I grew up in a small town at the westernmost tip of our province. That is, the bus ends there, and if one traveled beyond the town proper, one ends up at the beach, and still beyond that is the China Sea. Our town is so small everybody knows everyone. And typical of a little, sleepy town in the Philippines back in the late-70s to early-80s, life.was.hard. Nobody owned a car except the mayor and the two doctors who had “owner-type” vehicles. (I don’t know if my non-Filipino readers have the faintest idea what kind of vehicle I’m talking about).
All schoolchildren in town walked to and from the public school. For me and my siblings, that meant we walked about 8 kilometers total, everyday. Life was so simple. And summer adventures consisted of climbing up the mountains to go blackberrying. As simple and stark life was, I found my way to the exciting world of — books! I wrote about my love for books here.
Middle of last year, my book orders from Barnes and Noble arrived, but sadly, my daughter Hannah has read fewer than three (!) books out of the more-than-twenty new books I bought online. To my great disappointment, she didn’t “inherit” my love for books. But when I talked to her about it, she told me she’s interested with books but not the ones I bought. Huh? During the school year, she had borrowed books from their school’s library weekly, books that, for me, do not teach character and value. I’m sure you’ve heard of Geronimo Stilton? She loves reading him (ugh!).
I am very careful with the books that I buy for my children. I choose the ones that are apt for their age. I read reviews and first few chapters before I make a decision to buy. I observed that if I let Hannah choose the books that she wants to read, she’ll be reading junk.
But I quickly recovered from my disappointment when a bright idea came to mind. I immediately talked to her about my plan. We were going to create a book club: Hannah and Mom Book Club. I told her that as a child, it had been my dream to have shelves full of books and to belong to a book club, but it’s never too late to realize my dream. So, we started our book club and began reading a book of her choice from the ones I bought (of course!).
As we read each chapter and discussed, her interest was piqued. She was comprehending the story and enjoying it. We also planned to make book reviews and post them in her blog: Hannah’s Net Journal. I allowed her to create her own blog to encourage and train her to write. I always remind her that the best way to gain English fluency in speaking and writing is to read good books where one learns new vocabulary and grammar, but never neglecting value and character development.
In these modern times, kids have a plethora of activities that they can engage in – including TV, the web, and endless games in cellphones – so much so that they are becoming overstimulated. I am so against these games apps. I mean, there’s a whole wonderful life out there to be lived by the grace of God, why live a virtual life? Instead, live a virtuous life!
Reading books is becoming more and more outmoded, so there is a great need to discipline and train our children well while they are young.
Related:
Our Healing Moments 
I love the idea of a mother/daughter book club!!! What a creative way to build deeper interest for your daughter while still having “creative control” for pointing toward better quality books.
What a great idea!! I will have to do this when we have children. I also love to read & want to instill my love for books in my children!
Visiting from Teach Me Tuesday 🙂
What a wonderful idea! I love it. I love to read and so does my son. Thanks for the inspiration!
Thank you, ladies! This idea worked – praise the Lord! My daughter now is so excited to finish the book we’re currently reading so we could start another! And, honestly, I’m excited, too, like a little girl again, discovering fresh wonders in reading! And, I’m preparing my new order for a new batch of books to relish :-).
Rina
Such a great idea Rina! I’m a voracious reader too and when I became a mom, I made sure to instill a love for reading to my kids as well. I’m looking forward to your book reviews so I can be guided here too because just like Hannah, my son loves this Geronimo Stilton books. :))
That’s such a neat idea. We’re not quite there yet as I’m just now teaching my oldest to read : )
Found you through WLW, I’d love it if you’d link up with my blog today http://www.lessonsfromivy.com/2012/04/being-content-in-mothering.html
What a brilliant idea! =)
I love reading but sometimes i get tired of it.=( Have you ever experience it po? How do you overcome it po? Please share it to us. 🙂
God bless you po ^_^
By God’s grace, I don’t get tired reading good books, but I do get physically weary (considering my health condition) when I read for a long time non-stop.
My love for reading has never waned. I’m always excited to start a new one. But now that I’m a born-again Christian, I’ve become very careful in picking the books that I read. I avoid reading novels or fiction books esp. romance books (I’m done with them! :)). Now, I read biographies and history esp. Christian, devotionals and the like. But even with this kind of books, I’m very careful esp. when they teach other doctrine than what we’ve been taught, I immediately shut the book and goodbye!
I order books online and read them on my Kindle, it’s more comfortable to me that way (bigger letters).
If you’ve other questions, feel free to contact me. Thank you and God bless you!
Ate Rina
I love reading with my girls! Sharing a book with someone you love makes it that much better! One of my favorite books is Anne of Green Gables. My grandmother gave me a copy as a gift and my mother read it to me when I was around 10 or 11. I am excited that my girls are old enough for me to share with them the treasured book that their great grandmother gave me when I was their age. We will be starting it in a couple weeks when school is out for the summer.
I hope that you and your daughter continue to find joy reading and sharing together!
That’s great! Yes, our “book club” is turning out wonderfully! We’re now on our second book for the summer “The Door in the Wall” and we’re both excited to write the review. Our first was Betsy-Tacy.
Reading with our kids is a whole lot of fun – we laugh together, we analyze and discuss, and we have those “lightbulb moments”. This is great way to form a strong bond with our children.
I hope that you’ll have a wonderful summer reading and bonding with your girls.
Rina
Very interesting. My daughter (who is in her 50s now) has always loved books. When she was a baby the first thing she would grab was a book rather than a toy. She is still an avid reader and I’m glad she reads good books.
Have you gone on to read more Betsy-Tacy books?