Reading books to my daughter each day, especially before bedtime, was such a cozy, important-feeling ritual through her early childhood. While I am glad that June is reading so well on her own now, her graduation to older-child-oriented chapter books and graphic novels has meant that she now reads most of the time on her own, and I miss our reading time together! The series she gravitates toward on our trips to the library are full of fairies and unicorns and adventures, but I don’t think they have quite the power and educational value of some of the amazing children’s books that we were reading together previously. And perhaps the reason for this is that as kids begin reading on their own, their parents are just happy that they are reading and don’t care so much about the content, plus they are not as involved to see what that content actually is.
The unschooling parent mentality in this matter would probably be to say that, if June is engaged in the books she is reading now, then she must be learning from them—I should just have more trust in her ability to find what she needs and worry less about content. But a big part of my role as an unschooling parent also seems to be what Dr. Sundiata and Akilah S. Richards call strewing, that is, strategically placing interesting, high-quality resources around my daughter that she can discover (or not) on her own. Does anyone have suggestions of really good kids “chapter” books or series that would appeal to maybe a 3rd through 5th grade reading level?
Hi Carla, we met through Wally and saw each other at the memorial gathering.
Cathy has done some reading parallel to what our grandkids are reading and interested in, and she probably has some specifics to share. Meanwhile, my memories of wonder and delight with our young daughter and son at the Jonesborough storytelling festival also echo as they raise their young. You’ve probably experienced that festival yourself, so these comments would be redundant. But when our youngsters shared the experience with kids their age who traveled there with us, the resonance and delight of the journey richly embedded the content “strewn” for them and all who attended. Basic ethics and, dare I say, wisdom infuse much of the content, and even when kids played outside the performance tents, conversations during the trip home proved they heard more than we’d guessed. The final story in Bil Lepp’s Charleston performance (king of Little Things) remains a favorite for Cathy and me, and while the second is OK, the airplane story at the start is a classic tall tale. First weekend in October each year. Here’s Lepp : youtube.com/watch?v=rxDoyXPE9JE
Jerry and Cathy Markatos
Our best to June and you!
Hi Jerry, I think I must have missed this comment! Thank you for writing and sharing. All best to you and Cathy.