Anonymous wrote:
As a child, I always read everything and more.
My oldest will not, because this summer he is working on his native language, and has a French reading list. Since he read the Lord of the Rings in English at 10, I'm not too concerned about his public school reading list.

Anonymous wrote:Mine read the books. They love the books. I make them do the math, which seems to be optional at our school.

I did not force the writing activity journal this year for my 5th grader. It was an incredible amount of stupid busy work. He will go to school and it won't be done. Neither of us will lie about it and if the teachers ask, I will happily give them my thoughts.

+1

We let DD lead by reading and doing what interests her, which is most of it. Then we use our judgment about what else to encourage/require. But not everything gets done.

We don't lie about it. There's no reason to, and it would send a terrible message to DD about honesty. (Granted, I guess we're saying it's ok not to follow the rules to the letter, but we're open about our reasons and are willing to discuss them - not lie to hide them.)

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:feeling like a naive parent today after another mentioned that most kids do not actually read the books in the summer. Do yours?

We skipped it. I didn't like the list. Every book on it was some varation of "As a child, Ida Mae wanted to fly like her long-dead daddy. But as a black girl in 1940s Louisiana, she knew that was going to meet resistance." Or, "Larlo was like every other kid in the class, except he had autism."

Don't know why the reading list can't just include some good stories instead of hit kids over the head with a social justice message.

Because it helps them learn empathy. Something perhaps they are not learning at home.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/novel-finding-reading-literary-fiction-improves-empathy/

And those aren't good stories? They sound potentially interesting to me... Were the specific books not good stories in your opinion, or do you think that a heavy message detracts from a book?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:feeling like a naive parent today after another mentioned that most kids do not actually read the books in the summer. Do yours?

We skipped it. I didn't like the list. Every book on it was some varation of "As a child, Ida Mae wanted to fly like her long-dead daddy. But as a black girl in 1940s Louisiana, she knew that was going to meet resistance." Or, "Larlo was like every other kid in the class, except he had autism."

Don't know why the reading list can't just include some good stories instead of hit kids over the head with a social justice message.

Because it helps them learn empathy. Something perhaps they are not learning at home.

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/novel-finding-reading-literary-fiction-improves-empathy/

Anonymous wrote:feeling like a naive parent today after another mentioned that most kids do not actually read the books in the summer. Do yours?

We skipped it. I didn't like the list. Every book on it was some varation of "As a child, Ida Mae wanted to fly like her long-dead daddy. But as a black girl in 1940s Louisiana, she knew that was going to meet resistance." Or, "Larlo was like every other kid in the class, except he had autism."

Don't know why the reading list can't just include some good stories instead of hit kids over the head with a social justice message.

^I mean yes they read them! NO I would not lie for them.

Yes. My kids have always done required reading and summer packets. They have also always read the number (and level) of books required for the Fairfax County library program - they don't get their coupon booklet until they have finished those books.

Nope. I've told the kids what is expected of them. Once a week a remind them to work on their reading.

So far this summer, they've chosen not to. They made a choice--they can deal with the consequences from the teacher in Sept.

Anonymous wrote:Mine read the books. They love the books. I make them do the math, which seems to be optional at our school.

I did not force the writing activity journal this year for my 5th grader. It was an incredible amount of stupid busy work. He will go to school and it won't be done. Neither of us will lie about it and if the teachers ask, I will happily give them my thoughts.

Right, because every task he gets assigned when he's a working adult will be meaningful and super important. So teaching him to skip the assignments he thinks are "busy work" is a super habit to build now.

My son is only required to read one particular book (4th grade), so there's nothing to lie about. They are supposed to read 20 minutes a day. He doesn't quite make that, but nobody asks.

Do you mean lie about reading x number of books or does your school give a set list? I would not lie either way, but unless I knew it was important, I would not make him read a specific book.

I was waiting at the elevator at the library and overheard a dad tell his son that he could count each chapter of his hard book as a book for the summer reading program. It seemed like a good idea given the current set up (number of books counts) encourages kids to read easy books.

My son needed to read three books before the first day of school (today) and is still finishing his third. I still let him put the third book on his list, since he's almost done. (To be fair, though, one of the books was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, so it took him forever to read the 700+ pages.)

I certainly remember filling in the log fpr myself to get the free stuff from the library. The thing is, I did read, but not chapter books and the like. Instead I would read atlases and other reference-type books. I encourage reading in general. I am not concerned about the type of book. Often the suggested books are nice, but not something everyone will enjoy.

I wouldn't. In my opinion you make your own choices and live with the consequences. If DD didn't want to do the reading, that would be her decision, but in making the decision she would need to factor in whether she was willing to deal with the result.

However, I might suggest alternatives, such as an audiobook or a movie version if applicable, that would fulfill basically the same purpose.

I would sometimes be willing lie about schoolwork for my kids, but under limited circumstances and just based off the info in the OP this would not be one of those times.

No. What a shitty example to set for your kids.