Sandra Dodd: I was on Sue’s site and I saw an article called When a Child Wants to Read the Same Book Again and Again. And she was writing about her thoughts when one of her children wanted to repeat a book and she wasn’t getting it. She wasn’t finding a good way to justify that. And then Sue herself got really interested in drawing and became, as she said, obsessed with it.
And she was drawing the same things a lot. And I think a lot of parents have come to discussions and asked, is it okay? My kid is watching this movie over and over. Or my kid only wants to watch the same TV show all the time. And then my general first rhetorical question to them was, uh what’s your [00:01:00] favorite album? Who’re your favorite musical artists? What’s your favorite song?
And by the time they think about that, they know that there’s something they’ve listened to 16 or 100 times, and it calms them down. But I think it’s learning. It’s part of learning. And it’s also comfort.
Another thing I’ve said is some of your days should be all new and exciting and novel, and some should be same old, same old comfortable home.
Cecilie Conrad: Yeah, I agree. It’s funny because I think when I meet that question, is it okay they watch the same movie over and over, or, you know, the repetition thing, it’s often about things maybe the parents are not truly happy with to begin with. You know, would you stop them reading the same Shakespeare play over and over and complain about that?
Would you stop them rehearsing the same [00:02:00] complex something Mozart on the grand piano, would that be a problem?
Would you stop them drawing hands? They draw hands over and over and over, the drawing kids. They draw hands because it takes forever to learn to draw hands. So there’s also often a judgment about the actual thing. Did you want your child to watch that Barbie movie to begin with? I think I’ve seen in one… was it your post Sandra?
Sandra Dodd: Jo Isaac, maybe, someone, someone wrote it. Someone said… reasons to watch the Barbie movies over and over.
Cecilie Conrad:Yeah, is that okay?
Sue Elvis: It depends whether they have any classical music in them and then… I’m joking.
My kids all, my girls all loved watching the Barbie movies over and over again. When I was writing that post, I remember that was quite a long time ago. It wasn’t that I didn’t [00:03:00] value the book that the child wanted to read. I think that I didn’t value it for myself. That I got fed up with it. I wanted something new.
But it wasn’t about the reading. It was about the child.
Sandra Dodd: Right, because you were the one reading it.
Sue Elvis: Yeah, I was reading it out loud and I got tired of reading it, the same book out loud. I wanted a bit more excitement, you know, reading out loud times, not understanding that my child must have been getting something out of it again and again and again, even if it was just enjoyment and comfort, because I don’t believe kids do things…they’ve got active minds. They’re curious. They’re not satisfied with doing boring stuff over and over again. There must be more to it than that.
And as you said, Sandra, I started drawing and I’m not an artist. And yeah, my drawing was rather secret. Well, I showed [00:04:00] my kids… I got the courage up to show my kids at one stage, but I just, I don’t know why I just wanted to draw cats and I drew them over and over and over again, and I got better as my skills got better, but then I started to want to draw different types of cats or different cats in different poses. So it’s sort of was never ending. But then I kept thinking, but I want to draw birds as well, and elephants and dogs, and I should be moving on to something else. So I expanded my repertoire, but I kept coming back to cats. Somehow I got stuck, well I say stuck on cats, I hadn’t finished with cats.
And then one day it occurred to me that all I was learning by drawing cats, I could take forward with me when I wanted to draw a dog or even a bird. I would be a lot more skilled at drawing. It didn’t matter what I moved on to next, I would [00:05:00] take those skills with me. And then I thought, well, that’s probably happening with our kids, with books and things.
As you said, Cecilia, if it had been a Shakespeare play that they were wanting to read over and over again, I would have instantly understood that because I like doing that. It’s so complex. There’s so much in it, so rich – maybe that’s the word – rich, that you can only absorb so much at a time. And then you go back and you notice different things the second time round and the third time round.
But also, you notice those quotes, those words that really delighted you. You hear them for the second time, or the third time, or the fourth time, and they delight you each time. It’s not like you got tired of them. We all look at each other and we grin and we think, oh wow… and we all start to say them.
And I think that’s like your family language is when you start to quote [00:06:00] stuff and especially when you start to quote stuff from say Shakespeare or if you go the other way, what about that picture book—we’re going on a bear hunt, we’re going on a bear hunt? I can’t even remember how it goes.
Sandra Dodd: There’s a song, like a little clicking song too, Girl Scouts, yeah.
Sue Elvis: Yeah, and then we use those words in other situations, like if we’re getting ready to go on a picnic, we’ll say, we’re going on a bear hunt, or we’re going on a picnic, and they’re useful for other situations, or we’ll quote, Shakespeare in a totally different situation, or we pick up things, absorb things when we spend a lot of time with them, and then they become part of us and our families, and part of our family language.
And I don’t think you get that unless you really absorb / immerse yourself into something for a number of times.
Cecilie Conrad: I think you’re talking about [00:07:00] community and family and sharing this repetition and that’s a very valid point. That you’re creating a shared reality by sharing your immersion in whatever it is.
You can build a garden together, or you can read a play together, or you can go for a walk together or whatever you do together. You have some shared experiences. You have some stories that you can tell together as a family. Next time you go to a wedding or a bigger event, you know, you share your stories and you have some stories that are shared stories of your family.
So that’s one reason to go back to the same things over and over with our kids. Sometimes they do it on their own. I didn’t watch the Barbie movies 50 times. My kids did. Especially, funny enough, my oldest son. He was very, very fond of the Barbie movies.
Sandra Dodd: They had some good music.
Cecilie Conrad: Oh, it was great. I’m not against it. But what I’m saying is…
Sandra Dodd: I mean, I’m saying that’s [00:08:00] why boys might have liked it if they were musicians, especially
Cecilie Conrad: I think they like the fancy dresses. Why wouldn’t they? They’re pretty. I mean, it’s shiny. And the stories were interesting enough to keep them interested for a while. They needed to understand the dynamics.
And they still… they don’t talk about the Barbie movies except for laughing a little bit now that they are teenagers. They say, “Oh, remember when we watched the Barbie movies all the time,” but it happens to be something, a lot of the kids, the teenagers, they know, they talk about when they were younger.
And they talk about when they watched the Barbie movies over and over. So apparently there’s something in the Barbie movies to absorb—something that makes them want to see it again and again, which is not bad.
Sue Elvis: It’s very, very clever because they’ve taken two different ideas and meshed them together, like the classical music and the animation and a toy. And they’ve put it all together. I think that’s why [00:09:00] people—musicians like the Piano Guys—really appeals, because they’ve done something similar with their music. They’ve taken classical music and they’re doing something different with it so that it’s fresh and new. But it’s also comforting because we like that music or we like the animation.
We hear something familiar in the Barbie movies that we haven’t heard in that context before, but we’ve heard it playing on our CD players or at a concert or we played it ourselves, and now to watch Barbie dancing to it on the screen, it’s a whole new way of experiencing it.
Cecilie Conrad: But also I wanted to say that there is great value in things we dive into together that creates that shared language and shared stories. I just wanted to say that as I see it [00:10:00] equally when they do it alone. If they want to do something over and over, watch the same movie over and over, and I can’t be interested, I think it’s my job as a parent to.. I don’t know how to even say it. I mean, the word “allow” almost comes out of my mouth.
Sandra Dodd: To leave them alone?
Cecilie Conrad: To leave them alone. Yeah. And not be afraid of it. To be like, yeah, whatever. If what you want to do is watch that, then do it. And if you want to watch that same movie again and again, I’m not here to offer you 200 other movies because Netflix does that very efficiently already. And I don’t… I trust that if you’re watching that there’s something in it for you.
That’s the first ten minutes of episode 6 of The Ladies Fixing the World podcast, The Role of Repetition in Learning, Unschooling, and Shaping Identity!
I hope this excerpt has whet your appetite and you now want to listen to the whole episode. Cecilie, Sandra and I enjoy all our conversations together, but this one is definitely a favourite!
The Video Version
The Audio Version
Also available on all other podcast platforms – find the links here.
✏️ Shownotes
What’s the value of doing the same thing more than once?
In this episode of Ladies Fixing the World, Cecilie Conrad, Sandra Dodd and Sue Elvis unfold repetition—how it shows up in our lives, why it matters, and what it reveals.
Together, they examine how children tend to gravitate toward watching the same films, reading the same stories, or playing the same games. Rather than dismissing these habits, they unpack the deeper role of repetition in building understanding, creating comfort, and developing personal interests.
They explore repetition in unschooling: how revisiting material or ideas becomes a natural part of learning when children are trusted to follow their own curiosity. The conversation weaves through stories of old VHS collections, gaming habits, repeated drawings, Shakespeare, and art museums, highlighting how adults also rely on rhythm, ritual, and recurrence.
The episode explores what it means to share stories across generations, how collections shape identity, and how repetition becomes a part of a family’s language. Whether it’s a child rewatching Barbie movies or a parent replaying Beatles records, this is a conversation about attention, trust, and the rhythms we all rely on.
🔗 Sandra, Sue and Cecilie’s websites
🔗 Links & Resources mentioned:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P._D._Q._Bach
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%22Weird_Al%22_Yankovic
- Vermeer’s Hat: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vermeer%27s_Hat
Video Chapters
0:00 Exploring Repetition and Shared Experiences
11:09 The Value of Revisiting Shared Experiences
16:38 Personal Collections and Censorship
27:22 Geography, Art, and Repetition
41:04 Appreciating Art and Repetition
54:58 Shared Shakespeare Performances
1:06:13 The Power of Shared Narratives
1:16:36 The Value of Video Games
1:21:47 Recognizing Value in Diverse Interests
1:26:48 Childhood Play & Career Opportunities
1:36:35 The Value of Unexpected Connections
1:44:04 The Value of Childlike Repetition
1:51:21 Value of Shared Conversations 2:00:08 Celebrating Shared Wisdom and Conversations
Blog Posts Mentioned in This Episode
When a Child Wants to Read the Same Book Again and Again
Learning From My Children
Related Blog Posts
Here are a couple of posts for my Buy Me a Coffee supporters. A virtual coffee helps keep my blog online. It also gives you access to all my password-protected posts. Why not support my work?
Heavy Metal Music and Keeping Kids Safe
Is it Risky to Share Our Book Collections? What Will People Think?
Do you have a favourite song you listen to, a movie you watch, or a painting you look at again and again? Are there some things you like to do repeatedly? What about your kids? Why not stop by and share a repetition story?
