How to challenge an advanced 4 year old reader

[nomorespaghetti]

Backstory: DD (reception, almost 5) was born profoundly deaf. She got cochlear implants at 18 months, and has done really well (with a lot of therapy and support) to catch up her language, and then some! She’s a really bright child, in a supportive mainstream school with a lot of support (teacher of the deaf, full time 1:1 TA) that has been pivotal to her success. I’m not claiming her to be some kind of gifted child!!! But I am really proud of her, and I think she’s quite advanced.

Deaf children sometimes have trouble with phonics, but she really hasn’t, she’s just flown with it. She knows almost all of the sounds (we’ve been doing the read write inc sounds, as they do rwi at her school, and she knows all of the set 1 & 2 sounds, and lots of alternative ways of writing the vowel sounds).

She’s getting level 3 (yellow?) reading books (biff and chip etc ones) from school. They usually give her 2 a week, but she tears through them and barely has to sound anything out, a lot of the words she knows from memory now. They’re not at all difficult for her. I think she needs to be a bit more challenged, and we’ve been going through the read write inc little books at home, she’s just read all the orange ones, which were a bit better at challenging her, but largely didn’t cause her much difficulty.

I want to keep challenging her, especially as she really loves reading, she wants to read all the bedtime story books and is always asking me for new books.

Any ideas or tips of what I can do to help challenge her at home? I have been looking at level 4-6 chip etc book sets on eBay, but I don’t want to undermine what the school are doing (I am going to ask the teacher and ToD about this when term starts again). She’s trying to read everything and anything at the moment, so I feel like I should channel that into age appropriate reading books!

(I do appreciate this may come across as a stealth boast about how great my DD is and yes, she is a little star!)

my understanding was it was good to challenge good readers by working on comprehension & inference as opposed to going up the levels.

Usbourne do a lovely set of early readers - a mix of well known stories like the three little pigs and also more contemporary stuff like peppa. My 4 year old sounds like he’s at a similar level and he’s enjoying them.

Personally I'd leave the Biff and Chip type books to school and get some other books for her to enjoy at home. Mine moved pretty quickly into simple chapter books just after her 5th birthday. I think Roald Dahl Matilda might have been one of her favourite first chapter books.

Go into ordinary non-banded children's books. Older children's classics are often good because they tend to be more age appropriate. Could she cope with something like the Mrs Pepperpot books or The Owl Who Was Afraid of the Dark?

You can access lots of books on Oxford Owl for free. They also have RWI books on there.

Go to your local library, consult the children’s librarian and choose some proper stories that will be far more interesting than tedious reading scheme books!
My DD1 had a reading age of 12 in reception class, and the headmistress was reading RL Stevenson and Dickens with her. I got 18 kids books out of the library everyweek (3 tickets, 6 books on each) and DD devoured the lot.
She has an IQ of over 160 and was reading fluently at 2 years old, writing her own stories at 3.
It was pointless to even give her a reading scheme, and thankfully the village primary arranged for maths books etc to be sent along from the high school in the nearest city.
It’s vital not to let your child get bored and switch off - keep giving her material matched to her ability.

Early chapter books (5-8 years) should be fine. There's a series set on a farm mine loved, Dd1 was a prolific early reader too, I just don't have them any more to give you the name. The early reader roald Dahl are good eg The Twits

By the way, don't ever assume early advancement means long term they will be a* students. There is far more to education than pushing them ahead, I strongly recommend (after covid has been banished) extra curricular to broaden their education rather than pushing them ahead beyond their years too much, it can backfire spectacularly, they rebel!

My girls loved the Rainbow fairies at that age. There must be about 1000 of them if they've kept turning them out at the same rate as when mine were little. You get a fair number in charity shops and libraries (if they're open), as I refused to pay full price for something that took them about half an hour to read.

Ds' review of them at the same age was "When Jack Frost turned up it was almost interesting". He preferred the Beast Quest.

Millie-Mollie-Mandy, Naught Little Sister, Magic Kitten, Faraway Tree all went down well with the girls. (ds would have chosen a book on the engine of a Spitfire for choice)

DD1 got bored of the Rainbow Fairies fairly quickly and moved on, but dd2 only let me get rid of her selection when she was into her teens. I used to occasionally find her reading them.

My DD was similar. She might be ready for some early chapter books. Look at Rabbit and Bear. Dragon Masters series etc. Or get some big cat phonics books as they're more like fun, picture books. You could also try 'see inside' books as these are pretty easy to read.

Have a look at Classic Starts, they're simplified versions of the classics, and my girls loved them at that age. Also make sure you're discussing the books with her, if not reading them with her, to make sure she's comprehending what she's reading. Sharing poetry with them, is good too.

Nurturing a love of reading is the best thing you can do. Take her to the library or bookshops - I know it's difficult with Covid - and let her choose books she's interested in. Let her take some time to look at them and choose what she wants. She is doing really well.

Comprehension is key here. Keep asking questions about the story. I was an advanced reader at reception age. I was taken out of the classroom and I used to read the newspaper (broadsheet) with the headteacher. I much preferred story books, though. I loved Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl.

@babdoc....mate have a laugh. Headteacher reading Dickens to a reception kid, you went a bit far with that bit

My youngest son is an amazing reader, my 10 year old too.
Youngest doesn’t like fiction and hated biff and chip. So he reads a lot of factual books and has been able to read since he was 3. So we do re trips to the library or did now I order second hand books from Amazon for him I think being read to is important and audio books too for some fiction - I’ve been trying to get him into stories but he struggles with imagining them so they don’t hold his interest much. Also do a bit of guided meditation with him, he loves that and it helps with his imagination too which then helps for writing stories at school.

10 year old will read anything so we just pick up lots of different for him, read with him and he’ll come to tell us about books.
I loved to read as a kid and it’s a magical thing as it used to take me away into my imagination when I was being bullied. I think just making it fun and exciting not something academic. So you’re doing it for the fun of reading together. It’s a really lovely thing to share with your daughter and she sounds like an amazing wee girl. I loved Mrs pepperpot, the borrowers and the magical faraway tree - my mum read to us a lot and read same thing to my kids but no book is bad really just enjoy it

Honestly the best thing you can do is giver access to as many, and as wide a variety of books as you can.

Don’t worry about “challenging” her, or it being in any way educational, just let her read. Don’t worry about comprehension levels, if she enjoys it, that’s fine.

Libraries, bookshops, let her choose.

I was a very advanced reader as a child, and I remember the frustration of being held back, both at school where I was expected to stay within my lane- we’d be taken to our year group section of the library and I’d be looking longingly at the older years section rather than the peter and jane i was allowed. Also at home my mum discouraged my reading as she thought it was “anti-social”. She limited my reading time much as many parents limit screens these days!!

I used to read everything. Biographies, short stories, encyclopaedias, shampoo bottles.

Interestingly I also had hearing loss as a small child until physically corrected with surgery at age 4. With reading I think I could immerse myself in whole worlds, and the hearing issue didn’t matter...

Thank you for these excellent suggestions! I’m going to make a list. Sadly our library is closed and has been for ages, but lots of charity shops with good book sections, and there’s always eBay!

Thanks for the tips re comprehension too. We do try to ask her a lot of questions and make sure she’s understood the story, especially because due to her deafness she doesn’t overhear incidental language like hearing children. So she can have some gaps in vocab. Actually reading together has really helped us identify some of those gaps.

@movingonup20 I totally agree about extracurricular activities. Sadly not a lot are accessible to a deaf child, even one who copes really well but we’ve just been referred to a respite service at the council who will help us get some funding to make adjustments for her to be able to join in with extracurricular clubs.

[quote Wapalim]@babdoc....mate have a laugh. Headteacher reading Dickens to a reception kid, you went a bit far with that bit[/quote]
Dickens isn’t particularly “hard”, though, not compared to other writers. And there are lots of simplified versions anyway.

I was an early, keen reader and was reading simple chapter books in yR. The simpler Roald Dahls (Fantastic Mr Fox, George's Marvellous Medicine) are quite a good level. A paragraph or so on a page with some pictures. There are some beautiful simplified versions of classics around too.

Breadth is good for broadening understanding and vocabulary. Children are good at setting their own pace.

For extra curriculars, Rainbows is great (although at present, Zoom may be hard going). Worth keeping an eye on into the spring as places scale back to tier 2 and more face to face meetings can resume.
A District Commissioner will know which units are more sucessful at being inclusive.

We've had a Brownie with a 1:1 support assistant through a local charity (which also supported her with other trips and activities).

I was also going to suggest Oxford Owl for free banded books.

Lots of normal picture books is the way to go though. My 6 year old good reader reads lots of comics and age appropriate graphic novels at home as that's what he enjoys.

You can join reading chest which carries many different reading schemes.

You can choose which book level and different schemes to your own if you like.

There are 3 different tiers, we have gold, unlimited swaps, we roughly read 6 books a week (they send through the post, we send back via post)

As pp said you can look at the twits, George's marvellous medicine... Rainbow fairies... The ottoline series is a good.

I've had 2 dc who have struggled with the school attitude to the book scheme, 1 dd wasn't an early reader but followed phonics and went up the stages steadily and by year 1, it clicked and massively took off. She had seriously outpaced the school reading scheme and their ability to keep up with her.. If it wasn't for home reading it would have confused her and killed her love of reading!

The other dc, did not get phonics and the reading has gone in fits and starts... Again the scheme shackled her and damaged her self esteem.... Until some interventions occurred and we got her moving through lock down and the reading chest scheme and we could go at a pace that suited her.

My personal experience of it is to absolutely take it in your own hands and do not leave this precious experience to the school.

babdoc's offspring's headteacher doesn't appear to be very widely read if RL Stevenson and Dickens are the first two choices that come to mind. No, they are not necessarily that hard. They're not all that appropriate for a 4yo either. Spontaneous combustion, anyone?

My 5 Yr old is a really good reader, so I tend to focus more on comprehension, especially as he has autism - I like to get him to think about how the characters might feel etc. He is obsessed with space so will happily read fact books which have lots of scientific words for him to get to grips with! Also things like reading instructions and rules for board games etc can be challenging. Thankfully he is still happy to read easier books, he's recently discovered Elmer which he loves, so I tend to ask loads of questions about each page, ask him how he feels about whats happened etc. He has also started doing accents for characters which is really cute!

The books that dd brings home from school are very simple and she can read well beyond them, but they have a process at school, so we just go with it.
I think variety of reading material is really important, so at home we have quite a few early reader sets, plus loads of picture story books that have built up since she was a baby and chapter books that initially I was reading to her. Reading eggs and teach your monster to read are good apps, which my daughter enjoys. For her 5th birthday (Aug) we got her a few graphic novels (Hilda; Abigail and the Snowman; Stinky; Tiny Titans), and she's started readings bits of the chapter books that I usually read to her at bedtime.
I'm considering subscribing to The Pheonix for her.