One of the things I have appreciated most about the Harry Potter books is that it is one of the few series that I think makes good literature accessible to fairly young kids. I probably wouldn't have ventured into the series with the little boys if not for the fact that they are always interested in what the big boys are interested in, but I have enjoyed reading the series to them, and it's been really cool to see/hear Joseph, in particular, exercise skills and insights into analyzing, understanding, discussing literature that just don't get exercised much at this age. We are currently finishing up the 5th one, Order of the Phoenix. Tonight we read the part where Harry and his friends are in the Ministry of Magic, searching the Dept of Mysteries for Sirius. Harry opens a door and they see a big tank of greenish water with brains floating in it. Ron asks, "What on earth are they here for?" Harry tells him he doesn't know, and they decide to move on to the next door. That drove Joseph crazy.
"What ARE they there for, Mom?"
"I don't know, Joseph."
"You HAVE to know. . .you've read all the books!"
"I don't think we ever find out. If we do, I don't remember."
I went on reading. He kept pondering. I finished reading, and he announced, "Mom! I think I've got it! I bet they are the brains of the dementors. By keeping the dementor's brains at the Ministry, the ministry people can make them obey. The dementors will just do whatever anybody tells them to do as long as they don't have minds of their own."
That's awesome analysis (regardless of age)! Way to go Joseph (and y'all for raising such smart kids).
Posted by: Scott at Enero 29, 2008 10:41 PMWell, it's all those hours of instruction on how to analyze literature, you know. We've trained our kids so well. . .Ha Ha
In all seriousness, I think that one of the few things I have done "right" as a parent is that I read to my kids. Not only have we always read kids' books in general to the kids, but, partly due to convenience, once the older boys got old enough to want to read chapter books, I just started reading them to the little boys, too. So I've been reading them a chapter a night of a book since they were about 3 and 4. It's been fascinating to see how well they can follow a story read that way, and stick with it all the way through. It makes me feel bad that I didn't start chapter books with the older boys when they were younger. I always assumed they weren't ready. But we started out with the little boys with books like Runaway Ralph and Because of Winn Dixie, and worked up through the HP books. Of course, the movies are helpful in keeping the little boys interest in HP as well, but that's been another fun twist. The boys are both constantly comparing the books and the movies and debating which is better. Joseph has commented repeatedly at how much more sense things make when you read the book, and how there are so many things that you miss in the movie. It's pretty exciting to hear him talk about books with such passion. And I love it when Joseph compares the way something looks in the movie and says, "That's different from how I saw it in my brain when we read that part." And the other day Noah said, "Man, I wish there was a Star Wars book that came after the sixth one." (I know there are tons of books out there that attempt to take up where the SW saga left off, but I decided not to open that can of worms just yet. He will expect it to be more consistent than any SW book I've read is)
Posted by: willa at Enero 30, 2008 12:22 AMI've come to anticipate great insight from guys with Clay as their middle name....
Posted by: Mom at Enero 30, 2008 07:46 AM