This has been such a good discussion! Someone mentioned that dealing with a gifted child can be similar to children with other special needs. It does take a lot of wisdom and time to really observe and learn what each child really needs, regardless of where each child’s strengths and weaknesses lie.
In terms of finding enough good books at an appropriate level for young, advanced readers, I’m finding that ebooks are a good source. We have the Yesterday’s Classics collection, several of the Heritage History collections, many of the SCM books, and I’m constantly looking for older classics to download from other places. Each of my children has an inexpensive tablet that they use primarily as eReaders. I’ve loaded them up with hundreds of good books. The nice thing is that many of these books are written at a higher reading level than would now be considered elementary school level, but the content is still aimed at younger children. For example, my DD8 loves both the “Magic Tree House” and “Among the ….People”, but she will blow through a Magic Tree House book in 20 or 30 minutes, whereas an “Among the … People” book will take much longer. She tends to just read a couple of chapters at a time, then stops to think about it or discuss it. They are at a higher level in terms of vocabulary and sentence structure, but also have more ‘meat’ to chew on in terms of ideas.
Another thing I’m learning (which I think Bookworm touched on) is that challenging a gifted learner doesn’t always have to just mean more academics. There are so many other great things to learn. I love that I can choose to just drop things like math for a while, because my children are already ahead. Sure, they could get further ahead if I made sure that they did math everyday, but we are also fine if we skip math and history for 3 weeks to work on a sewing project or to spend the entire month of May outdoors, when the long Canadian winter finally breaks. I think with a bookish child, it’s even more important to provide opportunities to put down the books and learn other things, since they might not be inclined to do it themselves.
I also am learning how important it is to find areas that are hard, so that the children learn how to struggle, overcome frustration, persist through difficulties, and perhaps even accept a result that isn’t perfect. It’s a challenge for me to find those things that will push my children, without overwhelming them.
And then there’s the fun of having two advanced readers followed by Little Sister who isn’t reading yet at age 4. I have to occasionally remind myself that not reading at age 4 is perfectly normal! She has many skills and talents that the other two didn’t have at that age, but doesn’t get the same “Wow!” reaction from other people that my older two did. I don’t want any of the kids to develop unhealthy pride or feel badly in how they compare to each other, so I try to be alert to how we react to each person’s accomplishments and challenges. Which gives just one more reason that I’m so glad for the chance to homeschool, because public school is so focused on measuring and comparing all the time!
Joanne
