How is your early reader doing now?

[Anonymous]

My DD is 4 and can read very well for her age (she can pick up any kids book and reads almost all of the words, not just doctor seuss, but Arthur and franklin). We did not force, this is just something she did well with early (I was an early reader too apparently). I know she's not the only one her age doing it and I know it doesn't mean she's a genius, or that she'll be smart in all aspects of school. But as she will be 2 months shy of 6 entering K due to a November birthday, I'm just wondering what I can expect (she's heading into a public Moco elem. School).

How is your early reader doing? Was there anything you wish you did differently with their education?

[Anonymous]

DC started reading at three. Didn't do anything differently except remain in close contact with teachers. Currently 5th-grader in MCPS highly gifted magnet.

[Anonymous]

We put ours in private, so I'm not sure if this will help you, but here it goes. DD is doing v well. She is now ending MS, and getting v good grades (As). We find that is the case b/c she can read the material for subjects and retain the info so her study time is spent studying not reading. It carries into all subjects (history, science, English, foreign Lang., even directions or complicated instructions for math). She is confident b/c her grades are good and ability is high and reading comprehension is good. B/c her reading level has always been high, she reads books often (she is always reading and is often reading a book she "can't put down"). A great gift for her is a gift card to a book store so she can buy her own book. Her spelling is good, her vocabulary is great, and she does extremely well on standardized testing b/c none of it is new to her. She was in a school where the HW load was overbearing and we moved her b/c she had no time to read for fun. Now she's back to enjoying books and it was the best move. Encourage reading. It will be the one best thing for your DC. Give her anything she wants to read and don't ever make it a chore. DD chooses books over TV. It's amazing. The diff btw early readers an later readers is that early readers start earlier. The others will catch up. If DCs are lucky, they will love to read and they will read books they enjoy so this happens with all of them. The risk is that early readers will be pushed (and end up hating it, so stop reading) and the later readers will get frustrated and never really enjoy reading.

[Anonymous]

My son started with the fly guy books at 3.5 and was reading the early chapter books like Magic Treehouse at 4. He read the entire Harry Potter series in first grade. He's in 2nd grade now and we've been steering him mostly toward the classics for fiction. Most of the stuff you can find in the library at his level is about middle school kids and the social situations are just not something I want him to be reading about when he doesn't have the life experience to go with it. As far as school, his reading teachers have always been great about letting him bring in his own book when they do novel groups, etc.

[Anonymous]

NP here, but interested as we are in the same boat. Did the early reading cause any issues in the early years when kids are focused on learning to read (v. older when they are reading to learn)? Also curious what your experience was with your child's cohort? I have to admit I'm hoping that the heavy concentration of well educated parents means a higher percentage of early readers, as my understanding is that it's much easier for teachers when they have a couple kids at the same level versus just one.

[Anonymous]

Op here--thanks for all the input. We never force reading and truly want to keep her love for it as much as possible. I'll keep in close connection with her teachers.

Thanks!!

[Anonymous]

Started K reading early chapter books like Magic Tree House. Luckily an August birthday meant she got to start on the early side. K was a bit slow..she was in her own reading group that didn't meet much (and she cried about that) but after that her teachers really let her fly with extra project etc. Now she is at a HGC and doing great.

[Anonymous]

DS1 was reading at a 3rd grade level by K. In 2nd grade his teacher was giving him 5th grade spelling words. We never pushed it. It was like a code he was trying to crack...and he was so proud of himself for it.

As a 7th grader, he's a pretty average student. He's very bright, but he's found that he's smart enough to not have to study in order to do well on tests, so he wont study. He hates homework, so his grades suffer there as well.

Beware of burning your kids out at such a young age. It could back fire on you, even if it's just the teachers pushing and not the parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:DS1 was reading at a 3rd grade level by K. In 2nd grade his teacher was giving him 5th grade spelling words. We never pushed it. It was like a code he was trying to crack...and he was so proud of himself for it.

As a 7th grader, he's a pretty average student. He's very bright, but he's found that he's smart enough to not have to study in order to do well on tests, so he wont study. He hates homework, so his grades suffer there as well.

Beware of burning your kids out at such a young age. It could back fire on you, even if it's just the teachers pushing and not the parents.

The last thing you wrote is what I'm afraid of. How do you wish it were handled differently?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DS1 was reading at a 3rd grade level by K. In 2nd grade his teacher was giving him 5th grade spelling words. We never pushed it. It was like a code he was trying to crack...and he was so proud of himself for it.

As a 7th grader, he's a pretty average student. He's very bright, but he's found that he's smart enough to not have to study in order to do well on tests, so he wont study. He hates homework, so his grades suffer there as well.

Beware of burning your kids out at such a young age. It could back fire on you, even if it's just the teachers pushing and not the parents.

The last thing you wrote is what I'm afraid of. How do you wish it were handled differently?

When my DS1 entered into K, they were introducing a new program called "steps to literacy". The K teachers started assigning homework every night.....it could last over an hour each night. I was floored!!! DS just wanted to be a kid and play. And I don't blame him. So the battles started at a very young age to do the homework.

1st grade wasn't much better. By 3rd grade, his teacher assigned 4 essays, 4 speeches, and multiple projects to be worked on at home during the year. Truly, it was insane. After that, I started requesting teachers that typically don't assign too much work because I could see the pattern was not going to change unless I stepped in. Now that he is in 7th grade, he's one of the brightest kids in his "grade level" classes. The only reason he isn't recommended for honors is because of the amount of homework associated with those classes.

I've decided that if you push, your kids will ultimately fail. If your child LIKES school or doing homework, that's a different scenario all together. Granted, what elementary school kid likes homework, right? Well, by 5th grade, I think you can get a good idea of who is going to be an honors student and who just wants to do the minimum work required to get through. Like most parents, we pushed in the beginning for him to do all the work assigned of him. It was torture for him, and torture for us. Our family life has suffered because of this.

On the flip side, DD started school 2 years later and for some reason, she has skated through the system with little homework. It's my theory that because she wasn't slammed with it so early on, she isn't so burned out....and she doesn't have such an attitude towards it.

My 3rd child is moderately autistic. If they ever tried to assign hw, I'd laugh in their faces and just say "no fucking way".

I regret that I pushed my child at such a young age. It backfired. He's a very smart kid, but he'll have to do it the tough way now. I can only hope that he finds some drive inside himself for college one day. If I were a stronger person, I would have nipped it in the bud at elem school and told the school that my child would not be doing homework. I would have waited until middle school to expect any outside work. at least for us, this was the case.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your story, 9:02!

[Anonymous]

My older son read early and still LOVES to read. He is in 8th grade. I let him read whatever he wants, which is scary sometimes. He read a book about a kid who attempted suicide, etc. I let him read those b/c I read really inappropriate books at that age. My parents never said anything - they just loved that I read so much. However, he reads all the time and does really well in school. My other son did not really know his ABCs in Kindergarten. He just wasn't interested. He still struggles and is in 4th grade. It was hard b/c I was so used to my older reading everything and breezing through that it never occurred to me that my kids would be that different.

[Anonymous]

Our early reader became deathly bored in kindergarten (MoCo public schools) and we pulled him out of public schools after a year. ("I hate school")

[Anonymous]

I was an early reader. I remember reading the Babysitter's Club in kindergarten (in 1987/88) and reading other chapter books at that age. I was always the top reader in my classes through ES and MS (attended private ES and public MS and HS). I remember getting teased in 8th grade for doing an English project on Le Mis.

In high school, I did not stick out as much, because the books one chose to read at that point were less public (ie, fewer book reports given to the class). My love for reading never waned. Not once throughout preK to grad school. It dipped a bit after college when I was really busy trying to figure out where to go with my professional life, but it's picked back up.

I would not worry about it, encourage your child without being overly pushy. If they truly have a love for reading, it won't go away.

[Anonymous]

My DS was an early reader (beginning chapter books at 4), but actually HATES to read. He's 8 now and dreads having to read for pleasure. I tried not to push it but, of course, he's required to read for school and over the summer (for school). He doesn't mind reading out loud to his little brothers but he'd rather pull out his fingernails than read books. So, I told him that I didn't care if he read books, newspapers (even the comics), magazines, or the internet, I just want him to read. Now, I notice that he'll look things up on Wiki (usually sports related) or flip through an old Guinness Book of World Records and memorize all of the crazy facts. It's not enough, but it's something. He loves sports and chess and he gets good grades, but could really care less about school. He was in-pool for AAP but the teacher and I both agreed that he doesn't have the self-motivation or, for lack of a better term, give-a-shit-factor to succeed in AAP. The last thing I want is his confidence to be killed by an over ambitious academic program at this age, so I didn't push for him to get into the Level IV center. Like PP I hope that he finds an inner drive at some point and pushes himself to succeed. Still, I know that if I push that boy it will simply backfire.