Kellogg's Korner

[fatherhood_fridays]

I am a reading man, have been as long as I can remember. Recently, in the last year, our oldest daughter started reading full books on her own. Reading is a great thing, especially for kids. It gives them a change to use their imaginations. My personal feeling is that much of the toys and games of today stifle the imagination. Many of them take away the thinking and problem solving aspect of playing. This is creating a generation of people that can’t think for themselves or thing outside the box. It makes for easily manipulated people.

I have seen three movies that were advertized recently which were originally kids books. The movies where Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, How To Train Your Dragon. These books were originally written for 8 – 12 year olds. These movies give kids an option to do things the easy way. One one ever succeeds in th world doing things the easy way.

In the past year eight other kids books have been made into movies. Many of these movies have been good movies, especially for people of the age that the books were written for. The problem is, in my opinion, that given the option kids will wait for the movie to come out instead of ever reading. This takes away the ability for form the picture and characters themselves. It also takes way an learning opportunity. When my child is reading they are often presented with words that they may not be introduced to in a scholastic environment. Reading books in the place of watching to movie build a child’s vocabularies and a fashion that can not be achieved without such activities.

I have come to a disision that if a movie is made from a kids book and my daughter wants to see it, she will first have to read the book. May of you may think this will destroy the movie experience. This may be true, I know that I often like to book more than the movie. If that is the case I will be presenting my child with the better of the two experiences. That and it is less expensive to buy a book that they may end up not liking than going to a movie that is not enjoyable.

Take the time to see if there is a book that you next kids movie is based on and have them read it. If they are not old enough to read themselves, read it to them as a bed time story. You may find that there are many other good books by the same author that may never make it to film. Just think about what you and your kids may be missing by just going to see the movie.

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