My 7-year-old daughter is growing up to be such a bookworm. Her wishlist always includes books or series of books. She has finished quite a lot of book series already, and shows no signs of stopping. I am not complaining. On the contrary, I am delighted by this habit of hers. When we travel out of town, she always makes sure she has a book or two that she would read during the commute.
I have often been asked how I managed to make her love reading. Like in any other cases, you can't make anyone love someone or something by forcing them to it. it's a process. A long and tedious process that requires a lot of patience, focus, and consistency. What it does not require is use of rewards or punishments, high expectations with low efforts, or absence of gentleness.
When I was teaching my daughter to read, there was one thing that I kept in my mind. If she learns to love reading, it will be easier for her to love learning. If she learns to love learning, she will continue to love reading. It's a loop that has no losing end. And now that we are in homeschooling in grade school, it brings me delight how much our study time is a breeze 90% of the time. When it comes to teaching and children, it's not always sunny and unicorns and rainbows. They have their moods too. But at least it's a lot easier to manage because she has developed a deep love for learning.
So how did my daughter learn to love reading? That is the question. The secret actually is in the books that I handed to her. As a first time mom and a new homeschooling momma, I had no idea what I was doing in the beginning. I just have that motto about learning to love reading and that's all I started with. I thought that I could just give her any books. That's how I started too. I just read all the books I could find in our tiny little house when I was a kid. I scour through my big brother's text books (he was 2 years older than me so I was learning 6th grader stuff while I was in 4th grade).
But really, as intentional parents, we need to make sure that we provide the best books our kids could have. When I learned about the Charlotte Mason method, that was when I first discovered living books. What is a living book, you might ask. I asked the same question too. To be honest, up to now, I still question some of my book choices if they are considered a living book or not. But I observed a few things that helped me define what a living book is.
Majority of definitions you'll find on the internet if you search what living books mean would say a book that is beautifully written by an expert who is passionate about the subject matter. These books are written in a way that captivates and holds the readers attention. It is literature that tells you the full story using beautifully chosen words that after you've read the book, you yourself will have formed a picture in your head about what the author was talking about. Some living books are an easy read, but most of them takes a lot of time to finish because you can't skip or rush through it. This is why when I look for stories like the classics, I always go for the unabridged version. Living books does not make you feel like it was rushed and simplified, or dumbed down.
Another observation I saw in the living books we read is that the main character does not always show to be the best characters in their story. These books show how protagonist struggled to do the right thing and how they sometimes fail to do so. It does not just show the best thing about the heroes we read, it also shows their bad sides, like how naughty Jose Rizal was when he was a kid, or how the soldiers that were with Gabriela Silang turned back when they saw that dark patch of something from a distance and thought it was the Spanish soldiers when in reality, it was just dark clouds.
My daughter had a really interesting narration about Othello earlier. She said that at the beginning, she was inclined to siding with Iago because he did not get the position he wanted to have, instead he was overcome by some politics, but in the end, it turns out that made him the bad guy in the story. Living books make its readers see through the thoughts and ideas of the characters and really makes the readers think long and hard about the things that transpire in the story.
Living books always leave the kid wondering. They wonder what would have happened if this and that was done. It makes the child imagine and see the picture about the topic in their mind's eye. That is without prompting them about the image. It would come to them naturally like it's a normal thing. I have often been surprised by my daughter's keepings of the stories we read.
Furthermore, it inspires them. It touches their hearts that they either draw pictures about it according to what they imagine, or use the idea during their playtime. My daughter planted mung beans after reading about the bean in her book Seed Babies. She wanted to see for real if what she imagined was how it really looked like. After reading about Maria Orosa, Gabriela Silang, and Josefa Llanes Escoda, she always feels proud to be a girl because of what these ladies contributed to society.
Living books touches its readers' emotions. It feeds the brain with ideas and these ideas grow in their hearts. When we studied about how the Olympics started in Greece, she said she was happy that this event stops any war that's going on even just for a few days. Then when we got to the part where we read that during the modern day Olympics, the war does not stop because of the olympics, the Olympics stops because of the war, it made her really sad and disappointed with humans.
Knowledge does not always necessarily get retained by the brain through memorization. Most of the times, we remember things because of the emotions we attached to it. There are instances that my daughter narrates then she cries because she really felt sad about the events that transpired. There are also instances that she couldn't help but jump for joy because the thing she hoped would happen in the story did happen.
If you're still unsure which book is a healthy book for your little learners, you can never go wrong with the classics. There are several classics for several ages. I had my daughter read A. A. Milne's poems when she was young. His poetry is a great way to introduce riches to toddlers. Dr. Seuss books are also a great way to train kids to read on their own as well as great read aloud for kids that doesn't know how to read yet. This was one of the first books series that I bought for my kid when she was 4 years old and I can say that it opened her mind to a whole new world. She was just amazed by the rhymes and the written words. I think this might be the reason why she has gotten into the habit of reading book after book after book.
Tom Sawyer is also a great book as well as Little Women, Heidi, Dr. DoLittle, and the likes. Just make sure that if you would be introducing these books to your little learners, opt for the unabridged versions. Do not worry that the wordings in the book might scare your little ones away. Children will gobble up what they can when they can. There will be cases when you might have given the wrong book at the wrong time. I read Robinson Crusoe to my daughter last year and she was unable to enjoy it so we parked it for a while. It's still parked but I know, when she's ready, she will pick it up.
Reading is not just an enjoyable hobby. Once you learn to love reading, there is no limits to the adventures you can get to. There is also no limit to the knowledge you will acquire. So just have fun choosing books for your little learner.
