You know it amazes me where I receive inspiration.  Recently while showering I came up with a super great idea.

Here’s the deal.  I’m always looking for good wholesome recreational activities for our family.  I’ve also been wracking my brain over ways to engage my kids in other activities on their own which don’t consist of TV and computer games.  Hopefully this idea will help.

I introduced Family Book Club on Monday during family night.

This is what we did:

1. We talked about books which are for ages 9 and up. {since our youngest is 9}  I looked up some books I thought would be appropriate for all of us to read. {resources further in post}  We read the reviews for each book.  The 2 older kids chose suitable books they came up with on their own.

2. Each family member wrote their book choice on a piece of paper.  The papers went into a bowl.

3. We all rolled a die to see who could draw/choose a paper out of the bowl.  The highest number won and drew a paper out of the bowl.

4. My youngest won this time and she ended up drawing her book.  It was completely random.  Next month she will not write a book choice on a piece of paper nor will she be able to draw a paper.  This way everyone will have the opportunity to choose a book and draw a name.  It makes it completely random and in my ‘book’ (no pun intended) FAIR.  When everyone has a chance to have their book read we will start over again.

5. We set a date for our family book club: February 25th.  I plan to have a treat that some how goes with the book.

I found some really good resources online for finding books by ages:

• Author James Patterson has a wonderful site called Read Kiddo Read.  The site is incredibly easy to navigate through with the following categories:

I also found an article from USA Today where they interview James Patterson.  I was surprised to find out he hated to read when he was young.  We have that in common.  I also hated to read when I was young.  He explains what he did for his kids to encourage a love of reading.  It is an excellent article worth your time to read.  It’s called Inspire Your Kids To Read.

“It’s the parents’ job to find books for kids that they’re gonna love.  A lot of parents don’t get that.” James Patterson

• Another resource I found was a site called Book Browse: You’re Guide To Exceptional Books.  I couldn’t believe how many hundreds of book titles they suggested for ages 9 and up.

****Don’t forget you can always find an audio version of books for you and your kids.  This is how I read most of the time.  You can read more about how I do that by clicking here and here.

Now, let me tell you that my 14 year old Son was not happy about this idea.  He says he’s not reading the book. “It’s too girly.”  Honestly, this is no surprise to me.  He likes to give us grief so we’ll see what happens.  However, I’m looking forward to being able to talk about the characters in the books and have teaching opportunities.

Here’s the book we are reading this month:

Want to join us and start your own Family Book Club?

Who would be interested in maybe a link up party where you share your family’s book of the month?

Read On,