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TryingMyBest
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| Posted: Aug 03 2013 at 1:10pm | IP Logged
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I'm very picky about what books I buy DD but of course we have plenty of twaddle books that were bought by my DH or other people. In particular, my DH has a weakness for Disney books.
I've found that I can banish certain books to the basement and DD will forget about them but I hate to do that with books bought by my DH.
Do you choose the read alouds to your children? Or let them pick? Or a little bit of both? I try to do both and since most of the books available to DD are good books I don't read too much twaddle to her. But there are certain good books that she refuses to listen to; The Little House. She loves Mike Mulligan and Katy but will not listen to The Little House.
Along the same line, do you have all of your children's books available for your child to pick or do you rotate? I find that if everything is available she will pick the same ones over and over again and I'd prefer her to be exposed to more books. But I have a hard time putting away good books that she enjoys.
Jennifer
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knowloveserve
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| Posted: Aug 07 2013 at 5:31pm | IP Logged
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For the most part I choose the read aloud chapter books. There have only been a couple books in our history of read alouds that we've mutually agreed to quit. And I don't feel badly about that since 90% of what I choose is enjoyed very much by everyone!
If I was getting major resistance on my choosing, I would maybe give them a choice from my selections. But I try to choose books I know they would like to begin with... based on their interests and personalities (e.g. They loved Farmer Boy but I've been waiting to get into the other Little House books that don't feature a male protagonist.)
Picture books are almost always chosen by the children from our bookshelves (which has "good" or "great" books only... not twaddle), or from our stack of library books (which has been pre-approved. General rule is that the kids can read all the twaddle books they want at the library but Mom chooses what comes home. And more often than this, I simply reserve what books I want and pick them up without the kids at all.)
I rotate books seasonally. There is one bookshelf of general picture books and then each season a big basket comes out of seasonal reads... (and then a special Christmas basket just for that time too) these are always met with excitement, even by the older kids who like to see their favorites once again.
If there is a good book that a child enjoys, I don't mind letting it be read over and over again. This is the stuff memories are made of and there is a comfort and security in the familiarity of a good story. I sometimes get inwardly annoyed reading the same bedtime book over and over and over and over... but I try not to let it show because I know that there is value in repetition.
My .02!
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Ellie
The Bleeding Pelican
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JodieLyn
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| Posted: Aug 07 2013 at 6:17pm | IP Logged
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For me it really depends on why it's picked.
Is it just the first book they grab and being a toddler they refuse to change. Or is there something about the book that they just love.
I don't generally care for the "Biscuit" books about the puppy. They don't read smoothly imo. BUT when my 6 yr old was around 3, she saw one and fell in love with that puppy. So I still read them. She had a connection to the book which I felt superceded whatever the book my lack. We still read other books. And she's outgrown the fascination. So for me it wasn't worth the battle.. just do a "you pick a book, and then mommy picks a book" for reading the books outloud.
And I completely agree with
knowloveserve wrote:
If there is a good book that a child enjoys, I don't mind letting it be read over and over again. This is the stuff memories are made of and there is a comfort and security in the familiarity of a good story. I sometimes get inwardly annoyed reading the same bedtime book over and over and over and over... but I try not to let it show because I know that there is value in repetition.
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Better still, I read books to my kids that I had read to me over and over and over.. it's great.. I've "read" one of the books while the child turns the pages while I was busy doing something else.. because I have it memorized.  
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Jodie, wife to Dave
G-18, B-17, G-15, G-14, B-13, B-11, G-9, B-7, B-5, B-4
All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
-Sir Walter Scott
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Martha
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I create an assigned booklist each year, but outside and in addition to that they read just about anything they want. I don't hide books. If its not worth keeping on the bookshelf, I just don't keep it.
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Martha
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SallyT
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Mostly I choose the read-alouds, even now. A couple of my children have a very strong "negative first response" streak, and strenuously resist anything I choose initially. The deal I make is that we read the first chapter, and if they still hate it, we'll try something else -- I think maybe once I've actually had to choose another book, in almost twenty years of reading to children.
Kids do develop inexplicable attachments and antipathies to certain books, especially when they're really little. I adore The Little House, but I can see how a child might find the story and illustrations sad or even scary. If she really doesn't like listening to it, I'd just choose something else.
And we have had book purges from time to time, particularly of things like Disney books. That said, my oldest daughter's beloved babysitter once gave her, when she was about two, a Disney Beauty and the Beast book, and she was massively attached to it. We had to read it every. day. There was going to be no forgetting that book. Ever. I'd try to shift it out of sight so that we could read something else -- nothing doing. We might still have that stupid book for all I know. FINALLY she got tired of it and we moved on, but it was a staple for a long, long time. I hated it, and it was painful to read aloud (with a subsequent child, I probably would have put the kibbosh on it altogether, but with her I was far more afraid of psychological damage and all that). In the end she did outgrow it, and it didn't mar her ability to appreciate good literature.
And yes, to reading the same (good) books over and over and over. Even now, my 9- and 11-year-olds have favorites to which they want to return again and again. Actually, even my high-school and college-aged kids do that. *I* do that. It gets a little wearing to read the same picture book night after night after night to a little child, but I really think they have an innate yearning and need for *sameness*, especially at bedtime. Funnily enough, with all my children, the hardest thing about transitioning into chapter books is that initially they all wanted to hear the first chapter over and over -- the very suggestion that we move on to Chapter 2 was met with howls of outrage at first. What this probably meant was that I was pushing chapter books too early, but we all seem to have survived.
All books are available all the time, because I believe in the joys of grazing well-stocked bookshelves, but for the younger kids I do rotate what's on the face-out book rack in our study, to put new things in their line of vision every so often. In general they are free to read anything in the house.
Sally
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4Real Forums : Living Literature
Topic: Choosing Books for Children?
