to think Yr 1 school reading books shouldn't encourage playing at the local dump!

[luciemule]

DD (6) just bought home a reading book called The Dump (Oxford Reading Tree), where on the 2nd page it says "The Dump was a safe place to play and it had everything we wanted".

Am I being too sensitive but I thought parents were supposed to actively discourage their children from playing at dumps!!!

Dumps were the original recycling centres weren't they?
I am sorry, I don't see the problem here at all

luciemule, no, but it does imply it's perfectly OK to pick up dog poo with a bit of bog roll and chuck it down the loo. At least it did to my dds when they were 3!

"Am I being too sensitive but I thought parents were supposed to actively discourage their children from playing at dumps!!!"

Your argument is flawed. Is the book your child's parent?!

You know you can actually have a dialogue with your child about the book!

It's make believe.

Going to the dump was the best day out when i was a kid, now kids are adviced to stay in the car , we are going to the dump todat and dd1 is looking forward to it

To op, I don't think you really understand what a book is meant to do.

And you dont think that as an adult, with the ability to discus fantasy and reality with your child you could overcome the 'damage' that this book could do?

And would your six year old be able to get to a place with needle strewn matresses alone?

I realise that you didn't mean to semm overprotective, but I'm sorry, I think that you are being somewhat ott.

Once you start teaching you will see that for many children , playing in a dump could be considerably safer than playing in their own houses

I think many of us did play on waste ground as kids and we are still here .

I think we can all get a little over protective and places we used to play in woods, tree houses, etc are only ok if they are fenced in, part of an adventure park or built by craftsmen.

The fun was always using our imagination and materials we had never used before, creating havens which were ours and were far away from adult eyes.

I think it is sad that books for kids should fit our adult world view. It is precisely because most children disobey adults in books that they have such great adventures. Children's fiction is full of examples where the main characters break rules, fight them and disobey adults.

luciemule,

I don't think you are mad. My son had a book that is in the same series as the dump called "Rotten Apples" its about a horse that gets drunk. The book was hilerous for an adult to read, but totally lost on a five year old child.

Age appriopate reading books for children who are ahead with their reading is much of a problem as age appriopiate books for children with special needs.

Your son is doing really well to be reading difficult books like the dump. A bright five year old doesn't stand a chance of understanding a book with a mature story line. It just becomes an exercise in barking at print. Our children need developmentally appriopiate story lines to develop comprehension.

Regardless of wether the story is morally correct or not I susepct the school has not the resources to replace all slightly dodgy story line boks or the time to think which ones may or may not offfend parents. You wait till your a primary school teacher - trsut me your dad will be filled with questions like how am I susposed to hear Jonnie read and teach the rest of the class rather than ohh I am not sure about his book I think I may go and look for a better one!

ok - I understand everbody's point but the point that I was trying to make (backed up by what Reallytired was saying) was that it was a really strange book to give a 5/6 year old to read - although I suppose that DD is reading yr 2 books so perhaps that's why it seemed a little old for her.

I also see what you're all saying about the fiction thing but I still believe that school reading books should not be promoting playing in deserted, potentially dangerous areas of waste land at the age of 5/6 (using boys who aren't 5/6 and are more like 10/11 to illustrate the fact).

And I didn't imagine for a second my DD would take herself off to play in that sort of place, but merely meant that she'd have set the thought in her mind that it's ok to do that when she's older.

As Really Tired said, there are some really dodgy story lines in the Reading Tree books -would you really want a 5 yr to read about witches being burned alive on stakes?

And yes, I realise teachers don't have that much time as to be sifting through out of date books.

I lived next door to a scrap yard when I was a small child and used to play there often. Very dangerous actually but we all survived.

It was actually fascinating as full of huge mountains of junk like broken caravans, fridges etc. Our cats used to go there to have their kittens.

It's a story.

Following your line of thinking, would you ban 'Wind in the Willows' because it takes place in and around deep water?
Or Paddington stories because he travels alone?

I know where you're coming from, but I think you are being too sensitive.

But please don't read 'Swallows and Amazons' - you'll pass out!

I think you are over-reacting as most others have said. When I was not much older than your DD I was reading Secret Seven, Famous Five etc and a lot of their exploits are not what you would encourage in your children today.

OTOH I do think there is an issue with children who are advanced readers and getting age appropriate reading material, but you say the book is only one year past your DD's age so not too far out of synch really.

My son is not likely to go and play at the local dump. He doesn't know where it is. I found the particular book very depressing. My son did not really enjoy reading it.

Prehaps rather than asking if a particular book is unacceptable, its better asking is 5/6 year old child likely to enjoy a particular book. Are they going to gain anything by reading it.

I think its completely reasonable to expect a teacher to give books to a child that they stand a chance of understanding as well as decoding. By the time a child is reading stage 6 of ORT they are quite good at barking at print, and comprehension becomes more important.

i can see where Luciemule is coming from, but you just have to talk to your DD about why it could be dangerous. We had one about skating on a frozen pond, explained to whichever DC it was how dangerous that could be. I did complain about a reception reading book where the child let the old man (who they didn't appear to know!) in at the door, and then the child climbed out of the window. Wasn't happy with that. But if they are old enough to be reading, they are old enough to have a conversation about the dangers and that books are not the same as real life etc IMO.

It is quite hard to judge what is age appropriate for a child. When my dd was 6, we were reading the Narnia stories, Just William and (her idea, not mine!) the Lord of the Rings. She has not shown any tendencies to go off with dwarves or save the world or even to aim at the headteacher's hat with a peashooter.
As for the stories of children skating on frozen ponds- where I grew up, that's what the grown-ups encouraged us to do! They sent us to skate on the lake and taught us how to judge the quality of the ice. So I would have serious issues with my dh if he tried to suggest reading about it was inappropriate.

It's only a story. Crikey, half of the books in the school library contain plots that most, probably all, of our dc will never come across!
And what about all the old stuff we read as kids, the famous 5 taking themselves off on bikes to remote places, rowing to deserted islands etc, armed with nothing more than a bottle of ginger beer and a scraggy dog!!!

My ds1 is 9 and in yr5, he is currently reading a book in group read time that he has already read.....but many of the parents have complained as there is one line in the book they dont think their children should be reading....however i personally think that in the context it is i.e in a conversation between 2 adults it is fine....and i am sure many children do say worse.

i don't thinki would be allowed to put it on here though lol and ds1 read it when he was 7 for the first time.

why can't you write the line on here TheLadyEvenStar? If it's that bad, surely DCs shouldn't be reading it?

it says,

and he treated me like his bastard brother and bastard son...

OMG - no wonder they asked to have it removed. I'd have gone loopy.

its just a book, and lets face it the majority of kids hear worse. I think the book is king arthur. they have been reading it in the school for a few yrs now. But i did buy ds1 a copy when he was 7 and he read it then

I think the dump story could be quite funny. I think children like dirt and a bit of danger (in fantasy at any rate). John Burmingham has a story where a small boy gets his magic bed back from a dump.