Nothing Like A Good Book

I devoured Honey for a Child's Heart by Gladys Hunt last night. I'm not kidding, I finished the whole thing in one night after the kids went to bed. A book about good books, can't get much better than that.

I devoured it like someone famished. Have you ever been so hungry that you found yourself eating so incredibly fast and not really caring what anyone thinks? Okay, so that's me a lot, but usually I'm just trying to shovel food in my mouth before a baby cries, someone is fighting, another HUGE mess is made, or some other semblance of chaos is occurring in my life. :) Or maybe it's just because I want to at least taste it half warm. Or maybe I have just slipped in all form of manners in my life.

Anyway, that's why I feel like I consumed this book. Starvation. Of words, not food. I love the English language. I love words. Word games and puzzles. Plays on words. The use of words. The way they can be melded together and transport you anywhere. The way they can take an ordinary moment and turn it into something extraordinary.

That's part of why I love homeschooling so much. I am getting to enjoy so many quality books with Caleb that I never got to experience when I was a child. Right now am so thrilled about our school year because I've been working on our reading list for the year. It helps that Caleb loves to read and be read to, also. That's where Honey for a Child's Heart comes in. Also, Books Children Love by Elizabeth Wilson , which I just borrowed from the library, again...definitely going to have to add this one to our personal library some time.

I feel like I used to know and use so many more words than I do now. My command of the English language has digressed to dropping off my g's, as in, "Let's get goin'," and even "idear" has slipped out. As in, "Hey, I have a good idear." Not even sure where that came from. Some of it has to do with the region we live in, which I'm not knocking because I have country blood in me. I just never quite talked like it. And I'm not even saying it's wrong, it's just different for me. And I'm certainly not using much of my vocabulary these days.

Perhaps it's just the constant use of two to four letter words in this house of little ones (no, stop, sit, etc.) or just the fact that I don't get out much or intentionally engage my mind by reading books that I used too. Or maybe I just type so quick on this blog and don't really go over it enough to reword and really think things through...that's a scary thought. I don't know, but it does make me think of the commercial that had the wife greeting her husband at the door with baby gibberish and he quickly realizes that he needs to get her out for adult time and quick.

Sweet Samuel "reading" a book in his cowboy boots

As I've been feeling like I've lost some intellect (do all moms feel this way at some point? and if they do, when does it come back?), this book certainly whet my appetite for words. I have also been having fun recently with Caleb looking up words in the dictionary and watching the light in his eyes as he tucks it away to use some rainy day. I find that I know the general meaning of a word, but can't quite give him a solid definition, so it's helping both of us. Side note: His favorite word last year was putrid, can't wait to see what it is this year.

I feel like if my children learn to love reading, then they are prepared to learn anything they set their minds too. A lifetime of learning will be available to them. That God's knowledge will be that much more accessible to them.

Anyway, this book about children's literature satisfied something in me other than just having some new titles to add to our literary repertoire. It is my hope that my children will learn to love the English language and will master the use of its words. Or at least some of them. That they will be articulate adults able to communicate God's redeeming love to a dying world in whatever capacity God uses them. The possibilities are endless with God in control. Now that's exciting!

Anyone up for a good game of Boggle? Scrabble?