kids and books

[timepiece]

I was reading a blog post about marking age/reading levels on books, and found this wonderful philosophy regarding allowing your kids to read:

[My father] once told a friend who was astounded by something I was reading: “If she’s too young to understand something either it won’t hurt her, or she’ll ask us and we’ll explain it to her. If she’s old enough to understand it, then it won’t hurt her.”

Yes. I was allowed to read pretty much anything, and I think it contributed a lot to my education. Historical fiction is the only reason I know anything about certain historical periods, since I found history class to be unbelievably boring and always tuned out. And I would ask my mother, "Why would this character have done this? Wouldn't it have been a good thing?" and she would explain how the time/culture was so different from what I knew.

I plan to tell my kids they can read anything in the house. I may hide away half-a-dozen or so very explicit books, but that's it. Anything else is fair game.

Comments

[graene.livejournal.com]

That's all well and good for parents there to answer those questions. Mine were not introspective enough to care about their own motivations, they could care less about fictional characters or my questions. That said, I think it was 4th or 5th grade when my mom told the librarians I had permission to read/checkout anything in the library, having long since grown bored with the children's section.

I will probably go with your method, but put things generally appropriate to their reading ability in their rooms/lower shelves to guide them in the earliest years. We already have three very full shelves for her in the playroom and a case to be painted for her room.