As kids turn 7 it’s some kind of a rite of passage now in school, kids get a DS.  Now we had gameboys back in my day, but it wasn’t anywhere near this bad.  I swear these kids can sit with the head crooked at a certain angle staring at a 3×3 screen for days, and when they finish their game they are no better or more interesting than 3 days ago when they started.  So as their uncle I decided I had to at least try something.

I invited the older kids on a date with the uncle, borrowed the sisters suburban and piled in 7 kids over the age of 8 with the oldest being 13.  We stopped into Burger King for a dollar menu dinner and then went down to the KC plaza and we walked around to see the lights.  That was pretty fun, but then we got into the Barnes & Noble on the plaza.  This was actually a really fun experience, being 3 floors high, we worked through floor by floor with the kids seeing the most books in one place they’ve ever seen (excluding a library, well maybe not, this is Missouri)  The rule, they had  a cap of $20 to spend on their Christmas present and it had to be a book.  I could have given them a gift card, but I wanted to ensure it got spent on a book, and not a game or a poster or whatever else they could find, I wanted them to read a real live book.

So?  It mostly worked.  The younger kids (8-10) ended up missing the point a bit.  They saw it as a value game, ie what’s the most expensive book so I can get to get the most out of my $20 rather than what book do I want to read.  Also, puppies on the cover were like kryptonite to the girls, and removed them from being able to follow my perfect logic of why they should get a nancy drew book.  But the older kids (11-13) hit the nail on the head, they got excited about the books, the genres, Sam was wowed at the coffee table books about WWII, Annie found a collection of Jane Austen books in a collectors edition and ooogled at it, and on it went.  As an uncle, I was in heaven watching the older kids pick out their books, I felt like santa.

By the end of the night, I was out maybe $150 bucks, but I got all the kids a present, and a present that would actually excite them about something worthwhile.  The side benefit is with some of them I now have more to talk about as they read through some of my favorite books from my childhood.  So the verdict is I’ve found a new tradition.  They loved it, it was cheap, and anything to break that Nintendo DS stare is money well spent in my book.  Thanks B&N, I’ll see you next year

The payout - kids reading after presents

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