Jun 05 2006
Cooking up a little family togetherness
New here? Then you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
When I do an Usborne home show, I try to show the moms - and it’s always moms - how to use books to get closer to their kids. This is what I tell them:
When our kids are very small, we go through a time of intensive parenting. We worry about everything from, “Is he still breathing?” to “Will I ever get this kid potty trained?” Then they finally enter school, and we breathe a collective sigh of relief. “Whew! The tough part was over. They’re in someone else’s hands now!”
It’s natural that we want (and need) some times to ourselves to reconnect with hobbies, careers and passions we put aside when our kids were small. Now that they can dress, feed and entertain themselves most of the time, we feel we can sit back a little. But in reality, we can’t. Especially when they enter the middle school and high school years, the time when peer pressure is at its worse. It’s important to keep the lines of communication open and active, and one way to do that is through books and shared activities around those books.
As a president of a charter school I see how parental participation slacks off as kids get older. And this is at a school where volunteering 20-50 hours per school year is mandatory! It worries and saddens me to see that many parents stop caring. As long as the kids are getting good grades, they show little interest in their children’s school, friends, hobbies, or passions.
Maybe they think staying in touch with their child takes too much time. But in reality it’s as simple as reading books together! Even with older kids, you can take turns reading out loud. Discuss the stories around the dinner table or in the car. (Magazine and newspaper articles work well, too.) Try planning activities around the stories. Or use books, discussion, and activities to back up what’s being taught at school.
These are all good ways to Break the Communication Logjam. (For more terrific articles on reading, check out Scholastic’s website.) But how do you really do this? Sometimes the books do it for you and all you have to do is follow along and get a little creative.
In Core Knowledge based schools (of which my school, Carbon Valley Academy, is one) Little House on the Prairie is assigned reading in fourth or fifth grade. However, many girls pick up on the Little House books on their own. Possibly, their mom, an older sister, an aunt, or a friendly librarian or teacher has recommended them.
Luckily, the Little House books come with a companion cookbook, The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Classic Stories. It’s a great reference and family activity tool since much of the Little House books center on food and the hunting, growing, cooking, preserving, and eating of it.
So now you have these two books, what do you do? Read, discuss, and plan some activities!
Some discussion points: 1) The Little House books show how hard it was to be a pioneer. Unlike today, there were no supermarkets, no fast food joints, or take out. If you didn’t work hard, you didn’t eat. 2) If you lived back then, what kind of things would you be doing to help your parents around the farm and house? 3) Could you imagine living miles away from your nearest neighbor or town?
Activities: 1) Make one of the recipes. 2) Visit a pioneer museum. 3) Pick vegetables at a farm. 4) Plant a garden. 5) Go fishing, hunting, or camping. 6) Cook outdoors. 7) Visit a working dairy.
See how easy that is? It’s all about fitting books into your life, and finding non-threatening ways to talk to your kids to stay connected.
Other great literary companion cookbooks for kids:
Fanny at Chez Panisse: A Child’s Restaurant Adventures with 46 Recipes
electric fireplace
I know even my 13-year old boys like it best when I read our history books aloud. Who’d have guessed!?