Reading: Family Literacy

A Friday Night Family Literary Festival

 

            Today's Snack: Here's a great snack to share for your family literary festival. Make "Muddy Goodie"! Put nine cups of Chex cereal into a big bowl. In a large microwave-safe bowl, like a glass bowl, put 1 cup of chocolate chips, ½ cup of peanut butter, and one stick of margarine. Microwave on high for 1 to 2 minutes, and stir. Stir in ¼ teaspoon of vanilla. Pour chocolate mixture over the cereal, stirring lightly to coat the cereal pieces. Now put 1½ cups of powdered sugar into a large resealable bag, pour in the cereal, seal, and shake. Spread out on waxed paper to cool, breaking up any clumps.

 

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Here's an activity to plan for a future Friday night:

 

You can use your public library to obtain free materials for your very own family literary festival. Everybody should pick a favorite author, playwright or movie actor or producer, and make a list of the literary or video works of art that you want to read or see.

 

Maybe you want both the book and the DVD of the same story, to compare and contrast with your own discussion afterwards. Or it might be fun for everybody to watch the same movie, discuss the story, and then split up to read your separate choices of books.

 

            The point is to shut off the darn TV for the weekend, let the weekend chores go just a little bit, and set aside some quality time just for reading and sharing ideas within your family.

 

That shows your kids that books are a top priority in your life, when too often in the crush of your daily routine, both grownups and kids might start thinking that reading is nothing special.

 

But it is!

 

            Here's how to set up your private literary festival:

 

            Using your library's online consumer catalog system - iBistro is a common one - you can search for books and movies from your own computer and have them delivered to your hometown library. 

 

            If the title you want isn't in your regional cluster, you state should have a library information database through which you can borrow what you want from another library in far-flung regions of the state.

 

            Work about a week ahead of time to make sure everything has time to arrive. Then on a Friday afternoon before the library closes, pick up your "order" and maybe a pizza and some popcorn, and then relax and have your own little family festival.

 

            It may be so much fun that you decide to do it again, maybe with another family or two next time. After that, who knows? The sky's the limit! Maybe you'll have the whole town doing it with you! That's what a festival is supposed to be, isn't it? Fun!