I can only think of one thing more enjoyable than reading a Little House book — sharing a Little House book.
Working in the early education field, I see a common trend among parents who read to their children. When the children learn to read, the parents tend to stop reading to them. I can understand the reasoning… after all, when your child learns to feed himself, you stop feeding him; when your child learns to give himself a bath, you stop bathing him. But the same does not apply to reading! Children benefit greatly from being read to, long after they’ve learned to read themselves.
And might I even venture to say that adults may benefit also?
I grew up in a family that read together. We all learned to read at an early age, but that didn’t matter, our parents read to us every evening anyway. My mother was still reading Little House books to my sister and me (and the family cat, who always came to listen when Little House was being read — proof that cats have good taste!) when we were teenagers! There’s just something about sharing a book together that makes a good book even better.
But reading the Little House books to your older children won’t simply form pleasant memories that will stay with them the rest of their lives — it’s a delightful experience for the one reading aloud too. I know, because I’ve now become the reader.
My six-year-old niece and I are reading through the Little House books together. Last week we finished Little House on the Prairie, and I can’t wait to see how much she enjoys On the Banks of Plum Creek. And as many times as I have read Little House on the Prairie in my lifetime, do you know that reading it to her made it an entirely new experience? When reading a familiar beloved book to a child, you see it from a different perspective — instead of seeing the book through my own eyes as I always have before, I now see it through hers.
Of course, my niece isn’t the only one listening. My mother can often be found on the listening end this time, and my sister too, so here we are experiencing Little House together once more, with the next generation. Sharing Little House together is a family tradition I hope will be passed down for many generations yet to come.
Are we alone in this? Are we the only family who reads Little House together, long after the children are able to read themselves? I hope not, but if your family doesn’t read together, and if you have children of any age, I would highly recommend it as a tradition to start right now. And if you don’t have children, borrow some. That’s what I do!
Families used to read together, you know. The Ingalls family is the perfect example. Just think of Ma reading Millbank so often that Laura could recite its beginning in On the Banks of Plum Creek, and of the family gathering together eagerly to read the stories in The Youth’s Companion. If reading together as a family was good enough for the Ingalls family, isn’t it good enough for you?
Now get out those books and start making some memories!