First off-- I've never really posted here, because I don't actually know that DD1 is "gifted" in any strict sense of the word. Certainly, she's a bright kid, but I've never really entertained the idea that she's more than just that. But we have this issue that I thought maybe the mamas on here would best understand.
What she is is a precocious reader. This may be the result of an intersection of being reasonably bright, combined with her environment and experience-- DH and I are both hardcore bibliophiles. She's grown up in a house where there are books on all topics, up to her ears. She spent a lot of her babyhood and toddlerhood literally paddling around in piles of books. We read a LOT, during all parts of the day, and books have loomed large in her life. So it's not surprising she reads well.
She's six years and three months old. At this point, I'm roughly hazarding that her decoding skills might hover around a ninth grade level. Her vocabulary and comprehension significantly lag behind that level, of course, but because she's reading so MUCH, they're growing by leaps and bounds too.
Here's the issue, though, that I need advice about. I don't have a balanced view of this, because I am such a reader myself. She's reading, at this point, so much that it's interfering with the rest of her life. This morning, she missed her school bus, because she wouldn't put down her book. She's staying up really really late at night, reading under the covers, and I'm having to drag her out of bed in the morning. She comes to meals with books. She stays in from playing with the neighborhood kids, to read. She reads in church. I have to physically take the books away, to keep her from bringing them to Sunday School. She reads in the car. Her clothes aren't in the hamper, and her cat isn't fed, because she's reading all the time. She snaps at anyone who speaks to her, because she doesn't want her reading interrupted. It's starting to be a big deal in our house.
I've managed to lay down rules that we don't read while crossing the street, or in parking lots, for obvious safety reasons-- she's going to get run down by a truck. I think she understood THAT one clearly, and she's mostly cooperating. But we're having huge fights at least several times a week, and often much, much more often, about her needing to put her book down to do the necessary other things she needs to do.
I want her to read, if it brings her joy. Heck, sure, I do. And I feel like it's "crazy" to BAN reading, when I spend my professional life (I'm a reading specialist-- I work privately with struggling readers and their families) advocating for parents to PUSH reading. But I feel like we're in an insane situation.
So I guess the advice I'm looking for is:
1. Do we limit reading? Or am I crazy, and I should just let her read, because obviously reading is such a good thing. People IRL look at me like I've lost my gourd, when I talk about limiting reading.
2. What do you think reasonable rules about this would look like? I don't want to be arbitrary and controlling- I just want to help her learn a little bit about balance. DH and I read, sure, but we also get our work done, and do the other things that are part of a healthy lifestyle.
I feel stupid asking this, really. If you were asking me about limiting TV, or video games, I get that. I would know right what to do. But I never thought I'd be thinking about taking away her BOOKS.
What she is is a precocious reader. This may be the result of an intersection of being reasonably bright, combined with her environment and experience-- DH and I are both hardcore bibliophiles. She's grown up in a house where there are books on all topics, up to her ears. She spent a lot of her babyhood and toddlerhood literally paddling around in piles of books. We read a LOT, during all parts of the day, and books have loomed large in her life. So it's not surprising she reads well.
She's six years and three months old. At this point, I'm roughly hazarding that her decoding skills might hover around a ninth grade level. Her vocabulary and comprehension significantly lag behind that level, of course, but because she's reading so MUCH, they're growing by leaps and bounds too.
Here's the issue, though, that I need advice about. I don't have a balanced view of this, because I am such a reader myself. She's reading, at this point, so much that it's interfering with the rest of her life. This morning, she missed her school bus, because she wouldn't put down her book. She's staying up really really late at night, reading under the covers, and I'm having to drag her out of bed in the morning. She comes to meals with books. She stays in from playing with the neighborhood kids, to read. She reads in church. I have to physically take the books away, to keep her from bringing them to Sunday School. She reads in the car. Her clothes aren't in the hamper, and her cat isn't fed, because she's reading all the time. She snaps at anyone who speaks to her, because she doesn't want her reading interrupted. It's starting to be a big deal in our house.
I've managed to lay down rules that we don't read while crossing the street, or in parking lots, for obvious safety reasons-- she's going to get run down by a truck. I think she understood THAT one clearly, and she's mostly cooperating. But we're having huge fights at least several times a week, and often much, much more often, about her needing to put her book down to do the necessary other things she needs to do.
I want her to read, if it brings her joy. Heck, sure, I do. And I feel like it's "crazy" to BAN reading, when I spend my professional life (I'm a reading specialist-- I work privately with struggling readers and their families) advocating for parents to PUSH reading. But I feel like we're in an insane situation.
So I guess the advice I'm looking for is:
1. Do we limit reading? Or am I crazy, and I should just let her read, because obviously reading is such a good thing. People IRL look at me like I've lost my gourd, when I talk about limiting reading.
2. What do you think reasonable rules about this would look like? I don't want to be arbitrary and controlling- I just want to help her learn a little bit about balance. DH and I read, sure, but we also get our work done, and do the other things that are part of a healthy lifestyle.
I feel stupid asking this, really. If you were asking me about limiting TV, or video games, I get that. I would know right what to do. But I never thought I'd be thinking about taking away her BOOKS.