My 6 year old is reading with comprehension at a 5th grade level. By the end of 1st grade, I want her to have advanced to a 6th grade level. She can “read” this level of material but doesn’t have the comprehension. So I am working on improving this. I am reading books to her like the Usborne Book of World History, Usborne Science, The Story of Painting, Geography from A to Z: A Picture Glossary (my 3 year old loves this as well) and Cool Geography. I am also reading the Magic Treehouse Research Guides and will start on the Who Was series soon. We are reading a children’s encyclopedia and a Question and Answer book that covers a lot of different topics. She is also using 5th and 6th grade nonfiction reading comprehension workbooks. I also check out a lot of Level 3 and Level 4 biographies and science books from the library.
She is also reading a lot of chapter books herself, including historical fiction like the Little House series and the various American Girl books (which I highly recommend for improving historical knowledge). She reads the regular Magic Treehouse books and the Magic School Bus chapter books. She also reads a lot of regular fiction like the Boxcar Children and Beverly Clearly. She watches various science related DVDs that I check out from the library.
I homeschool through a charter school and the teacher is recommending Story of the World for history and Focus On Science. We haven’t discussed Language Arts yet, but she will try to find an appropriate set of 5th to 6th grade level books.
I’m hoping all of this will be enough to give her the knowledge she needs to advance one grade level per year at least. I would love to hear what others are doing with their advanced readers. What books do you find that are helpful? Is there anything else you can recommend?
Continue reading aloud to her and talk about the books as you go. Especially the more challenging books.
I would also dial it down a little and read some books to her that might not challenge as much, but discuss them and have her draw picture stories of what you read.
If she is starting to write have her write a sentence or paragraph about what she is reading. Or have her dictate her own little condensed version of the story as you write it out, then let her illustrate it. Have her include her opinions and feelings of the books too.
Eventually she will have her own little abridged versions of some great books. Which is really nice to have when you are a big reader. That way she can go through her homemade abridged versions to remind herself what the book was about and what she thought about it. It is interesting to see how opinions about books change as you get older.
Reading and acting out stories is another option. My son is only 18 months but we love to act out the Gingerbread Man, Little Red Riding Hood, Three Billy Goats Gruff, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Little Red Hen, Chicken Little, Three Little Pigs and more.
It sounds like you are doing a great job and your book selections are really good. I will admit I am envious of your American Girl option. I have a son and I HOPE that I can get him to like these books, but I won’t count on it.
I love the idea of having her dictate and illustrate what we are reading. I hadn’t thought of doing that but I can really see it reinforcing her understanding. She can write very well but she doesn’t want to, so it is probably better if I do it for a while.
It is unfortunate that there is nothing like the American Girl books for boys. It really is a great concept. I actually wanted to read these to my child because they are for ages 9+ but she wants to read them cover-to-cover as soon as I check them out from the library. So, I have told her to let me know when she doesn’t understand something, so I can explain it.