It is certainly OK to vent and complain here. We all need it sometime. I'm just suggesting another way to look at the situation.
And I'm asking for another way to look at the situation, believe me.
Thank you so much for all those links! I'm opening our library catalog right now. I already have a couple of books about really big numbers to get tomorrow. She seems to really be into the concepts, with a surprising insight into them, too.
I think this is why on achievement tests at age 7 or so you get about 2-3 years above grade level and the kid is considered in the >99.9 percentile, while with reading you can be 5 years ahead of grade level and only be in the high 90s.
It feels like reading a higher level book isn't that different from reading a simple book, but it's just something that builds on what you've read before in terms of vocabulary and speed, and uses attention span and maturity as you get older. I mean, reading Plato and Shakespeare are a matter of concentration and understanding, not reading mechanics. But I'm fascinated by the ceiling on mathematical ability and how you can't force something until their brain is there. I've just tried to explain what I see in my DD three times and I can't do it well, so bear with me. She does interesting complicated stuff, but only on small numbers, and it's not a quantum shift from 1,2,3, lots to 1, 2, 3... 1,000. She has tens, but hundreds are shaky, and not fully instinctive. And getting hundreds won't mean she's automatically got thousands. She's got fractions, but I haven't tried decimals yet because of the place value issue. It's fascinating, particularly since I'm math phobic.
