I’m so interested in the idea of cultivating taste in our children. I hadn’t thought about beauty being hard before, but you’re right—it takes work to attend to. The lovely thing is that our kids want beauty, too, even if it takes work. My 4yo and I have been reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and the themes and language are surprisingly available to him. He wants to give the story attention. But if I were to ask him, he’d prefer to watch Hot Wheels on TV. Of course he would. I like this frame of reference a lot and will be holding it with me.
YES that is exactly it! It's less about "children like dumb stuff" and more "we are all drawn to dumb stuff if we are being honest" :D. We just got to watch a gorgeous new ballet with our kiddos--all three stayed up till 10:00 PM, and I almost just bailed and didn't do it, but wow was it worth it. I love that you guys are reading LWW. Six was so excited to come home yesterday and read me a page from Dawn Treader aloud. He was so proud of his new reading skills. Warmed my heart <3
Every family will draw lines differently. I didn't much care about characters on shirts-- or at least I generally avoided them, but not in an absolutist way. And in general tried to limit them to characters my kids actually knew. But clothes are often hand me downs or gifts and I just don't care that much. I was much pickier about books. I remember one time refusing to read a rhyming board book that has a deplorable lack of meter and poor word choice and pointing out: this line doesn't work, and improvising a better line myself.
I do remember one conversation with my oldest in which she said that she'd given up picking out her own library books because the ones she grabbed were generally disappointing, but the ones I picked out were usually much better. Of course eventually she started picking out her own books, but I think that moment was pivotal, it showed that she had developed a sense of taste, of good and bad, and wanted to avoid that which wasn't good, but didn't quite yet know how to look for the good.
I can't remember specific titles, but that was definitely when we were in the picture book stage still. At least in terms of what we were checking out from the library. I was probably reading chapter books as read aloud. So Barbara McClintock, Barbara Cooney, Allen Say, Trina Schartt Hyman, Mo Willems.. .would have been some of the names I was consistently looking for on the shelf. Anything with beautiful pictures and elevated, poetic language, good storytelling. I would let the kids pile books on the table and then I would quietly weed out the books I did not want to take home. Very seldom did books come home that I didn't enjoy reading. And if they did, then I'd read them once and then hide them until it was time to take them back to the library. Or if I could catch it and the child forgot, I'd manage to not read them at all.
Yes! I agree so much. I think that part of growing up for me (and not in the adolescent sense, but actually being comfortable in my adult skin) was being willing to express my taste, and just call ugly things what they were! And I think you were one of the first people I met post-graduation who was willing to just openly say what you meant in this way, which was so refreshing. One of the ironic down-sides to being trained in the arts is that you get a lot told a lot of nonsense about how modern art and music has worth, when really, a lot of it is just trash. There's good stuff too, it's just harder to find! So you become afraid to say, "This is terrible!" But really, I think a lot of musicians and artists who have been trained well and whose souls are attuned to beauty find it awful to be subjected to bad modern music.
We also highly curate what our children are exposed to--children's books, the images in them, the clothes they wear, the toys they play with. All for the sake of that imagination filled with beautiful things!
It's interesting how difficult it is to say when something is badly done. I am trying to learn about opera, and I saw a modern opera a few years ago that was just not good. The libretto is a total mess, though the staging is stunning. I was so confused, though, because everyone else raved about it, and my instincts were that it was poorly made. It took me 18 months to develop the courage and certainty to trust my instincts and say, "No, there are serious artistic problems with that piece!"
We are big fans of classic fairy tales and myths--there is a huge collection at the library and are working through it. The Baba Yaga tales (creepy and excellent), the Finn MaCool tales, various Grimms and Hans Christian Andersen tales, all favorites. We love The Snow Queen in particular.
For movies, we tend to stick with slower-paced films (as I think your family does too). We love My Neighbor Totoro, The Swan Princess, Robin Hood, Cinderella. We've seen The Prince of Egypt but it was a little too much. I love monster movies so I'm really looking forward to sharing the treasures of film with the kids later--Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Godzilla--but obviously that's not happening yet :)
We also watch Gilbert and Sullivan recordings like Pirates of Penzance and Patience (available on YouTube), and the kids often join me when I'm watching my weekly opera.
For a tv show, "Tumble Leaf" is slower paced and has beautiful claymation. There are also a series of classical music books called the "Story Orchestra" that have imaginative animation and long snippets of orchestral or operatic works that my children love.
Two relatively recent children's ballets that my kids love are Joby Talbot's Alice in Wonderland and the recent Beatrix Potter potpourri basket, (most of her characters appear i think) with STUNNING costumes and sets.
I’m so interested in the idea of cultivating taste in our children. I hadn’t thought about beauty being hard before, but you’re right—it takes work to attend to. The lovely thing is that our kids want beauty, too, even if it takes work. My 4yo and I have been reading The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, and the themes and language are surprisingly available to him. He wants to give the story attention. But if I were to ask him, he’d prefer to watch Hot Wheels on TV. Of course he would. I like this frame of reference a lot and will be holding it with me.
YES that is exactly it! It's less about "children like dumb stuff" and more "we are all drawn to dumb stuff if we are being honest" :D. We just got to watch a gorgeous new ballet with our kiddos--all three stayed up till 10:00 PM, and I almost just bailed and didn't do it, but wow was it worth it. I love that you guys are reading LWW. Six was so excited to come home yesterday and read me a page from Dawn Treader aloud. He was so proud of his new reading skills. Warmed my heart <3
Every family will draw lines differently. I didn't much care about characters on shirts-- or at least I generally avoided them, but not in an absolutist way. And in general tried to limit them to characters my kids actually knew. But clothes are often hand me downs or gifts and I just don't care that much. I was much pickier about books. I remember one time refusing to read a rhyming board book that has a deplorable lack of meter and poor word choice and pointing out: this line doesn't work, and improvising a better line myself.
I do remember one conversation with my oldest in which she said that she'd given up picking out her own library books because the ones she grabbed were generally disappointing, but the ones I picked out were usually much better. Of course eventually she started picking out her own books, but I think that moment was pivotal, it showed that she had developed a sense of taste, of good and bad, and wanted to avoid that which wasn't good, but didn't quite yet know how to look for the good.
I love that anecdote about the books--what a wonderful moment for you as a mom! What books were you picking out, if you can recall?
I can't remember specific titles, but that was definitely when we were in the picture book stage still. At least in terms of what we were checking out from the library. I was probably reading chapter books as read aloud. So Barbara McClintock, Barbara Cooney, Allen Say, Trina Schartt Hyman, Mo Willems.. .would have been some of the names I was consistently looking for on the shelf. Anything with beautiful pictures and elevated, poetic language, good storytelling. I would let the kids pile books on the table and then I would quietly weed out the books I did not want to take home. Very seldom did books come home that I didn't enjoy reading. And if they did, then I'd read them once and then hide them until it was time to take them back to the library. Or if I could catch it and the child forgot, I'd manage to not read them at all.
Yes! I agree so much. I think that part of growing up for me (and not in the adolescent sense, but actually being comfortable in my adult skin) was being willing to express my taste, and just call ugly things what they were! And I think you were one of the first people I met post-graduation who was willing to just openly say what you meant in this way, which was so refreshing. One of the ironic down-sides to being trained in the arts is that you get a lot told a lot of nonsense about how modern art and music has worth, when really, a lot of it is just trash. There's good stuff too, it's just harder to find! So you become afraid to say, "This is terrible!" But really, I think a lot of musicians and artists who have been trained well and whose souls are attuned to beauty find it awful to be subjected to bad modern music.
We also highly curate what our children are exposed to--children's books, the images in them, the clothes they wear, the toys they play with. All for the sake of that imagination filled with beautiful things!
It's interesting how difficult it is to say when something is badly done. I am trying to learn about opera, and I saw a modern opera a few years ago that was just not good. The libretto is a total mess, though the staging is stunning. I was so confused, though, because everyone else raved about it, and my instincts were that it was poorly made. It took me 18 months to develop the courage and certainty to trust my instincts and say, "No, there are serious artistic problems with that piece!"
I really enjoyed reading this and would love to read some of your family’s favorite movies and books.
I love seeing you here! <3
We are big fans of classic fairy tales and myths--there is a huge collection at the library and are working through it. The Baba Yaga tales (creepy and excellent), the Finn MaCool tales, various Grimms and Hans Christian Andersen tales, all favorites. We love The Snow Queen in particular.
For movies, we tend to stick with slower-paced films (as I think your family does too). We love My Neighbor Totoro, The Swan Princess, Robin Hood, Cinderella. We've seen The Prince of Egypt but it was a little too much. I love monster movies so I'm really looking forward to sharing the treasures of film with the kids later--Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Godzilla--but obviously that's not happening yet :)
We also watch Gilbert and Sullivan recordings like Pirates of Penzance and Patience (available on YouTube), and the kids often join me when I'm watching my weekly opera.
What others do your kids love?
For a tv show, "Tumble Leaf" is slower paced and has beautiful claymation. There are also a series of classical music books called the "Story Orchestra" that have imaginative animation and long snippets of orchestral or operatic works that my children love.
Two relatively recent children's ballets that my kids love are Joby Talbot's Alice in Wonderland and the recent Beatrix Potter potpourri basket, (most of her characters appear i think) with STUNNING costumes and sets.