alt Hacker NewsI'm torn about this.
I primarily think that a a kid who won't pick books is a failure of the family of not noticing their interests.
When i noticed my oldest 3 yr old was obsessed about cars, i bought him a car encyclopedia. He probably could not read most words or did not understand them. But pretty soon he was telling me about car models that i did not even recognize myself.
And as i saw interests, i kept feeding them.
My biggest struggle now is to actually keep books away from them at key times (morning routine, etc) , or keeping bad books (think cynical like My Weird School Daze, etc; or books that openly demean adults or parents) away from them
Start small. Graphical novels, mostly drawings, and continue to buil on that. It can be done. Rome wasn't built on a day.
At some point when they hit 5 yrs old, Grok / OpenAI are great tools to find good series appropriate to their reading level. Before that it can be vibed. Feed the addiction, buy whatever they like.
At some point, you need to watch out for cynical/nasty series. In fact, all of the books we purchase are ranked against peers they have read in the past, or those we know to actively avoid buying due to cynicism, sarcasm, or open disdain towards adults (Wimpy Kid).
At some point around age 9,you will need to decide if violence and some adult themes, are tolerable (Dragon Wing series).
This iterative rocess also works really well for foreign language learning (reinforcing via reading mostly), by leveraging localized RPG video games.
With all that said, notice that I've focused on reading skills.
I don't know how i'd go about replicating this iterative path on other skills like math, mechanical, or electrical engineering learning. That's where I think a busy parent will need to find AI as the solution.
Replies
> At some point, you need to watch out for cynical/nasty series. In fact, all of the books we purchase are ranked against peers they have read in the past, or those we know to actively avoid buying due to cynicism, sarcasm, or open disdain towards adults (Wimpy Kid).
This is interesting because when I was 7-8 my mum just recommended me whatever books she was reading, some of which were quite... adult in retrospect, and I turned out mostly well-adjusted.
Kids aren't LLMs, they know that what they're reading is fiction. Maybe reading something like that would be a fun way to start a conversation about it?
Offtopic, but if by "Dragon Wing series" you are referring to the Death Gate Cycle by Weis & Hickman, it has been beloved to me since I read it as a teen in the 90s. I have gone through this entire series at least 3 times despite not usually re-reading books, and I feel like it holds up.
I think it also influenced a lot of work which came afterward.
Children are a lot less fragile than parents think they are.
This sounds psychotic. An over-controlling fedora's approximation of what good academic parenting looks like. You just want to create your D&D partner. You'll probably succeed lol.
> At some point, you need to watch out for cynical/nasty series. In fact, all of the books we purchase are ranked against peers they have read in the past, or those we know to actively avoid buying due to cynicism, sarcasm, or open disdain towards adults (Wimpy Kid).
yeah how do you "know" this? our kid is obsessed with wimpy kid and a few other similar series and "cynicism" nails it perfectly, is there a list? of what's known to be "cynical" and what's not?
> At some point around age 9,you will need to decide if violence and some adult themes, are tolerable (Dragon Wing series).
I remember playing GTA 4 when I was like 7 or 8. good times... not much books though.
but like... avoid buying due to sarcasm...? what?
Children are going to witness or experience violence at some point or ask questions about it. They will probably see some at school. I think it depends when and how you introduce it. For example, there is a heavy focus on refugees in western schools and media, but at some point a child is eventually going to have to ask what refugees are running from. (Torture and violence.) It's hard to avoid discussing violence in the context of history, or even when bullying comes up.
Grok?!?!
"I'm torn about this."
I'm not. Keep AI the hell away from teaching children.