Mother - Son Book Club
- Could you describe when/why you began your mother-son book club?
I love to read. I read whenever I can and I blog about it every day. I also run a fabulous book club. My 6 year old son knows about all this and he doesn’t like it. Well, that’s not exactly true. He just doesn’t like the fact that these activities take up my time; he wants that all to himself. Whenever I head out the door to a book club meeting he gives me a sad look and asks if he can come. If I sit down to blog he wants to know what I’m writing and if it has anything to do with him (sometimes it does, but usually not).
It seems like everywhere you go online you read about Mother & Daughter Book Clubs. I kept thinking to myself “I wish I had a daughter that I could do this with.” One evening it hit me like a ton of bricks: ”Why do I need a daughter?! I’ve got the coolest son in the world!” That night when I tucked him in bed I asked him, “Would you like to have a book club, just you and me? We could take turns picking books, and I could write about our meetings on my blog.” If you could have seen the look of pure joy on his face … it was wonderful. He was so excited to start!
We had our first “meeting” in mid June. Before we began I made some ground rules. 1 - Kiddo and I will take turns picking which books we read. 2 - No Star Wars books. (I broke that rule for the first meeting… oops.) 3 - I’ll ask the same questions about each book and write his answers on my blog.
Our meetings are more like extended storytime. Kiddo sits next to me on the couch and follows along as I read a book. Then I ask him the questions. Sometimes he flips back through the book to help him answer a question. Then I write a post for my blog. It’s as simple as that.
- What have you read so far? What are you reading next?
We’ve had 5 meetings so far and read the following books:
- The Horse in Harry’s Room
- Star Wars, Episode I: Touch and Play
- The Prairie Fire
- Three Stories You Can Read To Your Dog
- One Green Apple
- The Great Big Wagon That Rang
- Harold and the Purple Crayon
- Dog & Bear: Two Friends, Three Stories
- How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?
I don’t know what we’ll read next. We have a pile of books from the library plus all the ones we own, and it’s kiddo’s turn to pick the book(s).
Kiddo starts 1st Grade in the Fall; as he learns to read I’m sure our choice of books will change to ones he can read to me.
- Do you use premade questions? If so, where do you find them?
I ask the same questions about each book:
- Did you like the book?
- What was your favorite part?
- What was your least favorite part?
- Did you like the pictures?
- Would you recommend this book to your friends at school?
Once he gives me his answer to each, I follow up with “Why?” That gets him thinking a bit more and usually gets me some interesting answers.
- What are some unique challenges inherent in discussing books with your own child?
The discussion isn’t the problem, it’s picking the books! I want to read kiddo the books I loved as a child but often he doesn’t like them as much as I do. So we try to come up with new books that neither of us know, and that’s working for now.
Seriously though? There are lots of important messages that you can convey to your child through a book, provided that you talk about the book in the right way. I try to point things out to kiddo without being too “preachy”. I ask him to imagine that HE is the character in the book - how would he feel about what’s going on? Those discussions have been the most interesting for me.
- What have you found to be the best aspects of your club so far?
My son doesn’t like to sit still - he wiggles and squirms, and never stays on my lap for more than a few minutes. But when we read for Book Club he tries extra hard to stay put and pay attention. He loves the discussion time. I think it has a lot to do with the individual attention I give him, and the fact that he knows I value his opinion on each book. It’s been a real joy for me to share my reading and blogging with my son. I love that we are making time to do something valuable - just the two of us - that we both really love.
- Anything else you can tell someone hoping to start a club of their own?
You don’t need other people to join - you can have a Book Club with YOUR one-and-only kiddo, your nephew/neice, godchild, neighborhood kid, whoever! That one-on-one time with a child is something he treasures, sometimes even more when it comes from an adult who is not his parent. Kids often feel marginalized by adults, like what they have to say doesn’t matter. A 2-person club like the one kiddo and I have gives the child a place to express opinions and be heard and respected by a grown up - what a gift!
My only advice is to “just do it!”
If you’d like to read more about the Mom & Son Book Club please drop by my blog. You’ll find a list of tags in my right sidebar; click on Mother/Son Book Club and you can read all kiddos reviews.
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Comments
I’ve enjoyed reading about the m/d and m/s bookclubs. We have done a Narnia club and a Little House club. Makes me miss doing a book club with the kids! Might have to get motivated to start one again.
Thanks for giving me the opportunity to talk about my little club. FYI, I posted about our 5th meeting today, and I included a link back here. 
@ Julie — Thank you for the award!! I really appreciate it…
@SmallWorldReads — I love your theme book clubs! Good idea for adults, too!
@Heather J. — Thanks for a great interview!
Great interview!
BTW, I nominated you for a blog award:
http://bookingmama.blogspot.com/2008/07/what-honor.html