Visiting Sites in Books

Reading can be so much fun. It can be even more fun, when the story becomes real. Visiting the setting of any story makes it more than a story. It makes it real.

A child reads about Laura Ingalls Wilder. To them she is just a name in a book. Take your child to her homes in Missouri and/or Wisconsin and she becomes more than a name. 

Read about the American Civil War. Go visit Gettysburg or any number of the other sites. To see the cannons and trenches that are still there after all these years makes the story real. 

A child that can see the home of an author or visit their grave realizes that they are real and not a name on a book. To see the trenches where soldiers fought and died makes a battle real and not just imaginary. When a child can see that the book is giving them something real, their interest is spiked and they want to know more.

To know that they are standing where Jefferson Davis made his speech on the capitol steps in Montgomery, Alabama is to feel that they have touched history. To stand in the same room where the decision to declare independence from Britain, causes the person to ask more questions and wonder at it all. To visit the same museums that the characters in the books did sparks the imagination.

Before reading a story, read up on the author. Learn who they were, where they lived, and what their passions were. Introduce that to the child. Expand on the story. Visit the sites that were a part of the author’s life and the sites that were part of the story.

You might be surprised at how a trip to a museum, an historical site, or even a park can inspire a child. They may never want to put down another book as they learn that they are real. Give a child a book, and you give a child unlimited possibilities.