Early reader in reception - what to do in the classroom?

[onesandwichshort]

DD has just started in reception. She's been reading for a year or so but we hadn't really realised quite how well. It turns out that in terms of decoding at least, she has a reading age of about 10. (No signs of being advanced in any other area fwiw).

The school are being fantastic about it - not only have they clocked this very quickly but they are also being very open and discussing with us what to do. But I could do with some suggestions from people who have been there before as they seem to be a little bit at sea too.

There are two main problems. One is finding books which are interesting for her but also emotionally and socially at the right level (in every other aspect she is a typical reception age child). School are struggling with this as most of the advanced books are either scary or too socially advanced - it doesn't help that the school only go up to Year 4 as well. Any thoughts on series/ways of going with this. Or do we/they just stop teaching her to read for now and concentrate on other things like comprehension and expression instead?

The second thing is what to do with her in the classroom during all the phonics etc. So far we're thinking of her doing some comprehension work with a TA during the sessions, and also doing a completely other, but challenging activity. (I, half-jokingly suggested teaching her to knit for a couple of years and they were actually quite receptive to this!). But she's quite a shy child, and so I am wary of isolating her from the group too much and making her 'different'.

We've got a full meeting with the teacher in a few weeks time, so before that I would really love to hear from anyone else who's been in a similar situation, and what's been helpful/has worked/was a complete waste of time.

[learnandsay]

It may be an old thread, brighthair. But for some of us it's a new issue.

[brighthair]

Very true, just noticed its been bumped a couple of times