Purpose of this blog

In Fall 2013, I stumbled across the fantastic website amightygirl.com. I had heard about mother daughter book clubs in the past, but its daunting to think of starting up something like this having never led one before.  I read and reread their guidelines for starting a Mother Daughter book club and finally decided we should go for it.  My daughter is in second grade and 7 years old.  We invited 5 other girls and their moms to participate.  We chose books from the Mighty girl lists and created a book list for the first five books.

After posting a picture of 6 smiling girls at book club on Facebook, the response from other moms was eye opening.  A lot of people wanted to know more details about what we are doing.  It occurred to me that all the time spent googling discussion questions, planning related crafts, etc. could be shared with others and maybe make the task of starting a similar book club less daunting for others.

Our first meeting, I was amazed at how excited these girls were to discuss the book, how much they took away from the story, and how well they were able to articulate their feelings.  We took a vote on our book club name and the votes were split between CHAPTER CHICKS and BOOK WORMS.  We tried various compromises, but the girls had very strong opinions.  We left the meeting still undecided about a club name.  I joked that we should call it GIRLS WITH OPINIONS because these girls have lots of em!  Everyone liked it and it stuck.

So why make a Mother Daughter book club?  From A Mighty Girl's Book Club Organizing Guide:  "Parent-child book clubs are popular for any number of educational, social, and relational reasons. Book clubs can help improve a child’s reading skills and self-confidence, as well as help her to learn valuable life skills such as learning how to articulate her opinion and present an argument. They provide a great social outlet for both parents and girls and help to build a supportive community of friends. Many parents also find book clubs a valuable way to stay connected with their daughters as they enter the tween and teen years and increasingly strive for greater independence from their parents. Moreover, book discussions can also help parents and their children broach difficult topics that might be challenging to discuss directly but can be explored in the context of a story. Finally,book clubs can be great fun for both parents and kids and a highly fulfilling creative outlet for years to come."

It has been a wonderful experience for the girls and the moms so far.  I plan to use this blog to help share what has worked for us, so that if you should choose to start a club, you won't have to reinvent the wheel.  It will also serve to preserve the memories as these girls grow up.