Turn off the TV and READ this summer!

One of our favorite things to do around here is READ! I go through hot and cold phases with reading where it is all I want to do for a few months, and then for the next few, I hardly read at all. I think it stems back to my childhood and having a difficult time learning to read while being force fed bland basal readers that had no real meat or emotion. Reading was a chore and not an adventure.

I will never forget my Children's Lit class in undergrad at OSU. My teacher was AH-mazing. She made children's books come alive for all of us soon-to-be teachers, and grown women who hadn't been read to in about a decade. It was a Monday night only class that lasted for 3 hours straight. How those 3 hours flew and I longed to return the next week! She'd begin every class by hopping up on her desk and sitting cross legged while she read (or recited from memory) some of the most exquisite works of literature I have ever heard...all books written for children that I might never have read had I not taken her class. At the end of each story, most of us, including her, would be crying...so moved from the story we felt like we had become a part of it.

She introduced me to one of my favorite authors, Patricia Polacco. She brings history and other cultures, faith and tough real-life issues to life in such a way that is so moving, so real. Her illustrations are each a piece of art I'd love to hang on my wall. I enjoy reading them by myself and even more, sharing them with my children. Today, we read Pink and Say. I still remember when my professor read it to us...the tears I cried then...all the more today, reading it to my own children as we learn more and more about cultural differences and the roots of those...slavery, civil war, civil rights, those who fought and died for our freedoms, the stark contrast between their world and our own today...the same soil, the same country, but so much progress...yet, still so much pain and fall-out we continue to witness. My oldest two kids cried with me today as I read...finally, their growing hearts are learning compassion, connection. Priceless! So much better than watching TV with them! The written word is powerful. Enjoy it! Cultivate enjoyment of it in your children. 

Someday, I hope to own the entire Patricia Polacco collection. For now, we frequent the library and never leave without at least one of her books in our bag! So many favorites...click on her name, Polacco, on any of the links in this post to check out a few.