Introducing a “New” Kind of Book Club
A New Twist on an Old Favorite
Ahhh, the book club. This long-time tradition among bibliophiles, teachers, and budget-friendly adventurers expands minds, grows vocabulary, allows for inexpensive travel, and nurtures relationships. What better way to bond with your brood than by pouring over the pages of a terrific tale?
Beyond fluency and comprehension, reading should be FUN. No matter how much you or your kiddo loves to read, I can think of very few readers who become genuinely excited at the notion of completing a book report.
Throw in the additional struggle of handwriting challenges (common in Developmental Coordination Disorder and other learning disorders) and you have all the makings of a dreadful learning experience.
Coloring Outside the Lines
We have been reading out loud to our son since he was six weeks old. At age four, he expressed interest in learning to read independently and we happily obliged. In our homeschool, he has continued to love reading and being read to. He engages in book discussions as long as he can participate orally or has a scribe. Without handwriting assistance, we end up with frustration and tears – the opposite of fun.
Our son has always loved playing with Legos. During independent playtime, he would often set up little “movie sets” with these colorful bricks complete with minifig characters. He would assign each character a role with dialogue and have the characters act out elaborate scenes (usually mimicking a favorite children’s program, but often original ideas emerge).
One day he was playing within earshot when I recognized the storyline of a recent book we had read. While he wasn’t exactly having in-depth discussions on character, plot, setting, or point-of-view, I saw an opportunity to have such discussions in a format that he found engaging through a language that ALL children understand best.
The language of play.
Book Buddies
Our son is quite an extrovert, even with reading. As an infant, toddler, and preschooler, I would take him to Story Time at our local library. During the first year of our homeschool, we had a standing weekly playdate with our co-op group at the library. We would meet, select piles of books to check out, participate in the library’s STEAM activity for the week, and then finish with a few hours at the park playground next door.
And then…
In March 2020, the world shut down. As actively social homeschoolers prior to the onset of a global pandemic, we found ourselves in unchartered territory (along with the rest of the world) as limitations and safety restrictions were put into place.
Like many traditional public and private schoolers struggling with finding ways to socialize amid social distancing, we found ourselves connecting to others in digital ways, with playdates on Zoom, Messenger, and Facetime.
Beautiful beginnings are born out of boredom. During these digital playdates, our kiddos would often share their latest Lego creations with one another. I often had informal chats with the moms about our latest read, including the kiddos in these chats and encouraging discussion. From there, it was an easy segue to have our kiddos take turns suggesting a book for the group to read each month. As our kiddos were all at different reading levels, parents also participated in the Book Club and assisted where needed.
As we all had young elementary students at the time, we kept it simple. The kids would talk about a favorite part of the book such as a favorite character or a favorite scene. The Book Buddies each took turns constructing a brick creation based on the book and then shared it with the group.
That was it.
As is common with any group, we had kiddos who were eager to share and others who were a bit more reserved. Yet, our little digital book club brought about camaraderie, kindness, and closeness during a time when we all felt very far apart.
A New Tradition
As the weeks became months and the months then became years, we adjusted to a new way of life. Slowly, we were able to resume in-person gatherings, attend events, have playdates, and celebrate together. Our “brick and mortar” school friends resumed classes. While our virtual gatherings ceased, our love for this new style of “book report” remained. We wanted to continue reading books with friends and demonstrating our knowledge in a medium that we found as engaging as it was informative.
We searched the internet from MeetUp to Facebook to Outschool and other online forums in an effort to find a group similar to the one we had created, but our efforts were unfruitful. Necessity really IS the mother of invention and we refused to be discouraged. We loved our new tradition enough to not let it die. Since we could not find a way, we made a way.
Thus, the idea for Books -N- Bricks YouTube videos on our It’s Only Homeschooling Channel was born.
To learn more about how the Books -N- Bricks Book Club works and how you can become a member of our virtual book club check out this video.
Happy reading and building!
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