Suggestions for Gifted First-Grader?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Just to get the Annoying Proud Parent Brag out of the way - my daughter, who just finished kindergarten, is reading at the 4th grade level. According to her teacher.

Wild stuff. :cool::smiley:

Thing is, though, she’s not Doogie Howser or whatever - she’s a little kid. Who loves kittens and plays in the bathroom sink and was so frightened by the commercials that she refuses to watch “Harry Potter”.

I have no qualms about just turning her loose in the library, I don’t monitor my kids’ choices. But I thought it would also be nice to offer her something a little bit challenging yet still age-appropriate.

My childhood picks don’t interest her, she hasn’t given Ramona Quimby a second glance and Nancy Drew looked “too old” to her. I tried reading “Charlotte’s Web” aloud and she wasn’t interested in that, I suspect the line illustrations were too foreign.

She’s read pretty much all the Junie B. Jones books and liked those.

She really prefers female protagonists. I may try reading “Henry Reed” aloud anyway, the naturalist angle (and the slapstick) might snag her interest.

Her twin brother’s reading just fine, right on schedule. And multiplying and dividing and adding two-digit numbers.

They’re both fascinated by infinity.

Ay yi yi!

I’m finding it tricky, meeting my kids’ needs intellectually without overwhelming them emotionally. I think I tell them too much. What have other parents tried? Any tales to share?

Any other suggestions in general? How am I going to keep these kids challenged? I really like their charter school, it’s not a “gifted” school but I believe they are succeeding at teaching kids effectively and promoting good character qualities, good citizenship.

I’m just not confident that I am giving them everything they could use. And yet I don’t want to push.

Oh - and just to share a couple of successes - Melanie Watts has written some really good books for kids, we loved “Chester” (that one was a class favorite) and “Scaredy Squirrel” (about a germophobic squirrel). And “Captain Raptor” is an especially charming tale about dinosaur astronauts, in a comic book format.

2

Have her try the Molly Moon books.

3

First, let me say that I’ve been where you are. Daughter was assessed at reading at a grade 6 level when she was in kindergarten. We switched her from French Immersion to a core French program. It was VERY hard for her at first, so I promised that if it was still that hard at Christmas, she could go back to her original class. But by Christmas she was bilingual enough and didn’t want to move.

We monitored her reading - a mix of fiction and non-fiction but let her read pretty much whatever she wanted. She says, now, that the best thing I did for her was explain that her classmates weren’t all stupid because they didn’t learn at her pace, that SHE was the odd one out, but in a GOOD way, and she’d best get used to it asap.

Her school had her do grades 3&4 the same year, which was a mistake: she left her friends behind and was singled out in the ‘new’ class as different. She graduated high school at age 16 and went on to university. After 12 years as an ASL interpreter she is now a high school French teacher.

The one thing to remember is that the kid can learn quickly and remember details that stump most adults but her social skills may well lag behind her vocabulary. Be open to discuss whatever but don’t judge.

Whatever her interests were, I supported with additional lessons, if available. Science day camp, aka Mini University, for example. And swimming lessons for both kids were mandatory, up to Bronze Medallion (at that time you were qualified to be a lifeguard at municipal pools). By the time she was 12, she was deeply into SCA, Star Trek, and the local Mensa chapter - with people pretty much as bright as she.

She’s doing fine, now, but I don’t take the credit. I am very proud of the woman she is and who she has become.

an seanchai

4

Lemony Snicket?

5

The Trixie Belden series might work.

6

Thanks ShibbOleth, **Drain Bead **and Oakminster - I’ll look for those on our next trip.

seanchai, thank you for sharing, that’s so sweet :slight_smile: Your love for your daughter shines through.

This spring I put him in soccer with mostly 8-yr-olds and her in a dance class with mostly 8-yr-olds. They’d participated in both activities before but at easier levels & with younger kids. It was tough for them and they wanted to quit at first (and I felt really guilty) but they each got the hang of it and had a lot of fun. And want to continue in the fall.

I’m betting that’s the kind of thing you’re talking about - finding something that’s challenging and interesting to them, whatever it might be. I don’t want them coasting through everything just because they’re smart, it’s a dangerous habit.

7

My daughters are around where yours is. My 2nd-grader is reading at 6th-grade level and it looks like my kindergartner is keeping the same pace for her age. She (the younger one) really loves a series about fairies, I think they’re the Rainbow Magic series. Ruby the Red Fairy, Heather the Violet Fairy, etc. If you daughter isn’t yet interested in Ramona or Nancy Drew, she might like these. My oldest moved from the fairy books straight to Nancy Drew, and her goal is to read everything in the ND series. That poses quite a challenge to her mother and me.

8

I too have a child who is “ahead of her class.” We decided that we wouldn’t let her skip a grade, something many of her teachers have suggested.

As far as advice for reading material we let ours read the Harry Potter series (all seven books in 2 months) while in the 2nd grade, she’s also into Star Wars, and Nancy Drew (on book 34). She’s also read a lot of the Judy Blume books and a couple of the Chronicles of Narnia. It can be frustrating when it comes to buying books for her since she normally has them read in a day or two.

She’s now going into the third grade and has asked us if we will let her have her own library card. I think we can make that happen.

9

You can’t go wrong with the Little House on the Prairie series. I read them all at age 6 and loved them.

10

The Hobbit? I was in first or second grade when I first read it. It took me a while, but I enjoyed it immensely.

11

How is she with horse books? From my own memory, she might be a little young yet for the Black Stallion, but Pony Pals or maybe Saddle Club?

If she’s interested in language or words, which is probably given the reading level, Dr. Seuss will give her some fun stuff to work on. The Bartholomew Cubbins books and Horton were favorites of mine, and the word play is great. I loved them for both things.

12

oh, by the way… we also have some staple books that she reads over and over.
We also let her read the Roald Dahl books in the first grade… All of them… Well, most of them.
Little Women, The American Girl Series’ is wonderful… Samantha and Kit Kitrerdge were our favorites. Santa even brough us the dolls! The dolls really promt the gilrs interest.

Books a million and Barnes and Noble both have SERIES sections in the beginner and intermediate sections.

The Pain and The Great One (there are 2 other books in the series) is a must!!! awesome book for every kid.

13

Recent series that advanced kids in my second-grade class love: Ivy and Bean. I did some serious work to get my high readers into Little House on the Prairie, and it really paid off (they adored the books), but they had to keep a dictionary handy. Hell, I nearly had to keep one handy for that book! Coraline (by Neal Gaiman) is terrifying but excellent. The Tale of Despereaux has a male protagonist, but he’s a mouse at least, and is very, very good, and is also a real challenge; last year I did it as a read-aloud, and even my high-level kids had trouble with a lot of the vocabulary.

Of course, as a teacher I was much more concerned about vocabulary than I’d be as a parent. High readers are often very good at getting the gist of what they’re reading and don’t stop to think about difficult words; they just gloss over them, and eventually when they’re older their repeated exposure will help them figure the words out.

14

Really, if your child is an avid reader, most of these books (and many others) can be found in your library. Don’t bankrupt yourself at Barnes and Nobles.

15

fessie, I’ll tell you another story, just for kicks and giggles, then I’ll shut up- …

About grade 4 or 5, daughter was to do an English paper on Richard the Lionheart. My own interest is British history, so I gave her a precis of the guy’s life, and took her to the library.
However, she also cracked the home library of history books -

Her teacher had seen her at the library, and was quite taken with the kid’s resources. Teacher asked daughter, in front of the class, what she’d learned from her extra reading.
Daughter demurred; teacher persisted, and daughter blurted out the one fact that stood out in her mind:

“Why didn’t you tell us that Richard the Lionheart was a homosexual?”

The class tittered, the teacher was speechless, and daughter felt embarassed at being pressured. Me? My jaw was on the floor for an hour.

Moral: Be Prepared to hear stories like this again and again. In grade VIII she helped the teacher organize a 4-day camp for the class, and then refused to go: “I don’t camp with amatures.”

deep breath These kids will continually blindside you. Brace yourself.

an seanchai

16

My oldest daughter (another precocious reader) really loves the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books.

17

Also good is the Pippi Longstocking series by Astrid Lindgren, the Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series by Betty McDonald and the Bororrowers series by Mary Norton.

18

Hmm, for a 4 year old, I would recommend the Horrible Histories series. Not all of them focus on the violent part of history. However, now that you know the title, you can talk to salespeople at the bookstore about similar books.

19

Note this. Not only will you save money, but a good children’s department will be staffed by people who do reader’s advisory for a living and will have tons of suggestions, book lists by subject, age, or "if you liked “X,” a new book section, classics, series, etc.
Here are a few you might try. Most are for 4-6 grade reading level and many have strong female leads:

Shakespeare’s Secret by Elsie Broach
Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett
The Penderwicks by Jeanne Birdsall
The Field Guide by Toni DiTerlizzi
The City of Ember by Jean DuPrau
The Higher Power of Lucky by Susan Patron
Gregor the Overlander by Suzanne Collins
Peter and the Starcatchers by Ridley Pearson and Dave Barry
The Mayor of Central Park by Avi

Even with her high reading level, these would be good books to read to her (or with her), because they’ll raise issues new to a 6 year old. We get parents of gifted children in all the time asking for book recommendations. We are happy to help and full of suggestions and wait until they leave before we roll our eyes.
For the love of all that’s decent, don’t make her read The Hobbit.

20

First and foremost I want to congratulate your kid on her accomplishments… next I want to shelter myself from being pelted with classic novels by other dopers.

I have three gifted kids although quite a bit older than yours. Reading the thread it now is clear that you are looking for book suggestions, but from the title my very first reaction was “a soccer ball or anything else you would buy for any “normal” first grader.”

I’ve unfortunately seen more families than I care to remember who got wrapped up in the fact that their kid was gifted and spent all their time in pushing them. You said she has free reign of the library… that is great… and should be enough. Make sure they are well socialized and have other interests besides reading. Many kids get pushed aside because they lack social skills and just want to read (here is where I imagine the doper’s books will fly). Just keep things balanced and don’t get overly worked up that she reads better than the others… (did anyone ever ask you what grade level you read at in Kindergarten in a job interview?) Let her decide what she wants and don’t get hung up on things that seem appropriate for a “gifted” kid.

My opinion (you get what you pay for) is to also push her to things that aren’t considered academic, but are fun (not that they are mutually exclusive).

As an aside… my daughter read all the HP books at a very young age, and now isn’t much of a reader (not lack of ability, but desire). She currently has a 4.34 GPA, is a class officer and also was the top scorer on a varsity team as a freshman. Did I mention she is also doing volunteer work at the hospital. (sorry, end of shameless parental brag).

Again, welcome to the strange and wonderful world of having gifted kid(s). You will find that it is well worth the challenges you will face.