One Surprising Parenting Hack I Discovered with my 7th Child!
Our first child was born in the spring of 1995. And our 7th child was born at the end of summer of 2014, and for a few months every year, our seven children span, from oldest to youngest, across a whole twenty years.
Our second to last child announced in the kitchen just yesterday morning that she has just over 31 days left with us — before she packs up her bags and books and heads to university for the first time. When your heart stretches to bring a child into the world, your skin thins, and you feel all the love and loss in the world so much more deeply.
“Turning pages is turning to meet a good friend.“
Then our girl, she’d grabbed a pen and sat down at the kitchen table and wrote it down:
31 Memories I Want to Make This Last Summer at Home
And I grinned as she numbered out her list:
Read a book high up in a tree –preferably in bare feetAfternoon bookstore date with MamaRead a book all day at the beach.“When reading is your favorite pastime – you enter into other lives and gain more time.“
She’s not wrong: Turning pages is turning to meet a good friend.
She’d looked up at me standing there in the doorway with a cup of coffee:
“You know what, Mom? Some of my very best memories of my whole childhood have been listening to all the stories, reading all the books.”
And I’d nodded smiling. When reading is your favorite pastime – you enter into other lives and gain more time.
Much has changed in the more than 2 and a half decades since our firstborn started reading books— both in how I parented, and the tools I had access to, as we raised readers who are always in the middle of a good book.
When you are always in the middle of a book – you are always between a rock and miraculous place.
When you are always in the middle of a book – you are always between a rock and miraculous place.
While our little Shiloh and I curl in to read books, she now, at any time – while she draws, or builds, or plays, or works away – she can simply says, “Alexa, read my book” —- and she listens to stories for hours, as the Alexa device plays her next favorite Audible read. Literally, she listens to audio books for hours every single day, as stories expand her world and imagination for all that can possibly be.
Not only that, but “7 in 10 (69.5%) children and young people said that listening to audiobooks makes it easier to understand the content of a book. This number is even higher for boys (71.7%) and children who receive free school meals (74%).”
The girl has a rhythm, a habit she pulls on like her own most comfortable clothes:
every morning, she asks Alexa to read to her while she eats breakfast — often while holding the hard copy of the book. every late afternoon, after much of the whirl of the day and learning, when she’s ready for a reset and rest, she relaxes with a long listen to a whole audio library of classic literature – so many of them available absolutely free on in the Audible Plus library — FREE BOOKS OFFER ENDS AT MIDNIGHT JULY 31st ( — all that whisk her away to imagined worlds and all kinds of fictional adventures that will frame her childhood with wonder. every evening, after her and I read together, and pray, and I tuck her in, she always then asks Alexa to read her audio books, stories always snuggling her into sleep.To be between a book’s covers is always to be under a cover of comfort.
Even when we pack up for any overnight trips or hospital stays – she’s the one who always packs up her little Alexa device, to plug in and listen to her audio books, wherever she tucks in for the night.
“Mama, I just really love listening to words when I fall asleep… stories make me feel safe.”
She’s speaking my language:
To be between a book’s covers is always to be under a cover of comfort.
Like Charles Baudelair said, “A book is a garden, an orchard, a storehouse, a party, a company by the way, a counselor, a multitude of counselors.”
Some of her absolute favorite audiobook listens are:
Can count how many times she’s listened.
“If you look the right way, you can see that the whole world is a garden.”
“She made herself stronger by fighting with the wind.”
― Frances Hodgson Burnett
This one is on current repeat the last few weeks — she likes listening to it in the summer heat ;)!
“Laura felt a warmth inside her. It was very small, but it was strong. It was steady, like a tiny light in the dark, and it burned very low but no winds could make it flicker because it would not give up.”
― Laura Ingalls Wilder
A family favourite we all so love.
“In His arms, He carried a little lamb. It was tired and had laid its head upon His shoulder, and He was looking down at it with gentle, loving eyes… The good Shepherd heard its cry and He never rested until He found it, and then He brought it home in His arms.”
– John Bunyan
All of ours have loved this one.
“A dim notion was growing up in her mind that the fact that she had never done a thing was no proof that she couldn’t.”
― Dorothy Canfield Fisher
James Herriot Treasury for Children
This is one of her go-tos at night — this is the most delightful listen!
“He had enjoyed all the animals on the farm and often helped his father with the cows and calves and pigs but spring was his favorite time, when the lambs where born.”
–James Herriot
Again and again, she returns to this one!
“Take the adventure, heed the call, now ere the irrevocable moment passes! ‘Tis but a banging of the door behind you, a blithesome step forward, and you are out of the old life and into the new! Then some day, some day long hence, jog home here if you will, when the cup has been drained and the play has been played, and sit down by your quiet river with a store of goodly memories for company.”
– Kenneth Grahame
A five star listen in every way.
“I’ll always say my prayers . . . and if God doesn’t answer them at once I shall know it’s because He’s planning something better for me.”
– Johanna Spyri
A wondrous childhood listen.
“It is not in doing what you like, but in liking what you do that is the secret of happiness.”
– J. M. Barrie
I read this one aloud to all our children, but she loves to just let this one play aloud while she plays — steeping in God’s story throughout the day. One of the very best story Bibles, with rich truths made very accessible.
“When did God begin? And who made God? No one made God and God did not begin God has always been, forever and ever and ever, God has lived God never had a beginning and this life will never end.
If you were to take a cup and dip water out of the big wide and deep ocean you could dip and dip and dip but you could never dip the ocean dry. Your mind is like a cup and God‘s life is like the big deep ocean. You cannot dip the ocean drive with a little cup and you and I, with our little mind cannot understand God‘s life, which never began and will never end.”-Catherine Vos
She loves holding our very worn copy and following along as she listens. A must listen for childhood!
“You, Little Traveler! You made the journey, the Long Journey. You now know the things I have yet to know. You, Little Traveler!”
– Holling C. Holling
Can anyone listen to this series too often?
“No great wisdom can be reached without sacrifice.”
“Adventures are never fun while you’re having them.”
“But courage, child: we are all between the paws of the true Aslan.” – C. S. Lewis
HAVE YOUR OWN DAILY READING RETREATS: Just 30 Minutes a Day Echo Dot — put it any room and just tell it to “Read my book” and it will start reading aloud your next Audible read. (At this kind of sale, we have a few, to read books to in bedroom, kitchen, window seat etc!) Our absolutely favourite (indoor or outdoor … & inexpensive) hammock – to curl up and read or listen to a book. We just flip a quiet 30 minute timer — for our own Reading Retreat and read for just 30 minutes! This blanket! I have literally given away dozens — my favourite gift to give! — and we have at least 3 and curl up together on the couch with this blanket for our 30 minute reading retreats! I gave this 100 Books Poster to 2 of my favourite voracious readers this year — and it was received with glee!Best headset for listening –after much research, the Farmer has this headset and listens daily with these!This Reading Journal is perfect to track the progress of your 30 minute reading retreats, as it has space for an index, reading tracker, book review, favorite books & authors, books read & still to read, list of want-to-reads and book challenge section. The more you read, the larger your soul grows, and the more your soul encompasses, the more joy you’ll come to know.CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO FREE AUDIOBOOKS AS A FAMILY: OFFER ENDS MIDNIGHT JULY 31st
Wonder is everywhere you look – and it’s wondrous books that train you how to look.
Filling our days and homes with audio books matters for a myriad of reasons, not the least of which are, as the Book Trust notes:“It’s proven that in households where children hear fewer words, their literacy levels at age 5 are lower than those who have been exposed to a higher number of words, impacting on longer-term literacy and ability.
But even more importantly?
If a poverty of imagination bankrupts hope – then a lifetime of depositing good stories into our imaginations enriches us with hope.
Wonder is everywhere you look – and it’s wondrous books that train you how to look.
And our last 2 girls and I?
We’ve made a date to make memories and get lost together in books!
Listen to Free Audio Books this summer!Make this the summer of memories that will last a lifetime — a summer of listening to stories!
Classic Children’s Literature! Help your children fall in love with books, whatever their age!
I can’t encourage your family enough to take advantage of this life-expanding parenting tool of a whole library of audiobooks, so many of them available absolutely free on in the Audible Plus library !
Audible is offering a 3 month free trial, for both new customers or past customers, which means you can get any of these books, (or all of my books absolutely for free), or listen to millions of other books that are available to you with this free offer!
Click here to get the free trial & free audio books
You will be able to download one free book a month, for three months — perfect for your own reading retreats this summer!
(And if you decide Audible isn’t for you? You can easily cancel with the click of just one button, but the books are yours for free, forever!)
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO FREE AUDIOBOOKS AS A FAMILY: OFFER ENDS MIDNIGHT JULY 31st BONUS: 10 Soul-Good Spiritual Formation Reads for this summer — that change the Form of your life:For Grief: A Grace Disguised
(I have lost count how many times I have returned to this one, underlined this one, written down quotes, and felt comforted by this one.)
“The quickest way for anyone to reach the sun and the light of day is not to run west, chasing after the setting son, but to head east, plunging into the darkness until one comes to the sunrise.”
For Soul Refreshment: As Kingfishers Catch Fire
(I return to this book and listen to this book on the regular, an absolute lifetime favourite)
“The Christian life is the lifelong practice of attending to the details of congruence — congruence between ends and means, congruence between what we do and the way we do it, congruence between what is written in Scripture, congruence between a ship and its prow, congruence between preaching and living…”
For Doubt: The Reason For God
(I have recommended this book countless times, shared several copies, listened to multiple times… brilliant!)
“The church is a hospital for sinners, not a museum for saints.”
“It is no more narrow to claim that one religion is right — than to claim that one way to think about all religions (namely that all are equal) is right. We are all exclusive in our beliefs about religion — but in different ways.”
For Life: CS Lewis Essential Audio Library
(The complete works of C.S. Lewis lives on my desk — this is a volume to do life with. A lifelong friend.)
“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”
“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud.”
For Healing: Gentle and Lowly
(I have shared so many copies of this book & my own copy is worn right down. Bound to be a classic. Five star.)
“The deeper into weakness and suffering and testing we go, the deeper Christ’s solidarity with us. As we go down into pain and anguish, we are descending ever deeper into Christ’s very heart, not away from it.”
“If you are part of Christ’s own body, your sins evoke his deepest heart, his compassion and pity. He takes ‘part with you’—that is, He’s on your side. He sides with you against your sin, not against you because of your sin. He hates sin. But he loves you. We understand this, says [Thomas] Goodwin, when we consider the hatred a father has against a terrible disease afflicting his child—the father hates the disease while loving the child. Indeed, at some level the presence of the disease draws out his to heart to his child all the more.”
For Fear: Rejoice and Tremble
(This author is a favourite who has profoundly shaped me formationally)
“For the filial fear of God is the soul of godliness and the essence of the new life implanted by the Spirit.
It is the ultimate affection and the very aroma of heaven.
It is the affection that expels our sinful fears and our anxieties.
It is the affection that expels spiritual lethargy.
To grow in this sweet and quaking wonder at God is to taste heaven now.“
For Understanding the Gospel: The Day the Revolution Began
(This book was a read for my Master’s at Wheaton and it was provocative and paradigm shifting in profound ways. Unforgettable.)
“Jesus died for our sins not so that we could sort out abstract ideas, but so that we, having been put right, could become part of God’s plan to put his whole world right. That is how the revolution works.”
For Interior Work: The Way of the Heart
(My copy of this is so worn — a true companion on the Way.)
“Only in the context of the great encounter with Jesus can a real authentic struggle take place.
The encounter with Christ does not take place before, after, or beyond the struggle with our false self and its demons.
No, it is precisely in the midst of this struggle that our Lord comes to us and says, as he said to the old man in the story: ‘As soon as you turned to me again, you see I was beside you.’”
For Joy: The Christian’s Secret of a Happy Life
(Reading this was transformative for me — and now witnessing the change in our daughter as she’s reading it, carrying it everywhere? A must listen!)
“It is a law of the spiritual life that every act of trust makes the next act less difficult. Trusting becomes like breathing, the natural unconciousness of the redeemed soul.”
“You have trusted Him as your dying Savior; now trust Him as your living Savior. Just as much as He came to deliver you from future punishment did He also come to deliver you from present bondage. Just as truly as He came to bear your stripes for you has He come to live your life for you.”
For Brilliance: Orthodoxy
(A must read that I keep returning to year after year.)
“Love is not blind; that is the last thing that it is. Love is bound; and the more it is bound the less it is blind.”
“Joy, which was the small publicity of the pagan, is the gigantic secret of the Christian.”
“Man is more himself, man is more manlike, when joy is the fundamental thing in him, and grief the superficial. Melancholy should be an innocent interlude, a tender and fugitive frame of mind; praise should be the permanent pulsation of the soul.”
Of all kinds of lives? Pick the life of a reader who reads lovely lines out loud and writes them down to get them into neurons and marrow, who works and walks while listening to words because you know your soul was made by the Word for words.
Listen to Free Audio Books this summer & MAKE THIS THE SUMMER OF FREE READING RETREATS!Just a few minutes a day of your own retreat, listening to a book, and choose the life of reader! Audible is offering a 3 month free trial (ENDS MIDNIGHT JULY 31st), for both new customers or past customers, which means you can get any of these books, (or all of my books absolutely for free), or listen to millions of other books that are available to you with this free offer!
Click here to get the free trial & free audio books
You will be able to download one free book a month, for three months — perfect for your own reading retreats this summer!
(And if you decide Audible isn’t for you? You can easily cancel with the click of just one button, but the books are yours for free, forever!)
CLICK HERE to get the FREE TRIAL & FREE AUDIO BOOKS: ENDS MIDNIGHT JULY 31st
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