From a Mom who loves stories, to a son who prefers non-fiction
I personally taught my oldest son to read about a year before he started kindergarten. It was a fascinating process, and I enjoyed it SO much! Watching how his brain processed information, seeing the lightbulb moments, celebrating his accomplishments…I loved all of it.
Then once he started school, the books sent home with him for weekly reading were, shall we say, less than engaging. We were pretty constantly looking for new reading material. I didn’t even mind too much when he was home sick from school and ended up purchasing about 20 early readers on Kindle during quiet time one day, haha! (He did have consequences for spending money without asking, but who can get seriously mad with a little kid who’s buying a bunch of books?!?)
As he moved into reading chapter books during first grade, I started introducing him to some of MY classic favorites like “Boxcar Children”, “Castle in the Attic”, “The Mouse and the Motorcycle”, and “James and the Giant Peach”. He would start out excited but then quickly lose interest. I couldn’t figure out why these wonderful stories were failing to capture his imagination.
I remember distinctly sitting in carpool line one day later that year; he climbed into the car with his face completely lit up SO excited about a new library book he had chosen that day. I can’t remember the exact topic, but I’m pretty sure it was about some kind of dangerous animal or insect. Then I realized that his preference for reading was FACTS and INFORMATION, way more so than stories.
That is totally different than what I expected; although my husband is the same way, so I guess I shouldn’t have been so surprised. I wondered how to navigate this difference between us and how to find books that he would love, so that he would continue to enjoy reading.
Later that year, my sister said she had found a book called “General Knowledge” that had tons of facts and trivia, “Do you think he’d enjoy that for his birthday?” Um,…Yes! And when he received that gift, he was immediately fascinated. Direct hit! Not only was it filled with exactly the kind of info that he loved to learn, but it had tons of FLAPS!
Honestly, I didn’t think much about it over the summer, since I had a newborn, and we were not focused on reading during that break, but then right after school started back, a friend online invited me to an Usborne Books & More Facebook party. “Wait! Wasn’t that the company that made the awesome ‘General Knowledge’ book? I’m totally in!”
As the party day approached, I was already scouring the website and excitedly sharing with my husband all the incredible educational books available through this company. Non-fiction that was unique, engaging, and interactive…WOW! I had never before in my life been interested in any kind of Direct Sales companies, but children’s books and literacy were totally different than anything I was familiar with in that sales format.
I briefly mentioned the idea of joining just for the “discount” to my husband, but since he was only slightly less excited about the books than I was, he suggested that it might be worth trying to see what happened if I shared my passion for the books with my friends. So I did!
It’s been a little over a year and a half since I started, and I’ve had ups and downs with my business, but I love the books even more now than ever! I’m also thrilled to report that, though my son still prefers non-fiction and probably always will, he has also developed an appreciation for stories over the past couple years, so we have been able to enjoy some of those together after my first round of panic that I would never be able to share classic books with my son!
Some of our very favorite non-fiction books from Usborne Books & More:
