Benjamin Franklin Read Good Books

Delving purposely into reading aloud good books has been an adventure. I believed in the concept so whole-heartedly when I first began homeschooling my now sixteen year old. Somehow, over the years, I let reading aloud be something that slipped away when other priorities cut into our time.  I felt a lot of pressure to have my children take this class or that class, and we would often cut read aloud time to fit extras in our schedule.

How silly of me. 

Today I am back on track, and this excites me.  I am watching my younger daughter come alive as we read good books.  I am reading Clay and Sally Clarkson's book, Educating the WholeHearted Child.  Often the advice given for any number of subjects and topics is, "Read good books."

Today, I was reading to Megan about Benjamin Franklin's life as a boy from the book Stories of Great Americans.  The story tells of, despite coming from a poor family and having to work instead of going to school, Benjamin Franklin loved reading. He read good books, saving his money to purchase books.  He sold one collection of books to buy others.  He lived frugally so he could buy books.  He was a very educated man, and his voracious reading was part of the reason. 

I loved reinforcing to my child about the importance of reading good books by reading about Benjamin Franklin's love of good books.  Since we read Ben and Me, Megan has enjoyed learning about Benjamin Franklin.  As we read all this awesome literature in our own home, I feel as if I just received an endorsement from Benjamin Franklin. 

If there is one piece of advice that can help your homeschool succeed, other than prayer and the Word of God being central, it is to read good books.