I suspect my son-in-law married Anna for her science fiction collection. He tells me it’s not so. Does your family count science fiction among classic books? Maybe not. But our family loves all books and we’re pretty relaxed about the genres.

“It was his first excuse to come up to the house and start building a friendship with me,” Anna says. He told her, “I’ll borrow some books.” Now, if that isn’t a match made in heaven when you can share your books!

Anna was reading science fiction and speculative fiction before I ever knew speculative fiction was a real thing. Of course, technically speculative fiction is NOT real. Hahaha. Sorry, please excuse my nerdy humor.

Literacy Series

Speaking of word nerds, Anna and I waited a long time to do a whole series on reading. All focused on inspiring your kids to love reading as much as we do. 

Plus, I love it when Anna talks about marriage and her hubby on air. Their story, began over books, sounds like a romance novel, much like my parents’ death-defying love story.

Sharing Worlds Across Generations

“Because Drew and I shared a love of books we had shared worlds. We had been to the same places even though we’d never left the living rooms with those books,” Anna reports.

So here’s a motivating incentive for hooking your kids on reading early: you might get in-laws who are book nerds, too!

Now she says that reading allowed her to connect with her grandparents in very special ways, too.

“I shared a vocabulary across generations and across time and now I guess across dimensions,” she says, referencing the fact that all her grandparents exist in heaven now. “Do you consider heaven a different dimension?”

Anna’s comparison of heaven to a different dimension really struck my heart. So many people we love are already in heaven. Time travel books, the Bible, and some of the classics we love really do stretch our imagination. Our love of the classics—in all genres—allows our family to be very open-minded and committed to self-learning.

Antidote to Free-floating Self-righteousness

Free-floating self-righteousness shows up in all extremes of American culture today. From dogmatism to political correctness, we all suffer when we check our brains at the door. Never in my lifetime has it been so crucial to pass along wisdom in families.

Classic books challenge our children (and us) to think outside the prescribed cultural boxes. They help us teach our children to be independent thinkers with disciplined imaginations.

When did we get so myopic in our American perspective that we can’t imagine other people’s perspectives? For example, one of my favorite fun-to-read books lately, The Jindentors, offers classic insight on loving your own culture while respecting and learning from others.

How, then, does wisdom get passed from one generation to the next?

What is Wisdom? 

Anna and I talked at length about wisdom. For much more personal info about exactly how Anna talks about books with her two small children, listen in to our conversation in the podcast above.

We start with a great definition of wisdom. 

“As a young person I was praying for wisdom but what does that even mean?” Anna shares, “Looking up passages in scripture, they are very often followed or linked with other verses and ideas about humility.”

Camp Krafve Definition of Wisdom: Open-minded and respectful of lessons learned from the past; not haughty about what you think you know.

Classic books offer a great way to stretch imagination and pass along wisdom. Without preaching or lecturing.

Anna’s Tips On Inspiring Kids to Love Classic Books

#1 Be Open-minded About What Grab’s Your Child’s Attention

Don’t get yoked down by preconceived ideas about what’s classic and what’s not. 

“For example, I know people don’t think of Harry Potter as a classic yet, but it really is,” Anna explains. “It got a whole generation to read. A whole generation of people who were turned off by literature (now read). A coming of age story written in modern language and it was imaginative.”

Okay, okay, I confess I gritted my teeth a bit when Anna listed Harry Potter first in her examples. Really? There are so many I love more. Pollyanna. Anne of Green Gables. Oliver Twist. Kidnapped. 

But we had this whole wisdom and humility thing going. So, yep, I’m learning with the younger generation.

#2 Give a Child the First in a Series

“I love to give young people the FIRST in a series,” she says. 

The more engaging, the better. Unlike me, Anna doesn’t even mind when they make a movie out of a great classic book. Yep, I’m a purist. I always think my imagination is better than Hollywood’s. Totally, arrogant of me, I know, but true. It’s my ongoing rant. Anna offers a different perspective. 

“Then, they turned it into films. So even your dyslexic, dysgraphic kid for whom reading is such a struggle can be told, ‘If you read this, you can watch the movie.’”

#3 Give a Collection of Classic Books

“I also love collections.” Then, Anna explains our options.

• An edited collection. All in one binding, the stories are published like a single book. For example, Anna loves her Grimm’s Fairy Tales, The Complete Work of Sherlock Holmes, or The Book of Virtues by William Bennet. (Note from Cathy: I went to ChristianBooks.com for these links, but always be careful about any classics for your children, fairy tales in particular.)
• Collections of individual volumes. For example, Anna keeps a collection of children’s books that have received illustration awards.

She resists the temptation to buy classic books in paperback, even though her small children might tear them up. Instead, she taught her kids to respect her collections.

How? By sharing the books with her kids only when they can read together.

To begin your child on a heart-warming, trustworthy, inspiring series, check out how our friends at Bethlehem Publishing are resurrecting classic children’s literature. 

“Also, among my collections, I have a collection of children’s Bibles,” Anna adds. Having a variety makes reading bedtime Bible stories more fun for her hubby, too.

#4 Read Together

Additionally, Anna emphasizes the power of reading together. She cites the value of inherited books from her own childhood. 

“I have a copy of The House at Pooh Corner because you gave that book to my sister,” says Anna, “but I knew which addition it was. So when I was in the used book stores hunting for other things, I found the same addition and I bought it. You gave me The Sword in the Stone.”

My own grandfather pulled The Sword in the Stone off the shelves of his library and gave it to me when I was a child. 

Winnie the Pooh came home with my parents from a trip. I was disappointed because it didn’t have many pictures. Mom read it out loud to me, trusting my imagination to take over. To this day, I resent the way Hollywood imposed their pictures and movies on my original perception of the hundred acre woods.

“Every time you read them (my childhood books) to us, you told us where they were from and why they were valuable,” Anna remembers. “I have a copy of a children’s Bible—obviously you have the original— from your childhood. When I had children, you found the same addition online and bought it for me so we’d all be reading out of the same children’s Bible.”

Please don’t miss all that Anna shared about the way her hubby reads from the Bible to their children in today’s podcast. This blog will get too long if I include everything, but it is such great stuff!

#5 Make Recordings of Reading Out Loud

One of the silver linings from the COVID was grandparents reading books out loud to their grandkids over Zoom. How cool is it when grandparents read their favorite classic books to grandchildren!

“So I have a couple of recordings of my mother-in-law reading to my kids that are really delightful.”

Especially when toddlers demand the same books over and over, recording can be a godsend. 

“It’s so good for their development to do that. But as a parent, you get so bored. So if you can, get Granma to read it one time and record it on Zoom,” Anna recommends.

Recognizing Wisdom in Your Children

Maybe I’m biased, but I think often girls are naturally designed by God to seek wisdom. (Find out why I think this idea is biblical in my book, The Well: The Art of Drawing Out Authentic Conversations.)

Anna is so good at understanding how children are gifted naturally by God even before it’s obvious to the rest of us. I couldn’t wait to ask her opinion. 

If a mom sees certain behaviors in your child, how do you recognize wisdom?

“So Beth has started correcting me. And Jason has started backseat driving,” Anna laughs. “I’m trying hard not to shut it down. Because I am the mother. They don’t get to correct me or usurp my authority.” 

Both her kids test out ways of offering wisdom, according to Anna. For example, Beth corrects her mommy because she is wise, Anna explains.

“She knows I value that. She’s helping. It’s her design.” 

Wise, Not Hypocritical

As the grandmother, the process is hilarious. Believe me, Beth is teaching me better ways of offering correction, too.

Anna points out there’s a silver lining to raising naturally wise children. For instance, Beth gave up biting her fingernails, so she could help her mommy break the habit. 

“She wants something good for me. She sees that’s a bad behavior and she’s willing to trade. And she’s not hypocritical about it. As soon as she started correcting me, she stopped biting her own nails,” laughs Anna. Anna shared a ton more about “What Pierces do…” in today’s podcast. it’s hilarious stuff. Please listen in. 

Personally, I think Anna epitomizes what it looks like when you raise wise children. Wisdom? Humility? Check. She even managed to work in the value of screen time against her mother’s bias. What a wise daughter!

We LOVE to hear from YOU!

What were your favorite classic books as a child? Which classics have you discovered lately? What’s the most valuable lesson you ever learned from a classic book?

Stay Tuned…

I hope you enjoyed today’s blog and the podcast that goes with it. We are about to unleash a whole series on literacy just for YOU! 

Finally, I loved a profound point Anna made, even in an era when screen time is unavoidable, reading can be the most crucial part of a child’s day.

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” ~Jim Elliot

Believe me, books are a passion project for Anna and me. So hang on tight as we gallop into our literacy adventures!

I’ll close with this last thought from Anna: “It’s very cool to share reading with family and friends. AND people you’ve never met.”

Thank you for reading along with us today. We do this for YOU and we are grateful for your time and love. 

🙂

Cathy

May we pray together?

Dear good Father, You faithfully lead us, if we let You. You inspire adventures we could not imagine. Help us pass tested wisdom on to our children and grandchildren. We want people to see You when they look at us, even if they have no idea why! Thank You, thank You for all the new people You blessed us with this past week. We are amazed at Your goodness. We praise You. Bless now, O faithful Father, the seeds You planted in all hearts, including our. We are Your children and we thank You for the siblings You made for us. Help us love faithfully like You do. Bless us now because that’s Your heart’s desire. In Jesus’ mighty name we pray. Amen.

Book Tour- Big Success! Tons of Fun!

Thank you to all who pray. And all the book-lovers we met–“divine appointments”– in Lubbock, Amarillo, Dalhart, Pueblo, and Colorado Springs, and Denver! Watch here for pictures soon. We’ll be sharing all the BEST places to scoop up books soon!

Next, we’ll be in Fort Worth at Monkey and Dog Books in early Fall. Yay!

If you have any places you’d like for me to stop, just let us know. Your book club, church, Sunday school, or your favorite book store? I’m all in!

Your Own Upcoming Adventures

Conversational Adventures

Are you dreaming of your own conversational adventures? Could the right conversation change everything in your life? How can we take a deep breath and step into our fear of rejection?

At Camp Krafve, we’re creating tools to help you pass along bold, noble ideas.

Share a Book, Write a Review

People are telling us they love our books. We’re so happy they are helping. Please consider buying two. One to bless yourself and one to bless someone else! 

Then, help us by writing a review. And THANK YOU!!!!

For Marriage Conversations: https://Amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=1936501562

For The Well:  https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review?&asin=B08M4G1Q6Z

More Great Quotes:

“The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.” ~Socrates

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.” ~ James 1:5, NKJV

“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” ~ James 3:17, NKJV

Cathy Krafve, speaker, host of Fireside Talk Radio, and author of The Well: The Art of Drawing Out Authentic Conversations and Marriage Conversation: From Coexisting to Cherished. We invite you to join the Fireside Tribe. Truth with a Texas Twang