Learn to Like Good Books
Rosalie deRosset taught English at Moody Bible Institute in Chicago for decades. I attended a workshop she held at a Women in Christ conference in the late 1980s. I know last time I said that you need to read for fun and, in the beginning, you should read anything to foster that. But, eventually, you should expand your taste. If you learn to love good books -- great books -- you will be spending your time with the great thinkers. And, this is what you will be sharing with your children. As I said in the first post, their vocabulary and comprehension will expand by reading great books. You can start by reading good children's books, even on your own.
I love children's literature. My favorites: "Alice in Wonderland", "The Wind in the Willows", "Winnie-the-Pooh", "The Hobbit", and "The Chronicles of Narnia". What do they have in common? Aside from the fact that they are all British authors, they were all written before or around WWII. Almost all books written before WWII were written from a Christian world view and by people with great depth of character and breadth of experience. To expand this list, I would add books by Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, E. B. White, Laura Ingalls Wilder, and the book "Heidi". Great children's literature gets one used to the deeper mental requirements of great old literature like Sir Walter Scott, Shakespeare, and Jane Austen. Not only that, but they are still in print because they LASTED; they were GOOD, entertaining and creative. And, the books that children read will be reflected in their writing.
When Becki was 6, she drew a picture in church of a dollhouse. She labelled the rooms including "the parlor", which she didn't call "living room" because she didn't read books new enough to use that particular phrase. It will be exciting to see what your kids come up with, I promise.
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