Dragon Tales

After everyone was in a good stopping place from their work last night, we gathered in the library to sort through books. I had the stacks all ready; they had three choices.

1) Keep and have the book on the library shelves.
2) Keep and the book can be in storage.
3) This book can go.

Bo supervised while I created the stacks.

I had placed mental bets with myself on what they would want to keep and what could go. It was so fun to see them go through the books, relive the memories, tell me what they loved, and argue over what book came into the family with which child. This is one area where I do actually have a decent memory, so I got to be the decider for that.

We had several “electronic” books that we’ve had for over a decade that are still going strong.

Buddie’s mom got them a bird book from the cart in the teacher’s lounge when she still taught in an elementary school, and it still twitters away so crisply. We even took it outside in Reston one day, and the children “talked” with a bird using the calls from the book.

Dragon Tales was one of the cartoons we all enjoyed watching when we were at Mom and Dad’s house. And the book got so many hours of play.

Before I posted the video I sent it to Buds to ask for his permission since it doesn’t show him at his most engaged. His response was, “Yeah, when we got to the kids’ books, I got a little bored.”

That was a fascinating point for me. For the kids and me, these books represent so many hours of time spent together, from before they could read until well after. Heck, we’d still enjoy reading some of them together. Buddie certainly read with the children often, but the sheer blessing of hours of time that homeschooling has given the four of us cannot be overstated. Being at home with the children, while juggling many other responsibilities, is a blessing and a privilege I am grateful for.

Another book purge complete. Some books we love, some we may have only read once. But the delight of having a room filled with books never leaves me.