This is a guest post by Aiken Faque.

A Thriftbooks team member, Barbara Hagen, recently wrote, “Books: The Great Connector Creating Bonds With The Outsiders.” Where she shared her antidotal connection to reading as a multigenerational activity. Through reading with her twin daughters and her son. The book she referred to was The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. Hinton’s examples fall within the parameters of Academic Parenting.

At the Afterclap, Academic Parenting has been a topic of much discussion of late. And Hagen’s story recalled my multigenerational reading experience. While I do not remember my parents reading to me, I remember them reading the newspaper every day. And the same can be said of my Paternal Grandparents and Aunt May. All these activities show one of the keystones of Academic parenting—Teaching and Leading by Example.

My wife and I read to our children as they grew up and helped them learn to read. After our children read without support, we occasionally talked about what each of us had read. And according to my friend and Founder of The Afterclap, what we were unknowingly doing is the second keystone of Academic parenting—Teaching and Leading by Participation.

Initially, there were several concepts about Academic Parenting holding back my understanding

> Realizing I knew more than I thought I knew.

> Realizing how interconnected the skills I learned by observation and participation were between academic disciplines.

> Realizing that English, Mathematics, History, Science, and other subjects were interconnected in ways I had not understood. Not as they are taught as dissected parts of the whole. And that

> Reading, including the complete set of literacy skills, is the Super-Highway to a lifetime of learning.

Aiken Faque

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