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#81
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"enigma" wrote in message . .. "bizby40" wrote in : "enigma" wrote in message . .. [snip] i see reading lists as one more way to make kids hate reading. if you can't even pick your own books, how are you going to find your own interests? and how do they pick the books for those lists? i was reading Arthur C. Clark in 2nd garde. being forced to read something like Junie B. would have bored me to tears... lee My daughter (4th grade) had an optional reading list this summer. Some were too easy, some were good. But in general, I do like *suggested* reading lists. My daughter went through all the Magic Treehouse books and the Boxcar Children books, and the Baby-Sitters Club books, and now she's into Lemony Snickett and Nancy Drew, but she gets bored with the same old, same old. It's nice to have suggested reading lists of good books that we might otherwise never have known about. my 4 year old has read all the Magic Treehouse books... i'm starting him on Lemony Snickett next. I didn't mean to imply that she read all those books as a 4th grader -- those have been her series of choice over the years. I can't see a 4 year old with Lemony Snickett though -- even if he is advanced enough to know all the words, it doesn't seem appropriate storyline for that age. are you near a library? browsing the children's section should give her more ideas for types of books she may enjoy. i really liked The Diamond in the Window by Jane Langton when i was your daughter's age (& looking it up on Google led me to discover it's a series. must buy books!). i also liked field guides a lot... Yes, and we go there quite often, particularly during the summer. They have suggested reading lists there, and I've been grateful for the guidance. Some of the books I've gotten off the list have been, "The Skeleton Man," "Cold Shoulder Road," "The Seeing Stone," "The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle," and one really good one I can't remember the name of about a girl who rescues another girl who'd died 100 years before after befriending her ghost. Having the list handy gives us a guide of the better books among the mounds of crap. i was an avid reader as a kid (i'd read literally every book in the kid's section of the library by the time i was 9, some several times). i would have gone crazy without library access She loves reading and reads a lot. She's advanced for her grade level as well. But I don't want her reading to the exclusion of all else. One of her best friends stays inside during recess every day to read because she doesn't like going outside to play. I tried to gently feel out the mom to see if she was aware of that and if it was okay with her, and she was and it was. I would not like my daughter doing that. Bizby |
#82
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In article ,
Stephanie wrote: Which brings up a question for me. Someone on this group mentioned the bunk reasoning for having homework for 1st graders is to get ready for 2nd grade and so on for some number of grades. Are there any studies that demonstrate more or less "readiness" in say 5th grade, based on the homework of previous grades? I had a conversation with DS's preschool teacher about the appropriateness of homework for kindergarteners for just this reason. Made me shiver. Not a study, but I'll offer my personal anecdote. We moved our kids to a school that does not believe in homework before 6th grade when my oldest was in 4th. So, for the next 2 years, he had no homework, while his public-school counterparts did lots (4th is when things *really* ramp up around here). My kid was definitely less well prepared for regular homework than his public-school friends with more experience. At the beginning of the year, he felt rather "put out" by an amount of homework most kids his age would consider quite reasonable. BUT (unlike when he had homework for the sake of getting used to homework in K-3) we do not have "battles" over homework. He takes his responsibility to do his homework quite seriously. He is also able to keep track of what he needs to do on his own, and almost always brings all the right materials home. Homework is a responsibility that comes with additional priveleges of being in the middle school. Also the homework is actually relevant, generally involving preparation for a future lesson, rather than just busy-work. By looking at his progress over the past several months, and by looking ahead at the kids in higher grades in this school, I can see that their "homework-readiness" in 7th grade is comparable to that of the public school kids who have been doing homework since K. So, given the choice, I'd take 6th grade (or 5th or 7th, perhaps) as a transitional "homework ramp-up" year any day over dealing with homework battles in K through 4 or 5 all in the name of getting them ready for the homework in higher grades. JME, --Robyn |
#83
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On 2005-03-30, bizby40 wrote:
"enigma" wrote in message . .. "bizby40" wrote in : "enigma" wrote in message . .. i see reading lists as one more way to make kids hate reading. if you can't even pick your own books, how are you going to find your own interests? and how do they pick the books for those lists? i was reading Arthur C. Clark in 2nd garde. being forced to read something like Junie B. would have bored me to tears... My daughter (4th grade) had an optional reading list this summer. Some were too easy, some were good. But in general, I do like *suggested* reading lists. My daughter went through all the Magic Treehouse books and the Boxcar Children books, and the Baby-Sitters Club books, and now she's into Lemony Snickett and Nancy Drew, but she gets bored with the same old, same old. It's nice to have suggested reading lists of good books that we might otherwise never have known about. my 4 year old has read all the Magic Treehouse books... i'm starting him on Lemony Snickett next. I didn't mean to imply that she read all those books as a 4th grader -- those have been her series of choice over the years. I can't see a 4 year old with Lemony Snickett though -- even if he is advanced enough to know all the words, it doesn't seem appropriate storyline for that age. My son started Lemony Snicket around age 6 (still younger than the target audience). I'd recommend waiting at least until then for Lemony Snicket---the storyline and the somewhat twisted humor is not likely to be appreciated by youger readers, even if they are prefectly capable of handling the language. are you near a library? browsing the children's section should give her more ideas for types of books she may enjoy. Children's librarians can be a great resource, if you happen to find one who is knowleadgeable about the genres your child is interested in. Of the various children's librarians I've interacted with in the past few years, about half have been very useful resources. (People whose kids have different tastes may have found a different subset of the librarians helpful.) Yes, and we go there quite often, particularly during the summer. They have suggested reading lists there, and I've been grateful for the guidance. Library suggested reading lists have been useful for us occasionally, but more for checking whether there is an author or series we missed than for getting substantial new recommendations. We have also found "The New York Times Parent's Guide to the Best Books for Children" a useful resource for suggesting books we may have missed. Checking various prize-winner lists has also found us some good books. http://www.ala.org/Template.cfm?Section=bookmediaawards is a good place to start. You may be interested in the newsgroup rec.arts.books.children, which discusses children's literature and provides an excellent resource of experts at identifying half-remembered books from your childhood. She loves reading and reads a lot. She's advanced for her grade level as well. But I don't want her reading to the exclusion of all else. One of her best friends stays inside during recess every day to read because she doesn't like going outside to play. I tried to gently feel out the mom to see if she was aware of that and if it was okay with her, and she was and it was. I would not like my daughter doing that. My son would spend almost all his time reading and drawing if we let him. Luckily a group of his friends have formed a recess-time theater group (they copy out dialog from the Harry Potter books and rehearse it), so he no longer spends all his recess and lunch time reading. We don't worry too much about him getting enough exercise, since we don't have a car and walk or bike everywhere (including to his aikido classes). We generally approve of his reading, but we have had to put some restrictions on it: No reading at supper (exceptions made for reading aloud something to share with the whole family---reading at breakfast and lunch is ok), no reading when there is homework to be done (though if there is a lot of homework, we may allow half-hour reading breaks between parts of the assignment), no reading after lights out. The most effective punishment we have for misbehavior is taking away his reading time before bedtime. ------------------------------------------------------------ Kevin Karplus http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/~karplus Professor of Biomolecular Engineering, University of California, Santa Cruz Undergraduate and Graduate Director, Bioinformatics (Senior member, IEEE) (Board of Directors, ISCB) life member (LAB, Adventure Cycling, American Youth Hostels) Effective Cycling Instructor #218-ck (lapsed) Affiliations for identification only. |
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"bizby40" wrote in
: I didn't mean to imply that she read all those books as a 4th grader -- those have been her series of choice over the years. I can't see a 4 year old with Lemony Snickett though -- even if he is advanced enough to know all the words, it doesn't seem appropriate storyline for that age. well, this is a 4 year old that has grown up with Nightmare Before Christmas & a couple skeletons around the house... i think he'll like Lemony Snickett, although i think it's more something i'll read to him than something he'll read on his own (mom editing & all g) so... i've not seen the Boxcar Children books. what are those like? lee |
#85
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"enigma" wrote in message . .. "bizby40" wrote in : I didn't mean to imply that she read all those books as a 4th grader -- those have been her series of choice over the years. I can't see a 4 year old with Lemony Snickett though -- even if he is advanced enough to know all the words, it doesn't seem appropriate storyline for that age. well, this is a 4 year old that has grown up with Nightmare Before Christmas & a couple skeletons around the house... i think he'll like Lemony Snickett, although i think it's more something i'll read to him than something he'll read on his own (mom editing & all g) so... i've not seen the Boxcar Children books. what are those like? They are very "quaint". About a group of 4 orphaned children that in the first book run away to live in an abandoned boxcar rather than be setn to live with their scary grandfather. By the end of the first book, their grandfather has found them, and it turns out he's a wonderful guy. Each subsequent book is a mystery. I didn't really like the books myself. And I'm a bit surprised that my daughter liked them as the running theme in the books is that the children are very self- sufficient, and love to work more than anything. Every time they go on vacation, they end up volunteering to fix up a house or hotel or store or whatever. Bizby lee |
#86
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enigma wrote: "bizby40" wrote in : I didn't mean to imply that she read all those books as a 4th grader -- those have been her series of choice over the years. I can't see a 4 year old with Lemony Snickett though -- even if he is advanced enough to know all the words, it doesn't seem appropriate storyline for that age. well, this is a 4 year old that has grown up with Nightmare Before Christmas & a couple skeletons around the house... i think he'll like Lemony Snickett, although i think it's more something i'll read to him than something he'll read on his own (mom editing & all g) I guess I too feel the LS books might be a mistake for a 4-year-old. Read them to yourself first, then make a final decision. We still read to my 10-year-old, and he almost wouldn't let me finish the book--and this was only a few months ago--it upset him so much, and he hasn't wanted me to start the second book, though we have the first three. There's a scene where a young toddler is bound, gagged, caged and the cage is hung out the window of a tower, in order to keep the older siblings in line. Now, my stepson has two sisters, one age 3 and the other is 18 months, and I think that scene horrified him more than it might other kids. I also think that stuff like this WOULD horrify an older kid more than it might a young one. Like I said, I strongly caution you to pre-read them first, to make sure. Now that said, I started reading the Harry Potter books to my stepson when he was barely 5 years old, and lots of people thought that was nuts - that it would be too scary, and he was fine with them (and loved them). During the more intense scenes, at least when he was younger, he *did* sit on my lap, rather than next to me. ;-) so... i've not seen the Boxcar Children books. what are those like? They are another set of books about orphans learning to fend for themselves. I think they were written in the 1940s or 50s (but that's a guess). They are good books. My brothers, who are now 19 and 21 years of age, LOVED them. Cathy Weeks |
#87
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bizby40 wrote:
"enigma" wrote in message . .. so... i've not seen the Boxcar Children books. what are those like? They are very "quaint". About a group of 4 orphaned children that in the first book run away to live in an abandoned boxcar rather than be setn to live with their scary grandfather. By the end of the first book, their grandfather has found them, and it turns out he's a wonderful guy. Each subsequent book is a mystery. I didn't really like the books myself. And I'm a bit surprised that my daughter liked them as the running theme in the books is that the children are very self- sufficient, and love to work more than anything. Every time they go on vacation, they end up volunteering to fix up a house or hotel or store or whatever. Bizby And somehow the boys always ending up in a providing role and the girls always end up in a housekeeping role. Lesley |
#88
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"enigma" wrote in message
i see reading lists as one more way to make kids hate reading. if you can't even pick your own books, how are you going to find your own interests? and how do they pick the books for those lists? i was reading Arthur C. Clark in 2nd garde. being forced to read something like Junie B. would have bored me to tears... That's you. My kids love Junie B. And not to mention there are some books that are just not appropriate for little kids even if they are reading at a higher level. However, for the record, we don't have a required reading list at our school, they just want them to read. -- Sue (mom to three girls) |
#89
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"Sue" wrote in
: "enigma" wrote in message i see reading lists as one more way to make kids hate reading. if you can't even pick your own books, how are you going to find your own interests? and how do they pick the books for those lists? i was reading Arthur C. Clark in 2nd garde. being forced to read something like Junie B. would have bored me to tears... That's you. My kids love Junie B. And not to mention there are some books that are just not appropriate for little kids even if they are reading at a higher level. However, for the record, we don't have a required reading list at our school, they just want them to read. yeah, that's what my second grade teacher said when she took my books away from me. she didn't want me reading anything the other kids weren't... and i'd passed Dick & Jane at age 3. my parents were annoyed that teacher wouldn't even return the Aurthur Clark book to them (ok, it was Childhood's End & it's still good sci-fi. i think the teacher just didn't like the title). and it's unfair of me to pick on Junie B. because that wasn't in print when i was that age. still, i preferred field guides & biology texts... and i loved sci fi (at least i wasn't reading Heinlein g) lee -- I like the way it's called birth control... *Birth* control... man, that'd be weird... Taking pills to stop the baby coming out. |
#90
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"Sue" wrote in message ... "enigma" wrote in message i see reading lists as one more way to make kids hate reading. if you can't even pick your own books, how are you going to find your own interests? and how do they pick the books for those lists? i was reading Arthur C. Clark in 2nd garde. being forced to read something like Junie B. would have bored me to tears... That's you. My kids love Junie B. And not to mention there are some books that are just not appropriate for little kids even if they are reading at a higher level. However, for the record, we don't have a required reading list at our school, they just want them to read. -- Sue (mom to three girls) I always saw summer reading lists (for elementary school students) as suggestions for the children to read over the summer. The lists DD's school have are much too long for the children to read every book. Many parents don't know what books are out there for children - I know I have a tough time picking out appropriate books for DD. I have a good grasp of picture books and young adult books but I'm less sure about young reader (2-4 grades) books. Like Sue mentioned, it's the appropriateness of subject and language as well as reading ability. While a child *may* be able to read "Gone with the Wind" or "Ender's Game" (to pick two random books) doesn't mean she *should* read it. Jeanne |
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