Reading Aloud To Your Kids
A while back, before the mass public started to crave The Hunger Games, my friend told me about the books. I requested them from the library (I didn' t have to wait at all for them to become available) and read all three books in the trilogy. I enjoyed them, but told the girls that they would need to wait to read them. I didn't feel as though the subject matter was quite appropriate for their age (almost 9 at that point), and to be honest, I knew they would not understand the story and any nuances that went with it.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. The Hunger Games movie is set to release at the end of March, and the girls had seen on the computer part of a trailer for it. "Please mom," they said. "Can we please read the book?"
I have to give my kids credit where credit is due. I cannot monitor them all the time. They could, if they were sneakier, get the book from either the library (although there is now a major wait) or by some other means, and read the book by the light of a flashlight at night. Many times I am asleep before they are; I might not know for ages that they are doing it. But, they don't. And so I jumped on the opportunity to do some reading aloud.
We found a paperback version of The Hunger Games, and finished it in less than a week. In fact, I think it was mostly over one weekend. The kids kept saying, "Just one more chapter, mom!" And it was awesome. The whole experience was awesome.
The second time around was, for me, actually better than the first. I concentrated on really trying to make the kids understand the vocabulary (there were quite a number of words that the kids had never encountered) as well as the whole idea of a government that is not for the people. (Okay, okay, you conservatives out there will doubt that our current government is for the people, but as usual, that is not the topic for today. Let's leave that for another time). The dystopian society in general was a shock to them, as was the concept that people routinely did not have enough to eat (although we do discuss this at home from time to time). They had never heard of rations and became annoyed at the Capitol.
Furthermore, the girls were in awe of everything that Katniss could do. I was pleased to be reading a book where the main character was a strong female, and I applauded (as did the kids) her guts. We discussed whether or not we'd have the same amount of courage that Katniss seemed to possess. I imagine that, like us, most people would not. We also picked apart everything that went on within the book. Because I have already read the following two books, it was easy for me to make sure to point certain things out to them that might be important later on.
For those of you that have not read the books, I am not going to say whether or not you will like them. I still hold to my original belief that Suzanne Collins' writing style is a bit too terse for me, but because her story was so gripping, I was able to enjoy the books. I don't want to give anything away, either, so I am not going into the finer points of the triology. But enough cannot be said of reading aloud to the kids. It doesn't matter at what age you do it. When they are young, like Melina, I think it is mostly for the child's benefit. But as I reaffirmed with this book, at the age of 10, the experience benefited us all.
Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago. The Hunger Games movie is set to release at the end of March, and the girls had seen on the computer part of a trailer for it. "Please mom," they said. "Can we please read the book?"
I have to give my kids credit where credit is due. I cannot monitor them all the time. They could, if they were sneakier, get the book from either the library (although there is now a major wait) or by some other means, and read the book by the light of a flashlight at night. Many times I am asleep before they are; I might not know for ages that they are doing it. But, they don't. And so I jumped on the opportunity to do some reading aloud.
We found a paperback version of The Hunger Games, and finished it in less than a week. In fact, I think it was mostly over one weekend. The kids kept saying, "Just one more chapter, mom!" And it was awesome. The whole experience was awesome.
The second time around was, for me, actually better than the first. I concentrated on really trying to make the kids understand the vocabulary (there were quite a number of words that the kids had never encountered) as well as the whole idea of a government that is not for the people. (Okay, okay, you conservatives out there will doubt that our current government is for the people, but as usual, that is not the topic for today. Let's leave that for another time). The dystopian society in general was a shock to them, as was the concept that people routinely did not have enough to eat (although we do discuss this at home from time to time). They had never heard of rations and became annoyed at the Capitol.
Furthermore, the girls were in awe of everything that Katniss could do. I was pleased to be reading a book where the main character was a strong female, and I applauded (as did the kids) her guts. We discussed whether or not we'd have the same amount of courage that Katniss seemed to possess. I imagine that, like us, most people would not. We also picked apart everything that went on within the book. Because I have already read the following two books, it was easy for me to make sure to point certain things out to them that might be important later on.
For those of you that have not read the books, I am not going to say whether or not you will like them. I still hold to my original belief that Suzanne Collins' writing style is a bit too terse for me, but because her story was so gripping, I was able to enjoy the books. I don't want to give anything away, either, so I am not going into the finer points of the triology. But enough cannot be said of reading aloud to the kids. It doesn't matter at what age you do it. When they are young, like Melina, I think it is mostly for the child's benefit. But as I reaffirmed with this book, at the age of 10, the experience benefited us all.
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