The Growing Book Club

Here's another fun update on our Family-to-Family book club.

Our friends chose Charlotte's Web to read for our last book club and it was a huge hit with the kids. They also hosted the meeting and planned the most adorable activities for the kids.

We made spiders out of cupcakes and string licorice. The best part were the paper plate webs the kids made (center cut out with holes punched around edge and laced with yarn), complete with words cut from newspaper just like the ones Templeton would have chosen for Charlotte. Very cute. The kids had a blast.

So the word is spreading and we now have a third family joining the book club. They have chosen a really fun book for us to read this time:



And I'm pleased to say that in the last 2 days we had a fourth family join us! It's so terrific to see other families join us in our love of literature. What a fun way to bring families together while teaching children that reading is a life long pursuit for all of us. I couldn't be happier about the way things are turning out!

The Ressurection

I had posted this little story on my family blog a few weeks ago. But as I re-read it, I noticed again how big an impact good literature can have on our lives and the important discussions it can initiate with our children.

So I'm sharing this with you here as yet another example of how good literature can waken even the youngest of souls to everlasting truths.

We read Charlotte’s Web a while back. If you have read it you know it’s about a pig named Wilbur who is afraid that he will be killed by the farmer at Christmas time. His Spider Friend, Charlotte, resolves to keep him a live by making everyone believe he is “some pig”.

Well, more than once in the book, Wilbur laments his situation by repeatedly saying, “I don’t want to die….I don’t want to die….”

Poor Sofia was truly distressed by these passages and started asking me lots of questions about death. How do you die? Why do you die? Am I gong to die? Are you going to die? When? And then she would always end the conversation in a sad whiny voice with, “Moooom. I don’t want to DIE!’ and then I’d do my best to console her.

Well, then about a week ago, I was in the bathtub reading the Ensign (a magazine published by the LDS church). Sofie sauntered in and stood next to me, looking at pictures in the magazine. She pointed to a picture of Christ (I can’t remember which picture it was) and asked me about it. Our conversation, led by the picture, was about Christ’s death and resurrection. I explained very simply that Jesus died. "Oh, He did??"

And then I explained that he is alive again. "OH HE IS????" And that because he died and lives again, we can all live again with him after we die.

Her reaction to this glad news was so sweet, so sincere, so pure…I can hardly describe it. Her face literally brightened and she smiled so big. “Oh mommy! That makes me so happyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!”

And for one second I was able to look into a child’s heart with all it’s innocence and purity. She didn’t doubt or question the resurrection. She accepted it fully and with joy. She understood it immediately and laid aside her fears of death. We’ve never had a sad conversation about death since.

Being “mom” is sometimes draining, EXHAUSTING, mundane and very demanding. These special little moments when we get a glance at the bigger picture are the best, sweetest rewards. And there’s no other way to earn them. So glad I get to be mom and be part of these little awakenings in each of their little souls.