Sunday, June 26, 2011

Literally modern times/Klassische Literatur modern

Question: How do you get your kids off the computer and into reading classical literature instead?

The answer is simple: You buy them an e-book reader and make them a nice cover for it! (Bold decision for me, being a part time librarian!) But indeed, my daughter spent several hours today out in the garden, reading ...

And for the homemade cover: this is the front -



- and here's the back (usable the other way round as well):



And for a young mister, I made a wristband this weekend out of a piece of an used truck tyre and some old adjustable resistance out of my stash - quite cool recycling, isn't it ? (Do you now begin to imagine what my stash looks like ;-) ...)





(German summary: Und wie bekommt man seine Kinder weg vom Computer und hin zur klassischen Literatur? - Man kauft ihnen ein e-book reader und bastelt ihnen eine hübsche Hülle dafür ... Bei uns war's auf jeden Fall ein voller Erfolg! Ein Armband aus einem gebrauchten LKW-Reifen und einem alten einstellbaren Widerstand gab dieses Wochenende dann auch her.)

9 comments:

Sara lechner said...

genial wieder einmal. ich habe zufällig auch diese woche ein kindl gekauft, da ich damit in Argentinien billigere Bücher erwerben kann! jetzt brauche ich die hülle, sehe ich!
der armreifen ist auch cool.
bin heute zum 6. mal oma von einem emilio (von pablo) geworden!

WolleNaturFarben said...

Also super Idee und sieht klasse aus eben echt cool, was die jungen Leute so brauchen, auch das Armband klasse...da meine Kinder schon erwachsen sind, hebe ich mir diese prima Idee für meine Enkel auf, falls es da nicht schon wieder eine neue Technik gibt ;-) LG Anke

Clare Wassermann said...

Ahh good idea - my 9 year old wants one for her next birthday. how old are yours?
I have a battle with my son always being online! he reads too, but then again here I am online. It's life.

Elizabeth said...

That is one cool bracelet!!!!

I love you for thinking up ways to seduce kids into reading. Just another thing we have incommon!

Anneli/Bockfilz said...

Thank you so much, you dear ones!

@Sara: Ja, natürlich brauchst Du eine dolle Hülle! Bin schon gespannt was Du machen wirst! Und nochmals herzlichen Glückwunsch, 6-fache Oma, Du!

@Anke: Danke für die netten Komplimente! (Aber sowohl Kindle als auch Armband können wir ja selber auch gut brauchen, ist ja nicht nur etwas für Kinder oder Enkelkinder, oder?)

@Clare: My daughter is 12 and my son is 15 - and in comparison to many of their friends, they read quite a lot, at least occasionally. But in my opinion, they spend far too much time indoors and online as well - so I tried to figure out a way to outwit them there :-) ... and I must admit that I was interested in this new complement to traditional books too. You're so right: it's life!

@Elizabeth: Yes, I must admit I'm a bit proud of this idea with the black rubber bracelet :-)! I made myself a similar one (but with an icon) a couple of years ago and I've always loved wearing it - through the years, the material gets very soft, like leather!

Around here, there are many who are very sceptic about ebooks and even about audio books - but I love to have it all, it's just great to live with books and stories surrounding you, each medium having its own purpose!

And I believe that if you can seduce kids to get acquainted with books in what form ever, it will lead to 'normal reading' in the end as well ...!

Not that this would be a problem with my own kids - but as a librarian, I'm very concerned about getting those 'non-reading' kids curious in one way or another too ...

Anneli/Bockfilz said...

@Clare, Elizabeth: It might seem a bit luxurious to buy a Kindle for a kid - but in this sense, I guess I'm a bit of a hard-liner: I've always refused supplying them with gameboys, playstations, Wii:s etc - instead I offered them 'good' computer software and a limited time access on the computer during their (earlier) childhood.

Now, as they are almost 13 and 16, the computer issue is getting a bit beyond my control. My son is studying programming/controlling, and my daughter is heading to become an IT-technician.

Periodically, they are still reading books, though - and this is my way to boost this interest.

Sara lechner said...

schau meine Version von Kindlehülle in meinem Blog. Danke für die Inspiration!!

Zebra said...

Ich bringe mich gerade mal wieder auf den neuesten Stand in Deinem Blog :-) Das Armband ist absolut super geworden!!!
LG,
Zebra

Anneli/Bockfilz said...

Danke, liebes Zebra!

Schön, daß Du wieder da bist - hab' Dich schon vermißt!