This is Ned concentrating in the car on reading some catalogues he’d picked up.
He has always loved reading store catalogues and makes us laugh with the intensity at which he pours over them. When he was little he loved looking at the other children now he is unfortunately more concerned with looking at the brands that he knows, i.e. The Wiggles and Dora.
Do you think this reading is bad?
Nah.
I tweeted to someone today that children bring you closer to wild magic, because they live in such close proximity to it, but one of the melancholy things about parenting is watching them grow away from it. I think for booky people like us, sometimes the world of the mass-produced represents, well, the world – away from our enclosure, in all its big tacky garish tempting harshness. To read a book is to be enclosed, to look at a catalogue is to look outwards, beyond the representation to the real object it represents. It is not an act of the imagination. Those mass producers know they’re onto a good thing – kids respond so well to recognition, it must tap into something evolutionary.
It is important that kids learn to read such things because they also have to learn to critique them, and to understand material culture and the way consumption works. We always talk tot he girls about advertising when they encounter it, and try to compare advertising and marketing copy to the real thing. We don’t get junk mail out our way (well, except ads for horse equipment), and don’t watch commercial television, sometimes I worry that Fred and Una will be more innocent, ill-informed consumers as a result.
Even if at the moment all he is doing is taking pleasure from the images, he’s noticing things that will be building blocks to his critique of consumer culture – the numbers (prices) next to the images, the things that are highlighted etc. As he gets older you can start talking him through the images, encouraging him to see how it is subtly manipulating him.
I don’t think any reading is bad really, as long as your ultimate intention is to equip him with the skills to critique what he is reading, which is as true for Famous Five as it is for a catalogue.
I agree. To discern the crap from the decent stuff is the key. But to be exposed to all sorts of words, numbers and different ways they are used I think can be a good thing….
Catalogues are usually a source of hilarity in our house, and branding has certainly made a difference to who can “read” them! In some sick way it brings popular culture into our house, where there is very little! Being able to at least identify Dora or The Wiggles gives them confidence with other kids who do know about them. I am constantly amazed at how much of everyday adult conversation is about popular culture….
ramble ramble….
Junk mail is awesome! Finn’s been fascinated by catalogues since he was around 2. Best of all is the massive brick that is the Windmill Educational Toys catalogue!! Kept him lovely and quiet in the car for a long trip to relatives at least once! I think it’s great that Ned is open to reading all manner of things, and that he’s choosing what to read. After all, the first word I saw/heard Finn spell out and read/understand was ‘Pizza’ from a shop window! And he learned to read numbers from looking at street numbers when we went walking. Wherever, whatever they grab to read is good. The lessons can come much much later.
As others have already said, I don’t think any reading is really ‘bad’ reading. For little children a catalogue provides familiar images which they can readily identify and name themselves. They can then look at the words and start some letter recognition. The fact that Ned concentrates so hard on it is a good indication that he is using his brain to work a few things out!