How to support DD1?

[mintymellons]

She's 7 and a bit and in Year 2.

We've never hot housed her, but she's always had access to lots of books, been on days out to musuems and educational (but fun!) places and we've always talked to her in quite an adult way. She's very bright and keen to learn.

Anyway, to get to the point, she has a very advanced reading age. She is in her own reading group at school and it looks like she'll be sitting the KS2 SATs English tests this Spring as her level is too high to be scored on the KS1 test. She can read anything you give to her and has very good understanding too. She reads a lot at home and it's a struggle to supply her with enough books sometimes. She's also a very strong writer (which I think comes from her interest in reading).

My question is how should I support her? Or should we just carry on as we are? As I said, she's very able and we don't seem to need to do anything plus I'd hate to put any pressure on her.

What do others do with very able children?

We were advised to ensure dd read a broad range of reading - are there any sorts of reading materials she is unfamiliar or less familiar with? I also found that it was the writing that was worth supporting as although ahead, this tends to lag a bit behind the reading and the teachers have been interested in getting the two closer together.

But I'd like to pick your brains to if I may. My dd is also 7 and the big challenge is appropriate content. What sort of stuff is your daughter enjoying or is it that you don't feel the need to limit the content (I do - dd as is very young in herself)? Myself, I've been looking at novels in the 10-12 range as I just don't think dd is ready for teen/adult fiction

we tried lots of the classics - Little House on the Prarie, What Katy Did, Anne of Green Gables, some of the E Nesbitt ones - which introduce more complex language without overly grown up themes. Plus plenty of discussion about them, the history/geography/differences between then and now.

IME (3 G&T DC, but only one who struggled at primary age - thankfully differentiation in class has made a HUGE difference to bright DC now) keep on as you are OP - plenty of extra curricular stuff, music, dance, stuff you have to do over and over again to be good at to counteract the "not having to try at school as it's all easy" stuff (which can turn into "I'm not doing it if i can't get it perfect first time round" if you're not careful ).

Plus praise for effort as well as just for results - DD1 is more proud of her just scraped A in English GCSE than she is for her A* Maths A level - the English she had to work really really hard at; the Maths was just expected.

That's odd that she's sitting KS2 SATs; is it just the reading component? I would have thought she'd not do so well at the other parts unless they are teaching those parts of the syllabus explicitly to her (is the school that on the ball?) The thing is the marking for writing KS2 SAT is so pernicketty, stuff like have they used X many adjectives and Y many junctions in each sentence stuff, I think it's a bit tedious for my 11yo to remember. Is it standard practice now to administer KS2 SAT tests to y2 kids who might rate over 3 (so do kids who rate over Level 3 actually get an accurate rating, now, not the generic Level 3)?

It sounds like you're already doing a fantastic job, OP, just carry on as you are, methinks.

Thanks all.

Book wise she's just started on the Jacqueline Wilsons and loves them. She is quite mature for her age but obviously we don't want her exposed to anything unsuitable. Otherwise, she enjoys Malory Towers and other Enid B stuff. It varies from week to week!

With regard to sats, she's so far done the ks2 reading past paper as a practice. Not done writing practice test yet. I know about sats as I'm a ks2 English marker! To be fair, we don't look for a specific number of adverbs or whatever, but the pupil must show an understanding of how to use grammar and punctuation etc... I'm sure dd's school won't be teaching her that separately though.
Anyway, all good advice so thanks again!

But most the JWs are unsuitable for a 6-7yo.

I suggest these for reading:
Anything by E. Nesbitt
E.B. White
Anne of Green Gables
Enid Blyton (as you know)
Nancy Drew
L I Wilder books
Usuals for age, like Magic Kitten, Jeremy Strong, Astrosaurs, Beast Quest or Hiccup Horrendous.

Graphic novels like TinTin, Asterix (bit violent) and Calvin & Hobbes are huge in this house, too.

We have a very similar reader so any further suggestions would be much appreciated here. I'm always very relieved when we hit a good series, as it means I can just order the rest for the library and don't have to think about it for a bit.

Big hit here are the moment are the Roman Mysteries by Caroline Lawrence which are who-dunnits for kids in Pompeii. They're good because I think some plots - in terms of complex character motivations - can also be hard for a younger reader to pick up on.

Also Lemony Snicket, Michael Bond (Paddington and Olga da Polga), The World According to Humphrey, Judy Moody, Tom's Midnight Garden (that was best book ever for a bit). Might also be worth trying Percy Jackson - DD rejected those a few months ago but I think will try them soon.

OP, the rest is hard. People keep telling us to 'expand her deep thinking skills' and go for breadth rather than depth right now, but how to do that in the classroom I do not know.

We've got the Roman mysteries too - and The Lady Grace Mysteries (Elizabethan setting). Dd is still big on fairies and the Gwyneth Rees books have been a big hit - major improvement on the Rainbow fairy type stuff.

Some good magazine subscriptions to be had too.

I think the JW books vary in their subject matter. To be honest, the only subject I'd be uncomfortable with at the moment is sex/adult relationships. Clearly a 7yo isn't capable of understanding or dealing with that sort of thing.

I do agree that the classics offer a good alternative although DD doesn't always enjoy these so much.

She has read a couple of the Gwyneth Rees books, but said she doesn't like them much. I'll look at the Lady Grace Mysteries though.

Thank you for the Lady Grace suggestion - the first one has just been devoured!

JW books can be very near the knuckle & things like My sister Jodie upset me!!!