Summer Reading: Oh, the places you will go...!

Oh, the places you will go without physically traveling very far. Summer is right around the corner and so is having an enjoyable time reading with your kids. Summer is all about sharing an Award winning book together in the tent at night in your own backyard OR each night sitting around the family room OR piling on a bed to read. Some of our fondest memories as a family was to camp and read from a novel each evening before bed using a flashlight or the trailer light. The best part was to hear my kids beg for more as I would end the read for the evening with a climatic high from the book. The next evening they couldn't wait learn more of the story. One summer we met an orphaned dog named Shiloh (Phyllis Reynolds Naylor), learned we didn't want to be The Whipping Boy (Sid Fleischman), and discovered ancient Egypt through The Egypt Game (Zilpha Keatley Snyder).

If you are looking for something to stimulate your child to read, I would suggest Jim Trelease's The Read-Aloud Handbook. His book is divided into two sections; the first section contains specific information on the effects of reading aloud to your child and the second section contains a treasury of great short reads in which he pulls some chapters, sections, and excerpts from some really great books. His book will have your child wanting to know more about the various characters, the "rest of the story," and stimulate your child to want to read the entire book all because of the excerpts he chooses. I have several of his volumes. For more on his book visit this site: http://childrensbooks.about.com/cs/readalouds/fr/readaloudhandbk.htm

AND For a list of great 2009 summer reads for kids and teens, fiction and non-fiction, visit this website: http://www.nlc.state.ne.us/libdev/summerreading/2009bcyl_handoutfromNLAsession.pdf

HAPPY READING!!! Hundreds of adventures await your family right in your own backyard. Oh, the places you will go!!!!

Living Water

Recently my husband and I spent time hiking through the beautiful red rock and desert. One particular hike was a 3 mile hike in through a box canyon called Calf Creek. We read the trail markers along the way describing the various vegetation and history of the canyon. We enjoyed pictoglifs, tiny budding red flowers in skinny little rock crevices, making a whistle out of horsetail, and watching scampering small lizards. The trail for the most part was good. At times there were deep pockets of sand to walk through, hills & valleys, which may have slowed down our journey, but also added to the depth of our experience. At times the journey seemed hot and long, but we knew their was a wonderful reward at the end. As we progressed through the hot afternoon, rambling on and talking away, we came to end of the canyon only to find a beautiful cascading cool waterfall.

During earlier days the box canyon held cattle. Even amongst the hot dry desert, there was water to keep the cattle alive. I pondered this for a bit, knowing that each of us have a journey to make in our life--easy, hard, well marked, not so clear, even slowed down by the unexpected. When the hills are high or the valleys extremely low, we always have a choice. Our journey can be barren, dry, and harsh as the unforgiving desert or we can choose to partake of living water. The kind of living water which will quench our thirst, give us life, and purpose for being.

Photo Credit: © Victor Russillo Dreamstime.com