Has anyone's child started picking up the pace a lot in 2nd/3rd grade?

[chiguirre]

Dd has always been easy to teach and has a good memory for anything that interests her, but the last 6 months or so, she's really started to take off. She's flying through SM levels and Pathway readers/Climbing to Good English very fast. I think we'll be done with 3b and 3rd grade materials by the end of October. She enjoys the work and will pick it up on her own sometimes, so the books are a good match for her, it's just that she's going through them very quickly.

 

I'm pondering what to do with her. I could just let her run through the levels of SM and Pathway/CTGE at her own pace until she gets tired of them and asks for something else. Or I could look for LA and supplemental math materials that are intended for gifted kids at a third grade level and do those before moving on to the 4th grade SM and Pathway books. Or I continue with SM and unschool LA by having her just read whatever she wants and write a narration and nip the workbook habit in the bud.

 

Dd and I have very similar personalities (she is very much my mini-me both in positive and negative ways).When I was her age I LOVED workbooks. I LOVED graded readers. I'd read the whole book in the first weeks of school whenever I had a free moment. I hated creative writing and journals. Dd also clearly loves readers and filling in worksheets, although she will also write and illustrate stories on her own initiative so she hasn't developed my hatred of creative writing and I'd really like to keep it that way. That makes me leary of requiring her to read and narrate right now, although that is my longer term goal.

 

What's worked for your accelerating 8 yo? Has anyone just let them run through regular textbooks until they get sick of them or hit a wall? What did you do when they did get sick of the textbooks? Is that the moment to start a reading/narration routine?

 

We're doing American history this year, loosely based on SL 3/4, but with a ton of non-fiction books, videos and the History of Us audiobooks. I really dislike SL's LA, so that's a non-starter. For science, we're doing Supercharged Science. Dd adores Miss Aurora and has picked up a surprising amount from the videos and experiments. I'm also planning to do Destinos to finally learn Spanish grammar instead of hundreds of words. Both kids were asking grammar questions on our Venezuelan trip, so I think they're ready. So, we're good for content subjects and Spanish. We may pick up Greek later because dd finds it fascinating, but not until our routine is well established with the essentials.

 

Thanks for reading this far. I guess my question boils down to letting dd run through textbooks as far as she'd like, requiring her to only do the writing assignments in the programs (which are reasonable imho) or to wean her off the readers and workbooks now in favor of free reading and narrations? What's worked best for your suddenly accelerating 8yo?

[boscopup]

Mine is only 7, but he definitely hasn't slowed down yet, and his reading has picked up greatly in the last 6 months (thank you SOTW for sparking his interest in reading bigger chapter books :D).

 

I let him go at his pace. If he finishes one level, we move on to the next. In some subjects, like grammar and science, I had to pick a higher level to begin with. In math, we've just been trucking along. He *might* slow down in MM4... maybe. If not, oh well. We'll just go on to the next thing! We're already also doing Singapore IP and CWP with it, along with some Primary Challenge Math (Zaccaro - highly recommend!).

 

In grammar, we're planning to do FLL3 this year (I'm just doing it 3 days a week), and next year we'll take a side trip to MCT Island. The following year, we might head over to ALL if we need to wait a bit on writing to be ready for Town level (or if we find that MCT isn't a good fit).

 

For "reading", he's been reading just real books since 3 weeks after we started homeschooling. I don't have him narrate, but I do sometimes ask him casual questions about the story, or we'll have a brief discussion about a part we liked (in Mr. Popper's Penguins, we both liked the chapter where they made an ice rink out of their living room). When he read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory last week, he said one day, "I'll bet Charlie is going to get a golden ticket!" I responded with, "So what do you think the book would be like if he didn't get the golden ticket?" We both thought it would be a pretty boring book. :lol:

 

I'll eventually ease him into narration of some of what he's reading, but I'm not ready to do that yet. He's a young 7. Towards the end of the year, I'll probably have him do occasional oral narrations on it. It won't be every book and certainly not every day (we do enough narrations elsewhere). He also LIKES narrations, so I don't think it will be a problem when I do add them... until he has to write them himself. :tongue_smilie:

[Crimson Wife]

Which components of Singapore are you using? I'd personally be inclined to try to slow down a child who is racing through the textbook/workbook combo by also doing IP and CWP. Also, adding in things like the Zaccaro books, Hands-on Equations, and Life of Fred can help slow down a bright student. For me personally, I'd rather a bright student go "deeper" than faster.

 

However, I'm finding this only works up to a certain point. Because DD has been introduced to advanced concepts via Zaccaro, LOF, and the Danica McKellar books, I'm now running into a situation where she pretty much already knows everything in 5B-6B. So after she finishes her current level (she's 1/3 of the way done with 5A including the IP and CWP books), I'm going to be accelerating her to pre-algebra using a combo of Horizons and Discovering Math 1 plus the 5B-6B IP and CWP books. I'm really hoping that will be enough material to spread pre-algebra out over 2 years while still being at a challenging level.

 

That would put her in Algebra 1 in 6th, which is only a year ahead. Then I can use some of the interesting AOPS courses not covered in the standard sequence in the extra year.

[chiguirre]

We use the textbook, workbook and IP. I also used Miquon, but now that she's finishing 3A the Miquon seems to have been leapfrogged by SM so I'll just pick up the few topics that aren't covered by SM and move on. That's what's been slowing down dd in Math until now. I was thinking about using MEP in addition to SM to broaden out the math and slow dd down, but then I was convinced by a previous post that there's not much point broadening arithmetic and we'd do better to finish up and spend more time with AoPs. Now, my plan is to do SM at dd's pace and then do Russian Math 6 or go straight into AoPs Pre-algebra. Crimson's comment about having already covered some things in 5a-6b cements that plan. As good as Zaccaro is, I'd rather make my life simpler and follow the SM path. If dd hits a road block, we can always use MM subject workbooks or Khan Academy to spend extra time on the concept. I find math planning easier than LA! There's a nice orderly progression of skills to master rather than a hodgepodge of prerequisites to good writing that dd learns at a different pace.

[gracyomalley]

Are you doing the advanced readers from SL? My dd did SL Core 3 when she was 7/8, and the advanced readers were a great way to get her our of the "grader reader" mind frame and into "real" literature - especially as they "widen" the history we were talking about...and stretched her from reading at a 6th grade level but never finishing a novel...we just did seperate grammer....I too, couldn't make SL LA work.

 

That being said, if she's enjoying what you are doing, another year of just going as fast as she wants would be fine....I personally think going broader, not always faster, is key - so make sure you've added in enough "electives", and fill the house with good books....she'll pick them up and broaden herself as maturity kicks in!

Erin

[chiguirre]

Are you doing the advanced readers from SL?

 

Yes, I'm going to have her read the SL advanced readers in addition to the Pathway/CTGE LA. I'm not going to have her do the SL LA assignments because they seem very piecemeal, especially when compared with P/CTGE. I do plan to move some of the books around because SL doesn't really line them up with the history readings as much as I would like.

[jenbrdsly]

I taught third grade for four years. It's my favorite grade to teach! I've seen a lot of kids "take off" around the age of 8 because it's when they make the official jump from learning to read, to reading to learn. Of course, with an accelerated child, they might of learned to read a long time ago. So maybe I should say the "third grade reading level is when things take off". :)

[Truscifi]

Ds7 hasn't so much picked up the pace in schoolwork (well, he has somewhat, now that I think about it) but in free reading he has really skyrocketed. He will sometimes read 2 or 3 books in a day. Not chapter books, either. Yesterday he read a Warriors book, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, and the last half of The Lady and the Sharks. During quiet time after school was done. :001_huh: It was over 500 pages of reading. I thought he was just skimming, but I asked him to tell me about them and he gave me a complete plot summary with no problem. :svengo:

 

I actually try to limit his reading because he gets headaches, but I thought he was playing with legos this time. I should have known it was too quiet. :glare:

[Beth in SW WA]

With my slightly accelerated dd8 I expose her to more challenging material as her interest level dictates. Last year she read constantly on her own (Wind In the Willows, Little Women, and about 50 other fiction books). Currently she is reading Peter Pan (again) with the MCT lit guide. She loves it! She devours literature and I don't have to micro-manage her. We read, discuss, repeat. Very casually.

 

In math, we just keep going year round (with mini breaks for family field trips). I don't worry about going deeper vs. faster. Some of it is deep. Some is fast. Whatever keeps her wheels turning makes me happy. I don't pay attention to the level/number on the cover of a text. I have a firm finger on the pulse of her math progress (as does dh). One day we do a few TT lessons. Today we did SM word problems. Last week she measured the area and perimeter of our deck. If a child loves learning then your job is much easier in some ways. Next week she starts back up with Rachna, her Cybershala tutor. They will do SM4 cwp for 2 hours/week. Abi loves those brain-stretching hours with Rachna.

 

In writing and grammar, we just keep progressing in the skills I expect her to learn. She writes daily. At home, in the car, etc. Yesterday she read a chapter in Paragraph Town. Today she will write a paragraph about Newport, Rhode Island. I keep it interesting for her. Never drudgery.

 

In music, she is self-led this summer. She has played through my older dd's Les Mis & Phantom songbooks (a much-needed break from the boring piano books from years of lessons).

 

I could go on and on. We work hard so we can play hard. Third grade is awesome. She will do a couple bigger writing projects this year, go in-depth on some US history topics and learn Spanish in a local class, among other things to keep her brain stimulated....

[twoforjoy]

I've noticed a huge change in my DS's pace and effort since we started back up. He's much more willing to sit down and do work, and we're moving much faster because he's not resisting. He's 7 and in second grade.