I don't understand children sometimes

[Trigger Mike]

My sons have to read a book and answer questions for school over the summer and it is like pulling teeth to get them to do it, BUT we live on a dirt road at the top of a hill and our neighbor has a deep rut going across the road from his driveway that we have to cross to go anywhere, so they voluntarily both took shovels and filled the back of the Gator dump bed with gravel and are making multiple trips filling it in.  I'd much prefer to do a book report than manually use shovels to fill in ruts on a road.  

[Dantankerous]

Kids today read facebook, not real books.

 

 

 

[grenadier]

1 hour ago, Dantankerous said:

Kids today read facebook, not real books.

 

 

 

My oldest averages three books a week and my youngest is just starting to read.

[Utah Bob #35998]

I understand children. I used to be one.

It's women that have me perpetually confused.

[Blackwater 53393]

18 minutes ago, Utah Bob #35998 said:

I understand children. I used to be one.

It's women that have me perpetually confused.

 

There are several ways of dealing with women!!  

 

 

NONE OF THEM WORK!!!!

 

I picked up two new paperbacks today!!  I have hundreds that I've read once and a few I've read hundreds of times.  Can't get my grandsons to read any of 'em!!

[Calico Mary]

yer a smart man Blackwater.....

[Alpo]

2 hours ago, Trigger Mike said:

 I'd much prefer to do a book report than manually use shovels to fill in ruts on a road.  

That's the difference between being required to do something, and doing it because you want to.

 

The top came out of a pecan, next door. Missed his house and his pump. Missed my fence and my house. Took out his clothesline.

 

I been over there three days now. Hour or so in this heat is all I can do, but I take my axe and my loppers, and that hunk of tree is getting smaller. Ain't my tree, but Jerry's in his mid 70s. 

 

But I SHOULD BE cutting my grass.

[Rye Miles #13621]

Sounds like they're not afraid on manual labor! Good for them!!

[Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438]

1 hour ago, Rye Miles #13621 said:

Sounds like they're not afraid on manual labor! Good for them!!

 

Sounds to me that driving a Gator is more fun than reading a book....

 

Don't give up.  Kids become interested in reading at different times.  Make sure that you keep good books on the shelf, and that some of them speak to your kids' interests.  They will find their way sooner or later.

 

LL

[Rye Miles #13621]

1 hour ago, Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 said:

 

Sounds to me that driving a Gator is more fun than reading a book....

 

Don't give up.  Kids become interested in reading at different times.  Make sure that you keep good books on the shelf, and that some of them speak to your kids' interests.  They will find their way sooner or later.

 

LL

Maybe a book on landscaping or farming!!!

[Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663]

When I was a boy, reading was laborous, tedious, and boring.  It sure frustrated my parents.  I didn't graduate from college until I was 47 years old.  I'm still a slow reader and I enjoy reading books now, but I sure didn't when I was a teenager.  Not all kids are wired to be book worms.

[Subdeacon Joe]

6 hours ago, Dantankerous said:

Kids today read facebook, not real books.

 

 

 

 

When they SHOULD be reading the Wire or the Saloon!  

 

 

 

4 hours ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

 

There are several ways of dealing with women!!  

 

 

NONE OF THEM WORK!!!!

 

I picked up two new paperbacks today!!  I have hundreds that I've read once and a few I've read hundreds of times.  Can't get my grandsons to read any of 'em!!

 

No, there is one way that works the vast majority of the time - Say "Yes, Dear!" and apologize.  

 

 

6 hours ago, Trigger Mike said:

My sons have to read a book and answer questions for school over the summer

Is is a book off a school-provided list, or is it just any book?  Maybe they could read about the history of the 1911 or the Garand.  Or Shakespeare's Bawdy  

Quote

This unusual and invaluable contribution to Shakespearean scholarship is a thorough examination of the "bawdy" in Shakespeare's works from the literary, psychological and lexicographical standpoints. Scholars and intelligent readers and interpreters of Shakespeare have always been aware of the large number of bawdy references throughout his plays and poems, but even they probably have not fully comprehended the wealth of hidden allusion and multiple meanings in many seemingly obvious passages. Shakespeare's Bawdy is divided into two parts. The first section is an essay with illustrative examples of the non-sexual, sexual, homosexual, general and valedictory references in the plays. The second part is a comprehensive glossary - alphabetically arranged - which cites all the significant and important passages with full definitions and explanations of the terms used by Shakespeare. The author, Eric Partridge, is the well-known English scholar and lexicographer and a world authority on slang and colloquial English. "A fascinating study in semantics and immensely revelatory."-Margaret Webster

 

Maybe Hardtack and Coffee could hold their interest.  

[Dantankerous]

I seem to remember that the type of pages that held a lot of teenage boys' interest when that was my peer group had more photographs than words. Know what I mean? Nudge-nudge-wink-wink... 

[Subdeacon Joe]

4 minutes ago, Dantankerous said:

I seem to remember that the type of pages that held a lot of teenage boys' interest when that was my peer group had more photographs than words. Know what I mean? Nudge-nudge-wink-wink... 

 

 

I only borrowed my brother's copies for the articles.  

[Alpo]

Maybe a little Dr. Seuss porn.

 

https://allthatsinteresting.com/the-seven-lady-godivas

[Pat Riot]

They are learning about:

Hard work.

Being a good neighbor.

Planning ahead - road ditches only get bigger as time, rain and traffic occur.

Operating cool machinery (the Gator) - this is the only reason they are doing it

 

I would bet if you said "Okay boys, no more Gator unless you do a chapter a day from the book. One chapter = 1 hour with the Gator"

I'll bet they would get their report done and their would be no more road anomalies in no time.

[Assassin]

I'd rather do stuff than read books myself. Always hated reading books, seemed like a waste of time. Reading a quick paragraph or article is fine.

I can study a history book or encyclopedia for hours when I'm not forced to read by a teacher or professor.

Reference books are like taking sleeping pills.

 

Everyone is different.

 

TM you should be happy the kids are active and enjoying physical activities.

[Perro Del Diablo]

21 hours ago, Blackwater 53393 said:

 

There are several ways of dealing with women!!  

 

 

NONE OF THEM WORK!!!!

 

I picked up two new paperbacks today!!  I have hundreds that I've read once and a few I've read hundreds of times.  Can't get my grandsons to read any of 'em!!

Soon as you find one that works she changes the rules

[MizPete]

On 7/30/2018 at 5:36 PM, Loophole LaRue, SASS #51438 said:

Kids become interested in reading at different times

I'm not so sure.  I think you might have to start them out young in thinking that reading for pleasure is a normal activity.  I was read to as a wee lass & wound up doing my own reading early on (victorian novel at age 8 -- ok, it was Dracula, but still...).  Baby Girl was read to before she understood spoken language and was reading --and understanding--Ayn Rand by middle school, and has been known to make the comment "I just don't understand people who don't read."  But I couldn't get either grandson to read the classics -- even Douglas Adams.

[Trigger Mike]

They were read to a lot growing up just don't have the time unless it is a survival book. I am glad they did it though.  I hope to teach them balance some day

[Lorelei Longshot, SASS #44256 Life]

Not only do parents need to read to their kids starting in infancy, they need to set a good example by reading regularly as adults.  It doesn't matter what you read to your kids, just read to them and read yourself.  (I used to read Business Week and Chemical Week to my daughter when she was an infant. Kept up with my necessary business reading and got her used to being read to.)  

 

Long before Kindles and Nooks came along, we would go to the bookstore on a regular basis and all three of us would come out with a stack of books.  Got expensive, but worth every penny.  If you can't afford to buy books, visit the library.  All three of us read almost everyday.  My daughter was reading and writing on a 12th grade level when she was in 7th grade because of her reading ability.  Reading increases your vocabulary and helps you as a writer.  

 

Read to your children and read yourself.  Reading is a great quiet time activity.

[Shotgun Clay]

11 hours ago, Lorelei Longshot, SASS #44256 Life said:

Not only do parents need to read to their kids starting in infancy, they need to set a good example by reading regularly as adults.  It doesn't matter what you read to your kids, just read to them and read yourself. 

My Mom read all the Tarzan books to me when I was an infant.  I have a life long love of reading, and a real talent for falling out of trees.

[MizPete]

12 hours ago, Lorelei Longshot, SASS #44256 Life said:

we would go to the bookstore

That was Baby Girl's treat if she was good while I shopped.

[Too Tall Bob]

On 7/30/2018 at 4:45 PM, Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663 said:

When I was a boy, reading was laborous, tedious, and boring.  It sure frustrated my parents.  I didn't graduate from college until I was 47 years old.  I'm still a slow reader and I enjoy reading books now, but I sure didn't when I was a teenager.  Not all kids are wired to be book worms.

The daughter of a friend of mine refused to read - even class work and lessons. As a result, she was failing in school.  Then came an epiphany and the parents had their daughter tested and discovered she was dyslexic. That discovery changed everything. Now she always has several books going and she is an exemplary student. What a change that discovery made in her young life. 

[Birdgun Quail, SASS #63663]

13 hours ago, Too Tall Bob said:

The daughter of a friend of mine refused to read - even class work and lessons. As a result, she was failing in school.  Then came an epiphany and the parents had their daughter tested and discovered she was dyslexic. That discovery changed everything. Now she always has several books going and she is an exemplary student. What a change that discovery made in her young life. 

Too Tall, I too was diagnosed mildly lexdysic.  Even today I reverse numbers often.  If the number is 74, I'll say 47.

[MizPete]

Me, too, Birdgun, but it is because my Mama let my first grade teacher "fix" my lefthandedness.  I didn't really discover the problem until I took typing in high school (I was typing stuff backwards, or otherwise inverted) and my freshman biology teacher made us read Scientific American (which explained the situation).  Ask me if I can back up a car, much less a trailer.

[St. Louis Suomi SASS #31905]

Howdy:

 

I had the kids read Beowulf - they loved it.  Kindergarten teacher  thought that was unusual, but they still wanted me to read parts to them when they went to bed at night.   We had a whole library of original Grime Fairy Tales and Finnish folk tales for the kids to read.  Most were rather  rough by today's snowflake standards but the kids really liked them.  I thought tying folks up in a burlap bag and tossing them in the river was kind of harsh, the kids just thought that was hilarious.  Go figure.  I read books because I could go around the world or anywhere I wanted.  Being on a farm and them moving to a very rough part of Chicago, this was my escape. 

 

STL Suomi