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SeaStar
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| Posted: Nov 19 2013 at 1:45pm | IP Logged
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do you ever revisit books with your children?
I recently listened to Andrew Padua give a talk, and his take was that a classic is a book that you can read over and over and always learn something new. He gave the Bible as a gold standard.
So I'm wondering if- instead of always being on the hunt for the next new book- especially on cd- I would do better to revisit some old favorites and some classics.
I understand that many moms revisit books with different kids at different ages. We read the same classic picture books over and over- especially seasonal ones. But as for longer books and novels, I tend to check those off my sheet, so to speak.
I have to rethink that...
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
SQUILT Music Appreciation
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JodieLyn
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I think that any book like this is one in which the person (adult or child) reading the book will likely have a desire to revisit it.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
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All men who have turned out worth anything have had the chief hand in their own education.
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Kathryn
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My DD (9th grade, almost 15) has read The Little House on the Prairie series 3 times already on her own.  Once in 1st grade, once around 5th grade (both before we were homeschooling) and again about 7th grade. I have no doubt she will read it again for pleasure before she hopefully reads it again to her own children.
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Kathryn in TX
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DominaCaeli
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We've still got young ones here, but I usually do a book as a read-aloud just once, and then it goes on the shelf, and my older two reread and reread over and over. They like to revisit their favorite parts, or just read the whole thing through over again. I imagine, though, that given the age span of my kids, we will definitely revisit certain books--I would want to read aloud the Little House series with each "set" of kids, for example. I also think it would be fun to read one aloud together, and then listen to it on audiobook at another time.
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CrunchyMom
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We have a couple of favorites that we pull out for long road trips over and over again. Come On, Seabiscuit is one, and we just bought Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, which will surely be revisited (we already read it as a family read-aloud and loved it). Another we like is Priest on Horseback.
Anyway, yes, I think you can pull favorites out and enjoy them again and again. 
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Lindsay
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Mackfam
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On the question of what makes a book a classic...
The idea of a classic book, or a book that is attractive enough to revisit, typifies Charlotte Mason's idea of a living book - "worthy thoughts, well put; inspiring tales, well told."
SeaStar wrote:
| do you ever revisit books with your children? |
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*I* don't intentionally revisit books with the kids. If I'm introducing a book/author, I introduce it once. Certainly, the children find friends that they enjoy going back to again and again. Wilder, Tolkien, Lewis, Alcott, Milne, Potter - these are just a few authors that become friends as the children revisit. On the second visit/read, the book seems more personal to the child. That's just my observation though.
I don't intentionally revisit novels because there is always a direction I'm trying to stretch a child in and through their reading - maybe through ideas, or it may be in a reading skill, or it may be through recognition/understanding of literary matter, or a moral point, or even a historical period or figure. Regardless, the book choices available to us are tremendous - it is truly a feast of ideas. And since we savor books rather than a rapid consumption, we try to (figuratively) enjoy consuming all of the goodness - all the rich nutrition - from a book when we meet it for the first time. Anyway, after savoring a book, and after stretching a child through a book, it's time to move forward to a new book, meeting new ideas, and stretching wider and deeper.
I guess I think of it much as I would if I were introducing a child to a new friend. The introduction is made, and I stay alongside through that introduction. The author speaks through the story and sometimes the author speaks in a way that a child is touched, and wants to meet their friend again and again and they pick the book up again on their own. *I* don't need to introduce the child to the book/author again and again. It would be redundant for *me* to revisit the book with the child, especially if we have spent the time to savor the book in our reading already. It ISN'T redundant if the child has made a friend through that reading, and since the book is living, it will speak to the child and meet the child wherever he is when he comes back to the book. It's a very personal meeting at that point.
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Jen Mackintosh
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SeaStar
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Part of what makes me wonder about revisiting is this:
We have read and listened to so many books over the years, and I am always surprised about how little my dd remembers at times. Ds is like an elephant- he remembers them all! Not dd... recently I was surprised that she could recall very little of a book we read a couple of years ago- one that she was really excited about.
Maybe it is just her age and/or nature. But now I feel as if I might want to go back and start all over with the Little House series, etc with her.
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Melinda, mom to ds ('02) and dd ('04)
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JodieLyn
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If you're reading it for the love of the reading. You know, like family reading time or bedtime reading. There's no reason that you can't revisit books. Maybe not all the time but some of the time.
I know that I don't always remember much about books I've read in the past UNTIL I get started back into the storyline and then it'll click into place.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
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Kathryn
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Melinda....my oldest DD is like your son. She has an incredible memory. She's started to really "show up" her mom b/c I feel like my memory is fading and fading fast!  
But, really I don't think I've always had the strongest memory and I lived across the street from a lady that remembered soo.many.details from her childhood so I think some of it is just a difference among people.
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Kathryn in TX
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Erin
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There are some 'children's books' that I revisit myself as an adult too. Example, I've re-read the Anne of Green Gables series several times over the years (to myself)
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Erin
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JodieLyn
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Louisa May Alcott is also excellent to reread as an adult. It's amazine how supportive she is of homeschooling "Jack and Jill" especially you can see it.
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Jodie, wife to Dave
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Topic: What makes a book a classic and...
