/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.20581198]

I just had a kid and read to him daily. He doesn't really show any interest but then again, he is only 7 months old. I was reading him the hobbit since I had it on hand. I was raised by abusive and neglectful parents and never really had books as a kid so I was wondering what I should actually be reading to him.

[Anonymous No.20581203]

take him to the library and let him pick out his own books as soon as he's old enough

[Anonymous No.20581211]

Start with the Greeks, in Greek. Your kid is a pseud. The sooner you fix this the sooner he can join us here at /lit/ telling people to start with the Greeks.

>>20581203
This too, in a month or two let him loose in the library

[Anonymous No.20581224]

>>20581211
>your kid is a pseud

Fuckin kek'd

[Anonymous No.20581251]

>>20581198
Why are you reading the hobbit to a 7 month old? What do you think he's going to get out of that? Kid barely knows what words are.

[Anonymous No.20581270]

>>20581251
I'm just trying to talk to him. It's not like he's going to talk back. You know, just trying to get him to hear new words. Come to think of it, it might be dull but I genuinely might read a dictionary to him.

[Anonymous No.20581388]

>>20581270
Instead of that, start singing to him and playing him simple things so he can begin differentiating tones and getting good pitch, and either speak a second language around him or get someone you know to start doing it

[Anonymous No.20581409]

You're doing it right. Whether or not he understands you, or even knows what a book is yet, just having them in the house will benefit him. There are studies on this. Keep reading to him, when he's old enough to choose let him, and before you know it he'll be reading. I was reading by 3 and both my kids were early readers too, because there's always books around, they see me reading. The fact that so many kids are raised in households without books just blows my mind.

[Anonymous No.20581415]

>>20581388
That’s just going to make him into a preppy normalfag. OP, if you want your kid to be a famous author you need to start drinking alcohol and ignoring him.

[Anonymous No.20581424]

>no interest in reading
If you're not careful he'd grow up to be a /lit/poster.
I feel bad for the kids who don't know how to handle books, never having encountered them before school, swiping their finger across the pages like a tablet. Sad stuff.

[Anonymous No.20581427]

>>20581198
READ HIM THE ILIAD.

[Anonymous No.20581449]

>>20581388
Thank you. I have been learning Cantonese so I'll give that a go. I am no where near fluent but what I have so far should be a decent enough bridge for tones. Maybe having him sit with me while I take my lessons will prove useful. I am unsure how much he will take in from some computer speakers though but then again, he really doesn't have to learn it. And hey, the missus knows Spanish so there is at least some certainty there.

[Anonymous No.20581464]

>>20581427
I can do that, I have it on my shelf. It's been a fair bit since I've gone through it too.

[Anonymous No.20582163]

>kid can't even name things that are physically around him
>OP reads him a fictional text

>OP can't speak a foreign language fluently
>wants to expose the kid to a foreign language by using bugspeak (probably full of mistakes too)

OP, focus on speaking to the kid directly (I can't stress this enough), about the real world around you, in a language you're maximally comfortable with. (Exposing to a different language is ok either if you're a native speaker, or really proficient in it.) When the kid is 2 or 3 years old you can start teaching him letters, give him picture books and comics, and build up from there as you see fit, but not forcing things upon him that you see he doesn't care for.
Delay providing him a smartphone or a tablet for as long as possible or reasonable (a simple Nokia for calling the parents and sending SMS is fine, of course). Give him pencils and paper to draw on, traditional toys (such as Lego bricks), any stuff that lets him vent out and explore how things work. At the current stage this is more important than reading.

[Anonymous No.20582446]

Seconding drawing and art, with an emphasis on things that teach perspective and begin focusing on anatomy properly (in a way accessible to a kid)

Also math and geometry, the earlier you get him started the better. Euclid is not that hard, I recommend getting a compass and straight-edge and doing the first book of Euclid yourself so you can teach it to him. It becomes second nature quickly. Anything to get him thinking in perspectival, projective-geometrical terms early on, both as an aid to his drawing and vice versa.

Try reading Piaget on child cognitive development. Also maybe something easy from the Steiner/Waldorf people on pedagogy, like Kuhlewind.

[Anonymous No.20582475]

i am a roughly c1 level spanish speaker and it's been my goal to have my child speak spanish as its second language. how would i realistically go about this? besides hiring a nanny, sending to immersion schools (super common in the southwest), etc. i want little timmy to just be a natural bilingual

[Anonymous No.20582490]

>>20581198
Pick up a copy of Grimm's Fairy Tales (preferably one without illustrations) and read that to him. It'll be instrumental to his child development.

[Anonymous No.20582565]

>>20581198
Your kid will probably respond better to children’s books with simple rhymes. Complex sentences do not grab babies attention, it’s all noise to them. There’s some really quality classics that every kid should hear growing up, and is known to greatly enhance their understanding of language. You can still put your kid onto lit classics like the Hobbit early on. I didn’t read it until I was 14, but probably could have at 8 or 9. If your kid is a real brain, he could probably read it at 6 or 7.

[Anonymous No.20583646]

>>20581449
>Cantonese
Unfathomably based

[Anonymous No.20583796]

Leave this place and never post here again.

[Anonymous No.20583822]

>>20581198
You should start with something simple so he can get a grasp on the language. Preferably with illustrations so the kid can visualize whatever you're saying. Thats how I learnt a foreign language and I don't think you can learn one without having a visual concept linked to the words.

[Anonymous No.20583986]

>>20581198

As long as you are being nice to him and speaking regularly with him you're doing what you're supposed to be doing. The kid has to go through the first three stages of psychological development within the first five years or so, which is pretty huge.

[Anonymous No.20583992]

>>20581270
>it might be dull but I genuinely might read a dictionary to him.
Retarded, he won't learn shit from that.

[Anonymous No.20584009]

>>20581270
>genuinely might read a dictionary to him.
This is why God created child neglect. Some people are so retarded their kid would be better off without their "care".

[Anonymous No.20584041]

I have a kid about the same age, born end of November. When he was a month old I read him bits of Moby Dick. I was just reading it at the time and you should talk to kids all through infancy so it just killed two birds with one stone.

Reading the hobbit is good but he’s getting to an age where he’s going to benefit from two way conversation. He’ll babble at you, you say a sentence back etc.

He’s also getting to be an age where he will like story books. Stuff like the Very Hungry caterpillar or the Gruffalo is good for that age. What he’s really going to benefit from now is you ready out the words and then adding extra bits, pointing at the pictures and saying, ‘look, there’s a mouse in that haybale’ etc or counting things on the page.

The library is going to be invaluable, the old ladies there will help you pick out age appropriate books and you won’t have to fill your house up and spend a fortune.

You sound like a great Dad by the way, keep it up bro.

[Anonymous No.20584065]

Based. I want to read the Hobbit to my son if I ever have one.

[Anonymous No.20584079]

>>20582475

Talk to your kid in Spanish. Humans have a critical period where they learn languages like a sponge, they can effortlessly pick up the frame works for two languages and with a tony. It of prompting, know which is which.

Other than getting two languages the benwfits of being bilingual are amazing. Bilinguals test 5-6 points higher on IQ tests.

[Anonymous No.20584324]

>thread about reading books to your kids
>not a single mention of dr Seuss 30 replies in
What kind of bizarro world did I enter? Shame on all of you

[Anonymous No.20584791]

>>20581409

He probably likes spending time with you and heading you talk. You’re laying the foundation for him to love reading. Bright pictures will hold their attention and they get more reinforcement that sitting and looking at books is rewarding.

[Anonymous No.20584805]

>>20584324
Uhm... You do know Seuss was a racist...

[Anonymous No.20584984]

There's nothing particularly wrong with Harry Potter before the kid can follow the plot, but bro, 7 months? Pick it back up in 5 or 6 years. And discard the dictionary idea immediately.

Play them lots of music. Sing and talk to them directly and read simple kid's books with catchy sentences and big, bright pictures. I promise the story doesn't matter.

[Anonymous No.20585025]

>>20581198
Some other anons are right- long term memories only start at what, 2-3 years old? And long before I remembered being read to, I remembered being sung to. You don't have to worry about him actually being aware of what you're reading to him for a while yet, but singing is always good. And Animalia is always a must-have when reading with your kid. Everyone needs to read Animalia with their kids.

And when I was little, my favorite book was "The Owl and The Pussycat" (illustrated by Jan Brett, of course)

[Anonymous No.20585052]

>>20584805
fr? sounds sus to me no cap

[Anonymous No.20585083]

>>20581270
Read him good poetry.

[Anonymous No.20585091]

loved this as a kid. however there is a picture of a heterosexual couple engaged in mission position sex under the entry for "succubus". u can only see tits though. but maybe skim it first.

[Anonymous No.20585102]

>>20584079
The critical period isn't real. The reason kids learn languages so fast is because their only way to interact with the world is through language absorption so all effort goes into understanding speech. If a twenty year old properly functioning man was dropped into a country where they only spoke a language he didn't know and had to interact with people daily he would pick up the language faster than a baby could. The reason why adults don't learn languages is their environment isn't suited for it. They already speak the language that they are spoken to.
This means that if you want to learn a language fast then you have to be an active consumer of the language. It isn't enough to put on a movie and watch it, but you have to translate every word you hear into the language you are learning. You have to exist exclusively in the new language with no way of backing out.
Check out Luke Smith's language learning guide especially if you are looking into Latin, romance, or German languages

[Anonymous No.20585130]

>>20585102

Not talking about speed talking about mastery. It’s rare that someone who doesn’t learn as language from birth can pick up a new language without accent or falling into grammatical errors. True bilingual people can speak both with minor to no interference between languages and perfect accents on both sides.

[Anonymous No.20585155]

What a thread. Made me laugh.

[Anonymous No.20585158]

>>20585052
Doctor SUS

[Anonymous No.20585167]

>>20585091
Hey that was my fave too. That book really had a lot of cool creatures.

[Anonymous No.20585170]

>>20584324
>>20584805
>>20585052
>he doesn't speed read dr seuss every day

[Anonymous No.20585192]

>>20585102
There's also the time investment factor at work. Let's say you're exposed to a language 12 hours a day (and that's a very low estimate). That's around 4,000 hours of language exposure a year. By the time you're 20, that's 80,000 hours. If you start studying a second language (L2) at that age, you're going to have to work against 80,000 hours of practice in your L1. And if you're studying the L2 1 or 2 hours per day...you're never going to catch up to your L1.
Now compare this to a child who at the age of 5 starts learning an L2 - that child will only have 20,000 hours of exposure to their L1. The L1-L2 ratio won't be as dramatic, which will make it easier to learn the L2. And even if the child spends only 1 or 2 hours per day studying the L2, the time difference between the L1 and L2 won't be quite as dramatic by the time he reaches adulthood.
However, an adult would be able to quickly make up the difference if, as you mentioned, he found himself entirely immersed in a foreign language, because he would be receiving 12+ hours per day of exposure to the new language while not racking up any additional hours in his native language.

[Anonymous No.20585972]

>>20581198
it doesn't matter. My dad read technical manuals to me until I cared about the content of the material

[Anonymous No.20587104]

>>20581198
This has to be fake.