Apples of Gold Home School News

     Tis that time again. I'm a little nostalgic as I scan through my book shelves and notice that there are now more books we've already read than those whose stories we have yet to discover, and that there are quite a few we simply will never get to.

     Ah, for a few more chances to "re-do" here, or "add-one" there. I have to start giving away or selling some of those old, friendly tomes that are taking up valuable space. It's hard to let go. I stopped at a rummage sale today at the home of a homeschooling friend. She had a table full of books like that for sale. I remembered when she first bought a few of them. Great tales of courage and wisdom. Champions. Heroines. So good.

     There are stories that stick in my memory from my youth. The ones that refuse to be forgotten because they were adventurous or epic or real. I wonder which stories will stay with my kids?

     Some of you have small children and are just beginning to set out on your own discoveries. Some of you have middle-graders, children who are developing their own personal reading tastes. Some, like me, have older children, those who know what they like and don't like to read, and whom we have only a short time left (school-wise) to influence. I wonder what books we should choose for next year? By what tales or biographies should we allow ourselves to be enchanted or provoked as we close out this final leg of the school year? 

     Part of the reason I ask myself this is not simply for the nostalgic or entertainment value which, frankly, I love. It's not just to learn about the life of another important person in history. The main reason that I think it's important that we read wonderful books is because it has the power to create a hunger for reading down the road, when kids become adults and no one is telling them they have to read something.

     It's an unfortunate, statistical fact that college graduates spend less time reading for pleasure than those who haven't emerged from those hallowed halls. I believe it's because they are purely worn out from reading mountains of dreck that's forced upon them in the name of "liberal arts". I want my children to hunger for story, information, knowledge, and all that comes from a life-long love of reading. PLEASE, GOD, DON'T LET ME FEED THEM DRECK!  

     I say that in seriousness! It's very easy to convince ourselves that our kids must read certain works in order to be well rounded. I don't believe it. There are a tens of thousands of books published every year, and there are mountains of oldie-but-goodie ones in libraries, used books stores, and online that you may never have heard of, but are filled with character, wisdom, and delight. You simply have to ferret them out. That's all part of the discovery process, the adventure, and the joy when you love to read.

     Do you like to read? Why or why not? I think there's a good reason, either way, and that we have it within our own power in our homeschools to either open up the joy that is reading to our children, or to steer them down the road of disenchantment by either ignoring the possibilities or by offering them dreck.

     Life is adventurous and full of wonder. Stories magnify the fact. Let's get our kids in on that.