This Book Doesn’t Work

Last November, I did my first black Friday, doorbusters shopping spree. I managed to avoid it, despite having children, for years and I was curious what all of those other people were raving (or ranting) about. I only went to Target. They had a great deal on a huge, flat-screen TV that I successfully bought for my partner.

I also bought Leapfrog toys. Specifically, I picked up two Tag pens and a Tag Junior pen and a few books to go with them. My mom also bought some books to go along with the bundle when she found out.

I loved the idea of my kids being able to explore stories with a pen to help them sound out the words. I imagined them learning to love the colorful and interesting stories written on pages, and I thought it might be a helpful back up for ultimately teaching them to read. But that’s not what happened.

Now, when people started complaining that Baby Einstein was failing to turn out smarter kids, I was one of the first to raise my hand and say, “maybe you’re doing it wrong.” After all, it seems ridiculous and counterproductive to me to sit your kid down with a DVD and expect great things to happen. Maybe it would work, mixed in with active parenting. I don’t know, though. I’ve never tried Baby Einstein with my kids and I certainly don’t know what all of the Baby Einstein parents were doing.

But I did buy this Leapfrog stuff, and now I’m thinking about taking it all away.

I’ve been turning the idea over in my head for a couple of months. Then, this week, my five-year-old came to me with a board book that was not compatible with the Tag system, “brown bear brown bear what do you see” and said, “this book doesn’t work.” That really made me think about what’s happening.

We read them a story almost every night (unless it’s especially late and they need to get to sleep asap), and sometimes in the middle of the day. We have classroom learning books called “Bob Books” that we help them read on their own. And, many times, when they want to know what something says, we help them sound it out instead of just telling them. But, recently, I’ve noticed that my strongest reader gives up when I say, “let’s find out”. She doesn’t want to know what that word says if it’s not going to be handed to her. And they certainly aren’t going to try to read a boring book if they can have one read to them.

I don’t like this attitude at all. My kids shouldn’t think that a book is broken because it doesn’t read itself. I know that parents want to get the new, popular toys for their kids, especially if it seems educational, but this one is unconvincing for me. Maybe I’m not doing it right.

When it comes to educational programming, we have DVDs of Signing Time and Sid the Science Kid. We watch Wild Kratts, and Nova. But it’s easy for me to watch with them (or watch over the bar while I’m cooking) at least enough to be able to talk about it and make sure they’re learning something. Maybe that’s the key for these reading pens, too. Maybe they need assistance and supervision and I shouldn’t have just given them the books and the pens to play with at their own leisure. But I did, and now I’m thinking I need to pack them up and remind my kids that books that don’t read themselves to you are wonderful.