Midweek Journal

It's kid time.

I have all sorts of big decisions to make in the next few weeks, but I've decided to deal with it all by not dealing with it. I burned out a fuse last week making mental charts of pros and cons and sort of hit a dead end. So, I'm just enjoying the peace of indecision and spending time with the kids.

Work has suddenly eased up. I've put aside all paper drafts for academic journals. My class preps, after two years of toil, are finally under control. I've got binders of class notes and a zip drive of powerpoint slides. Instead of spending 40 hours of week writing lectures, it takes me five hours to upgrade things a bit and review the readings. This is huge. There's still student e-mail, recommendations, and a couple of peer reviews to deal with, but it's all manageable. I'm not living on three hours of sleep like I did two years ago, that semester that I taught four class with three new preps. I will never do that again.

Instead of worrying about work, I've been focusing on the kids.

My project with Jonah is to get him to love fiction. Reading to the boys was something that had been in Steve's column, but I've taken it back. Jonah has been fighting reading fiction. When I was nine, all I did was read fiction - Nancy Drew, Caddy Woodlawn, All of Kind Family, the Borrowers, the Box Car Children, the Wolves of Willowby Chase, Trixie Beldon, Laura Ingalls. I would read three or four books at the same time. I was having trouble figuring out why Jonah doesn't like to read, too. At first, I just yelled at him about that, but that predictably wasn't working. So, I decided to just read to him. A lot. I would first get him hooked on the stories and then he would want to do it himself.

The first up is Harry Potter. He had tried to read the book last year, but never got past Dumbledore and the put outer outside Privet Drive. He had such a tough time with it that he vowed to never look at the book again. I actually made him sit down with me on the sofa and just listen. I gave Hagrid a soft Northern English burr and flipped my wrist when demonstrating the wand motion. After two chapters, he was hooked. He looks forward to our reading time. We read chapter 12 tonight and when we were done, he ran around the room pretending to catch the Golden Snitch.

We're also reading Shiloh, a book that was assigned for next week's book project. I'm reading a chapter and then he has to read a chapter on his own. He was stuck for a while with the Southern accents and unfamiliar terms like hunting season and the Sears catalog and collecting cans for deposit money, but we've worked through it.

I've also been looking for outside activities for Ian. Ian is too isolated after school. His school is too far for playdates, and there are only two other six year olds in his class. There aren't any town recreation activities that are right for him. He's actually craving being around other kids. When a boy came over for playdate with Jonah and his younger brother stopped by, too, Ian was in heaven. He cried when they left. He ran up to his art table, drew a picture of four boys holding hands, and taped it over his bed.

I think I found a swimming program that is right for him at the local JCC. We're also going to a Lego party at the public library tomorrow.

I've been multi-tasking for way too long. I've had too much on my plate. Whatever I do next year, it will certainly involve plenty of time for swimming classes and Shiloh.

Comments

[Amy P]

We've been listening to LOTR on audio (the 52-hour Rob Inglis recording that has all the songs put to music), especially when we're in the car. C occasionally wants to just sit and listen when we're at home. We ask her questions and she is following the plot pretty well. We're also watching bits of the Peter Jackson movies with the kids as we advance through the books. There is a lot of violence and scariness, of course, but I haven't seen any ill effects, and the pluses have outweighed the minuses.

[bj]

"but I've decided to deal with it all by not dealing with it"

I want to do this, too. How do I learn?

[Laura (geekymom)]

My son got hooked on the Series of Unfortunate Events books. We have a hard time with the reading too. We've gotten Geeky Boy (13) to where if he finds the right thing, he won't be able to put the book down.

The 9-year old is harder. She's hooked on the Disney channel. Sigh.

[meg]

It's funny that Jonah seems to have no problem with the fictional trappings (wizards and wands) but the historical trappings (Sears catalog, collecting cans) give him pause.

Given his historical enthusiasm (if I remember correctly), how about some historical fiction about periods he's interested in? Rosemary Sutcliff's *Eagle of the Ninth* might be a good start... it's about a young boy who attaches himself to the Ninth Legion of the Roman Army.

[learner]

My kid uses the library to get the fiction that he loves and I would rarely if ever buy: comics and crap. You know, Captain Underpants. Or graphic novels by Joanne Sfar (Sardine in Outerspace, Little Vampire).

Maybe the prominent availability of this stuff is an NYC thing, but I would bet you can do the on-line request thing at almost every library in the country. And you can use it to ask for crap. It becomes an event when you go to the library to pick up what you think it crap but which your kid thinks is such a treasure.

It may be crap, but it is fiction.

Two last suggestions. Germonimo Stilton, which is not a comic but sort of junky and nonetheless fun and likely available in spades at the library. (It's an endless series and my son's quest to get more of them led to learning to do on-line requests himself.)

Second, Unlundun by China Mieville for reading aloud. You will likely love it just for yourself, as there is a girl hero.

In closing, you imply that he loves non-fiction. Can't you just let him love that, thereby nurturing his love of books?

[Ragtime]

My kid uses the library to get the fiction that he loves and I would rarely if ever buy: comics and crap. You know, Captain Underpants.

I got the Raggirls into reading SPECIFICALLY by buying them "comic and crap" more than the "good stuff." We are currently on our third copy of Captain Underpants, because the volumes can only handle so much "Flip-O-Rama" abuse.

Also, "Super Friends" and "Tiny Titans" comic books and Junie B. Jones and Magic Tree House audio books (as a reward to semi-stay up late on weekends).

With all of those picture- and audio- stuff, the Raggirls -- some of whom were resistant for formal reading or "bedtime stories" -- were all "reading" well before they could actually read.

[Amy P]

How about Asterix cartoon books or Tin Tin? I haven't read them myself, but I remember from my childhood that boy non-reader types seemed to love them, and with Asterix you get the Roman setting. (We have the DVD of The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, my six-year-old daughter loves it, and I think it is very clever.)

[Ryan Carlton]

My mother got my brothers to read fiction with Roald Dahl. Dirty Beasts and Revolting Rhymes and The Twits.

[Elizabeth]

How old is Jonah again?

D is almost 8, and very resistant to reading novels. But he reads Manga endlessly.

[Wendy]

My 9 year old refused to read most everything I offered her. I finally got her into Nancy Drew, then she got into some sort of FaithGrrlz series because the heroine was named Sophie. But after that, it was reading LOLCats every night. Then the school got involved with some sort of contest to read MA Book Awards books, and now she wants to read all of them. So I guess I recommend a contest. :)

[laura]

Jonah is 9. He's doing okay with Harry Potter, but it is pouting at the moment for having to read Shiloh. I read the book last night on my own, so that I could test him for comprehension. It was actually a wonderful book.

Thanks for the suggestions. Meg, my husband has already ordered the Roman suggestion.

Jonah is mad about Diary of a Wimpy Kid. He got the do it yourself diary a few weeks ago and has been a writing fiend. So that's a good thing.