Thursday, April 23, 2009

The Anointed Book

Last Saturday, Kyle and I went to a day seminar to hear the wisdom of Carole Joy Seid, a proponent of literature-based home education. She was so encouraging! One portion of her seminar was "How to Make Your Children Lovers of Books". The simple method is reading to your children all the time, and being a reader yourself. So, some woman asked: But what if you have a husband who doesn't like to read?
Carole had a quick response (clearly she'd heard that question more than once): Have your husband read to the kids whenever he can. That book is the anointed book. No one else, not even Mommy, ever reads it. Just Daddy. If he only reads it once a week, so be it. But that book is Daddy's alone to read.
So, we did just that. Kyle asked me to make an announcement to the kids, so I did. And then Kyle brought out "Jump on Over: The Adventures of Brer Rabbit" and dove in.
The kids l o v e d it!! When he stopped reading, they were all begging him to keep reading. But as any good Charlotte Mason fan, Kyle left them with a cliffhanger.








6 comments:

Dustinsdreamer said...

It's so good to see a Daddy reading to his children! My husband is a reluctant out loud reader, though he reads a lot on his own. But the few time he has read to them, the boys have talked about it for days!

Way to go Kyle!

Kidcraze said...

This is exactly what we do!
It takes forever to get through a book this way, hence the reason we are on month four of Swiss Family Robinson, but it is so worth it.
He really gets into different voices and dramatizes what he reads, so the children totally eat it up.
And, generally, he is not a reader.
Oh, how many discussions we've had about how his parents never read to him, etc.
I'm glad he is willing to break that cycle!

The Herd said...

What a great idea!!!!

Donya Hau said...

That is awesome. I think valuable time spent w/ dad is so great!!! My husband & kids always either lay down in bed or on the couch everynight for about 30 to 45 minutes & just bond. That is their special time w/ dad & I think he needs it just as much as they do. Especially the older they get. My daughter TRULY enjoys her dinner dates w/ dad. They try & go twice a month. That's their special time together & it's something I know she will always treasure!

Kelly said...

I checked out Carole Seid's website. She'll be in SoCal twice in May. So I'm checking with hubby to see if I can go and here her (I'd take him but one of us has to stay home and watch the kids).

debhmom3 said...

Mark is WAY better at reading out loud than I am. I think men in general are better at making different voices (probably because boys learn to make so many different noises from an early age! LOL).