Harry Potter

Tommy found the Harry Potter movies on our shelves yesterday, and begged to watch the 2nd one.  I've only ever let him watch the first one, starting out with just some scenes before relenting and letting him watch the whole thing.  I told him he could not watch the second movie until he read (ie listens to me read) both the first book and the second book. 

He thought about that for most of the afternoon, and then brought the first book to me after dinner.  I was so excited!  He's a bit concerned that there aren't any pictures except the little ones for each chapter heading, but we talked a bit about how he could imagine the pictures in his head while he listened.  He sat through the first two chapters with me after dinner and THEN asked David to read chapter three to him before bed.  YES!  I think he's going to stick with it.  It probably actually helps that he's seen the first movie, because now he has mental images for all the characters and setting to go with the story. 

I'm willing to read the first two to him, and let him watch both those movies (although movie #2 is definitely scarier).  He'll have to wait at least a year in between subsequent books though.  At least that's our plan right now.  I kind of think all bets are off when he learns to read for himself.  If he decides to tackle them in a year or two when he's a better reader, then I'll let him decide for himself if they're too sad or scary.

In other book related news, Charlie spent his first night sleeping with a book in his bed last night.  He discovered a photo-illustrated picture book about a red-eyed tree frog just before bed last night.  He thought the picture of the katydid ("The frog did not eat the katydid.") was HILARIOUS.  He didn't want to let go of it, so we let him sleep with it.  Warms my heart, it does.

Comments

[Ben]

Train 'em young, that's what I say! I'll need to co-author some critical articles with them in a few years, so tell them to keep moving on that reading thing.

We love you guys! Less than a week, and we'll be back in the U.S.A. Or, as my student "Carrie" says: "Teacher! I want to go to U.S.A.!"

[Beth Mears]

Oh, we are having SO MUCH FUN reading the Harry Potter books out loud as a family!! Our approach is that we're just reading through the books in order, and only after we've finished a book can they watch the movie. Gregory absolutely LOVES listening to the books; as he's the same age as Tommy, I'm betting that Tommy's early enthusiasm will stick. We read 3-5 chapers every day, between afternoon rest time and bedtime reading (we're 8-9 chapters into Book 4 now). As the books get darker, deeper into the series ... I dunno. We may have to take a 1-2 year break. We'll see.

[Hannah]

Oh, have fun with the Harry Potter, Sally! We had a big Harry Potter period for awhile but are now in a lull. Ben read them voraciously last year up through # 5. Then he quit. Stated reason: too much "girlfriend stuff" :) I guess it doesn't appeal much to the eight year old boy mentality... He's read a bunch of Susan Cooper and Rick Riordan this year instead, although the latest Riordan book had some girl-boy elements to the plot, too, so maybe he'd be ready for Harry again if he tried it...

@ Charlie- how sweet. and much less bumpy than the telephone Silas liked to take to bed with him at that age.