Starting late with no twaddle

I know that some parents will allow their children to choose one book after they’ve read one that is approved. You can then stretch it to one every two books, etc. If you allow movies, you can also look for some that they would enjoy and have them read the book first (assuming the books are not twaddle). Anne of Greene Gables and the Narnia series are two examples. Others will have good ideas for you, I’m sure. Just persevere; they’ll get it. I’d also be hard pressed to say that there are many of us with totally twaddle-free homes. But I could be wrong and my family is the only one .

Blessings,

Cindy

We struggle with this as well.  I have a really hard time keeping their attention sometimes when reading the books listed on the guides.  I was wondering if we should choose a book listed in the lower grade levels to get going and then progress from there.  For example, we started The Railway Children (recommended 5th grade) as a read aloud for our 6th and 4th graders.  The 6th grader isn’t thrilled with it, but does want to finish it.  The 4th grader seems to be in misery!   So her older sister began reading The Magician’s Nephew to her for read aloud.  It’s hard for me to discern if she’s being lazy (she likes picture books the best) or if she really just needs more time to develop. 

My children are nine and ten.  We, or I should say I, also struggle with their reading taste.  I don’t really get a lot of support in this because people say to me, “at least they’re reading”.  And on one level, I must confess, that I agree.  I’m embarrassed to even say what my children’s favourite series of books are to read! 

I do see, however, how twaddle isn’t good for growing young minds.  

So…

I, of course, read aloud a lot to my children.  They love to listen to audio books in the vehicle.  And we’ve done that where before we can watch the movie, we must read the books.  They do read (my ten yr old son more so) non-twaddle books, but they always go back to that favourite series.  I’m not really sure if I should tell them they’re no longer aloud to read them when they enjoy them so much.

I agree with Heidi regarding “moderation” in this area….and I think that’s especially helpful for those of us who didn’t start out educating our children the CM way.  And, for some of us (including me), our children went to ps first where lots of twaddle was recommended and endorsed.  I have just in the last few months felt freedom in this area.  It is hard to not feel guilty about stripping all of the twaddly books out of our house and their hands, but something in me just knew that wasn’t going to work.  I’m thankful I fought that overreacting impulse to do that.  Now, I have noticed that, as we go along on this journey, my kids *are* enjoying the better literature more and more.  I really believe that there is going to come a time for them that they can see the difference for themselves and will choose beautifully-written, engaging literature on their own.  Moderation is a biblical principle and God reminded me of verses in Ecclesiastes regarding avoiding extremes (or is that Proverbs?) in recent weeks and it was exactly over this same issue. 

I think we can do things slowly – for instance, I’ve been homeschooling for two years and I just threw away a Disney book series that was awful.  I can’t even explain how bad the writing was.  So, I’m phasing things like that out slowly, but I don’t see me giving away all of our old twaddly books, because some of them are associated with sweet memories.

I have sooo been struggling with this lately especially since I read and posted on this topic earlier.  I’m new to CM just this summer.  I love everything that CM stands for and am excited about a CM homeschooling year.  In so many ways, I have “mommy guilt” and sadness that I wasn’t teaching this way all along because being that my children are 9 and 10 I feel I have so much to change or make right in their education.  Especially when it comes to reading.  My 9 yr old girl is still pretty malleable but my 10 yr old boy is very strong in his own ideals.  I’ve been discussing with them my idea to taking away their twaddle books for a period of time.  Since they DO enjoying reading, my thought is that they’ll be forced to read better books.  It’s not even that they NEVER read good literature but it’s not their first choice.

Reading Abbaschild’s comment was encouraging, but I still am on the fence with this idea.  I don’t want to turn them against reading all together.  Perhaps offering an abundance of good books is the way. 

I get frustrated, though, because I’ve offered books that have been highly recommended and he turns them down flat.

Does anyone have suggestions for compelling books that would appeal to a 10 year old boy?  He loves action and humour, and he is not fond of books that have bullies in them.  He also loves cats and dogs.