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AmandaV
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| Posted: Jan 10 2011 at 4:08pm | IP Logged
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I was wondering how those of you with advanced readers handle reading/narration while the children are still young. We are using Mater Amabilis as a guide and doing year 1B with my 6 year old son. over the summer and into the Fall he has really progessed quickly in his reading from basically kinder level last spring to reading 3rd grade level books. For example, we bought him Boxcar Children #1 and he read it in a day and seemed to understand the story completely. I tested him on his reading with some old tests I have (not official, I know) and he is 100% accuracy and comprehension for 2nd grade end of year, and 75-80% comp on 3rd grade reading. I know this is a blessing, as he loves to read, read, read now! Not a problem unless he reads instead of chores, etc. So my question is, when trying to teach in a Charlotte Mason style, we are reading history, science, other literature aloud and expecting narration. Should I begin to have some of the reading be from him, or should I continue to read aloud everything on our plans to him, and let him just read on his own for pleasure and for any reading lessons? I know the problem is likely to be comprehension, say, of Eggleston's American History, that he comprehends at a higher level if I read it aloud. Any thoughts?
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ekbell
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| Posted: Jan 10 2011 at 5:16pm | IP Logged
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I'd follow his lead to some extent.
If he's enjoying the time spent with you and learning then there's no reason to change anything too quickly.
My normal tactic with a younger child who likes to be read to but who can read independently is to look for interesting books from our library so that the child can read more on the topics she's studying if she wants. (For the Love of Literature comes in handy here) Those additional books are not considered part of the formal lessons and no additional work is required in respect to them.
If he's getting impatient with being read to and would rather read the books himself then I'd let him do so as long as he's able to tell you about what he's read.
My oldest daughter wanted to do all her own reading as soon as she could read faster then I could talk. She actually retained more as she was less distractible when reading then when being read too and it was much less frustrating for me as I was no longer watching her being visibly impatient and NOT LISTENING half the time.
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AmandaV
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| Posted: Jan 10 2011 at 9:57pm | IP Logged
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Thanks, that helps. He likes being read to, but is always reading on his own. Probably because I am so busy with the littler ones..
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cathhomeschool
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| Posted: Jan 11 2011 at 9:40pm | IP Logged
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I had my advanced reader read to me. That way we could cover the material, I could be nursing or feeding a younger one, and I could stop and question to see if he was comprehending what he read. It's great for correcting pronunciation and explaining the meaning of unusual words too. I didn't do this with everything because I think it would have taken some of the joy out of reading, especially with advanced books that had lots of words he had to sound out. If they have to focus so much on sounding out and pronunciation, they may not be "listening" to what they are saying. So if when we paused it seemed that he wasn't getting it, I'd take over and reread.
Continuing to read aloud to my son also modeled what good "reading aloud" sounded like (putting feeling into the words, not speed reading, etc).
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: Jan 12 2011 at 12:23pm | IP Logged
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We do it all 
My son reads at a 6th grade reading level (he's 6); but he LOVES to be read to (he usually follows along) and I think this sets the tone for *how* to read as cathhomeschool says; I'll have him narrate to me some things, but not everything - mostly we just have a conversation or I'll watch his play, artwork, etc to see what he gets from a story.
I don't want to kill the joy by making everything "school" but I do want to integrate all the parts of his life - so he can have discussions with other people (not just me!).
So for a fun-reading book, I might just ask, "So what are you reading?" or "What is that story about?"
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Elena
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| Posted: Jan 12 2011 at 6:14pm | IP Logged
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Just a thought- you might consider reading simple plays. Since he's such a good reader he might enjoy doing different character voices with you. Might be fun! 
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AmandaV
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| Posted: Jan 13 2011 at 8:28am | IP Logged
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Thanks. Elena - he loves plays and has done a couple plays with our local co-op where he wants to have the lines. CatholicMommy- i don't want to make everything school either and he's already reluctant with handwriting and some other things. But he'll read all day. Just this week, he's read 4 of the Burgess animal books of his own interest. Sometimes that makes me sad because I want to discover the characters with him, but he still likes to be read to, so I just need to continue to do that. Janette - I'm just not sure he would want to or could read to me the names, etc. in A first book in US History by Eggleston or the older fairy tales. I think I probably need to stick to reading that to him. Elena, with your son at 6th grade reading level, what age-appropriate books do you provide? I know he would like to read more Boxcar children, but after that, what? My husband got a Hardy Boys book but he didn't seem to keen on it. He read a little after prodding but it didn't catch him. He said it was for older kids. Thanks for the suggestions!
-Amanda
wife since `03, mom since `04 to ds6, dd 4.75, ds 2.5, ds 2.5 and one due 7/11
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CatholicMommy
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| Posted: Jan 13 2011 at 8:53am | IP Logged
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Amanda,
That was my son who is 6 years old and reading at 6th+ reading level.
Fortunately, he loves to re-read things too, which is a huge blessing! It's been a lot of Narnia (the entire series) and the Oz Chronicles (just the 14 original stories), the most. So he'll read, build with blocks/legos, artwork, some narration (especially when his godfather comes to visit!), etc.
With the re-reading, he goes deeper and deeper with it, although he clearly "gets" it the first read-through.
He is such an avid reader, but if he's not interested in something, I'd better be reading aloud (if it must be read) or it just waits (if it isn't necessary right now).
He's read all/most of the Magic Tree House - he's not that interested in Boxcar Children; he's read through many of my upper elementary books I've kept through the years (Sign of the Beaver and the like).
The tough thing is avoiding the magic stuff in the upper elementary books - while we are ok with Narnia and Oz, and Magic Tree House was acceptable (he went from reading CHC's LSLF to Magic Tree House - then took off from there, so it was a temporary reading encouragement) - other forms of magic are just not "healthy" IMNSHO for a child of this age.
We have several styles of saint books in that reading level range - that pique his interest at various times.
A set of children's science encyclopedias (Funk and Wagnalls New Encyclopedia of Science, with project ideas and all); lots of books about the faith would ordinarily be read-alouds for 2nd-4th grade or so.
We are just getting into historical fiction and he LOVES it. As long as I preview or at least find a comprehensive review online.
For the most part, I try to keep books in our home that are appropriate for any child to pick up, so that I don't have to worry that way; then I take book lists to the library to find just what we want.
One suggestion I received that I love - find all those lists of read-aloud books for the younger elementary age, that are usually written at a higher reading level - and give him those.
For his birthday coming up, he's going to receive a beautifully illustrated copy of "The Wind in the Willows" as well as Rudyard Kipling's "Just So Stories".
And speaking of fairy tales! He eats them up! All versions - and then compares the versions, analyzing how they could all be telling different viewpoints of the same story and which parts totally conflict and he has just started to conjecture what the author's purpose might have been.
That's what I can think of off the top of my head. He also continues to read through various curricula's reading books (Catholic Heritage, some Seton, American Cardinal Readers, Christian Light, etc, etc) - just for the fun of it 
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cathhomeschool
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| Posted: Jan 13 2011 at 10:47am | IP Logged
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Amanda, I totally understand the struggle with pronouncing names! My sons struggled too. If there weren't many "too difficult" words in a book, I'd stop them and ask them to spell the word out loud and I'd pronounce it for them. You might try having him read aloud to you from other less difficult books -- maybe a living history book that goes along with what you're covering in Eggleston?
At that age my boys loved the Narnia and Oz books too. They also liked Magic Tree House, Boxcar, Bobbsey Twins, Beatrix Potter, Winnie the Pooh, Just So Stories, Charlotte's Web, the Poppy books (by Avi. I'd be careful with some other books by Avi, though.), Aesop's Fables, The Hobbit (not sure of reading level there).
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Janette (4 boys - 22, 21, 15, 14)
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AmandaV
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| Posted: Jan 13 2011 at 11:07am | IP Logged
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We do have some magic tree house - I need to get more! I also need to read to him in smaller chunks to help him narrate. I don't think he can't, he's just reluctant. Jen's post on language arts, especially narration, helped me with that, but I've just got to do a better job with it. So that's where letting him read official school books on his own is a problem, because he might say, I don't remember, and I don't know whether that's true or he missed some words, or he doesn't want to! Thanks for the suggestions!
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Amanda
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4Real Forums : Living Learning
Topic: Advanced Readers
