making history come alive through books for kids

I spent the last weekend in my favorite city with some of my family celebrating my mom’s birthday! Boston is all of our favorite city so we figured what better place to gather for a girls’ weekend from all over the country than the city we visited so often with my parents throughout our childhood. It was a blast!  We visited new places and spent a little time revisiting some of our favorites.

This was my first weekend away with just the girls since I’ve had kids.  That brought all sorts of mixed emotions as I was so excited to be with my mom celebrating her and really feeling like I could have all my attention on just being present with what was going on, along with a huge mix of emotions about being away from my little ones.  As we were walking around one of our favorite shopping areas, Quincy Market, I was looking for a little something to bring back for my kids.  We popped in a little tourist shop and I immediately was drawn to the kids’ books.  I realized then that was one of the best ways I could share not only this trip, but also a thousand memories I have from this city was by reading books with my kids. I settled on the board book, Goodnight Boston,  since my kids are little and it contained a highlight of many different landmarks along with some fun pictures.  My sister also bought them one of my favorites, Make Way for Ducklings, a classic story about the beautiful, historic city of Boston. My son is so excited about this book because he loves ducks, and I showed him a picture his older cousin had taken of the duck statues in the Boston Commons.

I know my kids will grow up in a different area of the country than I did and will be proud of the history we have here, but even though we may not have the opportunity to see New England as often and as thoroughly as I remember doing it, I can share my love of some of these places through books.

As a teacher and a mom, here are some of my favorite ways to encourage reading with kids:

1. Read to them.  A lot.  Read to them from the time they are born and keep reading with them as long as they are home. Pick out books that you like, let them pick them out, and pick ones together,
2. Let them read what interests them. Some kids naturally love reading.  For others it’s a struggle.  Let your child pick out what interests him.  Even if the only books he wants to read are sports books, encourage him in that direction to help him grow as a reader.
3. Visit libraries. I love having a large selection of books at our house, but I also love the opportunity to take my little guy to pick out something new!
4. It doesn’t have to be a scheduled thing.  Kids don’t always need to be pushed to read faster or to read more.  Make it part of regular routines, but also make it something fun that you might just stop what you are doing in the middle of a day to enjoy a great book together.

I love all the amazing books out there!  Some are just fun and some provide a unique way to teach kids about part of our history!  Take every opportunity you have to read with your kids!