Starting a New Chapter with Wolf's Library
Matt and I love reading and as you might expect...we have a lot of books. Well, books take up space, which we do not have much of in the truck. And so, we're packing our books off to various places. We’ve been getting used to the idea of reading primarily on our Kindles which I feel a little meh about, but okay - I know we'll make it work.
Wolf's books were an entirely different matter. He has always loved story time and is just starting to learn how to read. My hope is that as he progresses, he doesn't just learn the mechanics of how to decode letters. I'd like him to see reading as his entry to all the ideas, stories, and questions he's curious about. Part of that will come from having easy access to lots of books. Real books.
Our challenge was to build him a library using whatever dead space in the truck we could find. There’s really not much. The only place that seemed at all viable was on the walls behind and alongside our recliners. I found a shop on Etsy that sells single wall shelves designed for displaying children's books. Perfect! I ordered four, and a week later Matt installed them.
My next task was to fill them with books. I get Wolf books all the time but wanted to start this big adventure with lots of new ones for him to be excited about.
The approach I took was inspired by the wonderful school Wolf has been going to for the past few years, Bambini Creativi. Every morning his teachers place interesting stuff around the classroom for the kids to independently explore. The items are different every day and are called "provocations" because they are meant to provoke curiosity, interaction, and ultimately learning.
I liked the idea of doing something along these lines and picked out books on a wide range of topics he likes. There is a roughly equal split between fiction and non-fiction, including some that aligned with our destinations - like the ones on Arctic wildlife. Amazingly, those four little shelves ended up fitting over a hundred kid books!
In the spirit of "provocations", I'm going to lay a different selection of books out every morning with his breakfast. He can choose whichever ones most interest him. We'll read them and see where they take us...kitchen table provocations!
Here's a peek at his truck library:
· Jolly Phonics stories to help him learn to read
· Choose Your Own Adventure stories for young readers, like Ghost Island and Your Very Own Robot.
· Stories on interesting people from history, like Now & Ben: The Modern Inventions of Benjamin Franklin and Nothing Stopped Sophie: The Improbable Story of Unshakable Mathematician Sophie Germain
· Science books, like What Makes a Magnet? and Rocks and Minerals.
· Math stories, like Equal Shmequal and Bedtime Math.
· An Evolution coloring book.
· Nature books, like The Arctic Habitat and Why Oh Why Are Deserts So Dry?
· Outdoor activity books, like Forest School Adventure.
· Graphic novels, like Hilda and the Troll and Giants Beware!
· And of course, lots and lots of stories....like My Father's Dragon and The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest
I'm pretty excited about how his truck library turned out. He will have no shortage of books on all sorts of fun topics (Volcanoes! Dinosaurs! Worms! Explorers!).
How could this little boy not love reading?!
