Help your kids associate reading with comfort and pleasure by
letting them read where they’re most relaxed . . . .
should have recognized or a “corpse
plant” that smells like the trolls’ lair in
The Hobbit.
•;Be;good;listeners.;Open kids’ ears and
minds to the sounds of the book’s setting and cultures. Learn an Icelandic
greeting, drum along to Zulu music,
hear a broad Yorkshire accent, sing sea
shanties, listen to arias and steam organs and lyres—you can download just
about any sound in the world.
The opportunities for immersion are
endless. The point is to approach a classic in as many sensory ways as possible so
your kids can connect, not just with the
book but with the timeless, real life that
book is about. The pleasure of that connection is what helps children love great
books. And, through that love of great
books, they learn for life.
Jenny Clendenen Walicek and Becky Clendenen Walicek are sisters, best friends, and
partners in Lit Wits Workshops. Lit Wits offers live experiential literature workshops
in Santa Cruz, California, and provides
downloadable do-it-yourself workshop
guides online at www.LitWitsWorkshops
.com. Becky and Jenny invite you to stop
by their website and pick up free “play
date” ideas for more than thirty of their
literary friends!
Crossover Subjects
in the Classics
The classics are full of non-literary
themes you can explore in sensory
ways. The Secret Garden, for in-
stance, beyond weaving its memo-
rable tale of transformation, also in-
troduces subjects such as these:
•;British;colonialism
•;The;biology;and;effects;of;cholera
•;Class;structures;in;Victorian
England
•;Horticulture;and;botany
• Portraiture
•;Architecture;and;formal
landscapes
•;Weather;cycles
Grit and beauty from The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
Selections from the feast menu in A Connecticut Yankee in
King Arthur’s Court by Mark Twain
