I want to echo the concerns mentioned about taking care that above level readers get age appropriate material. Last year DS7 (then 6) brought home a book about the history of pirates. I didn't think much about it until he asked me some questions one day & I realized that the book discussed the fact that pirates often suffered from STDs and contained graphic descriptions of torture. The book was probably written for late middle school students but there were lots of pictures, so it didn't send up any red flags when he brought it home.
We've been encouraging a lot of SF, fantasy, and hard sciences, and steering away from the social sciences and history for now. I try to help him find history/social science books that are written for younger students because something written for 10 or 11 years olds can cause DS7 real distress. Even if the reading is simple, the concepts and presentation are more age appropriate - less violence, but also less mention of the real cruelty that people are capable of inflicting on others. He is simply not ready to deal with that kind of information. I could really see the emotional/experience-level impact of a book that was too old with the last Harry Potter book (#6). He had read the other 5 books, but that one was just too grown up. He had no context for the emotions and late teenage behavior of the characters & didn't read this one.
As for the writing, I have to say that it is a real struggle. He may read above level, but his hands belong to a 7 year old with very average fine motor skills. I encourange him to tell me about what he wants to write before he begins, but even then it takes him a long time to put his thoughts on paper. I agree with another writer that this is much more of an age/developmental skill. Whatever the child is reading, the writing assignments need to take into account the child's ability (or lack) to hold the pencil and write for a long time (or not).
