My son is just about 9, homeschooling, and loves to read. I'm looking at books to populate a shelf, for his reading enjoyment. Recommendations please?
So far I'm getting him:
Big Friendly Giant
Harry Potter 1
Navigating Early
Charlotte's Web
Puss in Boots
Picture Unrelated
Other urls found in this thread:
amazon.com
mrbauld.com
twitter.com
The Little Prince
Alice in Wonderland
Watership Down for when he's a little older
...
James and the Giant Peach
The Belgariad
In a year or three:
The Colour of Magic
Hichhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
A Series of Unfortunate Events
The Hobbit
Bartimaeus, soon
infinit jeps
R E D W A L L
E
D
W
A
L
L
>Harry Potter 1
I went to the Yale University bookstore and bought and read a copy of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone." I suffered a great deal in the process. The writing was dreadful; the book was terrible. As I read, I noticed that every time a character went for a walk, the author wrote instead that the character "stretched his legs." I began marking on the back of an envelope every time that phrase was repeated. I stopped only after I had marked the envelope several dozen times. I was incredulous. Rowling's mind is so governed by cliches and dead metaphors that she has no other style of writing.
But when I wrote that in a newspaper, I was denounced. I was told that children would now read only J.K. Rowling, and I was asked whether that wasn't, after all, better than reading nothing at all? If Rowling was what it took to make them pick up a book, wasn't that a good thing?
It is not. "Harry Potter" will not lead our children on to Kipling's "Just So Stories" or his "Jungle Book." It will not lead them to Thurber's "Thirteen Clocks" or Kenneth Grahame's "Wind in the Willows" or Lewis Carroll's "Alice."
Later I read a lavish, loving review of Harry Potter by the same Stephen King. He wrote something to the effect of, "If these kids are reading Harry Potter at 11 or 12, then when they get older they will go on to read Stephen King." And he was quite right. He was not being ironic. When you read "Harry Potter" you are, in fact, trained to read Stephen King.
>his kids aren't reading the greeks
Memes aside, you should seriously get him in on greek mythology. There are plenty of kid friendly collections out there and it's the kind of stuff that you have to have read at some point.
how about some books about natural science and social science? The simple kind. He
PHANTOM
TOLLBOOTH
Seconded. Especially on the mythology
And this as well. Phantom Tollbooth is amazing
all of roald dahl's shit, a series of unfortunate events (i loved it at that age), discworld maybe?
Horrible Histories and Horrible Science, basically popular science books for kids replete with black comedy.
As someone who never really liked fiction (not even in movies), I consumed those like crazy when I was a kid.
This, I don't know if there's such a thing in English (there probably is) but as a child I read a book which dealt with the story of Odysseus in a rather child-friendly language. Of course it isn't really a good substitute for the actual Odyssey but it's a good starting point.
...
ROOTS, if he's tough enough!
Not Shakespeare though because his politics are too obscure, and who knows what he may have thought about religion.... because OMG he prolly forgot to write about that stuff!
...
>homeschooling
Shit nigga, send him to a normal school as quickly as possible, for his own sake.
I've seen what homeschooling does to people.
There are a couple in English
Pic related I wouldn't recommend, try the Neil Packer one
This so much. Harry Potter is such shit. The movies are entertaining, but as literature, no.
His Dark Materials, although that might be better in like two or three years.
Tove Jansson's Moominvalley / Moomintroll books, Roald Dahl, stuff by Astrid Lindgren like Ronja the Robbers Daughter or Pippi Longstocking, Little Nicholas books by Goscinny.
Also some general books on the stories of old myths from around the world, greek especially but also folktales like stuff from the Grimm brothers
...
>homeschooling
Yikes.
2
>homeschooling
you fucked up, no matter how much he reads he will be a non-functioning autist when he grows up, unless you are doing a collective in a town where people are rich and smart as fuck.
The only people who actually think otherwise are autists themselves, who sperg about decadence and shit, but if you do the bare minimum before purchasing a home you can find a great school system and fill in the gaps it will leave on your own.
I'd love to know how many other parents use Veeky Forums. Can't be many surely. We also homeschool.
My son enjoyed
Aesop's Fables, the Harry Potter series, the Hobbit, Round the Twist (and other Paul Jennings), Little House on the Prairie, Moomin Valley books...
I really enjoyed Terry Pratchett and Brian Jacques books but it did lead to years of reading fantasy as a teenager
I am and I am a parent and we are in a top 5 state school systemand I am super impressed
I was homeschooled and probably less autistic than most people here. Have wife, children, self employed. Just try not to fuck your kids up generally. Give them a wide range of social experiences. Homeschooled kids in my experience communicate really well with adults, not so well with peers. Price you may pay for well spoken, considerate little humans.
You should die for having your kids homeschooled. You give them a livesentence of being socially inept.
Oh yes, all of these! Forgot to add Roald Dahl etc.
Homeschooled kids may have a rough time trying to assimilate around high school age (who doesn't) but it gets easier once you are an adult. You mostly avoid getting into a lot of degenerate shit and have heaps of time to read.
Not saying there are not outliers, but ive worked with a couple homeschooled kids, and they were autists that self destructed. Also, the ones in my town that are my children's age arent being raised by Ph.D's, they are being raised lunatic born again christians, hippy dippy assholes who protest vaccinations, and one stupid lady who is a custodian where my wife works who took her kid out of school because she was being bullied (in second grade).
In Burlington Vt there is an amazing homeschool community that only accept parents with advanced degrees who can spend a day teaching the other kids in the community. We were going to do that but ended up moving elsewhere.
amazon.com
Reminder that if you recite poetry to your children, have plush learning aides.
I live in Tasmania, it's kind of normal to homeschool here. We have a choice between public education system or Catholic schools. So we homeschool, there is a huge support network, just ignoring the hippie earth mama "unschooling" families.
M O O M I N S
Also consider A Wrinkle in Time and Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, Nils Holgersson's travels with the geese (I have no idea of the English name) by Selma Lagerlöf, A thousand and one nights, etc
Knights of the Round Table is a classic, I'm sure he will enjoy it.
M O N T E S S O R I
O
N
T E S S O RI
Homeschoolers are statistically more intelligent and knowledgeable than those that go to state schools.
>a non-functioning autist when he grows
up, unless you are doing a collective in a town where people are rich and smart as fuck.
You shouldn't speak on topics that you have no clue about; it's people like you that spread misinformation and lies. You are the same as someone that believes in woo.
I've met homeschooled kids in high school and uni they all are talkative as shit, but in a good way.
Depends on the parent desu
I don't know if he's too old for these or you think they're too low level. But the Magic Tree House series and Deltora Quest are what got me to love reading at a young age. Round when I was 7. So I'll recommend them.
>As I read, I noticed that every time a character went for a walk, the author wrote instead that the character "stretched his legs." I began marking on the back of an envelope every time that phrase was repeated. I stopped only after I had marked the envelope several dozen times.
Has Bloom ever commented on how wrong he is here?
Anyway, speaking of Bloom, check out his kid/lit/ list:
>mrbauld.com
gotta say, i thought it was a cult, but kindergartners in Montessori for 4 years function like 2nd graders
>home school
Enjoy your autism.
t., product of homeschooling Christian autists
>all these terrible suggestions
Start with the Greeks, have him read the classics, and maybe a little genre fiction like Lord of the Rings.
If a kid can't understand Beowulf or The Odyssey when he's nine then he might be slow.
...
Well if your parents are more retarded than a schoolteacher, then yes, it's a bad idea to homeschool.
This is not the exception though, its generally the rule. How many Doctor/Ph.D couples have the time to homeschool?
>only retards are Christians
There's a big difference between being intelligent and educated and being smart/clever.