Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Age or Ability Specific Forums Elementary School Non fiction vs fiction

My 3rd grader is reading a lot of fiction,how do you introduce them to non fiction?We have friend who has a gifted son and one not so gifted.But she swears you can ask him anything about the civil war and he knows the answer.He also got the awards for reading the most books every year at school.

The easy way is to figure out what it is the child is interested in, then find them some material on that. You want to make sure the material is at their level, and interesting. Some top-notch illustration at this age is also quite helpful.

It also doesn't hurt if your DC sees you reading nonfiction, and if you can discuss what you're reading with them in an age-appropriate way.

She is almost 9 and reads every Rick Riordan book that's in Barnes and Noble.One being Percy Jackson's Greek Gods.She pointed out a passage in it to me,which just plain seemed to be for older kids.Her gifted teacher played a Percy Jackson movie in class.If that says anything about how she got interest in it.She recently asked about Harry Potter.She reads fast and is going to be through them in no time.There are numerous other titles laying around here she consumes in a day or so.She prefers them to be long as to keep her busier,she says.So far all I have done is ask her why doesn't she read nonfiction,instead of showing her.When do they ever start the history,government,and geography classes in gifted,for some nonfiction reading?

Atticcat, my DD10 is also a Percy Jackson addict. If you don't have it already, it's not nonfiction, but D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths is gorgeous and would probably appeal. It seems like a short step from there on to history.

Hi,thanks for the quick reply.That sounds like the author of the Greek Mythology book she has.We got it from amazon last year.I.heard someone today on PBS telling how their young gifted child was interested in Ancient Greek civilization.Not quite the same thing but had me going for a second there.

I leave nonfiction on the couch. We don't really have television, so anything there gets read.

We had it on the stairs, but that wasn't such a good idea. The breakfast table is another good spot to have an attractive book. Sometimes it's more about a book being there and interesting for a kid that's already a reader than it is to find the perfect book and put it on the shelf.

My DD's daily G/T English class has been doing historical fiction. Off the top of my head, I can recall they did one novel set in the 18th-century South Pacific (pirate/explorer/native exploitation themes), one in Nazi-occupied Denmark, and one in 1960s rural America. They also did a block on Greek mythology, where everyone had to choose a god and do a report. This has all been going on since around 1st grade. While discussing the literature, they get some historical context.

Her social studies is outside of the G/T offering, and it's a dog's breakfast. That's not a local problem, that's a national one. Depending on where you live in the US, your child might not see a social studies class worthy of the name until high school AP.

Some good stuff here:

http://inkrethink.blogspot.com/p/blog-page.html

We liked "Monster Trucks" by Susan Goodman a lot and she is a contributor to INK I think.

Probably it depends on the school, but my kids always had to read age-appropriate nonfiction books at school, starting in K.
Your public library must have a huge selection of nonfiction books for different ages, you can choose whatever your DD likes.
Personally, I am a big fan of the following series
http://www.salariya.com/wouldnt/pages/wouldnt.html

Oooh, I like the ideas of leaving the books around on the couch and breakfast table. My DS7 will read nonfiction, but he doesn't go out of his way to seek it out.

Tangent question--do you limit fiction books based on content due to age? Specifically, I read aloud the first three Harry Potter books to him this summer. I refused to keep going to do darker themes and content, saying he would have to wait until he was at least 8 before reading book 4. But DS *desperately* wants me to keep reading. He really relates to Harry on a personal level. But I still worry about the fear factor, even though in some ways he is mature beyond his years.

What do you all think?
Siren