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Do you pre-read your kids books?


Do you pre-read the books your kids read on their own?  

  1. 1. Do you pre-read the books your kids read on their own?

    • Yes (usually)
      27
    • No (only occasionally)
      101
    • I pre-read books that I assign to them, but not the ones they pick up on their own
      12


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I mean the ones that are read independently. And I'm not going to give you an "Other" b/c I know everyone will choose that. :tongue_smilie:

Just pick the one that describes you *generally*.

Edited by bonniebeth4
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I mean the ones that are read independently. And I'm not going to give you an "Other" b/c I know everyone will choose that. :tongue_smilie: Just pick the one that describes you *generally*.

 

Nope. My oldest read around 200 chapter books the year he was seven. Kinda hard to keep up with that. I love handing him books from my childhood that I know are wonderful, or recommended from lists or people whom I trust, but that just isn't always possible. I know he has read several books that I wouldn't have handed him had I pre-read them, but I'm picky enough that I am hopeful the good will outweigh the bad.

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Phew, you guys are all ready making me feel better. :D

 

I've had a couple of experiences that make me think I would pre-read everything if I was a "good" mommy. But I just can't keep up (and I'd rather read my own books ;))

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I do on occasion, and that is only because ds has read most of the books in the children's section of the library, and has started to bring home YA books.

 

He has also asked me to pre-read some stuff when he is not sure of the content.

 

But for the most part, no he just reads what he wants.

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I'll never forget the time I *didn't* pre-read. I had read many, many Rosemary Sutcliff books that were wonderful, and bought one on King Arthur and put it in my pre-teen ds's school box. So glad he didn't do his work on time, because when I picked it up to read it (mostly for fun--I really trusted this author by that point), it had a graphic sexual encounter between Arthur and Morgana in it. Whew!

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I'll never forget the time I *didn't* pre-read. I had read many, many Rosemary Sutcliff books that were wonderful, and bought one on King Arthur and put it in my pre-teen ds's school box. So glad he didn't do his work on time, because when I picked it up to read it (mostly for fun--I really trusted this author by that point), it had a graphic sexual encounter between Arthur and Morgana in it. Whew!

 

Aack!:blink:

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I try to pre-read the books that I assign even when I give my kids a choice between 2 or 3 different books. I don't always manage to get around to pre-reading.

 

My 14yo and I like a lot of the same books. My 17yo and 12yo used to like a lot of the same books too. I frequently finish reading a book and try to get them to read it too. My kids often finish a book and then hound me to read it too. We always try to get each other to read the books we have enjoyed. I don't try to pre-read all the books my girls read. I do read a lot though. Sometimes one of my girls has picked a book up at the library that I have asked them to wait on so I can read it first to make sure it's okay. My oldest is 17yo now. She can read anything she wants. My 14yo is mature enough that she will sometimes bring a book to me and tell me that she'd like me to read it first to see if it's okay. My 12yo doesn't like to read, so she rarely reads anything that one of us hasn't read first.

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I pre-read if it's something I've never heard of before, or something I am not sure of the actual age-appropriateness.

 

I do NOT pre-read if it's part of curriculum, or something I'd read as a kid, or something that one of a certain group of their friends has already read.

 

If it's a series, I'll pre-read the first book - check online reviews (to verify that the series/author stayed close to the original book. Some series really go off the deep end with craziness toward the last book of two in the series!).

 

I'm a voracious reader, though. Pre-reading tween and/or young adult books is nothing to me, I mow through them. My girls are fast readers, but don't have as much time as I do to read, so I keep ahead of them well enough. :D

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At the moment I preread some books to get an idea of the book level so I know when to either read it to DS6 or when to suggest it to him to read. I don't forsee prereading his books long term though.

One of the best things I remember from childhood is being able to pick out and read pretty much any book I wanted. Now to be honest I tried to stay in the Juvenile section and had to be pushed to the Young Adult section so there was no worry about content for the most part. Then our YA section was tiny so I quickly moved on to Stephen King as the first 'adult' books I read, lol.

 

I anticipate allowing DS to read what he wants (within reason for age appropriateness) but we'll see how it is as he gets older. He reads so many books right now I couldn't possible read them all before he got to them. I think he reads 2-3 chapter books a day at least!

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I pre-read most of the books my daughter read when she was young because I needed to make sure they were appropriate for age as well as level. I didn't feel the need to for things like books about Dinosaurs (thankfully that portion of our lives is over!). However, there are a lot of books that were on her LEVEL but not age appropriate from the time she was 5 to 9. After that point, I felt confident in her coming to me with anything she found disturbing or stopping a book that was inappropriate by our standards.

 

Oh, that time period inbetween when she was reading so high a level yet needed content to be considered, we also had a GREAT librarian. That helped me read a bit fewer of the books because she learned what we were looking for so could give us good recommendations that I felt comfy with.

 

But yes, with a young child (under 8 or 10 depending), I would definitely pre-read things you're not familiar with and aren't getting a trusted recommendation about.

 

ETA: Even if I did think there was a reason to pre-read for preteens/teens, it wouldn't have happened though. I have not been able to read an entire novel since the stroke (May 2006).

Edited by 2J5M9K
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Regarding assigned literature that's a part of our schooling, absolutely. There is no way you can work with something you're not familiar with, plus it's somewhat unfair towards the student (I view our conversations as a situation in which both parties have to be prepared to profit, so it's a mutual deal, it's not fair if I don't do my part). However, it doesn't take a lot of time, since it's a kind of circular situation - not only I cannot work with what I'm not familiar, but also cannot really assign those types of stuff confidently. Their assigned readings, particularly the Italian ones, are thus the ones that I've read before, so it doesn't always take to fully read the work again. But yes, I find that I must be familiar with what's used for school.

 

Their free time readings, not so much. From time to time if something appears "suspicious", I'm going to pre-skim it for inappropriate content, but I try to respect my children's choices, allowing them to try out things that are out there and I can only think of a few instances in which I asked them not to read the particular book at that stage in their lives. But usually they come to me if they discover something they need to talk about or something which disturbs them. I had a few almost-heart attacks from their choices (Baudelaire at 12?!), but they still seem to be growing up in the right direction and I'm happy to see we've built trust that allows them to start a conversation on what they read on their own. :) So while I'm aware of what they read, I rarely interfere.

 

It might also have something to do with the fact that literature, particularly Italian, is actually my professional field so whatever they try to read, the chances are I've either read it or can make an educated guess on what the book is like from quick skimming.

Edited by Ester Maria
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Not yet.

 

My 12 year old is a couple of years behind in his reading skills and so far the books he has read have either been Sonlight titles or pre-screened from the library. He isn't into anything I find questionable. Pre-screened to me means reading the back cover and doing a little glancing.

 

My boys are just not readers really. I wish they read more, but they read only when told or made to. :tongue_smilie:

 

This is hard for me, a former high school English teacher!

 

Dawn

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Not usually, because I just can't keep up. I did recently start to skim through The Hunger Games to see if it would be suitable for DD the Elder, since she loved the Gregor books. Not so long story shorter, I'm now on to the sequel, but told her she'd be best to wait a year or two for these because of their intensity.

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I've appreciated hearing the different perspectives. I'm so torn about pre-reading. I use SL, and I feel like I ought to pre-read all the ind. readers. I've actually had people tell me that I should. I usually settle for asking about which books are questionable and pre-read those.

 

I know we should have more discussions. We read plenty of books together that could be discussed, though. Maybe as my kids get older, we will have more fruitful discussions.

 

My real concern is library books. I think it's unrealistic to read all of the books they bring home. Many of the children's books are no concern. Once we had one about Charlemagne that had some pretty disgusting paintings in it. I was probably more bothered by it than dd was. Hmm, I suppose I can continue scanning books that look objectionable and trust them to bring up issues that need to be discussed...

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I pre-read all the books I assign to them. Not really because I'm worried about what's in them, but so that we can discuss the book together.

 

This year my 17yo is doing Medieval and have had quite a chore this summer pre-reading for his Great Books studies! The last time I read these particular books was when my 22yo was in high school and I was afraid I wouldn't remember enough to have meaningful discussions with him.

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Yes, but not until they are closer to 9-10+ because there isn't much that's too questionable at the ages below that, even if they're reading a little ahead. I also have a good set of online friends to ask about appropriateness of certain titles and also get great recommendations so I worry much less. I'm still prereading a little bit for my 15yo, but more for casual reading suggestions than anything else and not because I don't trust her to be choosy and have high standards, even for her brain candy selections. lol ;)

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I used to skim. But I can't keep up. Sometimes I'll flip through the pages with my Mommy Radar Eyes and if I see something questionable, it goes back on the shelf. But for the most part, I just can't pre-read the whole thing. Dd reads way faster than I do and she seems to have time to devour 500 page books in a day; I don't know how she does it, but I sure can't. I usually end up taking her advice after the fact and reading them then - presently, I've only got two more Pendragon books to go :).

 

ETA - it's interesting that you have a voting option for prereading assigned books. Just last night ds asked me if I could start prereading those so they don't have to slog through the boring ones. I might consider this. The only assigned reading has to do with history, and while I get no complaints about the non fiction ones, I constantly get complaints about the historical fiction ones and occasionally period classics.

Edited by LauraGB
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I've appreciated hearing the different perspectives. I'm so torn about pre-reading. I use SL, and I feel like I ought to pre-read all the ind. readers. I've actually had people tell me that I should. I usually settle for asking about which books are questionable and pre-read those.

 

I know we should have more discussions. We read plenty of books together that could be discussed, though. Maybe as my kids get older, we will have more fruitful discussions.

 

My real concern is library books. I think it's unrealistic to read all of the books they bring home. Many of the children's books are no concern. Once we had one about Charlemagne that had some pretty disgusting paintings in it. I was probably more bothered by it than dd was. Hmm, I suppose I can continue scanning books that look objectionable and trust them to bring up issues that need to be discussed...

 

For library books I use this system - I read the back cover and the front teaser if it has one. Then I flip through the book - I'm basically looking for swear words (if the book has a lot, a flip through, skimming will catch them.) I look for chapters/sections that deal with interpersonal relationships - I might skim those a bit more thoroughly looking for inappropriate themes. We've also talked about putting books down if they make you uncomfortable. So far, ds has only come to me once to show me a book that got past my skimming method. (Of course I don't know if there were more and he decided not to show me those.)

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