Most families are well-versed in the power of the story to enchant and enliven young minds. We’ve all watched our kids’ eyes widen when the eagles save Bilbo, when Charlotte spins her first message, and when Charlie catches his first glimpse of the chocolate factory. The riches of stories don’t limit themselves to bedtime and […]
The Other Great Parenting Books
This article first appeared on desiringGod.org. How the Best Stories Point Kids to Christ For the past two years, the realities of life in a pandemic have posed enormous challenges for parents. In the best cases, masks and testing, remote learning and limited childcare have strained family rhythms and routines. In the worst, COVID has claimed […]
The Joy of Creating for Your Kids
From the first moments my kids strung together sentences that revealed their inner worlds, I’ve delighted in the whimsy and richness of their imaginations. First, characters from picture books would become their imaginary friends. Then, I’d walk by their rooms and smile when I glimpsed them holding court over a crowd of stuffed animals, a […]
The Characters That Shape Us
My kids’ rock-climbing instructor gaped, incredulous. Just weeks earlier, my daughter had screamed with terror halfway up the kids’ bouldering wall. Now she clung with a single hand to the topmost hold of an autobelay route, grinning ear to ear. Along with her brother, she belted out a chant unknown to anyone else in the […]
Redemption and Hope in Heidi
When my son first discovered Johanna Spyri’s Heidi nonchalantly tucked into our stack of daily reading books, he revolted. The book jacket, with the story’s namesake cartwheeling across a meadow high in the Alps, violated his 9-year-old principles — specifically, his tightly held adage, “thou shalt not read books featuring protagonists in pigtails.” “No way,” […]