Books and Books and Books

 

No nap today!  That’s a hurrah on two counts.  One, it means jet lag is pretty much had its way with me by now, and I’m on the other side of it.  Yay for that.

But more importantly, and much more fun was that it made for a great afternoon of sorting and culling our Hot Springs English library.  By the end, we were left with six bins with a fairly equal assortment of books, based on reading levels, subject matter, and simple variety.  This means that later this afternoon when the kids get home, we can each take a bin for a more balanced reading experience. 

By the end, I was also left with no small sense of realization as to just how beautifully our library has grown these past several years.  When we started the reading initiative here, all we had were some library discards from various and sundry sources I really know nothing about.  It was better than nothing, but in another sense, enough were in such rough shape that it sent a vastly different message than “Books are our friends,” or “Reading is fun!”

Over the years, and through the generosity of friends and Sponsors from within and outside of Highview, we have gathered quality reading material that is not only a joy to interact with but communicates a better level of respect for both reading and, quite frankly, our kids. 

Side note:  Getting something new is a ‘thing’ here. 

This trip, however, we’ve been able to up the ante one more level.  Through the generosity and expertise of Cheryl Wilton (retired English Learning Intervention consultant) and her associate Pat Harrison (of Blueberry Hill Books), we have added some first class early readers written and designed by people who really know how children learn to read.   The books donated by Cheryl and Pat were added to the bins today, and will be show-cased in this afternoon’s reading time.

But that’s not even the best of it.

Cheryl has created for us no less than four books that were written and designed to depict the life of our family here!  No kidding!  The pictures and the story lines are all about us!

Four books all about us!  And each of the nights at evening worship when I’ve pulled them out and called the kids forward to gather around, their wonder and delight at seeing themselves in the books is written on their faces just as clearly as the text on the pages. 

“Everything we need for life and godliness….”  It’s a phrase from 2 Peter 1:3 I quote often, claiming that promise for each step of the way as we raise up these sensational human beings.  And here’s just one more example.  I did not go out and seek this professional assistance for our English learning initiative at Hot Springs.  It came to us. 

So a huge thank you to Cheryl Wilton, who is our primary contact and enthusiastic source of learning materials.  And also to Pat Harrison and Blueberry Hill Books, which you can check out for yourselves at this link.

We’ll be hearing more about all of this as the days go by, for sure.

Especially since we just found out today that the younger kids won’t be going to school tomorrow (something about a sports tournament happening on their campus that they are not involved in), so we’ll have the whole day with them.

Yay and yay!