Christmas Series Part 3: The Gift of Reading

As you may have figured out by now, I love to read.  One of my "Happiness Project" goals this year, was to read at least 50 books.  I haven't counted how many books I've read to this point, but if I haven't reached my goal yet, I'm darn close!  While I love to read fiction books, this year I have stepped out of my normal reading comfort zone to include several non-fiction books.  I have enjoyed reading these very much and as the year has gone on I have been developing a big personal project that I hope to begin to tackle after the holidays (yes, even with another baby one the way!).

Reading is a wonderful activity for any age and this year we are giving the gift of reading to everyone on our list.  We put a lot of thought into the books we purchased and I hope that the recipients love them.  I think that books are a wonderful gift for children and I know our young ones love to receive them.  In our house, the philosophy is "you can never have enough books."  While I do not purchase many books for myself, we do add to our children's collection just about every month.  I love Scholastic book orders and stock up throughout the school year.  For my personal reading, I utilize the public library and the kiddos enjoy checking books out from there as well.  I have yet to upgrade to an E-reader, though I seriously considered it a few months ago.  Maybe that will happen next year, but for now I'm happy holding a real book!

Each year we participate in the Giving Tree from our church and I always make sure to include a book with each gift.  There are many alarming statistics out there about children from low-income households and their access to books.  It saddens me that there are many kids who have never had their own book and believe it or not, have never seen a book before entering kindergarten.  In this country, there is simply no excuse for this.  We have participated in many book drives in the past and love to donate books to charity.  

This year, I'd like to take it a step further during this holiday season, and make it a family project to see how many books we can provide for those in need.  This is where we need your help!  I have set up a donation button through Paypal and will take whatever money is donated, plus some of our own, to purchase books for those in need.  It can take as little as a dollar to buy a book and I think it would be amazing for our children to see what we could do.  I have coined our project "For the Love of Reading" and would like to collect donations between now and November 27th to ensure that I can get the books ordered and delivered with time to spare.

I am working with a friend to extend this effort further, but that will take some time.  For now, I'd love your help in making some child's holiday a little brighter.  Stay tuned for updates on this project!  I told you I was a stay-at-home mom with big ideas and I think this effort could make a big difference in communities!