the network for radical unschooling families

Loves to Read

We just got back from the extended part of our L&L vacation. My kids take swordfighting/adventure classes at a place called Guard Up, in a neighboring town. The kids are friends with the other kids in the classes (they all went to the residential summer camp together this year), so they really look forward to their time at Guard Up. Today after the class, one of Kim's friends (who goes to public school) was going to have another class later in the afternoon & invited Kim to attend (as a member, Kim can visit other classes, so long as they are not full). The only thing was that there was an 1/2 hour gap between classes, so they asked if we could go to the nearby Barnes & Noble to look for new manga.

When we got to B&N, the kids ran excitedly into the building & headed straight to the manga section. Mere minutes later they came gliding down the escalator, arms full of books. They happily hunkered down in the cafe to read until it was time for me to bring the girls back to Guard Up (Shaun opted to stay at B&N). As I drove back, Kim asked M if she was enjoying being back to school. M immediately replied in a frustrated voice, "Oh, no! I hate it! I have to read this book & write a report on it!" Kim replied , "Oh, that's awful! Well, not so much the reading part, but the report - bad!"

Here was a girl who loves to read, borrow & share books with Kim, but complains about having to read for school. She didn't like what she was being forced to read & certainly didn't want to spend more time on it by writing about it, too. Thankfully she hasn't lost the spark that the joy of reading can bring to a person. If only she could spend more time reading the books she loves.

0 members like this

Next Post >

Comment

You need to be a member of Radical Unschoolers Network to add comments!

Join Radical Unschoolers Network

Comment by Amberlee on September 15, 2008 at 12:42pm: Summer reading programs HA!!! They didn't like us for the SRP at our library. Nope. We finished it the day after it started. No joke. They don't even challenge you, our kids read soooo much it was a drop in the bucket of my kids true summer reading. They did the program because they wanted to see what the little prizes were, and because they already had the books needed to finish. *sigh* We always have books in the van and in bags too. We rarely go to B&N because ours is smaller and we can find more elsewhere. Still, if I required the kids to read the books no way they would ever get done.

Comment by Christine Yablonski on September 15, 2008 at 10:15am: I so agree - those programs are all about quantity. Did you "read" enough to get their prize. The love of reading is smothered into becoming just another task to be checked off the list.

Meanwhile, my kids don't go anywhere without a book in hand (or bag) - we've actually had to encourage them to not bring their own books into Barnes & Noble!

Comment by Katherine on September 15, 2008 at 8:56am: I was nuts for reading when at school as long as they were *my* chosen books. I deplored reading *anything* required at school! Heck no we won't go.. said I, so I barely skimmed and flicked 'em like a bug out of my sphere. So annoyed with much of it that I managed to not to do well. Perverse.

Now that I'm out of school, I have gladly revisited many of those required books and so called classics on my own terms. To Kill a Mockingbird is so amazing, for one. But not in school. Unamazing. Yuk... those words Required Reading.

Do not get me started on LIBRARIES with their summer reading programs, as if programming it invites a love of reading in the first place.

---