Rising K'er already reading quite well - what next?

[mindygz]

My two older kids were both later readers, so K was a LOT of slow progress through reading basics.  My ds5, though, is a different story.  He is doing great at reading (I think he's a first grade level) and I am beyond tickled that it has come so easily for him.  But it is literally three years ahead of where my other kids were. They both clicked in 2nd grade, and have done well since, but I don't really know what to do with this guy. I've done readers and ETC for my olders. Just keep doing those with him and gradually increase difficulty as he is ready? His writing is probably on level, so we will spend time with that, but I'm just looking for ideas on what would be best to do with him for reading.

(Sorry, I feel like this is really rambling, but hopefully it gets my point across well enough! I'm sure some of you have had these early readers, I just never have & it's perplexing, in a good way!)

 

[Spring Flower]

My rising K-er is in a similar boat. DD was the same. I had DD read the McGuffey readers out loud each day with me. For DS, I don't think he will go for the McGuffey reader so I will let him choose any book to read out loud to me every day. Our library has kid books leveled by difficulty. I'll let him pick anything that looks interesting and move up levels as needed. The goal is to continue practice reading everyday. For DS, the key will be motivating him to read to me. As long as he can pick books about cars, trucks, and airplanes he will read. If I pick a book for him, he will drag his feet. 

[Crimson Wife]

I had two early readers.

 

My oldest learned at 3 1/2 and was totally fluent by the time she started K. I didn't do any specific reading program with her, just had her read for her content subjects and do independent reading of literature.

 

The second learned a couple months before he started K. I used the Hooked on Phonics K-2 kit and he was in the later part of that program when he officially started K. He finished that by the middle of the fall and then I moved him on to All About Spelling 1. He wasn't writing yet, so I modified AAS to use only the letter tiles. There were a few advanced phonics rules that he hadn't learned in HOP so I got Evan-Moor Basic Phonics Skills C & D to work on those. By February, he was reading Magic Treehouse type books.

[SilverMoon]

I had one reading chapter books in K. I just kept her at the level she was at in curricula, no matter the number on the cover, but made sure it was done in K size bites.

[Korrale]

You can continue you on reading. Work on spelling, do read comprehension and book assignments. Have them narrate initially and by the end of the year have them write their own thoughts. Introduce a vocabulary program. Work on suffixes, prefixes, root words, grammar. There is a lot one can do.

[sunnyday]

My rising kindergartener is a fluent reader and a total bookworm. So when we head into more "formal school" time I'm planning to have her read aloud to me or buddy-read some books daily or near-daily. I might assign a few good books for her to read on her own that we can talk about after. But she spends an hour or two per day reading no matter what, so I especially need to remind myself to keep reading aloud to her, especially above her level, for modeling vocabulary and expression and sentence structure and interesting story lines. We'll also probably start AAS for a little formal exposure to phonics rules (though I'm considering LoE Essentials instead.) But it's important to me to keep things very light and fun and child-led at this age so we'll just see what unfolds.

[boscopup]

My rising K'er is also a reader (zooming through 2nd grade level chapter books). My plan for him is to work through LOE Essentials, focusing on handwriting and spelling. He's totally ready for that. We'll just go at his pace.

 

K in my house is short and sweet, even if the kid is well ahead of grade level in any/all subjects. I give ability-appropriate input, expect ability-appropriate output (keeping age in mind), and expect age-appropriate amounts of time spent. For example, my oldest is ahead in reading and math but on grade level or slightly behind in writing. So I've always given him input that matches his reading level and maturity level, expected output to be typical of a kid his age (because that's where his output level is), and expected time spent to be appropriate for a kid his age (roughly 1 hour of schoolwork per grade level is what I aim for, give or take an hour). My youngest is ahead in reading and writing moreso than math (though he's ahead a tiny bit there too). So he'll have more output than my other kids, but I will still keep it short and simple. I don't plan to have him write paragraphs in K or anything like that. ;)

 

[Jackie]

Once DD was reading decently, I just had her read library books aloud to me. Clifford, Little Critter, and the Mo Willems books were all about that level. Since we never did a formal reading program (we did Bob Books to real books), we added in All about Spelling to reinforce the phonics.

[ondreeuh]

We were in the same boat - did a phonics program (PAL Reading) over a few months when he was 4, and then by the end of preschool he was reading late first/early 2nd grade books (Henry & Mudge, Frog & Toad, etc.) We just continued to read but also worked on handwriting (which he hadn't been ready for at 4). Midway through K we started spelling (placed him mid-1st and accelerated a bit), and now at the end of K he is halfway through a 2nd grade spelling book. We haven't done any other phonics work (which, like you, was a pleasant surprise for me as I had to do the whole song & dance for my older child). His reading ability increases in steps. For a few months he read all the Magic Tree House books & similar easy chapter books, first reading a chapter a day, then working up a whole book in 20 minutes, but his reading aloud got very mumbly and skippy as his eyes were moving so fast and his mouth couldn't keep up. He listened to audiobooks and I read a lot of bigger chapter books aloud. Suddenly he is reading Charlotte's Web, perfectly paced with expression, so we jumped that hurdle finally. I really like the Teacher Created Resource lit guides. They have vocabulary & comprehension questions (including some higher-order thinking ones) as well as extension activities. Curr-Click has a ton of them - search for "A guide to using" and you'll find the lot. We did 1st grade grammar in K, and are now starting 2nd. It's easy, but that's kind of the point ... keeping it fun but beefing it up as you see the need. When the grammar program covers sentences vs. fragments, we go into more detail in subjects and predicates. When it covers types of sentences, we go over the "real" names (like interrogative instead of asking and declarative instead of telling).

 

Anyway, if the reading is in place, then focus on reading good lit and working on the vocabulary, character traits, story elements, etc. Add in spelling once handwriting is solid, and you will tidy up phonics that way. Start grammar and don't be afraid to accelerate if you want.

[craftyerin]

I had two Kers start with strong reading skills in place.  I had them read to me daily from a book appropriate to their reading level and we started working on spelling after we finished Phonics Pathways mid-year.  Now, going into 1st, they're both reading at a late 3rd or early 4th grade level, buddy read a novel with me daily, and are using Spalding for spelling (although I might change that for the fall). 

[Tanikit]

My DD now in first grade was reading early chapter books in K. I looked for examples of good early chapter books on Sonlight's curriculum and landed up buying books from the 3rd and 4th grade readers as well as supplementing with other books from the library and from HODs emergent reader set. Basically for reading all she did was read aloud to me daily so that I could help with vocabulary and reinforce some of the more difficult phonics and also to keep her reading skills advancing at whatever level she needed.

 

We did start spelling and even dictation which helped reinforce the basic phonics. Grammar I waited til first grade to start although she was learning punctuation in K. We still did a lot of read alouds with her.

 

Now in first grade my DD is reading books mostly in a 4th-5th grade reading level still aloud to me and shorter books as independent reading (not necessarily easier - some of them are picture books at a high reading level, but they are shorter so more manageable for her).

[reign]

I did OPGTR because it was easy for me to hit most of phonics that way. After that I just had my girls do silent reading and read aloud to me.