One of the challenges I’ve found with my gifted children (especially the older one) is that I tend to forget her  chronological age. She and I will be having a deeply philosophical conversation about equal rights, or discussion the stock market or the housing crisis, and suddenly she’ll turn around and do something I perceive as really immature. It’s a bit jarring for my brain, and I find that  in that moment I have to remind myself that she is only 8.

I find myself occasionally getting annoyed at her, for things that are completely reasonable behaviors in someone her age. I feel that I sometimes succumb to outside pressures to “make” my kid behave like a mini-adult all the time, and that isn’t truly what I believe as a parent, nor what I want to perpetuate.

I also find that keeping her challenged is well, a challenge. This year with online school for the first time I feel like she’s being academically stimulated, mostly. I’m still not sure she’s challenged in her reading abilities. She is reading at around 165 words per minute, and while her reading comprehension is good, I think there is some room for improvement.

I’ve been trying to get her slightly harder books to read, because her default has been to read at or below her grade level even though I know she’s capable of harder stuff. My only issue with ‘harder” books is content. We got through the first four Harry Potter books, but then I tried to move her to other more age appropriate reading.  I find that I’m constantly bothering clerks at our local bookstores to help me find which book have appropriate content for a 8-year-old.

Additionally, I’ve been reading to her, we’ve started a library of the classics and I have been reading Little Women to her, as the prose and some of the vocabulary can be hard to sort through without guidance.

I’m always looking for suggestions, so please let me know if you’ve got a favorite book or series in your house.