Mother- Daughter Book Club

While moving my whole upstairs around I found a file that contained 7 years of papers from our little Mother-Daughter Book Club. What a fun time that was for me and the girls. This is how it worked. We asked 5 mother-daughter couples to join us in a book club. We picked 6 books to read from Sept. to May. Each mother daughter couple had to host one meeting. So they would read the book and pick a theme for the meeting. For example when we read a historical fiction about a Quaker girl who journaled at night by candle light, we did our meeting by candle light and served corn cakes and hot tea as the main character would have had. The girls were responsible for writing 10 discussion questions, making the food and drink, setting the table and welcoming the guest. The girls also facilitated the meeting. We had guidelines (for the mothers as well as for the daughters). When we first started, our little daughters were so shy and every month the same kinds of questions were asked, "Why do you think the author named the book this way?" "What main character do you relate to most?" But as time went on the questions became deep and thought provoking. Healthy debates were sparked and our little girls became young adults. They learned to wait their turn to speak, to disagree respectfully, how to host an event and that hanging out with mom was okay. I treasure this folder because it shows me that we are all growing up and learning new skills. The dramatic changes are, of course, in the girls -from little 7 year old's to well put-together teens. But I have changed too, and I have learned new "people" skills. Isn't it funny how we set out to make our kids better people and in the process we grow?