kids using ebooks - Page 3

Curly · 06-19-2009, 02:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ceili

My nephew is 6, but he loves to read on my Kindle. We searched the age appropriate areas on Amazon for Chapter books for him, but all of the samples so far only contain the publishing info (idjits). I won't buy what I can't "sample" when it comes to ebooks, so... so far, no reader for him!

He Likes that he can make the font bigger for his books... it seems to help with letter definition (hmm... wonder if maybe he needs glasses

)

Umm, so to actually Answer the question, I'd say around 6 with supervision and If we could find books for him to read!

There are indeed fewer ebooks for 6-8 year olds. If there is a book your nephew would like, do tell Amazon or the publisher.

I had a quick look at Amazon -- these are some books my 9 year old son enjoyed when he was 6 (that you can get on Kindle): the Magic Tree House series, Flat Stanley, books by Beverly Clearly, and Encyclopedia Brown.

kazbates · 06-19-2009, 02:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curly

There are indeed fewer ebooks for 6-8 year olds. If there is a book your nephew would like, do tell Amazon or the publisher.

I had a quick look at Amazon -- these are some books my 9 year old son enjoyed when he was 6 (that you can get on Kindle): the Magic Tree House series, Flat Stanley, books by Beverly Clearly, and Encyclopedia Brown.

Just this week, Fictionwise posted a lot of new children's lit. Some of the older series like Nancy Drew and the Bobbsy Twins under Young Adult and Cam Jansen under Children's Literature. They've been adding more and more and if you can time it right, you can get the new item discount.

Elfwreck · 06-19-2009, 02:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ceili

My nephew is 6, but he loves to read on my Kindle.

He Likes that he can make the font bigger for his books... it seems to help with letter definition (hmm... wonder if maybe he needs glasses

)

Children's eyes aren't done developing by age six; in some parts of the world, they don't bother teaching them to read until they're 8 or 9. A lot of young children's trauma about reading is that the text is really too small for them--their eyes don't have the fine muscle control to focus well on tiny letters.

The need for big text is something they grow out of. Books with changeable font sizes would definitely be a big help for beginning readers!

Curly · 06-19-2009, 02:13 PM

Yay!! I do love Nancy Drew and the Bobbsey Twins (the 1960s versions) -- think I might go buy some for myself.

Ceili · 06-19-2009, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Curly

There are indeed fewer ebooks for 6-8 year olds. If there is a book your nephew would like, do tell Amazon or the publisher.

I had a quick look at Amazon -- these are some books my 9 year old son enjoyed when he was 6 (that you can get on Kindle): the Magic Tree House series, Flat Stanley, books by Beverly Clearly, and Encyclopedia Brown.

Flat Stanley, the Sisters Grimm and the Goose Bump books are 3 that we've been looking into! He's read a few of the (paper) Goose Bump books and liked them, and Flat Stanley just appeals to me so I'm hoping he'll like them as well (it just makes me giggle to see it) The Sisters Grimm might not appeal to him after a bit, but he liked the few opening pages we've checked out!

We'll definitely take a look at the others this weekend, Thank you again!

rlparker · 06-19-2009, 02:51 PM

I answered 7th/8th grade, but as others have observed, it's hard to generalize.

We have a 13 year old daughter who has just finished 7th grade. She's a voracious reader. I let her borrow my K1 a couple of times to read school assignments when we couldn't find the p-book at the library or the bookstore, or when it was something that I wanted to read too. To digress for a minute--A Confederacy of Dunces is on her reading list for the summer. I was going to get it for my Kindle, but it's not available.

Don't know why, but it surprises me when that happens.

I was kinda hoping she'd get hooked on e-books so that I could give her my K1 and I could graduate to something else (not sure what--K2? 505?). But very much to my surprise, she didn't really seem to like reading on the Kindle. So I'm still stuck with it

kazbates · 06-19-2009, 03:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rlparker

I answered 7th/8th grade, but as others have observed, it's hard to generalize.

We have a 13 year old daughter who has just finished 7th grade. She's a voracious reader. I let her borrow my K1 a couple of times to read school assignments when we couldn't find the p-book at the library or the bookstore, or when it was something that I wanted to read too. To digress for a minute--A Confederacy of Dunces is on her reading list for the summer. I was going to get it for my Kindle, but it's not available.

Don't know why, but it surprises me when that happens.

I was kinda hoping she'd get hooked on e-books so that I could give her my K1 and I could graduate to something else (not sure what--K2? 505?). But very much to my surprise, she didn't really seem to like reading on the Kindle. So I'm still stuck with it

I tried to do the with my Ipod shuffle and my 8 year old said, "No, Mom, I want a REAL Ipod!"

Needless to say, I am waiting for a new one and so is she!

Maybe when she's 10.

rlparker · 06-19-2009, 03:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kazbates

..."No, Mom, I want a REAL Ipod!"...

Yeah, my daughter recently "graduated" to an iPOD Nano from her old Shuffle. I felt like I got off light, because I had been hearing talk about a Touch. Sheesh.

GraceKrispy · 06-19-2009, 04:23 PM

I needed a different answer option... I wasn't sure what to pick!

I have three kids aged 5-8. The oldest one is a voracious reader in both English and Hawaiian, the other two love to have books read to them in English, or to read books in Hawaiian themselves (they have not yet had formal English reading instruction, but I'm working on it!). As there is a dearth of Hawaiian ebooks out there, we won't be getting one for that purpose.

Although my 8yo has expressed interest in having a reader like mine, I'm not in any hurry to get one. I want him to continue enjoying pbooks from the library for the time being. I want him to continue enjoying the experience of going to the library, browsing, picking out books, lugging them home, etc. I still enjoy that experience as well, as our library collection does not yet include many of my favorite authors.

I think he is mostly responsible enough to take care of it, but he has younger siblings who most certainly aren't. There is also not a huge collection of books available for his reading level. I am considering letting him read a few books on mine, if I can bear to hand mine over long enough

, but that would be it for now. I probably wouldn't consider getting him one until later teenage years, or maybe until he saved up enough of his own money for one.

pshrynk · 06-19-2009, 04:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GraceKrispy

I needed a different answer option... I wasn't sure what to pick!

I have three kids aged 5-8. The oldest one is a voracious reader in both English and Hawaiian, the other two love to have books read to them in English, or to read books in Hawaiian themselves (they have not yet had formal English reading instruction, but I'm working on it!). As there is a dearth of Hawaiian ebooks out there, we won't be getting one for that purpose.

Although my 8yo has expressed interest in having a reader like mine, I'm not in any hurry to get one. I want him to continue enjoying pbooks from the library for the time being. I want him to continue enjoying the experience of going to the library, browsing, picking out books, lugging them home, etc. I still enjoy that experience as well, as our library collection does not yet include many of my favorite authors.

I think he is mostly responsible enough to take care of it, but he has younger siblings who most certainly aren't. There is also not a huge collection of books available for his reading level. I am considering letting him read a few books on mine, if I can bear to hand mine over long enough

, but that would be it for now. I probably wouldn't consider getting him one until later teenage years, or maybe until he saved up enough of his own money for one.

A lot of Beverly Cleary's books are available. I read those to my 7 year old grandson a lot.

nekokami · 06-24-2009, 04:14 PM

It occurs to me that another answer to the question might be, "when do they get a NintendoDS or PSP?" With homebrew applications, ebooks can be read on these apparently ubiquitous devices. (Or an iPod touch or iPhone, of course, but those are a lot more expensive.)

kazbates · 06-24-2009, 07:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by nekokami

It occurs to me that another answer to the question might be, "when do they get a NintendoDS or PSP?" With homebrew applications, ebooks can be read on these apparently ubiquitous devices. (Or an iPod touch or iPhone, of course, but those are a lot more expensive.)

I would much rather give a child a reader than a Nintendo DS, etc. If they thought of reading as a game, maybe they would do it more!

Laz116 · 06-24-2009, 08:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kazbates

I would much rather give a child a reader than a Nintendo DS, etc. If they thought of reading as a game, maybe they would do it more!

Sneaky

Elsi · 06-24-2009, 08:50 PM

I'm glad Ceili revived this thread; I'd not have seen it otherwise. I voted 5th or 6th grade since I interpreted the question to mean what age a child should be given a reader of their very own. I queued up a Bobbsey Twins book for the 8-year-old daughter of a friend. She enjoyed reading it in the car as we were driving to her grandmother's house.

Definitely the younger the kids are, the larger the font needs to be. Take a look at books aimed at the beginning readers. The larger fonts are sometimes a problem for the older kids who are not reading at their age/grade level. They feel like they are being given "baby" books. So teachers working with these kids have to work to find books with content that is high-interest, age-appropriate, and with a more limited vocabulary. You want to get them so engaged in the story that they forget they are "reading".

Ceili · 06-24-2009, 09:39 PM

It's funny that the Nintendo DS/Sony PSP came up.... I'm a gamer, I love playing while in line (when I'm not reading) or when waiting for the doc's appt. which lately, seems to be an hour and a half After our appointed time ;p

I'm all for some DS games, as they include some text (and instructions! which require Reading!!) Originally, we'd read the directions to him... but after a while, that got pretty old (pretty fast actually

) So, I always suggest that he give the directions a try and come to me if he gets stuck on a word. This is working out pretty well.... he tries it on his own first now, which is cool stuffs

Now, I'd rather he waits til he is old and crusty to be a gamer (gamers, especially Boy gamers can be rather... ick) but I'm glad to be able to use those games to get him reading just a bit more.

By doing this on his own, he's also working on cognition... if you've ever heard a first grader read you'll know that cognition is Rarely a part of that reading experience... they are taught some weird way of sounding out the letters (instead of words as I was) and no way do they "get" the word they are sounding out... an example would be afternoon. He knows this word and uses it in speech, but he hadn't come across it in day to day reading... he sounded it out as ah fff te eh rrr nn o o nn. I didn't know what he was sounding out nor did he!!! But going over the word together, he figured it out by the time we got through the first Aft sound.

Grr, run on, sorry!

PS- Definitely on the Text size. At the docs, he wanted the Kindle up to 6, and read quite a few samples we'd downloaded from Amazon... it was quite awesome

View Poll Results: In what grade would you get your kid an ebook reader?
1-2	5	11.36%
3-4	4	9.09%
5-6	13	29.55%
7-8	8	18.18%
9-10	9	20.45%
11-12	2	4.55%
never	3	6.82%
Voters: 44. You may not vote on this poll

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06-19-2009, 02:13 PM	#34
Curly I need a holiday! Posts: 1,227 Karma: 4622 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Scotland Device: PRS-505, ipod touch	Yay!! I do love Nancy Drew and the Bobbsey Twins (the 1960s versions) -- think I might go buy some for myself.

06-19-2009, 02:51 PM	#36
rlparker Ars longa Posts: 1,179 Karma: 17404 Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: north carolina, usa Device: Kindle K1, K3 wifi	I answered 7th/8th grade, but as others have observed, it's hard to generalize. We have a 13 year old daughter who has just finished 7th grade. She's a voracious reader. I let her borrow my K1 a couple of times to read school assignments when we couldn't find the p-book at the library or the bookstore, or when it was something that I wanted to read too. To digress for a minute--A Confederacy of Dunces is on her reading list for the summer. I was going to get it for my Kindle, but it's not available. Don't know why, but it surprises me when that happens. I was kinda hoping she'd get hooked on e-books so that I could give her my K1 and I could graduate to something else (not sure what--K2? 505?). But very much to my surprise, she didn't really seem to like reading on the Kindle. So I'm still stuck with it

06-19-2009, 04:23 PM	#39
GraceKrispy It's Dr. Penguin now! Posts: 3,909 Karma: 4705733 Join Date: Jan 2009 Location: (USA) Device: iPad mini, Samsung Note 3, Sony PRS-650 (rarely used now)	I needed a different answer option... I wasn't sure what to pick! I have three kids aged 5-8. The oldest one is a voracious reader in both English and Hawaiian, the other two love to have books read to them in English, or to read books in Hawaiian themselves (they have not yet had formal English reading instruction, but I'm working on it!). As there is a dearth of Hawaiian ebooks out there, we won't be getting one for that purpose. Although my 8yo has expressed interest in having a reader like mine, I'm not in any hurry to get one. I want him to continue enjoying pbooks from the library for the time being. I want him to continue enjoying the experience of going to the library, browsing, picking out books, lugging them home, etc. I still enjoy that experience as well, as our library collection does not yet include many of my favorite authors. I think he is mostly responsible enough to take care of it, but he has younger siblings who most certainly aren't. There is also not a huge collection of books available for his reading level. I am considering letting him read a few books on mine, if I can bear to hand mine over long enough , but that would be it for now. I probably wouldn't consider getting him one until later teenage years, or maybe until he saved up enough of his own money for one.

06-24-2009, 04:14 PM	#41
nekokami fruminous edugeek Posts: 6,745 Karma: 551260 Join Date: Oct 2006 Location: Northeast US Device: iPad, eBw 1150	It occurs to me that another answer to the question might be, "when do they get a NintendoDS or PSP?" With homebrew applications, ebooks can be read on these apparently ubiquitous devices. (Or an iPod touch or iPhone, of course, but those are a lot more expensive.)

06-24-2009, 08:50 PM	#44
Elsi Wizard Posts: 2,366 Karma: 12000 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Texas, USA Device: Kindle; Sony PRS 505; Blackberry 8700C	I'm glad Ceili revived this thread; I'd not have seen it otherwise. I voted 5th or 6th grade since I interpreted the question to mean what age a child should be given a reader of their very own. I queued up a Bobbsey Twins book for the 8-year-old daughter of a friend. She enjoyed reading it in the car as we were driving to her grandmother's house. Definitely the younger the kids are, the larger the font needs to be. Take a look at books aimed at the beginning readers. The larger fonts are sometimes a problem for the older kids who are not reading at their age/grade level. They feel like they are being given "baby" books. So teachers working with these kids have to work to find books with content that is high-interest, age-appropriate, and with a more limited vocabulary. You want to get them so engaged in the story that they forget they are "reading".

06-24-2009, 09:39 PM	#45
Ceili well, that didn't work Posts: 103 Karma: 1027 Join Date: May 2008 Device: Kindle	It's funny that the Nintendo DS/Sony PSP came up.... I'm a gamer, I love playing while in line (when I'm not reading) or when waiting for the doc's appt. which lately, seems to be an hour and a half After our appointed time ;p I'm all for some DS games, as they include some text (and instructions! which require Reading!!) Originally, we'd read the directions to him... but after a while, that got pretty old (pretty fast actually ) So, I always suggest that he give the directions a try and come to me if he gets stuck on a word. This is working out pretty well.... he tries it on his own first now, which is cool stuffs Now, I'd rather he waits til he is old and crusty to be a gamer (gamers, especially Boy gamers can be rather... ick) but I'm glad to be able to use those games to get him reading just a bit more. By doing this on his own, he's also working on cognition... if you've ever heard a first grader read you'll know that cognition is Rarely a part of that reading experience... they are taught some weird way of sounding out the letters (instead of words as I was) and no way do they "get" the word they are sounding out... an example would be afternoon. He knows this word and uses it in speech, but he hadn't come across it in day to day reading... he sounded it out as ah fff te eh rrr nn o o nn. I didn't know what he was sounding out nor did he!!! But going over the word together, he figured it out by the time we got through the first Aft sound. Grr, run on, sorry! PS- Definitely on the Text size. At the docs, he wanted the Kindle up to 6, and read quite a few samples we'd downloaded from Amazon... it was quite awesome

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