New Summer Book Club

I have just organized a new summer book club. I actually began the process just before school was out so we would be ready for our summer vacation. There are only two members in this club: Me... and my granddaughter, Kayla. I am so excited! She is a great reader but I wanted to share some of my childhood faves with her so we are starting this Wednesday with Betsy-Tacy by Maud Hart Lovelace. We will do lunch, somewhere nice, chat about the book (which she read in a couple days) and then head to a book store. I have a gift card that a wonderful parent gave me as a thank you for dealing with her difficult son. I SO earned that card! Kayla also had a difficult year at school this year. Her teacher was a down-sized administrator who was angry at the budget cuts that put him back in the classroom. It was NOT the year I had hoped she would have, especially in fourth grade, such a pivotal year. There's not much I can do to help her with math but I can build her understanding of literature and introduce her to more writing ideas. Although, thankfully, the writing specialist has not been eliminated so she still receives a ton of encouragement and instruction in writing. I am really hoping that my summer book club becomes a tradition for us. This child is God's special gift to me. I have four younger brothers, married a man with two brothers, gave birth to two sons, and when my firstborn announced that his wife was pregnant, I dared to hope (yep, I even prayed) that I would be buying pink! And there she was - my Kayla Rose - first flower in a garden of little girls plus one lone boy... until this fall when his first male cousin enters the world. So I have some work to do as I plan my first club meeting. I want to see what she knows about the elements of literature and discuss them, one or two at a time. I also need to choose book two. And I just want to enjoy my little girl who will be ten years old in August. She is growing up so fast and I don't want to miss a moment of this joy that she so freely gives me! (deep, contented sigh)