Imagination Sensation

"Once upon a time..." was the beginning to all of my stories I told a little girl I babysat. I have known her for a few years now, she is 5 years old. Every night at bedtime, we would all read a story with the 3 year old younger sister. She would get all excited and pick out which book she wanted to read, usually Barbie or a Disney Princess book. I would read the book, and she would sit there, watching me turn the pages, and her face lit up at the pictures. She loved to have stories read to her! Once she went to bed, it was the 5 year old's turn. Her mother always had a specific book for me to read to her. Some of the ones we read were the "Ramona" series, the "Magic Tree House" series, and the "Fairy" series. Note that these were all chapter books, and had no pictures. I would begin to read, and she would run around the room, and jump on her bed. She wanted nothing to do with the books I was reading. After I finished a chapter, it was time for made-up stories. Now she got into bed all excited! This was her favorite part of the night, I would tell a story about princesses, and finding magic treasure. Then she would tell one back to me. I noticed that she would much rather use her imagination than read the literature her mom provided. I do not think she gets to tell made-up stories with her parents, so she cherished this time.

Now after reading guidelines for good children's books, I do not think that the books I was reading to her were age appropriate. She couldn't relate to them or the story, and there was not any pictures. I think that we are trying to push higher literature onto children who are not able to handle it yet. Children should be able to pick out their own stories based on their likes and dislikes. They just want to have silly stories, and use their imagination. So lets let kids be kids, and run wild and free (not at bedtime), and use their imagination.

"Girl Books" and "Boy Books"

In today's society many people are focused on the idea of blurring gender lines so that there are not specific roles for females and specific roles for males.  In order to do this, it would make sense to teach children at a young age that there is no such thing as "girl books" or "boy books" but instead literature is open to any gender.  Since literature is such a huge part of children's learning experiences, teachers might think it is a good idea to stock their classroom library with gender neutral texts.  While I do agree that younger children should be exposed to this type of literature, I think it might also be beneficial to provide students with "girl books" and "boy books" so they can find something to relate to while they are growing up.  With this thought in mind, I started to think back to the types of stories I was most interested in as a child.  Once I started reading on my own, I fell in love with the American Girl book series, The Babysitters Club, and other book series that featured female characters that I could relate to.  Of course, my older brother would never have been as engaged in those books as I was and he had his own idea of what a good book was.  In order to make reading an enjoyable experience for children as they grow up and enter confusing and sometimes awkward phases of adolescence, it is important that they can relate to the character's or scenarios in the book.  If children are going to read they most likely want it to be something that is meaningful to them.  I am curious as to what your opinions on putting "girls books" and "boys books" on the classroom shelf are?  Instead of assigning books to the class as a whole, teachers could provide boys and girls separate reading to see how well they relate or react to the text.  While I do not think this should be an ongoing trend in the classroom, I do think it could be a good way to get children to enjoy reading.