Here's some food for thought that makes one realize how serious this subject is.
My daughter just won her 4th grade spelling bee.
The first list that all 4th graders got was exceptionally difficult, but you'd think that a HG kid would know most of the words. However, I was surprised that my daughter didn't know a good 25 percent of them. Thanks to her exceptional memory, she learned them in 2 weeks, and then went on to the final.
It dawned on me later that she had had no exposure to "challenge" words (for her) all year, even in her gifted program. Hence, she had really learned no new vocabulary through her school.
Again, the importance of getting reading material at the right level!
