My 9 year old is so into reading I am unsure what to do this year to challenge him. He took his end of grade testing in May and read at a 12th grade level. This child lives to read... I bought a ton of books at a yard sale yesterday all classics like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea , Black Beauty,Little Women there were about 20 in this collection. He has read 3 so far and I bought them yesterday . Now , for homeschool this year what if anything should I do to make it challenging for him? After he read them he came in the school room by himself and typed up a report a semi report , about what he read and the good parts of this book and at the end the parts he disliked and then added what he thought should've happened. We never have done this before but he felt the notion and I said go for it!!! Now , what should I do this year , remain as usual and read with his grade he is in or what? Any help would be appreciated..
Well, heck! I say if he's doing that, just let him keep doing it! Supply him with hoards of books, whatever he wants, and let him read them and do a mini report if he wants to. You can always know what books he's studying, and google the title of it plus "unit study" at the end to come up with study guides and resources for that particular book. You have them if he wants them, wants to do a project based on his book or something. Read them along with him, and if anything sparks an idea in you for a project, ask him if he'd like to do it. (For instance, if he reads... The Crucible - okay it's way above level but it comes to mind - and he thinks that actually using a crucible and crushing/burning things above a gas burner sounds cool, find an experiment for it. KWIM?) There are often FREE experiments (or the outlines for how to do them on your own) online. Not sure where your English/language arts studies are right now, but you can always pull a paragraph and have him label parts of speech, things like that. THere are full unit studies on tons of books out there, and they'd give you ideas to incorporate ANY subject with a specific book. Right now though, it sounds like he's having a big ole time, and I'd really just let him do his thing and not get in his way too much. Like I said, might be a good idea to have extra resources handy for any book in case he asks for them, but I wouldn't push the issue. (I might TELL him I found some projects and things for that book if he wants them, and leave it at that. If he wants to do some, I'd totally let him pick and choose what he did and not do anything that he didn't want to do.) Don't kill it for him. Congrats on having a reader!!!
My 11 yo dd is like this. What I do with her is basically on her curriculum I note that she is reading way above level, and don't teach it anymore. I provide tons of books (thank goodnes for the library) and let her read. But in terms of school work, I still teach grammar & spelling. We study novels in terms of character, plot development, writing style etc. We often do art project related to the novel being studied, and sometimes science projects, history or geography related stuff too. We use the novel being studied as a base for writing too - book reports, creative writing (e.g. write the first chapter for a sequel), journal/letter writing from a characters perspective, newspaper reports on events in the story etc. Because although she reads very well, she doesn't write at the same level. The other thing I do is give reading assignments in other subjects, like read a book (that I name) on communication when we are studying that. She really enjoys those assignments, and it gets the information into her.
Here are a few thoughts for you but there is a yahoo group called HS Gifted and people there will have a lot of other ideas. I don't think that you need to worry about challenging him. It sounds like he will do it all on his own. I would make a point to try to read all of the classics though. . .do the Greek myths (if you haven't), Grimm's Fairy Tales, and other similar short stories. I may also try to do author studies. . .like Jack London, Jane Austin, etc. I'm sure someone here has links to a 'classic' reading list. One trick about challenging kids like this is that material that is at their reading level is not material that is age appropriate.
Wow.. that is great! I would definately load up on books... and I really wouldn't emphasized teaching reading so much anymore.. I would still work on grammar and spelling. Unit studies to go with a book sounds like an awesome idea. My son is a reader too.. but he enjoys the "magical worlds" of simple kids fiction. He loves things like Goosebumps and The Magic Treehouse. It just occured to me that by 4th grade we weren't learning how to read anymore.. we were learning more grammar and reports and writing our own stories in "reading class".
Personally I wouldn't worry about spelling and/or grammar either in and of itself. (Like I wouldn't get a seperate curriculum for them.) But I would teach it as a part of writing. Generally students who read really well, are capable of advanced writing as well. HTH
I don't think reading is a problem, my dd is the same she can't get enough of books, I have no doubt that she reads on a college level, we have a hard time making that a challenge too, thats one reason we chose Beautiful Feet for history , so much reading! She chose a book she has to read this year as classics for her prize for a reading program too! could have been the popular one but chose the old one haha! We are going to work on more reports for the literature she reads, the classics and such... they will be lap books and craft projects and written work all together in order to make it a challenge, best I could come up with for her. She is not ready for young adult books, enjoys reading young teen and kid levels still, shes 13, so that makes sence. but the classics I think re important, the 200oo leagues etc, are things we are working on too... she has read the Phantom Tollbooth too just for fun! and Oddessy, and several others that she started having a conversation with her brother about and I had not realised she had read it yet! Books I have not read yet she has read! Talk about a challenge! Maybe we should have them adapt a book? Change the story to meet thier expectations? Wow I like my own idea! HEhe!
The problem I've found is the content. Rachael was reading way beyond her age, too, but so much of the books had content or emotional stuff that she simply wasn't mature enough to deal with. Nothing "wrong" with an older child reading that stuff, but not for a nine or ten year old!
Exactly! I madeit a rule that I now look at all the books she is checking out before we check them out! I had been find, but one we found had kissing in it, she is not comfortable with that type of book or in movies so she was glad I chose to stop it. I think more and more they make tenny bopper books have boy girl stuff in it, she liked the babysitter club books because for the most part that area is extrememly mild... I know shes not into the really emotional stuff either. she wants books like Nancy Drew now, with mystery but not grose. I hope that Nancy Rue is like that I have heard it is a good book series.
Lisa, this is great! Is he reading at a twelfth grade level orally or silently or both? This same thing happened to us. When I received Emma's test results back I was amazed. I knew she was accelerating in reading but I wasn't sure just how well she was doing. The reason for my question is because the reading during the test is silent reading, or I should say that the test Ems took was silent in it's reading, and the eye moves so much faster then the mouth. What I am doing this year is having her read books that are more challenging but we are also working on oral reading. Even though she can read at a higher level, I want to make sure we do not miss important words or ideas before moving to far along. Also, her brain can read and understand words but when they are difficult, she may not always be able to pronounce them as well. So this will help. She is very strong in silent reading and orally, she does great, but we are working on this part this year. Patty
Initially they made him read silently , then asked me if it was ok for him to read aloud ( like I would say no ) anyways, he did and pronounced words like crazy , I am truly amazed. But the only problem is when he was asked what a big word was he did'nt know and when it was time for him to spell it he spelled it wrong about 80 % of the time. They told me not to worry but thats my middle name LOL
If this was my situation, I would focus on the areas they said not to worry about. Do not worry about them but you can work with this area, even if it is a little at a time. This way there is comprehension of the word as well as proper spelling. But you need to do what you feel is best for your child. Patty
