I’d definitely avoid making a big deal out of it being educational or related to school. (Unless their educational experience is very unusual.) This is cool, interesting stuff you’re giving them! Obviously, this relies on you being able to sell that idea to the child.
If the direct sales approach seems unlikely to work, you can make it available without much fanfare but give just enough of a hook for their curiosity. (If they’re incurious, that’s probably the place that’ll yield most benefit,)
My parents—I now realise—did a lot of this, “happening” to leave well-written books on subjects they knew I was interested in around the place. So, for instance, leaving books about sex, reproduction and puberty lying around when I was about 11 or 12. We had an adult encyclopedia, which was kept with my parents’ serious/valuable books, but they said if I really wanted to, I was allowed to have a look, as a special privilege. So long as I was careful with them and didn’t damage them because they were special. So I sat there for hours and hours and days and days with my fingers stuck in the pages, in much the way I do now with browser tabs and Wikipedia.
Also helps greatly if the books are actually good and interesting. The better you know the kid and their interests, the better you’ll be able to (a) pick things they will be interested in, and (b) convince them that it is interesting.
I’d definitely avoid making a big deal out of it being educational or related to school. (Unless their educational experience is very unusual.) This is cool, interesting stuff you’re giving them! Obviously, this relies on you being able to sell that idea to the child.
If the direct sales approach seems unlikely to work, you can make it available without much fanfare but give just enough of a hook for their curiosity. (If they’re incurious, that’s probably the place that’ll yield most benefit,)
My parents—I now realise—did a lot of this, “happening” to leave well-written books on subjects they knew I was interested in around the place. So, for instance, leaving books about sex, reproduction and puberty lying around when I was about 11 or 12. We had an adult encyclopedia, which was kept with my parents’ serious/valuable books, but they said if I really wanted to, I was allowed to have a look, as a special privilege. So long as I was careful with them and didn’t damage them because they were special. So I sat there for hours and hours and days and days with my fingers stuck in the pages, in much the way I do now with browser tabs and Wikipedia.
Also helps greatly if the books are actually good and interesting. The better you know the kid and their interests, the better you’ll be able to (a) pick things they will be interested in, and (b) convince them that it is interesting.