n/a

DS8 started reading just before his second birthday. He was fairly independent rather quickly. He liked me to read to him as well so we'd each choose a page and read to each other. I'd read the lefts and he'd read the rights. We still do it on occasion.

you'd really need to define "reading". My DD's would read independently a child's book at 2 yrs of age (pictures, words the lot) but if you are talking a paper back novel, no pictures, with mulitple chapters I'd say 5yrs.

DS8 was always very independent about his play and everything, so he was "reading" independently even before he could read -- he played with my books from the bookcases he could reach, and along the way he learned to read them. He read the numbers (page #s and chapter #s and any other #s in books) first, from about 18 months, and by 2 1/2 to 3 he was reading everything. Of course, understanding most of it came along later.

DS 5 liked the sharing too, I think was nervous that being able to do it himself meant we wouldn't read to him or with him, but once we assured him we would read together as much or as little as he wanted he was more independent. And then it became almost a compulsion. He is the kid who props up books while eating (when I let him) and wants to read everything he can see!

He read sight words at 3 but then went 0 to 600 in less than a year, almost frightening leaps - clifford starter books right before 4 by 4.5 when I found this group he was doing much more advanced and now at 5.5 is reading and comprehending books on his schools 5th grade reading list and is science comprehension is much higher.

All that being said, he has the emotional skills of.a 5 year old so a lot of content is too
scary or too inappropriate. It's a balancing act. I've gotten great book advice here but the best I got was on the wall of the library, it said just because your child can read the words don't forget the pictures. In one of his leaps forward DS was devouring nonfiction
and chapter books and because of that sign I realized I was ignoring his 5 year old parts in favor of the advanced parts. So in his library basket right now are 2 simon basher science books, a dragon slayer academy book, the newest Melanie watt picture book, and 2 older chapter books which he has finished but he wants to read with us too.

I go to the library constantly to keep the books flowing, but he sets the pace on how long we keep them. Also I found that DS liked pictures long after being a really
competent reader, there are great "picture" books that are more substantive, like magic school bus.

I could obviously go on and on it's really fun when they are interested in reading like this but for us (and others here) it's also a bit like having to feed them. DS actually gets antsy without new material. There are a lot of flavors to the early readers - I would do a search, there are some fabulous threads and the book rec's are awesome here!

DeHe

Hi Annette,

My DS just turned 4 and he is independently opting to read 1st/2nd grade story books on his own (not chapter ones usually but picture type) just starting recently (despite having been technically able to for at least a year.) The Mr Putter series is at the upward edge of what he'll read on his own, or abridged type Winnie the Pooh, easy picture books.

He independently read non-fiction in areas of interest earlier, around 3 maybe although I forget exactly when, very long ago now -- adult level non-fiction coffee table type books, guides and encyclopedias (but mainly bolded text, side-notes, picture captions, not lengthy small text). Also around then started mid-elementary age non-fiction. Prefers an adult to read those too but around late 3s much more willing to do it on his own, such as spontaneously in the car or when the parents look busy.

Anything like a fiction chapter book he still much prefers an adult to read. If it's a long story we have to stop part way in to act it all out and then lots of variations on the story line to the point there is little resemblence to the original... finally returning to the actual book possibly weeks later. So I choose shorter ones, as I get frustrated with not ever finishing the books. DS doesn't seem to need them finished.

In addition to what you've mentioned to read to them, DS likes the Andrew Lost series, also liked The End of the Beginning, The Complete Winnie the Pooh stories (not abridged).

I think for DS stories are a time of feeling connected to a parent, a passive entertained or cuddled feeling. Because of that I have tried hard not to push him to read on his own -- it's difficult not to when I know he can easily do it, there are a lot of moments when I could get a lot done if he was reading a long book.

Other things that get in the way of him reading long books are interest in pictures (spends as much time looking at the pictures as reading the text), and a tendency to re-read a line or jump down 2 lines instead of one when he reaches the right hand side of the page and has to start again at the left, especially with small print.

I wish there were more long stories out there with detailed pictures on most pages, with lots of text but more visually broken up into segments.

Polly

Mine was another early self-taught reader. I think in the sense you mean he's been an independent reader at least since around the time he turned 3, maybe 2.5; but he was certainly younger than that when he started to like sitting and looking through books on his own, and I don't really know when he was first actually reading them. It's probably more to do with personality than with reading as such, though - he's always been very content to amuse himself much of the time. (I thank my lucky stars he's an introvert like both parents!) In terms of the mechanics of reading, my shorthand is that his reading age tracked roughly twice his chronological age from 2.5 for the next couple of years, but in fact by the time he started school at 4.5 he could read anything he was interested in, including adult science material, and when he got stuck on a word it would generally be because the word wasn't in his vocabulary at all, rather than because he couldn't decode it. Can't really answer the question about chapter books because the stage at which he was becoming competent to read them was also a stage in which he was much more interested in non-fiction books which aren't laid out that way. He had some favourite short chapter books at 3, but serious interest in fiction didn't really come till later (4, then more each year since).

When I saw the Frog and Toad, I remembered posting about my DS's first books. A search brought up this thread:
When do you consider your child a reader?

I know there are other threads out there, too, if you feel like searching.

My kiddo always liked to be read to as well, and it took a while before he would pick up a book and read it by himself. He grudgingly would when he was 5 in kindergarten and he had some reading logs. Now at 7, he's reading all kinds of stuff. Currently he's on a math kick, so it's "The Number Devil" and "Life of Fred."

Here are a couple of threads for your "milestones":
What is your first grader reading?
What is your 10/11 year old reading?

I remember feeling the same way when my kids were starting to read. That kind of book doesn't seem to be as common nowadays -- I had better luck finding them at used-book stores and library sales than at regular bookstores.

Anyway, here are some of the books I was able to find that have the format you describe -- most are large-format and all have good illustrations but also a fair amount of challenging, interesting text.

Fiction:
The Minpins (Picture Puffin edition), by Roald Dahl
The Great Blueness, by Arnold Lobel
The Last Basselope, by Berke Breathed (creator of Bloom County)
The Book of Beasts, by E. Nesbit with illustrations by Inga Moore
It Was a Dark and Stormy Night, by Janet & Allan Ahlberg
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi, by Rudyard Kipling with illustrations by Jerry Pinkney
How the Elephant Got Its Trunk, by Kipling with illustrations by Tim Raglin
Petronella, by Jay Williams with illustrations by Friso Henstra

Poetry:
Sir Cedric, by Roy Gerrard
The Remarkable Farkle McBride, by John Lithgow
Micawber, by Lithgow

Non-fiction:
Life Story, by Virginia Lee Burton
biographies of Columbus, Lincoln and others by the D'Aulaires (of 'Greek Mythology' fame)

Hope this helps!

Our dd (now 11yo) showed unusual interest in the written word at a very early age. One of her first spoken words was "readabook." And her speech and reading fluency took off almost simultaneously, just around her 2nd birthday. By age 4 she didn't want us to read aloud to her any more, 'cuz we were too slow :-(

These days, she's still crazy about books and its a rare day she reads less than 500 pages. And she's very cuddly - fortunately we found ways to bond with her other than reading aloud to her.

Annette,

DS read things like the Magic Treehouse at 2. By 3, he'd decided that fiction was a waste of time and started reading science books etc. It wasn't until he was 6 that he agreed to fiction again. The book of choice? Stephen Hawkings "George's Secret Keys to the Universe".

Mine doesn't read. �He occasionally reads a random word, phrase, or sentence out of the blue or says an answer out loud to a question that he saw written. �He says he can't read. �I say "I've seen you". �I think he means he can't read well yet, and I've told him so. �I would call him an emerging reader. �He's been reading stray words for well over a year now, but not out of books. �He does a lot of Internet & tv. He's making that same kind of leap right now though but with writing. �I quit telling him how to write each letter and instead just told him which letter to write, one letter at a time. � I realized yesterday he was bored. I started telling him groups of letters and whole small words at a time, which he's apparently ready to start doing some of. �Also, �he's memorizing more spellings than I realized. �Plus we do that "reading eggs" program. �We take turns doing levels. �I usually talk him into trying to guess answers on my turn. �If he doesn't answer quickly I click the answer quickly. �I can see that he's thinking about the answer and sometimes thinks of it just as I already answered. �I got that idea reading posts. �Teachers don't teach kids things they can already answer. �Now I know "zone of proximal development" means what they can easily do with a little help now is what they'll shortly do well on their own. � �Once he knows how to do it he pushes my hand and says, "no. �Let me do this level too.". Apparently somebody needs to work on manners. �Anyway, the latest is the game where they jumble the words and tell you the sentence and ask you to put it in order. He's asked to do that one several times in a row. �

I'll answer your post title.

My son doesn't read independently. But, he can read second grade level books.

To explain: He very rarely picks up a book and reads from it, yet he will read pages when my husband or I read every other one or if we prompt him.

Like your child, our son will read random words when we are out. The other day he read the word, "organic" at the store, for instance.

Many times my son will tell me he is too young to read yet and won't be able to until he is ten years old. Silliness or Apprehension? I don't know. I keep telling him he does read just fine, but when he is put on "the spot" sometimes he balks.

Oh, btw...he was able to read a typical Cat in the Hat book at 3.

DD6 was reading by 3. She could pick out different words at 2 but independently by 3. She still loves to read but there are times she wants us to read to her and we happily do it. Most times she reads to me or we take turns. They tested her and told us she reads at an adult level whatever that means. I find the hardest thing is to find books that she is emotionally ready for.

When did your child start to read independently?

Well it was a gradual process and I am not sure of the exact age. He taught himself to read. I think the process began at three, 4 he presented as an emerging reading but I think he could read better than he let on, at 5 he entered K reading well above grade level and left K reading assessed at least 4th grade level (not sure what level he can read now summer after K as his top instructional level but he reads chapter books listed as 3rd-5th grade levels independently).

I'm just curious. My then second grader, was reading Harry Potter and other grade 6 and 7 books. She was in Montessori, where they didn't really do "testing"...Then she went to public school and took a DRA. (Developmental Reading Assessment) Does anyone have expereience with DRA's? Because she wasn't used to letting someone KNOW that she comprehended what she read, she only got a beginning 5th grade level on this. Has this happened to anyone else? How good is this test? At the beginning of 3rd they put her at 3.8...in the middle, 4.2 and at the end...5.0

I have a feeling they just test "whatever" level and if they pass, the leave it alone. They told me that this was her reading level and the went as far as they could go...but each time, they only gave her one book...one test....and she passed...and did well...any thoughts? BTW...she was reading at 3...she was reading short books at 4...she was reading Junie B., Catwings and other chapter books at 5...she read all the American Girl books at 6 and at 7, started the Harry Potter series. At 9, she can read just about anything (under like a 10th grade level) and has many interests.

DD7 didn't read until age 4 and does not seem particularly interested in books as of late. I doubt she's read one in the last 30 days.

I think she got spooked in 2nd grade reading a few titles above her grade level, which I encouraged after being told her Lexile score was several grades higher. She also found the Guinness Book of World Records at school which really blew her mind, particularly the stuff about diseases and plane crash survivors.

So for summer at least, she's over this whole reading thing. Besides, what do high Lexile scores have to do with becoming a pop star? The focus now is finding the right pair of attitude glasses.

I have twins who are 5.5. DS repeated many stories from memory well before age 2, and figured out how to decode words around 3-3.5 years. By 4 he was reading easy readers independently, and between 4-4.5 he underwent a rather startling explosion of reading with very little instruction. At first he was just decoding, but now I would guess he is reading and comprehending at at least a 4th-5th grade level. He doesn't have as much interest in fiction unless the stories are short or humorous but will read transportation/ocean/space books for hours. He is not quite as mathy.

It has been fascinating, because DD (his twin), seem to enjoy math a lot more and adds/subtracts easily in her head, although she is just now starting to catch on to reading (easy readers) and really didn't have any sight words until around 4-4.5 so she was > 1.5 years behind her twin. DS seems HG+ to me and DD MG but but we are waiting for the WISC in December when they turn 6 and I think (and hope) DD will surprise us.

Because of the reading disparity, we requested they be in separate rooms for K in the fall although maybe it would have been better for them to have each other as peers. I am a little concerned about how it will go, and can forsee a grade skip but can't fathom skipping only one twin. Til then, I look forward to learning about the experience from moms of twins in this forum.

I had to check my notes for these developments. DS 5 (almost 6) began reading sight words at early 2. At 3 he started decoding 3 letter words but hated doing it. He learned how to read mainly by asking us to tell him every word he didn't know and then memorizing it by sight. He was able to read Frog and Toad by the time he was almost 4 and now can read at a mid 3rd grade level but much prefers to read at a beginning second grade level on his own. In fact he does not seem to be into reading these days at all as his school is pretty academic and he finds the structure a bit tough and has resisted against it. As a baby he would let us read to him for hours and it was all he wanted to do. Now I guess he has other things to work on which he feels are very important. I do make him read 10 minutes a day (minimum of what the school asks the kids to do) and it is a real chore for him to settle down on his own and read even though the books are easy enough and have illustrations. So I guess to answer your question ds at the age of almost 6 is still not really reading independently though he can and has been able to for a few years!

Dee, I am responding here to your interest in experience with twins. Mine are also b/g twins, and now 11.5yo, going into 6th grade. We also have some differences in ability - for example going back to the reading milestone, dd was reading by 2yo, and ds didn't learn until 3.5yo. Dd is still across the board academically stronger than ds, but they are still both hg+. They were in separate classes for K-2 (we worried about competition between them, and also wanted them to branch out socially). The school put a grade skip on the table for dd in 2nd grade but we opted not to take it or to make a case for skipping both kids, for a variety of reasons. Their school has a separate campus for 3-5, and the principal there put our kids in the same class for the purpose of clustering. The principal is a fierce advocate of the inclusive classroom, and is successful in making in-class differentiation work.

They will experience their first explicit subject acceleration this fall as they start 6th in the middle school - both have been placed in 9th grade math. We expect they'll be together for math, but otherwise in separate classes.

Interesting thread!

My daughter (now almost 6) taught herself to read at 26 months (or at least that's when we detected her reading abilities). We had her reading skills formally assessed at age 3.5, and at that stage, she had decoding abilities of a 9 year old and comprehension of a 7 year old.

Her precocious reading was one of the main things that prompted us to have her assessed for ASD at 28 months. Turns out, she was/is not hyperlexic, but she is in fact on the spectrum. All of this has added up to an interesting -- and at times, amusing -- journey. One of my daughter's fixations when she was turning four was a biography on Joseph Stalin. She asked to have a Joseph Stalin-themed birthday party that year...thankfully, we were able to convince her to go with the more age-appropriate dinosaur theme!

It's hard to remember clearly, here are the things that stick out to me:

DD11:
Loved being read to at a very young age and clearly had several books memorized, which I realized because she would giggle or make motions in anticipation of the next page. Somewhere slightly before or after her first year she could retrieve books by title.

I remember her spelling before she was reading, sometime around two years old, and she was writing with some reasonable phonetic approximation at age three (like a typical late K/early 1st).

The next clear memory I have is her first completely independent chapter book sometime during age 4--I mostly remember because it was a Junie B. Jones and when I poked my head in and asked how the book was, she said (with great big eyes) "Not Good....". I asked if the book was too hard and she said, "No...Junie is being naughty .

Despite her independence (she devoured books), we also continued to read together every night through 5th grade, which is actually how I realized how precocious she was. It wasn't so much what she could read on her own (which was pretty much everything), it was the comments she made about what we were reading together that really struck me as unusual.

DS9:
He was completely different. Very visual, kinesthetic kid. His biggest pre-K interests were non-fiction videos which he would watch and then act out with toys afterwards. He mostly wanted non-fiction read aloud too, which I hated. He was reading some before he started kindergarten (probably first grade level?) but was not an enthusiastic independent reader.

He was in early first when he hit the assessment point my daughter hit in kindergarten (which maxed out the assessment being used at the time). He is not a kid who often goes and seeks out a book to read, but loves read alouds and if he starts reading, will become immersed for a really long time. So he's a kid who read HP in 2nd grade, but once he would finish a book or a series, he wouldn't necessarily pick another one up. DD leaves the library with 15 books, DS leaves with 2-3. Yet he surprised me by testing much higher than I would have expected on the SRI, so go figure....


My DS always loved the pictures too, but in the long run that hasn't interfered with his reading ability (decoding or comprehension). Especially in picture books, there is a lot of information contained in the pictures that enhances the story and is not part of the text. I think it is what builds the ability for kids to turn words into visuals. I've noticed that as he's gotten older, he will sometimes slip into very detailed descriptions of how he imagines a character or setting in a book he is reading.

Graphic novels have really exploded if you are looking for something else. There is actually as much non-fiction as fiction. It's not a format I particularly enjoy, but it has high appeal to kids who love visuals. In some cases there are graphic versions of great novels--I wouldn't ever feed a child the graphic version first, but it could be a fun independent follow up to a read aloud of the original.

Kristen, what a great post. I'm adding it to my burgeoning collection of funny Stalin stories.

I don't remember exactly when DS6 began reading anything independently. I have an idea it was 3. I don't think he did it to any great extent until 4.

DD10 was a "late" reader. When we decided to go with the public school system, we thought she would be more likely to learn and not be bored in kindergarten if she didn't know how to read. Since she didn't have a strong interest in reading on her own (science and math were more fun), it was relatively easy for us to not do anything that would encourage her to learn to read.

DD started kindergarten at 5 1/2 knowing her name, letter sounds and a few sight words. By age six, she was reading things like recipes on her own. By the end of kindergarten, she was reading 100-200 page chapter books independently and didn't want us to read to her (we were too slow).

My ds is also really into the visuals and really prefers to read books with colored pictures still. So far he likes the Martha Speaks chapter books and Geronimo Stilton books. Does anyone know of anymore chapter books with colored pictures? Thanks!

All three of mine were different (no surprise). DD14 was around 2.5; her favorite "toys" were books. I kept board books everywhere. I remember handing them to her in the back seat of the car when she was a year old (over & over...). I enjoyed reading to her & she enjoyed reading to herself. I didn't really ask her to read to me. It was just what we did. There was a lot of repetition and she just picked up on the words, phrases, etc. Not to discount her teachers in school. I know they refined some of her phonics. Anyway, she still reads like a fiend, which is extremely gratifying. We try to go to the used book store so that she can get credit for her previously read books and get more as often as possible. (All three kids do, actually.) She ends up reading most of her books several times over. I did the same thing at her age. Kind of cool.

DD12 (who was just dx'd with dyslexia) was not as much of a reader. She probably started reading independently around 5ish. Her sister read to her a lot & we would all read together. But she did not pick up on it like DD14. I did not feel the need to push the issue, though. We worked on fluency a lot when she was in 2nd grade. She still is not crazy about reading though. I'm sure it has to do with the dyslexia.

DS9 was around 3.5-4. It sounds strange, but I don't remember his process. Probably because he had so many people to read to him. We lived near extended family when he was young. But it definitely came easily to him. He has always preferred non-fiction books to fiction. (He never liked Dr. Seuss.) He wanted to know about how things work, where they came from, etc. So those were the kinds of books I read to him & from which he learned to read. Not the easiest to find for a little guy. Now he drives his sisters crazy because he has learned so much & of course he wants to tell them. And most of the time he is right. Keeps his 14 year old sister on her toes!

DD8.5 was 5 before she could read. We found out that she had amblyopia at 4yrs and was functionally blind in one eye and had pretty bad vision in the other. Even after this was identified, she was patched and forced to use the weak eye for 1.5 yrs. I think this hid a lot of her abilities. Hard to read when you can't see!

She did not like to read at all and fought it at all levels. It was grade 2 before she would read independantly and for pleasure (although I am sure she was capable of it long before then). I enrolled her in reading sessiosn at the public library that matched reluctant readers with therapy dogs. She met and read to 'Cosmo' each week. It really brought her out of her shell! She was excited to pick out new books each week. By the end of two months she moved from easy readers to grade 4 level books. I think she lacked the confidence to do it (secondary to her extreme perfectionism). The dog was nonjudgemental and did not care if she made mistakes. I found it ironic that it took a strange dog to unlock her love of reading when we have three of our own at home who would have been happy to oblige her.

DS 2yr10mo can pick out a few words, but I don't think he is anywhere close to reading. From what we can tell, his vision is fine. I am interested to see how differently he presents from his sister as a preschooler.

DS was 2y5m when I realised he could read unseen text, prior to that I was aware he could read a few words but that was about it. He was about 2y9m when he moved onto easy / first chapter books.

very interesting thread. I read it with interest because this exact thing has been on my mind so much lately.

DS(4) was able to repeat books from memory before he was 2. Before 2.5 he was picking out words that he knew in books I was reading and wherever he saw them. He begged me to teach him to read so we read Noddy magazines and he would read the words he knew. He started pre school at age 3 and suddenly everything slowed down.

"I'm not old enough to read" he said and that was that. He was not given easy readers until nearly 10 months into the year.

The school uses the DRA system - which is a very complete and comprehensive system: kids are tested on fluency and comprehension and application of read text; DS gets caught up looking at the pictures and so gets caught with that. This year he gets a reader every week; but I am convinced that he is still hiding ability.

It's hard to pinpoint, but i am sure that he can read a lot more than he lets on. These last three weeks of no school have been amazing - suddenly he is "able" to read sight words, tricky new words he has never seen before and found an early reader "Horrid Henry" book. Lovely chapter book with three - 5 lines of text and then colour pictures and so on.

I have seen him sitting on his own before - and seen his eyes moving across each row of text as though he is reading. I have always wondered if his need for perfection coupled with someone telling him that he is too young to read has delayed the jump for him. IOW the growth in reading is slower than what I am reading here for kids starting at a similar age to him.

am I making sense?

DS(2.5) has recently started reading words and very easy emerging reader books. I don't know if this is a catalyst for DS4, and I also worry about him starting school in Jan and seeing the same backpedalling trends...

any thoughts on this?

DS10 was a confirmed ready by 3 (the director of his gifted preschool said he was obviously a self-taught reader by the way he read or wrote or something like that) i think he was reading his board books to himself before age 2 when i thought he was just looking at the pictures. He spent a lot of time looking at his books from a very early age and had a very long attention span and desire for books from day 1. I know he could read words at 18 months but we thought it was a funny party trick at that point (Hey guys, check THIS out!) because he couldn't talk. You could show him a list of words and say "Show me Moon" and he'd point to Moon. The order of the words didn't matter and I could change up the words. Maybe it was a photographic memory thing? Anyway...

He was definitely reading independently at age 4 but I don't remember what exactly! I remember he read the 1st Harry Potter at 5 and read on the bus from school everyday and at bedtime every night in gr K. but he preferred non-fiction until last year. (age 9)

I just came back to this post to add that my DD8 started independently last year at age 7. Before that she loved pop up books and books that were more visual than straight chapter books. She seemed a little less confident to read them. Right now she is reading Desperaeux and enjoying it but she is less enthusiastic and voracious of a reader than her brother. She couldn't read in gr K and she managed to do very well in a 1st gr program that year. She was independently reading BOB books and other simple books (the early reader Level books, Dr Suess books, etc) to build her skills. Now she finished a 3rd grade program and has very good comprehension and reads above grade level so she is doing well.

It's amazing how different kids, even siblings, can be when it comes to learning styles and needs!

Maybe something for another thread, but I am noticing a recurring theme of boys preferring to read non-fiction books. I am wondering if this is peculiar to gifteds or a boy thing? My 9-year-old son has been exploring fiction books, but he still comes back around to DK Eyewitness books and the like. He enjoyed reading the Magic Treehouse books but they are too easy for him now.
He also prefers to watch shows that are knowledge-based--Mythbusters, Beakman's World, Animal Planet/Nova/NatGeo shows.
My brother (definitely gifted) used to read encyclopedias back in the 80s. Any ideas on this?

I agree with cricket3, not just boys, and I'll also put in that I don't think it's gifted-related either - many children seem to prefer non-fiction at many stages. Learning true things is interesting to everyone, why not :-)

DS also adores Theodore Gray's The Elements - I got both the book and the set of cards, wondering whether that was redundant, but not a bit of it; they get used in different ways. Somewhat relatedly, one of the best things about a school we went to visit recently was that they have one of those giant periodic tables that has a sample of each (well, almost :-) element alongside the symbol in the box. We've as a family always been fascinated by those. You can get coffee tables made like it, but they are way outside our price range. Maybe if we win the lottery!

DS10 also watches those kind of shows pretty much exclusively. Mythbusters, Through the Wormhole, Stormchasers, SciFi Science, How It's Made.

Other non-fic books he liked when he was younger: Guiness Book of World Records, Ripley's Believe it or not and his very tattered Optical Illusions book.

Based on what I see in the classroom, I would say not a gifted thing, but definitely see a trend that has boys gravitating to non-fiction significantly more often than girls, and more often than they gravitate towards fiction.

DD10 also prefers to watch those types of shows. Even when she was younger, she would rather watch How It's Made or CyberChase than anything on the Disney Channel or Nick Jr. She'd much rather read fiction though.

DD loves non-fiction almost as much as Harry Potter.

(For the Theodore Gray fans, you might be interested in The DIsappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements. We've been reading it daily-very entertaining)