Lately I have been reading much of C.S. Lewis. I just finished “Surprised by Joy” which is an account of Lewis’ early life and his conversion to Christianity. One paragraph particularly caught my attention:
“In reading Chesterton, as in reading Mac Donald, I did not know what I was letting myself in for. A young man who wishes to remain a sound Atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. There are traps everywhere- ” Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,” as Herbert says, ” fine nets and stratagems.” God is, if I may say it, very unscrupulous.”
As parents we must also be unscrupulous in managing what goes into our children . We need to make sure and provide them with books and thoughts that lead them to God. We never know what will grab our children’s attention and may be used later for God’s pleasure. In Psalms it says “Your Word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you.” We must be sure to help our children hide the word of God in their heart but also provide them with other materials that peak their interest towards God.
I personally think we should be reading a great book or a fun book to our kids all the time. Even in summer, holidays or vacations, having a good book to read aloud or a good audio book to listen to encourages our children to have a love of reading but also to teach them think bigger thoughts, to have a bigger worldview and to teach them important life lessons. The great thing about read alouds is that you can read chapter books to kids who can’t even read yet. We started all of ours with shorter chapter books by age 3.
Links to some of my favorite books to read aloud –
Jeremy: The Tale of an Honest Bunny – for a younger crowd. We read and loved this book.
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle Treasury – Great summer reading. A chapter is a full story so it keeps littles attention. We found this a great, funny intro into talking to our kids about behavior and consequences of behavior. The consequences of bad behavior are a little magical and very far fetched but great fun.
Chronicles of Narnia – If you haven’t read these book outloud ( even if kids have read them themselves), then you have missed out on some really meaningful discussion. We went through them one summer with this family discussion guide, Roar, and really had some amazing family talks.
The Princess and the Goblin and Princess and Curdie – George MacDonald is one of my favorite authors. I don’t always understand his books and have to reread but these books are written for children. They are a little intense, but so full of wisdom that we have read, and reread them.
At the Back of the North Wind Audio Drama – I love the Audio Drama from Focus on the Family. We have listened to this on several road trips and it has led to wonderful talks with my kids.
The Hobbit – JRR Tolkein wrote this as a read aloud for his kids and it is so much better read aloud or listened to on an Audio Book. For my 5th grade and up kids, we read this and used the Progeny Press Lit Guide for an added level of understanding.
The Lord of the Rings – We read this outloud the first time and it completely had my kids engaged. These are also great to use a Literature Guide.
Honey for a Child’s Heart – This is a book of book lists. One of my favorite things ever. I will caution you not to just hand a child any book without pre-reading. The great things about read alouds is that you can stop and have a discussion of anything you need to with a read aloud. You can also change words, soften a sentence or skip anything you feel is inappropriate. I did this a lot. This allowed me to read great books to my kids without some of the downsides.
Honey for a Teen’s Heart – While we don’t do read alouds as often now, I try to do several a year just as a connection point with my teenagers. Again, this often provides a great opportunity for discussion.
Categories: parenting
