Reading levels different from thinking level...

[KristiK]

... if that makes any sense at all. LOL Here's my situation:

We got our books from Bookshelf Central Monday around lunchtime. By dinner Tuesday evening, DD (9 1/2) had read pretty much all of them. She's also read through the Usborn Internet Linked Encyclopedia of the Ancient World and both of our Worldview references. Now she's reading Story of the World, V1, like a novel, because we're out of books for her. We live in a tiny, rural town without a great library, so we buy the Primary Resources, and figure we'll save money and time in the long run, because she's the oldest out of 6. (Her next younger brother, 8, is in UG, too.) I'm 99% sure she's not ready for D work yet, but what about the reading? What I'm thinking is getting her the D level books, and letting her read those after her UG assignments are done. (For example, this week, she's supposed to fill out a worksheet for each story in Buddha Stories. In my plan, after she filled out any necessary work like that, she'd be free to read any of the D level books.) Would that work? Or should I just bump her up to D? This particular child has a habit of surprising me by how much she can do. She won't let you know her potential until she's really pressed to do so. Thanks in advance!

[Marcia]

Hi Kristi,

This is a great question, and it really depends on the student. Let me tell you some parameters so that you can get your hands around your answer a little easier.

As your post title indicates, there's more to our learning levels than reading ability. When we choose books and indicated amounts to read, we include in our determinations the difficulty of the content (including how much of the page count is in pictures), the amount of discussion/worldview included in the reading, juxtaposition with other books within the curriculum, and then a consideration towards maintaining non-Tapestry subjects (math and science and art when younger; add in foreign language when older, etc.).

With your fast-reading daughter, I would recommend content discussions. Have her do some narration, perhaps, of what she's read to you in a conversational (Charlotte Mason) approach. Or, have her practice reading aloud to you, and then stop her periodically to discuss concepts or ideas that occur to you in the moment.

Alternatively, have her spend time with other modalities over the same topics. Are there videos at your library on the week's topics? Could your daughter do one or more hands-on projects? Could she work on one of our lapbooks as follow-up? Does she need to spend extra time on math or science, if reading is her forte? Or, perhaps grammar/composition? These are balancing objectives that can help you more easily answer your own question.

LMK if this helps!