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"How to Raise Boys that Read (As Much as Girls Do)


yvonne
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It was a great article. funny thing is that in my household it is a total opposite. My DS1 LOVES to read and spends most of his free time surrounded by books. However my DSDs who are PSed HATE to read and treat it like you are torturing them if you make them do their reading time.

 

I personally think that is has more to do with the environment and the emphasis in the home then gender. I have read to my boys since birth. We read before bed, we snuggle on the couch for reading time and they are surrounded by shelves and shelves of books. This is how I was raised as well and I am an avid reader. However my DSDs were rarely read to when little. Had way more toys then books and reading was not really given an emphasis at all. Rather they were sat in front of the TV and watched tons of movies and played LOTS of video games. This resulted in 2 girls who hate to read and only want to watch TV and play games all day long.

 

When DH and I met and married I showed him all of the research and let him read up and study on his own. He read the WTM and he read a lot of other articles and research and was enlightened so to speak. We now have pretty strict rules in our home surrounding TV, games and radio. Half an hour on school days, one hour on weekend days. You can choose game, movie or radio unless you want to break your time slot up to allow say 15 minutes for TV and 15 minutes for radio. We also have reading time where the kids spend half an hour before bed reading a non-picture book.

 

So IMHO the biggest trick to getting children to read is unplugging them from all the other electronic crap. It's taken almost a year but my DSDs are at least to the point where they don't hate us for making them read books. :lol:

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Well, that last line sure nailed it. It made me want to laugh and cry all at the same time.

 

I would like to say that we own just about every electronic gaming device in existence.

 

My oldest has said that most games, particularly MMO games, are If You Give a Mouse a Cookie stories for teens. Instead of a circular story, you have circular programming. You have the same programming repeated over and over with different graphics on top. SO, you kill more alien blobs to earn more points so that you can get better weapons/ clothes so you can move to the next level. At the next level there are new graphics, so now you kill zombies to earn more points so that you can get better weapons/ clothes so you can move to the next level. When a child understands the programming behind video games in this way, playing them becomes much less appealing.

 

Video games for children should be like some goofy reality TV show (like American Idol, 19 Kids and Counting) or for that matter sporting events (football) for adults. These should be mindless things that you do to relax or to have something goofy to talk about with others. They shouldn't define your life.

 

I know he is making a point, so I know that he needs to go all the way in that direction in order to be clear, but I have to say that I disagree with him when he implies that there is no room for silly books. Books can certainly be used to help us learn who we are and to train children to "feel pleasure, liking, disgust, and hatred at those things which really are pleasant, likeable, disgusting, and hateful." However, to categorize all reading as something that should be used to train leaves no room for books as mindless entertainment. I would much rather read a mindless book than watch Dancing with the Stars.

 

YKWIM

Mandy

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Bah. I keep seeing that article linked everywhere and I don't like it.

 

I mean, I agree with the fundamental ideas. And I personally spend a ton of time making sure my home is filled with great literature. But the guy's attitude was crappy and condescending. And I really, really dislike the implication that boys who read 'gross-out' books will grow up to be 'barbarians and morons' you wouldn't want marrying your daughter. Get a grip!

 

I think there were a number of valid point in there, but they were really lost for me by the snottiness and superiority.

 

Just my (unpopular) two cents. :leaving:

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I mean, I agree with the fundamental ideas. And I personally spend a ton of time making sure my home is filled with great literature. But the guy's attitude was crappy and condescending. And I really, really dislike the implication that boys who read 'gross-out' books will grow up to be 'barbarians and morons' you wouldn't want marrying your daughter. Get a grip!

 

I think there were a number of valid point in there, but they were really lost for me by the snottiness and superiority.

:iagree:I agree with the paragraph in blue.

I really felt like he was trying to make a point by presenting very far in the other direction- like a slap in the face for the oblivious. Obviously, for some people, he went too far. OTOH- there are those people who just wouldn't get it if he had tried for a balanced presentation.

Mandy

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I really liked the article, but I think it ignored one major part of the problem. There are simply more books written for girls than boys. Where are the male counterparts to Anne Shirley, Jo March, and even Kirsten, Felicity, Addie, Samantha et.al. ?

 

My older girls have read 95% of the fiction on our shelves. My sons won't even consider reading 75% of it unless I assign it for school. Until they are reading at a junior high level, I really have to hunt to find books my boys will love. The first book my 16yo actually liked was LOTR.

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I really liked the article, but I think it ignored one major part of the problem. There are simply more books written for girls than boys. Where are the male counterparts to Anne Shirley, Jo March, and even Kirsten, Felicity, Addie, Samantha et.al. ?

 

My older girls have read 95% of the fiction on our shelves. My sons won't even consider reading 75% of it unless I assign it for school. Until they are reading at a junior high level, I really have to hunt to find books my boys will love. The first book my 16yo actually liked was LOTR.

There is so much wonderful literature to read prior to jrhigh!

 

to begin: tons of Fairy Tales and Mythology (from all cultures) and Mother Goose

 

The Whipping Boy

Peter Pan

Alice in Wonderland

Just So Stories

Aesop (Milo Otis version)

Robin Hood (Roger Green is fine. Pyle is lovely, but if he is not a big reader Pyle may be difficult unless it is on audio.)

King Arthur (Roger Green is fine. Pyle is lovely, but if he is not a big reader Pyle may be difficult unless it is on audio.)

Beowulf (James Rumford's version is short and simple, but the words and illustrations are moving.)

St George and the Dragon (Hodges version is well regarded)

Don Quixote adaption

 

A Wrinkle in Time

The Princess and the Goblin

The Chronicles of Narnia

The Hobbit

 

Around the World in Eighty Days

My Side of the Mountain

 

Going Solo by Roald Dahl (oh, Dahl, Dahl, Dahl- anything by Dahl!)

Tom Sawyer

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (If he just couldn't tolerate fairies, I would do Julius Caesar. However, A Midsummer Night’s Dream was one of my oldest's favorites. Recently, he picked Puck's ending monologue as his favorite poem.)

 

Just to name a few.

There are lots of boy book lists.

Mandy

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I really liked the article, but I think it ignored one major part of the problem. There are simply more books written for girls than boys. Where are the male counterparts to Anne Shirley, Jo March, and even Kirsten, Felicity, Addie, Samantha et.al. ?.

 

I've heard boys are more likely to be interested in non-fiction than fiction -- there are books with boy characters. But very few books I can remember, growing up, that I, as a girl, would not read. Girls are much more likely to read books, no matter who the characters, boys seem to like books with male characters? This, by itself, will limit what is there.

 

Goosebumps tends to have lots of male readers

Danny Dunn

Harry Potter

Author Jack London

The Great Brain books

Encyclopedia Brown

Artemis Fowl

Gregory the Overlander

Percy Jackson

Redwall

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Lloyd Alexander Chronicles of Pyrdain

John Christopher's City of Gold and lead and series

Dark is Rising series

Treasure Island, Kidnapped

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Swiss Family Robinson

A Wrinkle in Time

Where the Red Fern grows

Horatio Hornblower

author G.A. Henty

Sherlock Holmes

Jungle Book

20,000 Leagues under the Sea

Charlie Bone

Ender series by Orson Scott Card

Edited by vonfirmath
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I've heard boys are more likely to be interested in non-fiction than fiction -- there are books with boy characters. But very few books I can remember, growing up, that I, as a girl, would not read. Girls are much more likely to read books, no matter who the characters, boys seem to like books with male characters? This, by itself, will limit what is there.

 

Goosebumps tends to have lots of male readers

Danny Dunn

Harry Potter

Author Jack London

The Great Brain books

Encyclopedia Brown

Artemis Fowl

Gregory the Overlander

Percy Jackson

Redwall

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Lloyd Alexander Chronicles of Pyrdain

John Christopher's City of Gold and lead and series

Dark is Rising series

Treasure Island

Island of the Blue Dolphins

Swiss Family Robinson

A Wrinkle in Time

Where the Red Fern grows

With the exception of Goosebumps, I think my older two boys read everything on that list!

 

The Warriors series was another one.

Mandy

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My boys love, love, love to read and do it constantly. HOWEVER, they get to play 2 hours of video games on the weekend...only one hour a day...so basically one hour on Friday night and one hour on Saturday is all they get to play each week. We either watch an educational or family film in the evening maybe half the time, the rest of the time the tv is off!!! My husband's pA came by the other week at 8:30 pm and commented on how quiet the house was. They are all reading, I said. He just about fainted!! How do you get them to do that?? Well, if there is no tv and no video games and you see mom on the couch reading...well, what else is there to do????

 

Christine

 

PS, my surgeon husband's favorite book is Jane Eyre!!!

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My 9 year old ds reads so much that I have to keep an eye on his life balance. He goes to school half time and I have already warned his teacher that although he loves to play with his friends he would prefer to stay in during recess and read. More than once ds "forgot" his assignment sheet so that he would have to stay inside for recess. Now teacher isn't falling for it anymore.

 

Ds11 also reads a lot. Both boys always carry a book in their backpack and in the car. Any free moment for them is an opportunity to read. They would not know what to do if they didn't have a book in bed with them at night, whether they are too tired to read or not.

 

Dd is just 6 but seems to be following a path similar to the boys. The only difference I see is that she likes books about friendships and people more than the boys do.

 

We've never had a shortage of books. Dh reads reviews and keeps a collection of new books for the kids to read. They also frequent the library. And they did enjoy Captain Underpants when they were beginner readers, but not as a replacement for a good story. I have no objection to these books in general. On the other hand, I noticed that dd was being a little too influenced by some of the characters in her books. Junie B. Jones started making her act pretty silly. She can still choose a Junie B. book, but I stock the shelves with other things.

 

As far as electronic games, they are also big in our house but most are restricted to weekend evenings. I saw pretty early that these games took over their brain and I made it very consistent when they were allowed to play so that they didn't spend time thinking about playing instead of other things. I can see that unlimited access to electronic games would cause a lot of inbalance in children's lives, including but certainly not limited to how much they read.

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I haven't read the other responses, but the author of the article clearly has a camera hidden somewhere in my home.

 

Electronic entertainment can be (if we did not eliminate it from our home) the death knell to any interest our son (almost 10) has in reading.

 

We realized this about 9 months ago, and have systemically taken steps to eliminate anything that feeds his 'screen addiction.'

 

And, as the author of the article wrote, 'meeting him where he was' was a HUGE waste of time.

 

In our home we have probably a few thousand books, no more Playstation, no more DS', never had a Wii, Gameboy is gone, and the television cable/satellite was discontinued 8 months ago.

 

And, finally, yes, he is reading.........a little. But I do see this as baby steps that will lead to bigger steps.

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Guest Cheryl in SoCal

It was very interesting! Ironically, my 15 yo ds who reads voraciously is the one who plays video games the most and my 16 yo ds who isn't big into reading rarely plays any video games because he just doesn't care for them :001_huh::lol: My voracious reader loves fiction and non-fiction pretty equally. My not-so-voracious reader doesn't care for fiction at all and would much rather read non-fiction. He says he doesn't like to read about "fake" people. He loves to read about non-fiction things that interest him (horses, 15th Century Europe, armour, etc) but not non-fiction things that aren't of interest to him. He volunteers at the library and doesn't like even touching the books the author mentioned :lol: We didn't consciously keep them away from our kids but don't know anybody who reads them and they were never interested in them. The only nonsense books they ever really read were the Hank the Cowdog books. We do love Hank :D

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