Homework over spring break (long)

Robyn Kozierok wrote:


Schedules being what they are, I often end up at the library with
only
my youngest, so I often pick up a pile of likely candidates and bring
them home for my older kids. They usually read some and reject
others,
but I do end up implicitly "suggesting" books to read by the
selections
that I bring home. They seem to appreciate that.


Oh, I still do this for my college-age reader, if I find a book I think
is a good read. I stack books for the holidays, since term time is too
busy for novels.

I did this for both my kids for a while, but one's a reader and the
other's not. So I save books for one and not for the other.

Rupa

Sue wrote:
I find it interesting that, if I had to guess, that most of you would
not
let children watch certain things on TV because of the content. But,
from
what I am reading here, content in a book is okay. Why is that? Is it
because when you see something it's real to a child, but if he reads
it and
doesn't know what the meaning is, that they just gloss over it?

There are a lot of books out there that my kids *could* read, but
because of
the content and where they are at tempermentally, I haven't let them
read
it. My friend didn't want her 2nd grader reading Sounder because the
dog was
killed. Her daughter's temperment was such that she would be really
upset
over that. But, she *could* read it. I don't know, I guess I am of
the
opinion to wait until they can understand the meaning of a book to
read it
and not just because they can.

--
Sue (mom to three girls)

It's interesting. As a child I had poor tolerance for sad books, (and
sheepishly admit I still do). So I completely understand this kind of
'protection' and I did keep upsetting books from my kids when they were
little. But by about 8 or 10 or so, I stopped.

I think different people have different tolerances for sad stories. I
recall someone I know told me she loved "The Little Mermaid" in its
original Hans Anderson version (where she wins legs, but feels as
though she's walking on knives) as a child, and cried buckets every
time she read it. But it remained a favorite. I couldn't personally
imagine doing that, but she clearly enjoyed it.

Not knowing how it would work out for my kids, I let them sort it out
themselves.

Rupa

Kevin Karplus wrote:

Well, he's a fast reader and he spends almost all his waking time
reading (when he isn't in school). We stopped in the library today to
get 5 or 6 books and he bought also a couple of discarded kids' books
(one was the first Bailey School Kids book, I forget what the other
one was, but it was another short one). We stopped downtown for pizza
and pasta and then walked home. He'd finished both books by the time
we got home.

The lightweight books he rarely re-reads, but the ones he likes (like
the Harry Potter books) he reads many times. He's been that way since
he started reading---in kindergarten he could not stop reading Magic
Schoolbus books.

When I was a kid I always wanted new books that I hadn't read before,
but he seems equally happy with a new one or an old familiar. It's
probably a good thing, since we probably couldn't keep him supplied
with enough books if he only read them once.

That was me as a child, only with me it was Oz books. I loved going
to Woods Hole as a child because the library had a lot of them. One
of my parent's friends says she always remembered me sitting in the
backseat of the car with an Oz book and a box of Kleenex (because of
hayfever).

Now, I have the TV on almost all the time, but I don't look at it. I
listen while I'm eating or computing or reading. And if I can, I
always turn on the captions.

grandma Rosalie

On Sat, 2 Apr 2005 21:08:26 EST, (Robyn
Kozierok) wrote:

In article ,
Barbara Bomberger wrote:

by the time my children were in the third grade they were selecting
their own books from a variety of sources - the library, picking out a
book at the bookstore, going to the school library. On occasion I
would pick up a book I thought said child might like, but I was
generally past selecting or offering.



Schedules being what they are, I often end up at the library with only
my youngest, so I often pick up a pile of likely candidates and bring
them home for my older kids. They usually read some and reject others,
but I do end up implicitly "suggesting" books to read by the selections
that I bring home. They seem to appreciate that. They choose books
from school too, but the selection is a little more limited, and I do
think that I often come home with books they might not have found on
their own.

I come up with ideas based on what my friends' kids have enjoyed, what
the children's librarian suggests, award-winners, etc.

--Robyn

I guess thats the difference. We have made a weekly or every other
week trip tothe library for years, in spite of all the activities.
Usually during Saturday monring errands. So my kids have always
selected their own reading choices.

Also for most of our lives the library was in reasonable walking
distance as they got older.

In article ,
Barbara Bomberger wrote:

Also for most of our lives the library was in reasonable walking
distance as they got older.


I think *that's* the difference. We live in a rural area, and the
two nearest libraries with good children's and young adults' selections
are about 20 miles away. We'll have one a lot closer next year, which
I'm sure will change a lot of our patterns.

I lived in the suburbs growing up, but I never had a library within
walking distance except when I went to stay with my grandparents for a
while one summer.

--Robyn

On Sun, 3 Apr 2005 10:20:14 EDT, (Robyn
Kozierok) wrote:

I lived in the suburbs growing up, but I never had a library within
walking distance except when I went to stay with my grandparents for a
while one summer.

While the library was a *long* walk when I grew up, it was still
walking distance. I lived in a small town and the library was
a bit farther than our elementary school (about 1 1/2 miles, I
think). We biked or walked it once we were about 9, iiRC.


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits

"Sue" wrote in message
...
"Cathy Weeks" wrote in message
So, how do you know when a child will understand the meaning of a book?
I mean, censoring based on something that might be destructive is one
thing, but censoring because they might not "get it" is quite another.
And you never know when that "get it" moment is.

I guess because I know my kids. Two of my children have comprehension
problems. I can tell when one watches TV by the questions she is asking.
Therefore I can gauge what she is able to comprehend and what she is not.
Most books are above her. We have gone through the Scholastic books and
she
has read the synopsis about the books and most of them are definitely out
of
her range and very disturbing for her. For some reason, I think that I
know
when the "get it" moment will be by what kinds of things she picks out to
read. None of my kids are into Harry Potter, LOTR, Narnia or any of those
kinds of books. They are way above them. Maybe one day, but definitely not
now.
--
Sue (mom to three girls)


Hmmm...maybe that's it. My daughter has been an average reader (I think,
there's conflicting opinions about this) until this year and a rather
reluctant one. She has excellent comprehension but in the past, she had
trouble with her sight words and decoding words. So, maybe in our cases
(with young readers) the parents tend to suggest books to read while with
parents of older or more skilled readers back off because their children are
more confident picking out books.

Right now, DD still has difficulty finding books she wants to read. When
we go to the library she's overwhelmed by the books on the shelves and she's
unable to read and pick titles from a row of books.

I don't censor or otherwise evaluate her picks; I offer her books I think
she might like. Hence, I don't offer books far out of her range (thus,
further alienating her from reading) unless it's a subject she really really
likes. Unfortunately DD finds most books for young readers boring or
"pathetic"; she hates most of the usual suspects (including Junie B Jones,
Captain Underpants, Boxcar Children, Magic Treehouse, the list goes on).

She wants to read books on the level of Harry Potter but they are way above
her level right now. Our solution to this was to borrow or buy books on
tape or CD. We have bought the Goblet of Fire on CD and she has listened to
the book from end to end several times. We've listened to all the Harry
Potter books, but we've listened to other books as well (The Westing Game, a
mystery book that I had picked out to listen on my morning commute).

I often suggest titles to my nephew (last Christmas, I think everyone gave
him books) - most of them new-ish titles (e.g., Philip Pullman series,
Cornelia Funke books, Bartimaeous Trilogy books by Jonathan Stroud) that
I've read and enjoyed. It's part of sharing books. I never thought of it
as censoring.

Jeanne

On Sun, 3 Apr 2005 11:45:25 EDT, "Bruce Bridgman and Jeanne Yang"
wrote:

She wants to read books on the level of Harry Potter but they are way above
her level right now. Our solution to this was to borrow or buy books on
tape or CD. We have bought the Goblet of Fire on CD and she has listened to
the book from end to end several times. We've listened to all the Harry
Potter books, but we've listened to other books as well (The Westing Game, a
mystery book that I had picked out to listen on my morning commute).

I wonder if she might like the Choose your Own Adventure Books.

http://www.answers.com/topic/choose-your-own-adventure

http://www.gamebooks.org/show_series...+Own+Adventure

A few seem to still be available at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...48852?v=glance


--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits

Cathy Weeks wrote:
dragonlady wrote:

The level of violence in Ender's Game is pretty impressive -- both
physical and psychological violence towards the children who are
being
trained. My mother couldn't stand it, and quit reading it. Plus,
in

the end, Ender commits genocide -- as far as he knows at that
point,
he
kills an entire race. (It WAS done to save the human race -- these
critters would have killed everyone if they'd had the chance.)

So, if you are inclined to not allow your children to read certain
books, it is probably one that you would not allow a younger child
to

read.

Define "younger child?" We read it to my stepson when he was about
8.5
or 9, and he loved it, nor does it seem like he was scarred by it.
My
advice from the beginning was for the parent to pre-read the book, to
judge for the individual child.

There are two major scenes of violence, where Ender gets into fights
that he couldn't avoid. You find out that he committed genocide
AFTER
the war was won - as far as he or anyone knew, he was playing on a
simulator. There are no scenes of horrific bloodshed. The whole
point
of the discussion up to now is that the interpretation of what the
book
is about is dependent on the age of a child. The younger child would
see the adventure, and the older would see the moral issues.

Cathy Weeks

I completely agree with you. I read Ender's game originally in the
short-story form. It read like an adventure, where a clever 9 year-old
saves the world. There was no sense of horror at the genocide because
we never meet the enemy except in their role as predators of people.
It's not even violent. It reads like a really rigorous sports-camp with
a really driven coach, but the fate of the world rests on the final
game.

All the moral shadings come in later.

Rupa

"toto" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 3 Apr 2005 11:45:25 EDT, "Bruce Bridgman and Jeanne Yang"
wrote:

She wants to read books on the level of Harry Potter but they are way
above
her level right now. Our solution to this was to borrow or buy books on
tape or CD. We have bought the Goblet of Fire on CD and she has listened
to
the book from end to end several times. We've listened to all the Harry
Potter books, but we've listened to other books as well (The Westing Game,
a
mystery book that I had picked out to listen on my morning commute).

I wonder if she might like the Choose your Own Adventure Books.
A few seem to still be available at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...48852?v=glance


Thanks, I put a hold on the first book at our public library (there are no
copies at our local branch), so we'll probably get it in a few days. If
nothing else, I'm curious about these books so I'll read it myself if DD
rejects it.

Jeanne