Lee Lee Ebler has been married nearly forty years and is mom to two delightful and interesting daughters. She has two, fun grandchildren. Lee enjoys reading, writing, baking and quilting...and sometimes gardening. She will probably never be caught up on her cleaning! View all articles | Contact author

Every family has a magic hour, that special time when 
adults and children meet to enjoy a project, an 
activity, a game or simply to share the day's events 
over supper. Bonding time! 

In our home, we had Bible stories and singing, and 
then we had reading.

  There is something wonderful about sharing a 
favorite book with children (who at day's end have 
been washed, fed, "pajammed," and tucked into bed). 
I did not know until later, but my great-grandfather 
gathered his family of eight around him and read 
in the evenings by coal oil lamp. Without the din 
of modern noise, I imagine those old 
family gatherings were cozy and warm.
  
  

I don't know what Grandpa Goodman read. I suspect he 
read the Scriptures, maybe Dickens, or the Brontes. 
But the important thing was that he read. The children 
learned. The children enjoyed. The family was together.
  
  

I read many of the loved books to my girls, THE LITTLE 
HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE series, WIND IN THE WILLOWS, THE 
BORROWERS, NARNIA, HEIDI, THE LORD OF THE RINGS. And 
finally, because the books got older with the girls, 
I was reading Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes. I love 
a captive audience! I hated giving them up.

  After we finished Tolkien and Laura Ingalls Wilder books, we had 
meals, using food from the stories.  We ate the meals in the basement 
by the wood stove, lights turned low.  The Hobbits' mushrooms were 
not a big hit, but many of the recipes from THE LITTLE HOUSE ON THE 
PRAIRIE COOKBOOK were familiar and child-friendly. Who doesn't love 
homemade biscuits and jam?

  Even now, I feel a bit selfish reading to myself, but a book read 
out loud is a warm invitation to share. "Come, Watson, the game's a 
foot," said Holmes...and that's exactly what a good book does. It 
welcomes, compels you into an adventure.
  
  

When you read out loud, you are inviting your child to learn new 
words, to share emotions, to laugh, to feel sad or brave--all in 
a safe and loving environment. Reading (with pauses or questions) 
can encourage children to speculate what they would do with a 
decision about right and wrong. They can be Laura, struggling to 
be as kind as her older sister, Mary. They can fight dragons and 
learn loyalty to friends.
  
  

Reading is pretty much the foundation of learning. And listening 
to words read, listening to the cadence of a good writer, is enriching.
  
  

And payback time?  My daughter Suzanne is currently reading one of 
her favorite books to her children, and they listen and beg, "Just 
a little more."
  
  

Five years ago, my daughter Eden, who was teaching in Vermont, 
read on tape another loved story and sent it to us. What a gift!
  
  

"We still remember the voices you used for different characters," 
the girls tell me.
  
  

So, reading aloud to children is a blessing multiplied, handed down, 
and enjoyed. Like bread cast upon the waters....