiction title that was geared toward lower elementary school students, There Once Was a Cowpoke Who Swallowed an Ant. This was a silly rhyming fictional book. You could choose to have it read to the student or for the student to read it themselves. While this was probably our least favorite book as a family, I know some other students who would have really enjoyed the silly story. The ability to have it read to them while they followed along with the words is a great strategy for developing readers.

We enjoyed these books, particularly the non-fiction titles. I recommend them for families looking to add a digital element to their reading or wanting to support developing readers with the read aloud options. Check out all of the available titles by Weigl Publishers and let us know which ones you think your family would most enjoy.

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2018 Book List: January Update

I set a goal of reading twelve books this year for myself. This does not include books we read as a family, books I am previewing for the children, or reading curriculum aloud each day during school time. It may not sound like many but I’ve found that in this current busy stage of life I have to be very intentional about making time to read. I also wanted to make sure that I was reading a comfortable variety of books. I have included several fiction books, parenting books, Christian living books, and home schooling books.

I shared the first six of my twelve choices in My 2018 Book List. So far I think I’m doing well at working towards my goal. I have completed reading Heroes Next Door. Since my husband wrote it, I am probably biased but I really enjoyed it and felt like it met a need that we have seen in historical fiction. This book is historical fiction about the Vietnam War as told from the perspective of two home schooled children and their neighbor who is a Vietnam Veteran. Many other books we found on Vietnam included a significant amount of language and content that we felt was inappropriate for our young children. My daughter currently has my copy of the book and is really enjoying it. It is in the final process at the publisher and should be released to the public sometime next month.

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Next I read Finding Selah. This book is very different from the first book but has been a good read. It focusing on finding rest in your life and tells of the author’s journey towards finding rest and peace in the midst of her everyday life. She also discusses the pain and trials of miscarriage and the joy over the birth of her son after several miscarriages. I know that this is a sensitive subject for many readers, for some it may really resonate and be healing but for others it may make for a difficult read. Where I didn’t want to put the first book down, this book was one I felt best read one chapter at a time. It required more thinking and reflection on how I could apply those principals to my life.

My next book isn’t in my original six but I’m excited about reading it. My pastor has decided to use the book, Eat with Sinners: Loving Like Jesus as a jumping off point for his current sermon series. I plan to read this book this month to go along with our series. I’m excited about this book and how it can hopefully impact myself, my family, and our church to reach more people with the love of Jesus. I’ll share more about this book as I get time to read it and go through the series but I’d love to have you join us in this study.

I have also decided that I need to read or finish reading a few books that I purchased and never read as I fill out my list of twelve. Am I the only one that has one of those stacks? I bought it, life got busy, and I completely forgot about it. In This House We Will Giggle by Courtney DeFeo. This book is written with the plan of reading one section each month. However, I know that for me that increases the likelihood that I’ll get sidetracked. Therefore, I’m planning to post each month about that month’s virtue and ideas on the blog. Hopefully the accountability will keep me on track and it can be a blessing to all of us.

I would love to know what you are reading or have recently read that you really enjoyed. Please, share a book suggestion in comments.

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New Deals and Freebies!

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Last couple of days to get the discounted price on the new All About Learning Letter Tiles App.

Lifegiving Table Chapter 14

Table-Discipleship Principle: ” Learning to see ourselves as people who reach out and meet the needs of others, everywhere, all the time, is at the heart of a lifegiving ministry.”

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I hope that you have gleaned some great information and seen changes in your home as a result of reading this book. While we still have much work to do in our home, I love the positive changes that I have seen as a result of implementing some of the many ideas. Making a few simple changes, such as planning ahead for Sunday breakfast and lunch and being intentional about our meal time conversations has paid big dividends. I also really appreciated the reminders that the seemingly insignificant things that we do for our families each day really do make a difference.

” I know that for me to keep my marriage alive and growing, to invest in my friendships, and to pass on a legacy of faith, mentoring, focused love and training in the lives of my children, I have to plan my time carefully and make sure there is room in my schedule for what matters most___ my people!”

This is an area that I’ve been working on and will continue to work on. There are so many things going on in my life right now and I can easily get bogged down in all of the tasks that are waiting for me. I have to be very intentional about setting aside time for my family and my friends. I feel like over the course of this book I’ve gotten better about scheduling that time with my husband and my children. My goal moving forward is to continue to strengthen those relationships while also making more time for investing in friendships. I have some wonderful people in my life and I need to cultivate those relationships in order to grow and flourish. Knowing that Sally is writing from a life that is much different than mine, but similar in that it is very full with many different tasks and people help make it seem so much more achievable. Sometimes I read books and it feels like they think I can just magically make the other responsibilities go away. However, I felt that what Sally was suggesting was much more like the story of filling a jar. Put your big rocks in and then the smaller stuff so that you don’t fill your days with the small stuff and have no room for the big stuff.

Making time for God each day is one of those important things that needs to be prioritized in our day. It is so easy to get into the day and take care of all of the urgent needs of those around us and forget to make time to fellowship with him. We have been implementing a quiet time routine for my older two children as well as myself and it has been so helpful in me being consistent. I know I may have to be a bit flexible when the new baby arrives but continue to prioritize that time, so that I have what I need to continue to give and meet the needs of my family.

She begins the chapter with a quote from one of my favorite authors. “Eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably.” C.S. Lewis. If you know me or have been reading the blog for very long, you probably realize that I enjoy both of those pleasures and sharing them with my children. They love to snuggle up on the couch with a treat and some hot cider and listen to me read aloud or gather around the table for our poetry tea times. In our area the weather is supposed to get quite cold and yucky again so I’m planning some warm times and good memories tonight with a new book and a sweet treat.

What is a time every day when you can schedule time with God?

Place anchors in your week that bring you delight, comfort, and pleasure.

What do you need in order to keep your body going in a healthy way?

What can you read that might give you great stories to fill your soul?

There was a long list of things to try at the end of this chapter. I do not suggest that you try them all at once because for most people that would be overwhelming and lead to burnout. However, I encourage you to choose a few that you can implement in your life and see how it strengthens you and your family. I have decided to make the four ideas above the ones that we focus on first. If those are going well, I may revisit and try to add a few more. I’m being intentional in small things, like daily quiet time, drinking lots of water to keep my body healthy, reading books not just for learning but also for pleasure, and putting anchors into our week to bring delight and keep my priorities in check.

It would be a blessing to me for you to share in the comments how this book and study has influenced your life and family. I’ll be taking a few months off from formal book study group for the upcoming arrival of our new baby, but hoping to start a new book in the spring so stay tuned! If you are looking for book suggestions to keep you reading, check out My 2018 Book List.

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Callie’s Contest of Courage

I had the opportunity to read and review this wonderful novel by Jan May. Callie’s Contest of Courage is an excellent book geared towards upper elementary aged girls. While I absolutely love reading, life with three children (and a fourth on the way), home school, home business, and other obligations means that it often takes me awhile to get through a book. This book was so good that I had finished it the day after I received it. Once I was finished, I passed it onto my daughter to get her thoughts. She reads well but is not always an avid reader. However, she also had it finished in just a day and was asking about a sequel.

Callie

Eleven-year-old Callie Fleming is a passionate animal lover! She’s been waiting all year to enter photos in the I Love Nature Photo Contest. Her dad, who is the coolest dad in the world, is an award winning photographer and Marine Corps Reserves Sergeant. She is leaning on his help to win. But when her father is untimely deployed overseas and becomes strangely silent to her emails, she finds her whole world crashing down on her. Can she muster up the faith and courage to step out on a journey that whisks her away from all the things she loves? Join Callie on a journey of hope, trust and the power of prayer!

While reading this book I felt a range of emotions, I laughed with Callie and I cried with Callie. The author was great about making you really connect to the characters and the stories. In looking at the description and thinking about my children I was a little concerned about her describing her brother as annoying. However, once I read the book I was so glad that my daughter was going to read it. The book showed how she learned to respond to her brother in a way that was pleasing to God. As many siblings do, mine often struggle with their attitudes towards each other. I loved this Godly example of what to do even when she was frustrated or ‘annoyed’ with her brother. My daughter was so excited about the book that my son has asked to read it next.

We also really appreciated the fact that she was from a military family. While we are not military, many of our friends are military. In addition to showing how she coped with a deployment and other issues there are some great resources in the back of the book for supporting our troops overseas.

We read this book as a ‘just for fun’ book, but there is also a great literature guide that was written to accompany the book. With this literature guide you could easily use this as a novel study or complete unit study in your home school. There are worksheets and activities to go with each chapter. The guide covers a variety of different subjects including geography, science/nature study, reading, vocabulary, and even has some fun recipes. This would also make for a great book study for a small group or co-op class.

“It is really good. It was happy and sad and had God in the book. I really liked it. I wish there was a sequel.” Elizabeth (my 9 year old)

We are looking forward to checking out all of the other books at New Millennium Girls Books by Jan May. While there is not a sequel to Callie at this time, the Isabel books look like they will be a great as well.

Also check our free resource library for two new Christmas freebies, Christmas Traditions and a Christmas Bucket List. We also have two freebies to encourage children in their giving this season.

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Also since you can never have too many books, Amazon has a great coupon right now. BOOKGIFT17 gets you $5 off a $15 or more book purchase. Click the link, pick out your books (sold and shipped by Amazon not 3rd parties) and use the code at check out. Offer expires at 11:59 p.m. (PT) December 14, 201

Tea Time Discipleship: Chapter 10 Lifegiving Table

” So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.” 1 Thessalonians 5:11

I am a southern girl through and through and for many years the only tea that touched my lips was cold and sweet! I have learned to love a good cup of Earl Gray or Red Raspberry tea with honey but sweet tea is my first love. If you are like I was and not a huge fan of hot tea, don’t’ despair you can have some great tea time discipleship without any tea. My oldest is the only person in our family that does not like tea in some form or another. He doesn’t want it cold or hot. However, we still enjoy the concept of tea time discipleship. It just means that with him I choose lemonade in the summer and hot cocoa or apple cider in the winter. It isn’t about what we are drinking but taking that time apart from everything else to enjoy a treat and conversation.

“I don’t feel very much like Pooh today, ” Said Pooh, “There, there, ” said Piglet. “I’ll bring you tea and honey until you do.” A. A. Milne

My dear friend and college roommate’s mother, known as ‘Mama Judy’ is well known for her assertions that a good cup of tea can fix most of life’s problems. On the outside it seems a bit silly, but when we dig a bit deeper I think we come to see that Piglet, ‘Mama Judy’ , and Sally are all onto something with their glasses of hot tea. It is not necessarily the tea itself, but the concept of taking a few minutes to relax and enjoy a comforting beverage especially one prepared by a friend who is ready and willing to listen to our hearts. As Sally said on page 174, “Preparing ahead of time speaks to others of my love and their value. It’s an open invitation for them to share life with me. ” When we take the time to offer refreshment, care, and time to those we love we speak into their hearts.

1 Thessalonians chapter 5 talks about building one another up and encouraging each other. For Sally that was often serving tea and cookies with a listening ear and an open heart. How can we apply that verse in our own lives and homes? I have been trying to make sure that my children all have time with me when they can share their hearts and enjoy my undivided attention. This is still a work in progress for me as multiple children and multiple home businesses sometimes make my attention feel divided. I have found that for one child a few minutes in the evening at bed time can really be an encouragement to him and provide him the support he needs. Another child loves tea and all the accoutrements. In addition to my children and my spouse, I am really praying about who in my life needs love and encouragement. It is so easy in today’s society for us to all be going in different directions and not take the time to really love on those we care about. It is my goal for 2018 to find ways to show love to those around me and to be more aware of the needs of my friends and family.

Each year my daughter hosts a Christmas tea for some of our friends and neighbors. This event is such a great time of training for her as she plans a menu, cooks the food, sets the table, and shows love and hospitality to those that we have invited into our home. While it is not the one-on-one time that Sally talks about in this chapter, I pray that it helps her to be more mindful of encouraging and serving others.

Sally challenges us at the end of the chapter to write a love note for each of our children, telling them what we love about him or her. I think this is such a great practice and an easy and inexpensive way to give them a tangible reminder of our love. I hope that this chapter encouraged you share your love and encourage others either literally through tea time or whatever ways you feel led to do so.

When you sign up for our free resource library you will get a link and password to the library, we are adding to the library each month with new items. You will also get a bi-weekly newsletter email to keep you up to date on what we have going on. We have several fun Christmas freebies in the library already and I should have another fun holiday printable by the end of the week.

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The Lifegiving Table Chapter 5

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If you are following along in the Facebook group, you know we decided to only do one chapter this week. It seems October is a busy month for many of us and I wanted to give everyone a chance to catch up and really focus on the reading. As I went through chapter five with my highlighter, I felt like I had to stop myself from highlighting whole pages. So much truth and wisdom that I wanted to remember and share on each page that it was hard to choose what to focus on.

One of the main points of this chapter that really resonated with me was, “Convictions aren’t memorized; they are digested.” (pg. 74). She went into further detail earlier on that page explaining that while teaching is important the real difference comes when that truth becomes a part of someone’s life. In some ways it can be easy to teach our children what we want them to know but harder to make sure they internalize it as a conviction in their own hearts. The time we take at the table to discuss and debate ideas and thoughts can help them make this transition to convictions.

“Let your Conversation be gracious and attractive so that you will have the right response for everyone.” (Colossians 4:6)

I had never thought of this verse in light of the fact that Paul was limited in what he could write and he still found this to be important enough to write about. Our conversations are so much more important than we often give them credit for. People form opinions about us, our families, and more importantly our God based on how we communicate with them. Communication and specifically conversation are important to our lives and our faith. As such we need to work with our children to learn how to have gracious and attractive conversation. I’m thankful for today’s digital communication in that I can keep up with family and friends that are hundreds of miles away. However, I see how our digital communication seems to be hurting our personal conversation skills. In light of that, I realize that I need to be more purposeful of teaching my children how to have good conversations and in making a point to invite those conversation with the people in my life. I need to take time for tea and conversation whenever possible.

I love music in a variety of forms, from praise music on the radio, to the old country that we turn on every now and again, blue grass concerts at the state fair, and our wonderful North Carolina Symphony. However, my musical abilities stop at the ability to enjoy the music and turn on the radio. I never thought I’d compare myself to a conductor of an orchestra but I love Sally’s comparison. On page 79 she said, “At our table, I pictured myself as the conductor of an orchestra and sought to make our table a place of harmony.” I know that harmony is sometimes hard to come by with children of varying ages and personality. I have a three year old that does not have much patience for long conversations, especially if he isn’t the one talking. Then there is the nine and eleven year olds that don’t share the same sense of humor and tend to clash if one of them feels slighted in the least. I need to spend time with my family rehearsing graciousness and conversation until it becomes part of our family culture. The more we practice and I coach or ‘conduct’ our conversations the more it will grow to be our regular rhythm.

“Table-Discipleship Principle: Shaping the mind and heart through repeated discussions about truth, beauty, and righteousness and engaging in these ideas regularly shapes convictions that last a lifetime. “

How are you orchestrating the conversations around your table this week? What topics are you hoping to discuss with your family or friends? How can you make your conversation gracious and attractive? I’d love to hear how you are applying this book in your life. It is really helping me be more aware and more intentional even through the toddler tantrums.

If you haven’t got your copy of the book, check it out here. Also there is a great study guide that goes deeper into scripture related to the life-giving table. Finally, if life is busy right now ans you are having trouble keeping up you might want to check out the audio book on Audible. If you have not tried Audible before you can get a 30 day free trial which includes 2 free books that are yours to keep even if you cancel the trial.

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The Lifegiving Table

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I am so excited about the upcoming release of Sally Clarkson’s new book, The Lifegiving Table. I have had the privilege of reading the first four chapters of the book and I can hardly wait to have the rest of it in my hands. I had the privilege of reading her book The Lifegiving Home and even hearing her speak. It was such a blessing to me and my family as I learned so much about making my home the home I always wanted it to be. A place of love and discipleship for my family and all those who enter our home.

I am looking forward to focusing on making my table a place of growth and discipleship. I want to use that time and place to disciple my children, love our friends and neighbors and grow in Christ. I will be going through this book chapter by chapter and writing about my thoughts and lessons learned. I will be blogging here about the book as I go through it but I’d also like to invite you to join me in a private Facebook group where we can discuss the book together and pray and grow in a safe environment. Click here to join our book study group: Dawn Peluso, Schoolin’ Swag Book Study. I pray that we can all learn and grow together through this study. The book releases October 3rd and we will start our study on October 9th to make sure everyone has a chance to get the book prior to our start.

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