Books are an integral part of our family culture! We begin reading to our kids when they are very young and do it every day. We go to the library every week (sometimes twice a week!) and spend countless hours reading together at home.
We are very intentional about the books that we allow to come into our home. A few things that immediately disqualify a book from our home are unkindness, disrespect, dishonesty, cheating, bad language, negative attitude, or bullying.
Instead, we look for books that are positive and support our beliefs as Christians. We want the characters to have strong family relationships, talk politely, and model good values such as generosity, friendship, and compassion.
The company that we use for all of our homeschool curriculum, The Good and the Beautiful, has a strong belief that what children read affects them. We wholeheartedly agree with this!
On this topic, they have said, "The most powerful way to teach a child is through example. Children learn so much more than you might realize through the examples in what they read, and they model the behaviors and language they read about. There is an absolutely beautiful world of books out there—old and new—that teach respect, kindness, and honesty through wonderfully written, engaging, and inspiring stories. When you immerse your children in this kind of literature, over time you will see your children become more kind, more respectful, and more positive."
You might be thinking. . .are there even books like this these days? And the answer is YES! You just have to look for them. A good place to start is The Good and the Beautiful's library. All of their books meet this criteria. I love that all their books are wholesome and I never have to worry that books I buy from them won't align with our family standards.
On occasion, we have accidentally checked out a book that doesn't meet our standards. If we are ever reading a book that has something unkind, rude, or disrespectful in it- we stop reading it and discuss with our kids that that's not an appropriate behavior. This is something we have started early in hopes that our kids will learn to discern for themselves what good books versus bad books are. Over time, we will not be able to pre-read everything they pick so it's a valuable skill we are striving to teach them now.
My oldest has already started to pick up this habit. I got a picture book from the library the other day and my daughter brought it to me and said, "I don't want to read this book. He is mean to the other animals." We talked about how that made her feel and I praised her for not wanting to read books that made her feel bad. It was so great to know that she is starting to learn for herself.
While it is extra work on our part to pre-read or preview books, it is so worth it to us to make sure only positive behaviors are modeled in the books that our children read. Children copy and retain a lot more than we think so we want to do our part as parents to fill their heads with good ideas and role models.
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