As we end our Summer Reading Challenge, I thought it would be fun for you–our readers–to hear a personal reflection from me on how our family experienced the challenge. After all, we are real people with real families behind this website!
A Little Background
We are a family of five: mom (me), dad, daughter (aged 7), twin sons (aged 6). Our kids fall into the newly independent reading category; our daughter can read a book like Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, but she is more comfortable reading The Magic Treehouse books. One son can read The Magic Treehouse books fairly easily, but chooses picture books just as often. One son can read The Magic Treehouse books, but it takes a bit more effort for him. He loves easy readers. So, we would be listening to Mom or an audio version for the bigger chapter books we read.
Our Reading Experience
We listened to or read the following throughout the summer:
- Around the World by Matt Phelan
- Dodsworth early chapter books by Tim Egan
- The Magician’s Nephew and The Horse and His Boy by C. S. Lewis
- How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World by Marjorie Priceman
- the Mercy Watson Books by Kate DiCamillo
- Paddington by Michael Bond
- Heidi by Joanna Spyri
- Half Magic by Edward Eager
- the Anna Hibiscus books by Atinuke (my daughter only)
- lots of Magic Treehouse Books, some Flat Stanley books
- some Encyclopedia Brown books.
What would I have done differently? I let my children pretty much pick what they wanted from our giant list (although I selected Half Magic and Heidi--and both were HUGE successes). Looking back, I can tell that we skipped over the Christian adventures section completely! We can remedy that this fall; I’m glad I have a good list to pull from this semester. We will also look more closely at the nonfiction list since we skipped those as well. Summer is a wonderful time in which children should have a bit more latitude in their book choices (as opposed to the more officially “literary” titles we require during the school year), so I certainly don’t begrudge the time reading series books and those not on our official list!
Our best discussions happened with Heidi and The Magician’s Nephew; we had some very interesting spiritually themed conversations around these two books. Both of those were audio books as were many on the list. I was reminded on our trips that these common listening times can provide such memorable experiences together!
Our Non-Reading Experience
While we didn’t keep a journal or anything remotely that organized, we did take several road trips. I thought of Janie’s The Middle of Somewhere often as well as her tips for writing. I didn’t write a short story, but I did write a counting book of our road trip from East TN to San Antonio, TX and back:
0 DVD players in the van
1 minivan
2 rounds of vomit while in said van (thankfully I brought a trash can!)
3 trips through the Alamo per kids’ request (our hotel was right behind it) and 3 other missions in San Antonio
4 new-to-us cousins in TX! and 4 fun times in the pool and 4 pieces of Davy Crockett paraphernalia seen–yea for the Volunteers!
5 different overnight locations
6 different states: TN, GA, AL, LA, TX, MS
7 meals out (that’s it!)… or thereabouts. Mmmm…. Mexican food.
8 or so miles walked by kids and Betsy throughout San Antonio (hubby had to work some)
9 meals shared with family and friends we don’t see much!
10 days on the road
40 hours in the van
100 was the high in San Antonio 🙂
2500 miles traveled (roughly)
Countless: “are we there yet?” “can we ride the river boats?” “can we buy that”? etc.
Needless to say, we listened to some of our Summer Reading Challenge books on our trip! They made our car time much more fun. All in all, we’re delighted we participated even though we didn’t get to “do” every week’s theme.
We’d LOVE to hear YOUR Summer Reading Challenge experiences!! What books were your favorites? Which ones weren’t? Did you listen to audio books? Read Aloud? Kids read on their own? Did you throw a kids’ book themed party? Sample some international food? Leave us some comments about your experience.
Finally, if you haven’t had a chance yet, hop on over and fill out our Redeemed Reader 2013 Survey–there are PRIZES involved. Some lucky winners will get their choice of several books.
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I love your counting book idea–write it up! An illustrator would have lots of fun with it, especially for 2.
My husband, my daughter (13), and I read Beauty. I should have gotten three copies because whoever picked it up had trouble putting it down. We had to wait on each other! We discussed the questions provided on the Redeemed Reader Blog and we shared our own thoughts. My daughter said it is now her “favorite book ever.” We read a lot and the excitement and insight we’ve gained through the things we read has spilled over onto my husband. I think we are going to have to start hiding books from him until we are finished reading them! He ditched us and read Beauty in one sitting. 🙂
On the long drive to the Fourth of July destination we listened to Shaking the Nickel Bush by Ralph Moody. We never seem to tire of the Little Britches series. My kids will listen to it over and over as they play at Legos. The laughter wafting from the upstairs as they listen is always a delight.
I read Tom Sawyer to my son (7) His enjoyment of Tom’s antics were a bit unnerving. I have a sneaking suspicion that he is looking forward to swinging a dead rat by the tail. He went into hysterical fits of laughter many times through the reading of this book. He also stopped me quite a bit to ask the meaning of words. And I was quite proud to be able to tell him the meaning of the word phrenological (having looked it up years back when I read Moby Dick).
Susan read Anne of Green Gables and loved it so much she wanted to share the experience with us. She is currently reading it aloud to us at night, whilst simultaneously trying to keep the pet bird off of the top of her head as she reads. It’s an amusing sight.
My husband is reading Amazing Grace by Eric Metaxas. I’m reading Booked, Literature in the Soul of Me. And I’m studying and memorizing the Book of Hebrews. I’m in chapter nine.
This has been a short narrative of our summer reading.
Wow, Sharon. I feel so honored that Redeemedreader been a part of your family’s summer literary journey. Thanks for reading along with us! And I hadn’t thought about Little Britches in a while–that’s one I need to get for my kids before long. So thanks for the reminder!
Three of my four literate children read at least five of the main seven books. One read six. (That could almost be a counting book. I need a two. Let’s see, two of my children don’t read yet.) They might have read more, but we moved over the summer, and they are also participating in a summer reading challenge sponsored by Exodus Books. My fourth literate child (my second-born) was a bit daunted by the thought of being in two challenges, so I let her opt out of Redeemed Reader’s. I’m grateful for the challenge. The library summer reading program (which they also did) gave out prizes before any reading took place, had very low standards for amount of reading, and gave no guidance as to what to read.
Oops! I read Booked, Beauty, and The Last Thing I Remember. I liked Booked, but was not as moved by it as I was by other similar books. I liked Beauty but was uncomfortably reminded of my addiction to romance novels in my younger days. I liked The Last Thing I Remember, and went on to read the whole series. I talked it up so much my husband wants to read the series (he’s waiting until the library returns it to us). I also intend to bring the series to the attention of my nephews.
I love hearing folks’ experiences with our challenge! I’m chuckling over the bird on the head whilst reading Anne of Green Gables scene :-).
Janie–maybe I will! 🙂