RAR #42: Inspiring Parents in Children’s Literature: A Conversation with Greta Eskridge
What inspires you to be a better parent? When Greta Eskridge wants inspiration in her mothering, she doesn’t usually turn to parenting manuals. She turns to her favorite children’s book classics, instead.
In this episode of the Read-Aloud Revival, Greta describes how reading books like The Yearling, Little Women, Caddie Woodlawn, and even Danny, Champion of the World have shaped and formed her into the mother she is today, and how they inspire her to be a better mother tomorrow.
In this episode, you’ll hear:
- about Greta’s first job (in a library – in 4th grade!)
- being real with our kids
- Eskridge family favorite read-alouds!
I can’t wait to hear what you think of this conversation!
Click that play button below to hear the podcast!
Books from this episode:
(All links are affiliate links.)
Links from today’s show:
- Am I speaking near you this year?
- Greta’s site
- Greta on Instagram
- The Wild and Free Conference
- That perfect quote: “A stodgy parent is no fun at all. What every child wants and deserves is a parent who is sparky.” ~ Roald Dahl
- Sarah’s Hobbit confession ;)
- Audiobooks where the narrators make a BIG difference:
- The Ramona books narrated by Stockard Channing
- The Lord of the Rings series
- The Hobbit narrated by Rob Inglis
- The Harry Potter series read by Jim Dale
- A few lovely coloring books for moms: Secret Garden, The Calm Coloring Book, Creative Coloring Inspirations and this one, which is part coloring book, part homeschool organizer and part inspiration!
There was a book Greta mentioned, Ellen and the Wolves? A early fantasy picture book? Can you post a link to that book? I cannot seem to find it.
Was it Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George?
After listening to this podcast, I just had to write in and tell you about the awesome book club our homeschool group has. Our group is Susquehanna Valley Homeschoolers (you can find us on meetup) and we have been an active group for 7 1/2 years. Book club has been going on for most of them. It has evolved into Books and Bowling. We meet monthly at a local bowling alley that opens up just for us. We have about 10 book groups each time, ranging from the toddlers up through high school. Younger kids usually have the book read to them and do a craft working up through the ages to a regular adult type book discussion for the older students. In the middle can be any type of project or discussion, depending on the book and leader. Parents sign up to lead the book discussion groups, and other tasks, such as setting up the bowling lanes… You choose and pick up the book for next month at this month’s book club. A member runs the scholastic book order club, and all points/cheap books/special deals… are used for book club buying and we have a donation jar to go towards that too. Members meet about every 6 months to pick books to read and who will run each book group each month. Normally, there 30-50 students, but for big events-like our Valentines exchange in February, there can be near 100 people. We used to try and meet in parks, the library… but weather wouldn’t always cooperate and if there was a big attendance, the library would be overwhelmed. The bowling alley has been great. They give us a reduced rate, open for us and it is nice to have a contained area indoors so little kids can’t wander off-like a park.
Hi, My name is Jeanette and I’m on my 10th year of homeschooling I am loving your podcast. Right now I am catching up with old episodes and am learning so much.
When listening to this episode, I thought I just had to write in and tell you about our homeschool group book club. Our group has over 100 families overall. We have a monthly book club at our local bowling alley. There are @10 different levels of books from babies and board books up to high school and novels. The younger ones usually have the book read to them at book club and do a craft and work their way up to a more adult type of book discussion. Afterwards, most all of the kids break into groups and bowl. You pick up your next month books this month to read them by next month meeting. The whole thing used to be set up by one person, but now the duties are all split up. That person also runs our Scholastic book club, and the points and deals from that are used to go towards buying book club books. We also have a donation jar. We meet about twice a year to pick books and volunteer to lead the book groups. Someone sets up the bowling groups. Another helps type in the names and set out bowling balls while the book groups are running (That is me). The bowling alley opens up just for us and has been super nice to us. They have dropped their prices to $2.50 a game per kid. It is normal to have 40-50 kids in the book clubs and at bowling. For big days-like our Valentines party (we do book club, bowling and have pizza and snacks, and exchange valentines) we have had up near 100 students. We used to try and do this at the library, parks… and you had to worry about bad weather and the library was overwhelmed when we showed up with all those kids. The Bowling Alley has been great!
Here is the link to our homeschool group if you want to check it out. Book club will be on our calendar. https://www.meetup.com/Susquehanna-Valley-Homeschoolers/
Hello,
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Amazing podcast! I really enjoyed it. I always feel great after hearing such love for learning from those who have been homeschooled. Thanks for sharing!
Which reading of Understood Betsy do you recommend for an audiobook? I find two on Audible.
Oops, meant for this to be a generic comment, not a reply to the above comment! Sorry.
Love this podcast as all the other ones. I see a lot of recommendations for relationships between mothers and daughters. Any good ones for mothers and sons? Thanks!
The Inspire Bible is a new coloring/journaling bible. 400 pictures to color in. New Living Translation. A wonderful resource or Mama!
I’m trying to catch up on some of my podcast listening. :) I LOVED this episode! I read Understood Betsy to my daughter several months back and we both loved it. And I want to read it again on my own soon. Great book! And I admit, I’ve yet to even try reading The Hobbit or Lord of the Rings Trilogy. It’s on my list to read at some point. :)
I love the thought expressed of these books being inspiration for parents. I have thought this so many times. My girls are young and we haven not read some of these buy will branch into these before too long. We have a picture book called, My Mama Had a Dancing Heart.” That book does this very thing for me, every single time I read it!
Hey Sarah :)
I have a 4 year old who’s showing a lot of interest in wanting to read. Do you have any favorite books that are designed to help kids learn to read, like the I Can Read books?
Hi Sarah! This was a great episode. I loved the inspiring parents mentioned. I was curious if you could do a future podcast on “teaching reading.” I have two little ones, three and one. I am in no rush to teach them how to read but do already get anxious thinking about it for the future. As I am planning to homeschool but was not homeschooled and teaching them to read seems the first big hurdle I will face. Would love curriculum suggestions, etc. As you can tell I am a planner and way ahead of myself. 😊
I am not Sarah, but I wanted to share my experience teaching my kids to read since I started them pretty young goo. I did start my kids when they were 2.5 yrs and I used the letter sounds in YouTube. You can try this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BELlZKpi1Zs. Something that I’ve used with my kids were also the Leap Frog videos (the letter factory, talking words, etc) as well as the videos from Rock ‘N Learn (Letter sounds, phonics, sight words, etc). I have the Rock ‘N Learn videos in my car all the time and wherever we go I show it to them (in fact I did because they always asked me to play them :)) Once they new their letter sounds I started showing them random flash cards that you can find on Amazon, they are called Picture words flash cards and they also have those for sigh words. I will go over 3 or 4 easy 3 letter words every time they were eating (you can make your own as well). Once they turned 4 yrs, I could tell they were ready to start a formal phonics instruction (Sep last year) and by Christmas they were reading sentences. Through research I’ve done about teaching how to read (since I am not a teacher either), the advice is to teach reading with phonics and sigh words and you want to start with the consonant’s sounds and short vowels sounds first when they are little, and add the long vowel sounds once thy are mastering the short vowel sounds. I’ve read learning letter sounds is far more important that learning the letter names since they don’t read knowing the letter name but how the sound. I did both at once. I hope that helps!
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Greta likes the same parents that I do! I wish I could sit and have a conversation with her. :) I hopped over to the blog and fell in love. Love the posts on nature, and reading, and poetry, love!!!! Thanks so much for this episode, it has been my favorite so far!
Loved this episode! It really filled my cup with lots of goodness and loveliness. I felt compelled to comment because I was working on one of my adult coloring books while I was listening to you and that just cracked me up! It was a very relaxing hour for me! Thank you!
I can’t wait to see you in Cincinnati, Sarah!
Eeeek! Love it! :) Thank you! Now I’m thinking about all the parents in different books that I’ve read that have impacted me. That is SUCH a great idea about reading excellent fiction books as parenting inspiration! LOVE it! Ralph’s father in My Father and I were Ranchers was AMAZING.
Amy, I felt the same way about Ralph’s father in that book. And then his mother in the second book. That one really, really impacted me actually. She was an incredible woman.
Thanks for you kind words!
I’ve only been able to listen to part, but I can’t wait to finish!! I love it and am glad to be introduced to Greta.
Sharron, that is the nicest thing to say. Thank you!!
I cried. Again. I’m not sure how many episodes have made me tear up, either from the feeling of encouragement or how amazing the guest is at expressing their love of books and all the thoughtful ways they encourage their own children.
You’re in good company, Shanna!
Hi Ladies,
There was an Anne of Green Gables book referenced that talked about her as a mother but I didn’t see it in the show notes. Could you help me, please?
Leah, I didn’t actually get to mention Anne as a mother in the show. There just wasn’t enough time to mention ALL the literary characters that have influenced my mothering. Believe me, there are lots!
But I think I know the comment you meant. Maybe it was on Instagram?
I do have Anne as a mother listed as an inspiration to me though.
If you read Anne of Ingleside or Rainbow Valley, you;ll find her a very inspiring mother in both of those. They are two of my favorite books.
Such a great podcast! I thoroughly enjoyed it. Greta is just incredible. Can’t wait to hear you both at Wild + Free in Long Beach!
Liz, thank you!
I’m looking forward to seeing you too!
Can’t wait to give you a big hug!
Anytime I think the podcasts can’t get any better, they do!! I LOVED this!! I so relate to wanting to be like Marmie and Ma and Pa ingalls. It is so great hearing from those who have been homeschooled and how their love of learning stemmed from it. And I LOVE their exciting books club adventures. As well as her adventure club (checked out her blog)
Danielle, you are very kind! I’m grateful this podcast was an encouragement to you. That is always my hope!
Sarah and Greta – this was great. Thank you so much. Greta – great news and I hope answered prayers for your daughter: we live in a little house with a tiny kitchen and one little bathroom (no downstairs toilet either) and we homeschool six children here!!! You can do it :))))
Awww, Alina, you are wonderful!
I (think) I’d do it in a heartbeat. But my husband might take some persuading.
Oh! And I do have a coloring book for myself. I started it when we were listening to Huckleberry Finn, read by Elijah Wood (loved it by the way). I love to be able to relax like that with my kiddos. Loving this!!
Oh.my.gosh, Sarah! This was an AMAZING podcast. I don’t even know where to start, but I am so excited that you are going to be doing those book club helps!! I actually just started a book club with some local friends! It started when I got my daughter and her friends together online to discuss short stories. One of the girls wanted to read Wind in the Willows and Anne of Green Gables. When I began looking into this and what it would take to do this for the girls, I just couldn’t help but think about how beneficial it would be for our families as read alouds! So we just had our Wind in the Willows party. I led the discussion by using Adam Andrews’ Teaching the Classics. Then we simply watched the movie with popcorn and candy. It was really fun! We are actually meeting in May after reading The Green Ember! I’m so excited to read these other titles you all have mentioned here. I think Caddie Woodlawn might be next! I also love reading these as a family instead of separating the older kids from the younger!! So much to say about this. I think this is the most inspiring podcast I have heard yet. ;) Although they have all been so wonderful…. Thank you so much for everything you are doing!
The Lord of the Rings and Hobbit links take me to the same Hobbit recording, just fyi.
Just updated it! Thanks for the head-up; we’d be sunk without listeners like you!
Sarah and Greta!!! I love you both and I’m so inspired by both of you. Today’s podcast was such a great encouragement after a difficult season for me of a lot of interrupted home school from kids getting winter colds. At the very least on these sick days, I need to get back to some reading out loud or audio books. I didn’t grow up around a culture of books like the two of you and I have a lot of catching up to do! I’m excited to do it with my kids. I made a list!
Something I did grow up as is an artist. I’ve always loved to draw and paint and I’ve been all over the adult coloring books for a while now. A couple weeks ago on a sick day, my 9 year old daughter and I spent an hour chromecasting Joanna Basford videos trying to understand how she creates the adult coloring books we love so much. We learned that she grew up in Scotland on her father’s fish farm and began sketching the flora and fauna there at an early age, which you can clearly see in her artwork.
You can start with this video here and end up finding several others she’s created describing her art process and the career it has lead to. We were fascinated!
https://vimeo.com/144982035
Here is also a link to a page where Joanna describes exactly the tools she uses in her art process.
http://www.johannabasford.com/blog-article/318
Another great artist to study with your kids is Beatrix Potter. She also grew up sketching the flora and fauna in nature journals which lead to her being an incredible botanist. I love how her story and work erases the false lines often thought of between art and science and instead shows how seamlessly they are part of each other.
I love both you ladies and all the work you are each doing to inspire and encourage moms. Blessings!
Love Love Love the links to the videos. Thank you so much for sharing them. I’m cuddled up with my littles watching along full of wonder!
Awww. That’s so awesome. I’m so glad!
This is so wonderful! Thank you for these sweet comments and for these recommendations.
I love Beatrix Potter’s art too. In fact, I was given a book of her art for Christmas one year when I was about 12 and it became a cherished treasure. I loved how she learned from nature and incorporated it into her art. I was so drawn to nature and literature and therefore drawn to her work as it blended them together. Its amazing to me to look back on that book and how much I loved it and how it is exactly what I get to do with my kids now. God sure does know our heart’s desires, doesn’t He?
I loved this podcast!!! I have always learned best and more deeply through fiction. I first read The Yearling as a parent, and it was deeply impactful.
I think the books that have impacted me the most as a mom (and I need to re-read) are Her Mother’s Hope and Her Daughter’s Dream by Francine Rivers. They aren’t children’s books, but as a mom and daughter, they are so enlightening about my own actions and attitudes as well as those of the women and girls in my family.
Thank you both for this beautiful episode!
Just put them on hold, Carolyn! Thanks so much for the recommendation.
Literally cannot wait to listen to this one. I read Little Women last month for the first time (for my personal reading). The one thing that stood out to me and literally moved me to tears OVER and OVER was the parental relationships. Too many beautiful moments to count. I loved specifically the passages about Jo’s mom sharing how she struggled with anger and shepherding Jo in managing her anger. How Jo never suspected her mom struggled with this, and yet the mom had been seeking the Lord’s help in reigning in this area of struggle for years. Simply lovely. Love love love.