Great Resource

As you all know, my husband is a math nerd. Well, as much as I love him, I'm not. I'm actually an English nerd and love great literature and creative writing. As much as I respect his mathiness, I also wish to impart the love of reading and the magical mystery of story into my children. When I was a little girl, I read myself to sleep every.single.night. I'm not joking. And to be honest, I have so many great memories of those times.

I've been attempting for awhile to get my hands on some good literature for my kidlets but they're all at different levels and so it's been a bit precarious. It's also hard for me to sift through what's good on my own. Sometimes having too much information (i.e. the internet) is not helpful!! But then I remembered a book that had been plugged on the Femina website awhile back that was all about children's literature. It's called, Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt.

First of all, let me say this, I bought the book for practical reasons because it had an annotated book list in the back according to age groups. But what I didn't expect was that I loved the actual book itself. It was SO inspiring.

Gladys actually does a great job of explaining why good stories should be at the center of a family culture because they speak so much to a child's heart and are truly instructive. I've seen this with my own kids already. Often when one of the children is trying to demand their own way, we remind them of Veruca Salt from, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, whose Dad did not love her and simply gave her everything she wanted. They know it's wrong. They know because they felt her ugly attitude in the story. This is just one example. Literature offers tons.

Also, there are so many books I read in childhood that I'd forgotten about. Her book lists helped jog my memory and in doing so, brought back such pleasant memories. My parents always encouraged us to read and for that I'm very grateful! There were so many books on the book list that I hadn't read. So that was helpful too. However, her narrative about why reading is important was probably my favorite part. The book lists were practical. The narrative was inspirational.

So if you're like me and you're trying to come up with good books for your little ones to be reading (or for you to be reading aloud), check out this book. Get it on amazon for a couple of bucks (that's what I did). You won't be disappointed.