Kid Lit Recommend, via the Scenic Route

I don't think I take enough time to really appreciate what a blessing my kids are.

My son has a great sense of humor, and we have shared a lot of laughs over movies that the ladies of the house just don't find of great interest... what they have against low humor, car chases and explosions I don't know, but to each his/her own. Live and let live.

My son has also helped me to strike out and do more than I might have otherwise - has brought me out of myself, to some extent. I was a quiet kid, not exactly bookish, more sit-in-the-corner-and-draw-ish. I was supremely content with a stack of paper and a new box of crayons, and maybe some cookies. Being left alone at home was Valhalla to me. My daughter is exactly the same.

I was never much into sports, though I did love hiking and camping. I might never have taken the trouble and expense to start hiking and camping again if not for the my son's years as a Boy Scout. He is by nature more physical than I am, and so I've learned to affectionately maul, wrestle and pound as a form of greeting (we do this Sumo wrestling routine from Tommy Boy... but you'd really have to be there). It's true that children help adults to grow up, while maybe helping us to keep from feeling too grown up.

As I said, my daughter is much more like me in temperament, and draws more than I ever did. She has recently become somewhat more interested in reading, and lately we have started a new tradition of lighting a fire in the fireplace and warming our feet while she and I take turns reading chapters aloud. I have no idea how I got the habit to stick this time, but I'm taking full credit for it, anyway. It is a thoroughly delightful experience, and I'm afraid if she knew how healthy and wholesome it is, how it is making her smarter, and how much I enjoy it (though I try to act like the whole thing is a bit of a pain) she might feel like she had been tricked. She now pretty well refuses to read until I light a fire.

We are just finishing Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter (yes, one of the Little House books), a great read in front of a fireplace when it's 15 degrees outside. If you like kid lit at all, and all you know of the Little House on the Prairie is derived from the television series, do yourself a favor and read the books with your kids. The characters from the TV show go by the same names, but there any similarity ends. Wilder is an admirably descriptive writer, and makes frontier life seem vividly real. In the book Farmer Boy (about her future husband Almanzo Wilder) her descriptions of food go on for pages. I think only someone who knew what it meant to go without could write so lovingly about, say, biscuits.

Speaking of which, I'm really hungry now. Read the Little House books if you can, they are uniquely American literature, and well written. Read with your kids, if you can figure a way to snooker them into it.

Comments

[freddy]

Thank you for this super post! I used to be rather a shy, bookish, ladylike thing -- now I have seven boys and I know how to YELL! Neither my husband or I are sports-minded, but like you have found that our children have drawn us out of ourselves and into their interests as they develop. We all enjoy a good book, but with so many there's plenty of variety! Reading to them and with them is one of my greatest pleasures as a parent.

[John Kasaian]

I read the whole Little House series to my daughter at bed time and thoroughly enjoyed every second of it! I'll always cherish those memories.

[4ddintx]

My 5 daughters and I are reading through the Little House series as part of our homeschool day. We're in the middle of The Long Winter right now. January is a perfect time to read this book! We're completely enjoying being snug and well-fed in our home while reading about the hardships and resourcefulness the Ingalls Family and other Pioneers had. Thanks for the great post!