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Hi everyone,
I ordered my DITHOR today as well as Beyond the other day, so as you can imagine, I am besides myself with excitement to get my hands on these and look over everything and begin planning books, etc.
But, i have been thinking and reading over the archive posts for DITHOR and Julie, yours was especially helpful. i like the idea of starting an an easier level and letting the child select the book, etc. I have a few questions about how to make it work with my 2 little ones though:Do you let them actually choose the genre or do you select the genre and then let them choose from books withing that genre?
Also, If possible, I'd really like to keep my kids in the same level of the DITHOR text. But how can I make this work if my dear daughter is doing the emerging readers and ds is in the level 2 books? The following year, I was planning to use DITHOR level 2/3 again with, level 2 for my daughter and level 3 w/ my son and then the following year I realized they would be in 2 different levels of DITHOR w/ one in the 2/3 book again and one in the 4/5 book...which I really don't want to do, but maybe I'm just being too fanatical about keeping them together?? Any ideas or suggestions?
I apologize for this lengthy message but could use any helpful suggestions. I hope all of this made sense
God bless you all,
Angie

Angie,

With your sweetie doing the Emerging Reader set, you really won't be doing DITHR. That child will just be following the Emerging Reader schedule in the Appendix of Beyond or Bigger.

With your kiddo that is doing DITHR, you can start with the book or the genre they love the most. Both will work.

Next year, you will have both kiddos in Level 2/3 of DITHR, but they'll be reading different books. Then, the following year, one will be in 2/3 and one in 4/5, which is actually a good thing, because the 4/5 student is scheduled to be more independent (giving you more time to work with the 2/3 student).

Blessings,
Carrie

Thank you Carrie:-) iIappreciate you taking the time to try and answer everyone's questions. You are so sweet about that.
That sounds logical and the idea of my older child eventually working more independently sounds really good:-)I just know my dd will want to participate in the kick off activities, etc. this year so maybe
I'll just let her hang out and do that part with us if she likes and then she can grab her own book of the same genre to read for fun, w/o technically doing DITHOR? Both of my kids like to read on their own, so she might feel cheated if she can't!! Thanks again for your valuable insight! I truly appreciate it!!
Love in Christ,
Angie