Tuesday, July 5, 2011
Letting kids write in books?
I'm a bibliophile to be sure. It makes my heart ache to see my daughter take her markers to her books but at the same time - they are her books. She's having fun. I have keepsake books put away. Do you teach your kids not to write in books? Am I being a pushover or what?
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I think encouraging joyful interaction with books is a lovely thing, even if, at a certain age, that means some marker scribbling. I'm also a bibliophile, albeit one who often reads holding a pencil and making light marks, notes, underlining. I'm also a notorious page-folder-downer, a big no-no to many book lovers. I've always loved interacting with books physically as well as mentally. I think that if you allow your daughter to enjoy her books as she is now, markers and all, and ALSO talk to her about respecting books, loving them, preserving them for future enjoyment, and understanding the consequences (i.e., if she scribbles over words and drawings, she won't be able to read or see them as well) she will come to her own happy medium when it comes to her relationship with her books.
ReplyDeleteThis has been a serious frustration for me too. I'm quite the book lover and we have lots and lots of books for DD, she obviously took over my love for books. However, when I read for work (by which I mean Authentic Parenting) I tend to use a pencil to underline the things I want to use as quotes, or for the review, or things I just want to remember. SHe saw me do that and obviously wanted some of the action too. I tried to explain that I only do that in the books I use for work, and that I do use pencil, because that can easily be erased. SO now I do allow her to write in her books with a pencil. That doesn't mean no books got crayoned and ballpointed along the way
ReplyDeleteIs she old enough to firmly understand the difference between books that are hers and books that aren't?
ReplyDeleteWow, just found you here! Nice! I think I was the 500th like on Facebook, woohoo!I personally have never allowed writing in reading/story books, and my girls have gotten the concept from really young, for the most part. My reasoning is mostly that we pay a lot more money for books than coloring books or sketch books -- if they want to write or color, they can do it in those types of books. When you write on a book that already has words/pictures, it can make it unreadable, and definitely makes it less enjoyable for others. I guess for us books are something to share (we get used ones, we pass them on, we lend out or borrow library books, etc) so we wouldn't want to ruin the book for them too. There was a stage when my girls were young toddlers when I had to limit marker/crayon use somewhat to keep that from happening, but they got the concept pretty darn fast in the grand scheme of things. When we find a book with writing in it there is always a serious/concerned discussion about it (from them, not me), which is pretty cute. And they always want to know if it was THEM that did it as a baby, ha!
ReplyDeleteI have a rule about coloring in books. I just cannot allow my little guy to do it. I want him to grow up with a healthy respect for them and for the wonderful information and awesome imaginary worlds they contain. I make sure that he has TONS of notebooks, coloring books, old calendars, and paper available at all times to draw on. We recently picked up a Richard Scarry book (his favorite author) at the thrift store. A couple of the pages had been previously colored on and he finally saw "the light" as to why I am so adamant about not coloring in books. He was quite angry at the kid who colored the pages so thoroughly that the pictures couldn't be seen.
ReplyDeleteBut, that's just me. I guess you just have to ask yourself is freedom to do what she wants with her own property or following this particular rule is more important to how you want to parent.