Book Clubs With Kids

I've always wanted to be in a book club.  But sadly, the call's never come.  

And I've never taken the bull by the horns and created my own.

Until this summer, when I decided to have a Summer book club with each of my children.

Each child and I read two books together this summer:

 

Big G got to choose August and chose Muppets. Little Iggy got to choose July and chose a Magic Tree House

 

 

Little Iggy's June book - I chose this one.

 

And Where the Red Fern Grows with Big G, chosen by me for June.

I didn't know if they would love it.  I didn't know if they would embrace it.  I didn't know, with our busy schedule, if I'd be able to keep on them to finish all of the books.

So I gave them incentives.

In the form of a book chart where they earned a point for any book read, 2 points for any chapter read, and 10 points for participating fully in our book club meeting by the week it was scheduled.

Win.  Win.

The books I chose, Charlotte's Web and Where the Red Fern Grows, were, as you may know, utter and complete sobfests.  

As a matter of fact, I doubted my sanity when I couldn't stop crying while reading the last 3 chapters of Charlotte to Little Iggy.  Then she couldn't stop crying and then we just sat on the bed and cried into each other's arms.

And then when we did the book club meeting for that book, I asked her if she had any questions to add to our meeting.  

She thought for a minute.  "Why did Charlotte have to die?  Wouldn't the book have been so much better if she'd lived?"  And then we both started crying again.  

We were a pair.  

And Red Fern wasn't much better.    

So that's why we all enjoyed the levity in July and August's choices - Muppets and Magic Tree House.  

Including all of the other books they read this summer, the girls earned well into the 200 point range.  Each.

And what did the girls get to do with the points they earned, you ask?

A trip to the book store to get more books of course!

Reading.  Hands down, my favorite part of an old-fashioned summer.  It's why I saved it for last.  

I can't wait for next year's book clubs.  

Comments

[Kenzie]

That is such an awesome idea to get the kids in to reading books! I love the reward at the end to get more books :D I wish that I could do that with myself ;D haha! That's too neat that your kids participated and had a wonderful time too.

[Lisa @ A Little Slice of Life]

I love the idea of doing a book club with your kids. I love to read. Right not Little Man is only 3 so any reading he does is with me and he loves every minute of it. I hope I remember this idea when he is reading on his own.

[Kristen]

We always have our noses in books too. My girls just started the Harry Potter series and my husband decided to reread the last two.

[Christine @ Love, Life, Surf]

I too love the idea of doing a book club with your kids. My oldest loves to read and I would love to do this with him. And Charlotte's Web and Where the Red Fern Grows? Are you kidding me? Just thinking about those books are making me teary. I loved them both dearly. Amazing stories.

[Amy @ Counting My Kisses]

I love this idea! I can't wait until my girls are a little older so we can start chapter books. I'll have to remember the summer book club option, great idea as always Missy! :)

[Katie E]

What a great idea! I love the fact that my oldest is such a reader now, and what turned her was when she wanted to see the Harry Potter movies and I told her she had to read the books first. She did, and she loved them so much that she's a real reader now. Though I may sometimes question her book choices :)

[Katie E]

And I forgot to say that she read Where the Red Fern Grows in school last year, and I loved talking to her about it because I have vivid memories of my 4th grade teacher reading it to my class and crying. Love that book!

[Jennifer]

I love this idea, but I have one question... did you forget how The Red Fern Grows ends?

[Jester Queen]

Wait. Red Fern was SO MUCH WORSE. I will always remember Charlotte with fondness. I hated that Red Fern ending. It was not poorly done at all. This isn't like the His Dark Materials ending, where I wanted to find Phillip Pullman and stuff the last fifty pages down his throat for creating an impossible and contrived scenario to force Lyra and Will into a tragedy. I believed Red Fern was an appropriate tragic coming-of-age ending.

But I can't ever read it again. Because I don't believe in coming of age that way.

[Marie]

Brilliant! We are huge readers in this house, too. I can't wait until Murray is ready for chapter books. For now, we enjoy a wide variety of books like, the "Mama Lama" series, "Stellaluna", and well, just about anything we can get our hands on.

Oh, and I LOVE your book choices.

[Susi]

What a wonderful idea and awesome books to choose. I love to read and my kids seem to be picking it u a bit. Maybe I'll do a book club with them next year...

[Kim]

Oh, my. You made me cry as I thought about you and your daughter crying over Charlotte.

We always used to do the annual library summer book reading event, but I would do this instead in a heartbeat if my girls were little again.

You remind me of how utterly sweet it was to hold them close as we read books out loud to one another. *Sigh*
I have never understood how moms can not read to their kids.

Thank you for the sweet memories of book filled bedtime stories!

[Julia]

Charolotte's Web has always been one of my favorite books, such a classic. I think it's great that you took the time to do a book club with your kids. It's a wonderful idea.

[DaddyRunsALot]

I still tear up just thinking about the end of Where the Red Fern Grows. Heck, even with the last "redemption" chapter. Gah.

It's manly to admit that you cry at books, right?

Anyway, I shall, shamelessly, be stealing this idea after my kids learn to read, or are, at least, able to talk about books coherently (CJ will tell you all about whatever the heck you might ask him, but only a few words are intelligible)

[Amber]

Great idea! I so love books. Charlotte's Web is a great one. I also want my daughter to read the Ramona Quimby books.

[marie]

I LOVE books and so do the kids, Magic Treehouse is definitely a favorite as well as A-Z mysteries, The Mysterious Benedict Society & Nancy Drew. I tried to beg my 11 year old into reading this book on Polio this summer, it seemed fascinating to me but I let her misery end at page 50.

[ColdBlooded]

Totally loving this idea and I plan on stealing in when I have children old enough to read.

A neighbor read Charlotte's Web to me when I was younger. Those nights she read to me are some of my best memories.

[julie gardner]

This is so beyond fabulous - what a gift you've given your children and yourself.

Sadly, we did very little reading this summer.
(Gasp! And I'm an English teacher. Hard to admit.)

I think my kids just needed a break from something that started to (unfortunately) feel like WORK and drudgery.

During the school year, our family reads together every school night - all four of us if Bill is home from work. It is (and my kids make fun of me for it - as teenagers will do) my absolute favorite part of the day.

However, after a dozen years of the kids having to count minutes and pages of reading for school (then record those minutes on weekly logs, have me sign them, then tally up each month for more recording and signing and officiating etc.) the joy has been somewhat lost for them.

I'm disappointed that our schools (and I'm a teacher so I include myself in this) haven't come up with a better method to encourage reading than setting minutes/page goals with some kind of party at the end of each month in elementary if they complete their assignment and punishment in middle school/high school if they don't.

Where is the fun? Where is the love? The kids roll their eyes and fill in their charts and hate every minute of it. As do I.

I love to read. But MAKING them read this way with logs and charts and comprehension tests and incentive points for years on end for grades isn't good.

Unfortunately, I don't have time to come up with better ideas. I'm too busy finding my calculator to add up my kids' reading minutes.

Sigh.

I love them to read. And I've tried so very hard to encourage them to love it too.

A book club sounds like just the right thing to do.

So good for you, Missy.

Keep it up. And if your school does reading incentives, may the logs be with you.

So to speak.

[Mary @ A Teachable Mom]

I'm with you - summer reading is the best! I love that you did a book club with both of your children. What a gift to them (and you!). And yes, Charlotte's Web gets me every time! I adore the image of you and your daughter hugging each other and crying - absolutely beautiful!

[Jessica@Team Rasler]

Ah... you know this is my favorite of all your summer activities, too. I've been thinking that I want to run my own book club reading children's books, but with my friends! I wonder if any of them will want to do it with me. Perhaps I'll have to turn to my virtual friends if the local ones all turn me down. Thanks for reminding me of this goal of mine!

P.S. I've learned not to choose sob-fest books for my classroom read-alouds. The kids are always shocked that I'm crying, even if they are, too! I'm sure my boys will be more forgiving when they are old enough for those.

[Patricia]

I've always read with my kids. We love to discuss books together, and then I know that they're really grasping the concepts that we've read. I just started a book club with my daughter and some of her friends. I was nervous to do it, but our first meetinng went so well, and the girls all seemed to have a good time!