Reading Comprehension
AJ is sitting in the living room right now, reading aloud from DH's Calvin & Hobbes anthology. I'm not sure I want her picking up ideas and attitudes from Calvin, though, so I think I'll try to redirect her. Last week I had to take a Reader's Digest away from her. Just because she has the ability to read and comprehend the words doesn't mean she's old enough for the themes and ideas. A 4-year-old doesn't need to be reading about plane crashes and robberies.
Now that AJ is reading so well, I'm going to have to figure out how to handle the book situation. We're not used to thinking about her picking up and reading things like the newspaper or Reader's Digest that are lying around. Even something like Baby Talk or Parenting magazine, though I've let the kids look at the pictures, has articles not appropriate for a preschooler to be reading.
I'm curious how other parents have handled this. Do you make sure things your children shouldn't be reading are out of reach, or do you designate certain books and bookshelves as theirs and tell them they need to ask permission before reading anything else?
I'm thinking I may need to rearrange my bookshelves to have the kid-friendly books on the lower shelves. But at the same time, I want my kids to learn to choose their reading materials wisely, rather than just picking up random books and reading them. I'm just not quite sure how to teach that.
I must say, though . . . I think it's really great that I'm dealing with these questions with a child under five. LOL.
Now that AJ is reading so well, I'm going to have to figure out how to handle the book situation. We're not used to thinking about her picking up and reading things like the newspaper or Reader's Digest that are lying around. Even something like Baby Talk or Parenting magazine, though I've let the kids look at the pictures, has articles not appropriate for a preschooler to be reading.
I'm curious how other parents have handled this. Do you make sure things your children shouldn't be reading are out of reach, or do you designate certain books and bookshelves as theirs and tell them they need to ask permission before reading anything else?
I'm thinking I may need to rearrange my bookshelves to have the kid-friendly books on the lower shelves. But at the same time, I want my kids to learn to choose their reading materials wisely, rather than just picking up random books and reading them. I'm just not quite sure how to teach that.
I must say, though . . . I think it's really great that I'm dealing with these questions with a child under five. LOL.
Labels: books, kid stuff, learning, parenting
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Posted by purple_kangaroo at 10:30 AM[Permanent link]
8 Comments:
I ended up putting books up higher you girls shouldn't be reading even though you could at 4. At 4 kids have the ability to do some choosing and learning about what is appropriate but a whole lot of what isn't appropriate for their age at the reading level isn't really appropriate for discussion and/or appropriate for their learning/reasoning ability for choosing what is right to read. Parents still need to be making a lot of those choices for 4 year olds, especially those who are beyond their age level in academic and even other maturity levels. You don't want to create a child who is too old for their years in worldly and/or inappropriate for age level knowledge or allow the burden of adult or older child worries to be a weight on them. A 4 or 5 year old needs to still be pretty care free. Of course life happens and there will be cares of the sort all families have like sickness or death, but then it is a learning by also watching how parents and others handle it and gentle help from the Word of God as to who we cast our cares on.
We're having the same issue with Jackson (7), now. He loves cookbooks, so we're going to be getting him "Kid" cookbooks. He has Rachael Ray's "Cooking Rocks" and loves it. The idea is keeping kid books on the lower shelves is really good. Jackson's most challenging reading (in a good way) right now is the KJV. Figure that'll keep him busy for a while ;o)
Also, there are a ton of good books for kids so there is always a ready supply of books for advanced readers to read that meet the criteria for being good wholesome reading. I have book lists and books on CD's that can be gone through.
One major source of books are the older books which have a much higher vocabulary for a younger age and reading level.
I don't remember this ever being an issue in our house. But then, my mom sent me Jane Eyre to read when I was in summer camp at age 9. I loved it and have read it once a year since.
I guess I would say, put lots of interesting and appropriate books and magazines within easy reach and she'll be less interested in the "Grown-up" ones.
I know you're reading the Little House series to them, have you gotten Lois Lenski's books, "Strawberry Girl" and "Indian Captive"? Preview "IC" before you give it to her, it has some emotionally hard scenes.
What about "Caddy Woodlawn"? "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm"? "Five Little Peppers and How They Grew"? "Heidi"? "Eight Cousins"? "An Old-fashioned Girl"?
The Encyclopedia Brown series?
We have this issue too, and we choose mostly to keep stuff out of reach or at least out of sight. So if the newspaper headlines are horrific, I bury that section under the others. So far my daughter hasn't starting grabbing grown-up books off our shelves because I keep her well stocked with library books (plus the gazillions we buy her). But every once in a while I think, "really must move 'Our Bodies, Ourselves' to a higher shelf!" But that would mean some rearranging since all shelves are full and I haven't done it yet.
We talk fairly often about what is "appropriate" and don't let her see grown-up TV, etc. So she now says in her proud moments "I can read anything! I could read grown-up books if they were appropriate!"
I also censor her Calvin and Hobbes access, because she doesn't need to learn to be any *more* mischievious.
I'm on the waiting list at my library for this book, which is supposed to have lists of titles for different ages:
Some of my best friends are books : guiding gifted readers from preschool to high school by Halsted, Judith Wynn
And thank you to Liz for more ideas! Here are some recent favorites of ours:
We've had great success with the Beverly Cleary books -- Ramona and Beezus starts with Ramona at age 4. We're up to Ramona Forever, age 9 now. Plus The Mouse and the Motorcycle.
Also The Littles (there's a ton of those).
The Cam Jansen mystery series (girl detective)
The Jigsaw Jones series (boy detective, girl sidekick)
Hope this is useful.
Don't forget Betsy-Tacy books, and B is for Betsy. (2 different series)
Which leads me to my solution--my daughter reads easily at twice her age. She's 5, at a 4th grade reading level. We try to keep her reading books that were written no less than 50 years ago. So Anne-with-an-e, Narnia, Wizard of Oz series. She is reading American Girl historical books (Felicity, Kirsten, et al) except we're skipping Addie because of the mature themes. (Slavery & racism. She's ignorant of racism, and there's no need for a 5 yo to learn about how horrible people can be to each other.) This makes her speech a bit interesting. . ."I have indeed cleaned my bedchamber!" but better that than Junie B. Jones.
Thanks for all the great input, everyone. One can never have too many good book ideas, and I do need to add some Betsy-Tacy to our collection. :)
Madeline, I am going to have to get a copy of that book.
Carson, don't even get me started on Junie B. Jones. :)
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