If I hadn't learned to love reading before I got into school, I would have learned to hate it there. Public school mostly teaches kids to hate learning. (This is like making eaglets acrophobic, but go figure.) I never even pretended to pay attention in Read Aloud time. I was reading adult-level books by the time I was in first grade.
*chuckle* The most fun was the time in third grade when I got caught reading _The Two Towers_ under my desk. I had just finished "The Departure of Boromir" when the teacher took the book away from me. She insisted I couldn't possibly be reading that. So I launched into an enthusiastic description -- orcs and arrows and death charges and all -- while the little kids' eyes got bigger and bigger. The teacher handed me back the book, admitted that I was right, and left me alone. (Usually, though, it turned into a big fight, a call to my parents, and them screaming at the teacher.)
Anything that encourages kids to read is good. Let them read whatever they want. Never discourage them from reading. Avoid doing things that make them hate reading. A kid who's reading ahead quietly in class is a kid who doesn't need the reading teacher's attention; save it for the 34 others who are floundering.
Reading Aloud
*chuckle* The most fun was the time in third grade when I got caught reading _The Two Towers_ under my desk. I had just finished "The Departure of Boromir" when the teacher took the book away from me. She insisted I couldn't possibly be reading that. So I launched into an enthusiastic description -- orcs and arrows and death charges and all -- while the little kids' eyes got bigger and bigger. The teacher handed me back the book, admitted that I was right, and left me alone. (Usually, though, it turned into a big fight, a call to my parents, and them screaming at the teacher.)
Anything that encourages kids to read is good. Let them read whatever they want. Never discourage them from reading. Avoid doing things that make them hate reading. A kid who's reading ahead quietly in class is a kid who doesn't need the reading teacher's attention; save it for the 34 others who are floundering.