11:21 a.m. - 2015-02-27
running out of books
My second-grader is currently plowing through her fourth or fifth Harry Potter book. On one hand I suppose this is good because I no longer have to worry about her wandering around complaining of boredom. On the other hand she has already read all of the Nancy Drew books I can find and all of the classics my ex-mother-in-law and I have been able to find-- The Secret Garden, Heidi and all that -- and I keep telling her she better slow down because there are only seven Harry Potter books and I am not sure what we are going to do after this. When I was on third grade I ended up just mostly reading the encyclopedia because I had read everything else in the school library that I considered worth reading. Then most of Shakespeare in fourth grade, Moby Dick in fifth (it took me three whole weeks and I hated it), and The Iliad and The Odyssey.
I am not sure what I am going to find Mar to read after Harry P. She may read on a middle school level, but the kid is in second grade. She's already pushing the limits of what's appropriate.
Maybe I'll start teaching her to read in French; it will distract her and slow her down a bit. I know my daughter is very bright but I don't want her to identify as whatever sky-high number her IQ is; I want her to feel like a complete, multidimensional person whose IQ is only one small part of her identity. Yes, I am sure some people will think I am a horrible parent for not devoting my life to exploiting her potential, but dammit there is more to a person than what she came do and score and win. Mostly I want her to be resilient and secure in herself. That's more important to success than IQ anyway.
Every time I feel like jumping off something (which is most days) I think of my daughter and that she needs me, in part because I know exactly what it's like to be that smart and perceptive and sensitive, and that she needs to be taught life skills much more than she needs, say, to start algebra in third grade.
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