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I’ve been sharing what I’m into for almost two years now. This is the first time I’m sharing what my kids are into. They’ve been nerding out on some very specific things lately that I thought would be fun to share:

Harry Potter

I brought the Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone audiobook along for our Florida road trip, hoping we could enjoy it together. That was wishful thinking: Silas and Lucy started complaining about it immediately. We only made it through one chapter.

But Sarah was hooked, and has been listening to it ever since. She always invited me to listen to it with her, and that offer is hard to resist. (Jim Dale is such a great narrator.)

I just picked up Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets at the library yesterday and she’s already two discs in. She’s nine, so pretty soon we’ll confront the how-far-do-we-go-with-this question, because she might not be ready for book 4 and she’s definitely not ready for books 5-7. But right now she’s just loving it.

Matt Christopher

Jack and Sarah have been plowing through Matt Christopher’s sports novels ever since  I noticed Play Ball! from his Little League series while bookstore browsing early this summer. Based on the cover—which was really quite nice—I assumed these were low-quality, mass-market paperbacks designed to appeal to baseball-obsessed kids. It turns out Christopher was a prolific writer who published nearly 100 books in 75 years, mostly about sports. (For the past 15 years, books continue to be published posthumously under his name, but the quality, thankfully, has remained high.)

He’s written books about almost every sport you can think of, but for now, my kids just want to read the baseball books. Worth a look if you have a sports-obsessed kid in your life from about age 7 to 12 or so.

What my kids are into | Modern Mrs Darcy

Roominate

While everyone else is playing legos, Sarah’s building and re-building her Roominate kit (while listening to Harry Potter, of course). It’s an open-ended building toy that’s designed to encourage STEM play for girls. (Much like Goldieblox, which Sarah and I weren’t crazy about.) Much like legos, the Roominate pieces are taking over my office. (See Silas above.)

What my kids are into | Modern Mrs Darcy

Lego

We’ve been into legos for a long time, but our obsession has reached a whole new level since we saw The Lego Movie. Jack is into realism these days: bowling alleys, gyms, jetliners. Silas builds spaceships. Lucy has been working on a gigantic park for weeks. Every day she tweaks it a bit. Yesterday she added a coffee shop to it, just for me. Sweet girl.

Also discovered: these Michael Hickox stop-motion LEGO videos. They are great.

What my kids are into | Modern Mrs Darcy

The boys are still Star Wars obsessed. A reader (bless you, Samantha!) sent us a great package of Jedi Academy books, a comic, postcards, and those terrific bookmarks (may the books be with you; read: it is your destiny) to fuel the fire. (My girls claim to be uninterested, but I did catch Sarah reading Jedi Academy this week.)

That’s it for us. I’d love to hear what the young people in your life are into these days.

17 comments

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  1. Janice says:

    Anne,

    My oldest son is eight and a voracious reader, so we of course introduced him to Harry Potter. I was wondering the same thing about how many I should let him read, but it turned out to be a non-issue. When he reached Order of the Phoenix he just lost interest and stopped reading a little ways in. I think it just got too old for him and he wasn’t drawn into the story any longer. In a few years I’ll be sure to suggest it again if he doesn’t think of it himself, because eventually he’ll love the whole series. But I was surprised that all my worrying about how to censor 🙂 was needless. He’s just still little and still relates only to little Harry Potter.

    Hope your decision is as painless!

  2. Laura says:

    I was a competitive swimmer growing up, and on one of my many strolls through the young adult section of my local library I discovered Matt Chrisopher’s swimming novels and loved them! I think I also read a couple of his others. Maybe he is a hidden gem!

  3. My five-year-old son had a blast with the Usborne Little Boys’ Activity Book yesterday. We were stuck in a waiting room for about forty-five minutes, and he was engaged the whole time. It’s a very colorful and cute book of stickers, mazes, matching games, etc.

  4. My mom got Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s library for DC1 and he couldn’t put it down (walking into things while reading it), and then as soon as he finished he started over from the beginning.

  5. Ginger says:

    I don’t have this worry yet, but I filed away this trick for the Someday, concerning Harry Potter. I can’t even remember where I heard this, but this family handles the maturity level issue by giving the copy of the Harry Potter book corresponding to the age their child is turning each year. So when he/she turns eleven, HP and the Sorcerer’s Stone; the next year, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. It’s a great family tradition and talk about instilling anticipation and an excitement for books!

    I love the concept of birthday gifts, along with Privileges and Responsibilities each year…

    Here’s one link I pinned that explains it well: http://www.windingoak.com/zine/red-reading-boots/the-privilege-responsibility-of-reading-in-bed/

  6. Anne says:

    Fun pictures! It is neat to hear what they are into. I had not heard of Roominate, and I would not have thought of having a STEM summer, so to speak, like you had for your kids. My 6.5yo got really excited about the extinct creatures week on Wild Kratts this summer. He still talks about the Tasmanian tiger and the dodo bird. They really captured his imagination. My 3yo has been getting out the homemade play dough a lot, and my baby really wants to experiment with solid food. I felt badly biting into my apple in front of her today. 🙂

  7. Shelley Weatherspoon says:

    Memories of Legos and vacation travel reads! My little ones are 23, 21, and 18 and they each either read what I just finished or I read what they have finished! When we traveled they were each armed with books on TAPE (omg) headphones and batteries… And each time we would stop our settle back down activity was a read aloud chapter from an antique book I brought along. My mother had the whole set of bobbsey twins mystery books, as a child I read them myself. When my kids came along, they were too delicate, if they survived our many moves for my kids to read on their own, so I would read aloud. One chapter Each time we would climb bck in to the car for our stretch and potty breaks. I would also read them at nap times.

    Thank you for the trip down memory lane!

  8. Shelley Weatherspoon says:

    I want to add that it was awesome going to the bookstore at midnight to get the new Harry Potter books with my kids!
    Dressing up and having every flavor beans and butter beers in a bookstore was also a wonderful memory!

  9. Jennifer H says:

    Samuel asked to read Harry Potter when he was seven. At that time I read them out loud. We made it through 2 and he bought #3, but as far as I know he hasn’t read it. I’m with Janice – just because they are obsessed with it now, doesn’t mean it will last through the series.

    My kid’s obsessions now are the How to Train Your Dragon books, drawing dragons, and all things Disney (still, at age 11 – love it!).

  10. Dawn Reiss says:

    My 8 year old daughter, Lucy, loves The Secret Zoo series by Bryan Chick. In her words, “I’m obsessed!” Our son Eli, 7, read and enjoyed the first of that series as well. They too have spent the summer with a tub of Legos (freshly inspired by the movie). We’re also into reading the Little House books together and I just got the DVDs of season one of that show from the library. Harry Potter has been sitting on our shelves since before we had babies and it has not come up yet. It’s easy to enjoy later in life anyway so there’s no rush. 🙂

  11. Brooke says:

    I’d love to hear what you come up with regarding Harry Potter! My almost 9-year-old son and I just finished up the third book (I’ve been reading them to him, at his request) and I’m not sure he’s ready for the fourth book right now. I’ve been thinking maybe the rest of the series should be summer books for him, one each year, but I know he won’t want to wait so long in between. Also, by the time we get to the end of the series I can’t imagine he’ll want me to read to him anymore, and I have really loved reliving the series with him!

  12. Kate Frishman says:

    I had the same Harry Potter issue with my younger three. After book 3, they got to read the next book on their next birthday. When they complained, I pointed out that their older sisters and I had to wait TWO years for each new book 🙂

  13. Virginia says:

    Fun! I love hearing new book ideas for my kiddos to try.

    My 11 year old daughter is into: the Everlost series, the Percy Jackson series (there are multiple series, she’s read them all), and always all things Harry Potter. 🙂

    My 6 year old daughter is into: Junie B Jones, Wizard of Oz, Arthur chapter books, and the Who? What? When? Where? Why? How? books we have. Oh, and Where’s Waldo?

    My 2 year old is into: choas and destroying my home. She does like books about trucks, monsters, and Winnie the Pooh.

    We’re also HUGE Star Wars fans and my 6 year old has recently been introduced to all the live action movies and is now starting the Clone Wars cartoon series. My 2 year old has picked up on the hype and has declared she loves Star Wars too. 😉

  14. never heard of Roominate – must show that to my architect husband!

    Our kids are really into building boats in the backyard with wood and tools, nails and screws. Ben will measure wood and ask my husband to saw it to the right length when he gets home from work. He’s also fascinated by the Titanic and sharks.

    My daughter is all about Frozen and all the emotional implications and dilemmas in the story. So we talk it through a lot and I tell her I can’t listen to that song ANY MORE. She’s also into the Little House books and just got me to teach her how to knit. She adores animals, so she’s often researching different pets and trying to convince us to get another one.

  15. Erin says:

    I love Sarah’s park! It is beautiful. I totally feigned disinterest in my brother’s sports books (I think they were Matt Christopher’s) but then read them when no one was watching.

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