A Year of Family Connections
“We cannot live only for ourselves. A thousand fibers connect us with our fellow men; and among those fibers, as sympathetic threads, our actions run as causes, and they come back to us as effects.”
- Herman Melville
The underlying philosophy of our book, The Parent-Child Book Club: Connecting With Your Kids Through Reading, is that we as parents need to be mindful about making strong connections with our children. With our parent-child book clubs, we strive to make connections with our kids through reading and discussing books, and engaging in related enrichment activities. We love the idea of creating connections and communities through literacy, and we are thrilled to be able to share our thoughts about organizing and conducting family book clubs.
Now, we are asking you to share your ideas about how you make connections with your families. We know that you make lasting connections with your family every day – we hope you will share your creative suggestions with us!
Here are some examples of exciting and easy ways to make connections:
* Take a walk around the block with a camera to record your neighborhood, and make a scrapbook of your family’s favorite spots. Or focus your camera lens on certain interesting aspects of your neighborhood such as trees, flowers, dogs, or buildings, and arrange your scrapbook to reflect your interests. Annotate your scrapbook to capture your family’s thoughts and memories.
* Plant a family vegetable or herb garden and enjoy creating delicious meals together. Research recipes using your crops and make a simple family cookbook. Invite friends and family to your home-cooked feast.
* Plan a family game night and gather around a table for some old-fashioned fun. No electronics allowed! Try Bingo, Scrabble, Candyland, Apples to Apples, Boggle, Bananagrams, Cards, Rummy Cube, Charades, or any of your favorites. Create a family trivia game centered around special moments in your family’s history.
* Listen to music together and create a family dance or parade. Play instruments together and write a family song. Ask each member of your family to pick a favorite song and play it for the group and discuss why it is special. Or play music in the background and have everyone in the group draw or paint with the music as inspiration.
It’s your turn. What are your rituals for making connections with the kids in your life? Email your family connection ideas to info@parentchildbookclub.com. Send us your paragraphs and pictures too, if you can. We will post your contributions! Thank you in advance for sharing your ideas and strategies with us and with our readers!
Great post. Love the idea of connecting through books. Now that my daughter is 12, she and I have our own reading, which we talk about, as we did when I read her books with her. Now, I have to say, the sweetest moment of our day comes at bedtime, when we tell each other 3 good things that happened that day. They can be anything – big or small. Just something that made us feel good, even for a second. I’m quite sure it makes us both fall asleep faster and sleep better, which is what Martin Seligman said is the case for the many people he knows who do this. Seligman is the widely known pioneer of positive psychology. His new book is called Flourish, which I recommend to everyone – it’s about the 5 components of well-being that he’s identified. A great read. Keep posting! Love your stuff. Susan