Narnia...so much to love

Nicholas and I started reading the Chronicles of Narnia last summer, just before he turned five. While the girls were napping we would sit together on the bed and read a chapter a day to begin his "quiet time".

At some point in the series, "The Chronicles" became bedtime reading for Nicholas and Mackenzie. Playing Narnia became a regular activity around our house, complete with costumes and weaponry.

Then, last night, when I returned from teaching English class, I walked into a dark bedroom and two little people greeted me with, "Mommy...you're not going to believe this."
"Yeah, Mommy."
"It is SO exciting! We finished The Last Battle!! And you know what? Everyone is in Aslan's country!"
"Yeah! EVERYONE! From all the stories!"
"Polly and Digory and Peter and Edmund and Lucy and Eustace and Jill and even Reepicheep! Isn't that SO exciting?!"
"And Mommy, Susan isn't there because she doesn't believe about Narnia anymore, but everyone else is there."
"And they looked in a window and waved to their mom and dad 'cause they're at England, but not the old England a new England. And Aslan's country is like Narnia, but everything is BETTER than at Narnia!"
"Yeah, like food is better and the grass and sky and everything is BETTER!"
"So now we're all done and we don't have anything else to read so I guess tomorrow night we'll just have to start all over with The Magician's Nephew. Right, Mommy?"

The stories are THAT good. I must admit that when we started reading I thought it was way more than they could comprehend and without illustrations it wouldn't keep their attention.

I was wrong.

They didn't experience the books the way that their Daddy or I did as we were reading them.

They don't care about the various literary parallels and references so we didn't dream of ruining their enjoyment by "dissecting" it all.

They heard a good story.

They met characters that they can relate to.

They saw "real" examples of honesty, loyalty, and courage.

They found siblings and friends working together to overcome evil and encourage each other in goodness.

And so, together, we were able to enjoy the love of words well written. Now we all live a little better because of the lessons we learned in Narnia.