Literary Society

This past school year we read through the Little House series.  Laura Ingalls Wilder is my favorite  childhood author.  Eliana and I read the books together a few years ago.  I wasn't sure how the boys would respond to a series from the perspective of a girl.  I was so happy to discover they loved them as much as I do.  If you have not read them since childhood, I highly recommend re-reading them.  It's interesting to view the stories through the eyes of an adult.  I didn't read The First Four Years this time around because it's such a sad story.   One thing that stuck out to us as a family was how much time they got to spend together.  Since we are homeschoolers, I feel that we are together much more than most American families.   The amount of time we are together is still not as much as pioneers in the 1800's.   Trevor still goes to work every day, the kids still have activities and we don't live on a working homestead. 

While reading Little Town on the Prairie we learn that this new settlement is looking for entertainment.  They have Sunday church meetings and the kids attend school, but they are looking for other ways to socialize.   They get the great idea to form a literary society.  According to Wikipedia, 

A literary society is a group of people interested in literature. In the modern sense, this refers to a society that wants to promote one genre of literature or a specific writer. 

In the Little House Series, it was a way to get together once a month and get to know your neighbors.  Their group did more than study literature.  They had spelling bees, plays, charades and had debates.   The thing that stood out to me was they did this all together.  Seniors, parents, singles, teenagers, kids and toddlers.  Everyone attended and everyone participated.   That is something I don't think I have witnessed in my life time.  Our society tends to put us in boxes, at school, at the park, even at church.  We want our family to do life together.   Since we discuss almost everything we read in the house, it got us to thinking.  Could we recreate this now? 


So we've decided to try!  Originally we had wanted to start at the beginning of the school year, then life happened.   Now as we are in the middle of the holiday season we decided to give it a try at the beginning of the year.  So what's it going to look like?   We are not really sure.  First we have to see if anyone is interested in joining us.   One night in January we will be hosting a poetry time at our house.  Anyone is welcome to join us.  We figured poetry was an easy place to start.  Bring a favorite poem to share, write a poem to share  or just show up and we will have some poetry available.   We will have some hot drinks and snacks and spend the evening reading and discussing poetry.  Every month we would like to try something new.  We will discuss at the first meeting what other ideas people have.   If you're interested comment on this post or send us an email at Tbs7100@yahoo.com.