How to Give Your Child a Personal Arsenal of Heroes
The Family Read-Aloud is Your Secret Weapon
If you’ve never read a book out loud as a family (or if it’s been a while!) you may be missing out on some exquisite bonding experiences and some prime opportunities to fill your children’s souls with beautiful ammunition for life. But it’s not too late! You can start now!
Reading out loud with the people you love can be transformative for many reasons. Here are just three:
First, getting to know a cast of characters and experiencing their lives together through a story gives your family solid reference points you will share for the rest of your lives. We read (listened to) Great Expectations by Charles Dickens on a family trip to the redwoods 10 years ago and references to that rich cast of characters (Wemmick taking care of his beloved “Aged Parent,” Miss Havisham clinging to her withering wedding dress, Joe’s wife bringing Pip “up by hand,” etc.) still come up and have become part of how we orient ourselves in conversation.
Second, the characters you read about and the trouble they get themselves into and out of will teach your kids boatloads of life lessons without you uttering a single syllable. In fact, I’d recommend NOT hitting your kids over the head with the lesson the story is illustrating. You’ll want to hit pause right when Seth is about to climb out the window in Fablehaven and say, “Now kids, is this a good decision or a bad decision?” Don’t do it! Don’t spoil the lessons the story is teaching by ripping your kids out of the story to have a didactic chat. The story IS the lesson. That said, of course each story will provide fertile soil for family conversation. Let it flow! Just don’t ruin it by cramming the lesson down their throats. Just let them swallow it.
Third, sharing a story as you travel together (or cuddle together after dinner) can move family time away from isolated activities (SCREENS) and mindless bickering to shared family experiences. “Dad, can we read just one more chapter?” is way better than, “Johnny, turn off that video game right now!” (Also, stop buying screens for your children. Read more on that here and here.)
If you’ve read great stories together as a family, when your child leaves home and goes off into the woods where the Big Bad Wolf and Voldemort and Javert and Rumpelstiltskin and Bonzo Madrid and Maleficent and the Gingerbread Hag and Scrooge and Wormtongue and Caroline Bingley and Captain Hook (and Tinkerbell) and are all lurking about in the form of car salesmen and roommates and mean girls and bosses and online dating profiles and professors and grocery clerks, your son or daughter will already have met and dealt with them before—and will have a leg up in life.
He or she will have a host of plucky protagonists nestled in their soul, propelling them toward real life valor, dignity, nobility, honesty, wisdom, goodness, and bravery.
Don’t send your child off without a personal arsenal of heroes. Read a book together this summer! Choose carefully and start with something (almost) everyone in your family will enjoy. I’m prepping a list of my top read-alouds which I’ll deliver soon, but here’s one of my all-time favorite family read-alouds to get you started:
Little Britches, by Ralph Moody. This unforgettable little book is the true story of a boy’s life in the early 1900s, and I’d be surprised if everyone in your family didn’t love it. I won’t spoil it for you, but it’s a simple, engaging story worth reading (I just wish it had a better cover. But you know what they say about judging a book…)
You don’t want to miss this one! And if you like it there are more books in the series!
More next time. Happy reading!
With love,
Kimberly
Thank you for your support! I love getting to write for you.