There is something extra special about reading the classics with my children. When I found my old collection of The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis during a much-needed basement purge, I couldn’t resist bringing them up to bedtime. I read a lot of “bigger books” like these with my five- and six-year-old sons, so I knew they would be able to pay attention long enough to understand the story.
But I didn’t know they would become obsessed with it.
A few pages into The Magician’s Nephew and they were hooked. Bedtime or not, they constantly asked me to read it. And when I wasn’t reading it, they were talking about it nonstop. At one point when they were sharing some Narnia knowledge with their father, he very seriously told them they needed to play more sports and promptly started up a wiffle ball game of baseball. Point taken.
I guess I’d gotten a little obsessed myself. The Chronicles of Narnia are just so magical and teachable. Now that we’ve finished the series and gotten back a more balanced approach to family time, I want to share some of the lessons I took away as a parent reading these books with my children.
Unlike my other book-related blog posts that break down storylines and characters and motifs with the classroom in mind, I have designed this one more like a family journal. I only have one entry for each of the seven novels in the series, plus an additional entry that offers an approach to reading the stories. There is much more to say about each of the books, but I tried to limit myself to the ideas that resonated most with my own children.
This post will serve as the table of contents for the series. Just click on the titles below, and it will lead you to the entries as I post them.
An Exercise in Supposition and Imagination
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
The Voyage of the “Dawn Treader”
With all the other information out there about The Chronicles of Narnia, I hope what I have to share will be of some added value. If nothing else, I hope it encourages you to dig them out of your basement.
