DITHR- Help please.

[mattilda]

I have had this book and have not begun using it. I feel like I am now in a rut of not using it. Please help me get started. I would appreciate any encouragement (what you and your children have gained, etc.) Give me a run down of the basics I should know going in (how long does it normally take, how many days a week do you do it, favorite activities.) Also, if anyone has any tips, etc. I would be so appreciative. I know we will gain so much, but need a kick in the rear to get started.

Thanks!
BTW- I will be using this with a 2nd and a 3rd grader.

[mamas4loves]

Hi!

It was DITHOR and LHTH that brought me fully over to HOD! We started DITHOR with a 3rd grader. What did we gain from it? Well, several things.....one, it taught my daughter to slow down and savor a book; two, it brought my daughter understanding of the 'heart' of the book--what the author is trying to say beyond the plot. Those were my main reasons for doing DITHOR, however, an added benefit is that it is helping me teach my daughter to be discerning with books and weigh the book against biblical standards.

How long does it normally take--well for us that has varied. when we did level 2/3, it depended on her reading skills as she read aloud mostly to me, in level 4/5 the activities are a bit more challenging so they take a little longer. Overall I 'plan' about 30-40 min 3 days a week and sometimes we don't need all that time and sometimes it takes a little longer.

Reading is my oldest dd favorite subject along with writing so that helps her stay motivated. And she really likes the culmination projects. I personally like the biblical comparisons activities, and the character sketch or plot sketch. The predicting activities were a little challenging for my dd (she likes to be right! and sometimes she wasn't).

This year I plan on bringing in my other dd, she will be 3rd grade and we will start with level 2/3. It will be fun to see how she likes it!

Hope this all helps. I really enjoy DITHOR, it was the reading program I was looking for. I get to choose the books, we read the whole book, and we have very good activities for the kids to do, but no busy work! DITHOR makes me smile.

Blessings to you today,
Jess

[mattilda]

Thank you, Jess. That was very helpful! Do I understand correctly that I will read to them for storytime and the children will read for DITHR? Did you have them read out loud or silently?

Thanks for any help!

[momtofive]

I am just beginning my journey with HOD, and am so very excited! One of the things we'll be doing this year is DITHR. We'll be using it with my fifth grader and my third grader. The fifth grader will be using level 4/5 and the third grader will be using level 2/3. My understanding of the program is that they will meet with me on some days, and I'll have a little "class time" with them individually on other days. We start by doing a kickoff to get everyone ready for the genre we'll be doing. It will be an activity to build excitement about the next genre! Then we'll begin the lessons with the DITHR guide. If you have the guide, then you're most likely familiar with how those are laid out. The students in level 2/3 will probably be reading aloud to you, as they are new at this! But older students can do their reading silently to themselves. After their reading, they will probably have a page to work on in the coordinating student book. For the younger children, you'd do this with them, for the older you'd explain the directions and then let them do it independantly. At the end of each genre's study, you'll get to do a project of some sort. There are LOTS of great ideas in the DITHR guide to get you going on a great project/activity to bring this genre to life!

So for the storytime read alouds, you would read to them. And for DITHR they would read to you, or read silently if they are a little older (like levels 4/5 and up).

This may be overkill on info., if it is, I'm sorry. I'm new at this too, as I said above this will be my first year with HOD. The more I read through each of the guides we'll be using, I get more and more excited for my kids, as they'll be learning in a whole new way this year. I anticipate a FUN year of enjoying learning with my kids!

I pray this helps you some!

In Christ,

Lisa

[my3sons]

We've used DITHOR for so long I can't remember not using it! We love it so much that I wrote a post about it awhile ago at this link:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4372&p=32131#p32131

That post addresses some of the questions you've asked, but I thought I'd give you a quick-start list in case it may be helpful, and because I love lists.
1. Pick how many days a week you are going to do DITHOR. For Level 2/3, most ladies do it 5 days a week.
2. Choose enough books for 15 days worth of reading for each genre. We use DITHOR Book Packs because the choosing is done already for me, and they are excellent books.
3. Pick a genre to start with - most people begin with Biography because it is first. Open your child's Student Book to the Reading Calendar. Fill in the pages to be read each day for your biography books you chose. If you used a DITHOR Book Pack, look at the number of days planned for each book, and have the child finish reading them within those days (i.e. If you did Level 2 Book Pack, your child would read "Amelia Earhart" for 15 days, so you'd divide the total number of pages by 15 and fill them in on the reading calendar; here's a link for those books and the noted days of reading listed for them):
http://www.heartofdakota.com/drawn-into-optional.php
4. Pick a kickoff to do from the DITHOR Teacher's guide and have fun doing it.
5. Start with Day 1 of the plans, using only the Level you are doing (sounds like Level 2/3 for you). The plans clearly say how much to have the dc read aloud to you, give the discussion questions to discuss, and say when the Student Book is used. Day 1 in the DITHOR Teacher's Guide matches Day 1 on the reading calendar. At Level 2/3 there is not a Student Book page every day. But when there is a Student Book page to do, it matches the plans. (i.e. Day 3 in the DITHOR Teacher's Guide matches Day 3 in the Student Book, etc.).
6. Continue moving through the plans for 15 days.
7. At this point, the plans will direct you to choose a final project. There are 2 options to choose from (there used to be 3 but the book projects book is OOP now). So, read through the 2 project choices and either choose one for your child to do, or involve your child in picking which one to do. We've done it both ways and liked both for different reasons over the years. Enjoy the final project!

Now you are ready to begin the next genre. This is not hard to do - you just need to get started, and you will see once you have done 1 genre, the rest are easy to do as they follow that same pattern. So, here comes a big kick in the pants girl - you can do this (you wanted that, right?!?)!!! Just get started, and you'll see DITHOR is amazing!!! HTH but keep asking questions as they arise!

In Christ,
Julie

[mattilda]

Thank you! All the information is very helpful and encouraging (and details are great)! One more question (for now). Are the genres for Storytime and DITHR normally the same? How do I know what genre I am picking from for DITHR? Maybe I have already read that and am just confused. I have been reading through LHFHG, BLHFHG, BHFHG, and DITHR. I am on overload right now...

[Kathleen]

You will be studying the same 9 genres of literature for storytime in Beyond and Bigger as you do in DITHOR. But...they do not have to line up so that you're on the same one in both areas. We had our storytime genre match our DITHOR a couple of times while doing Bigger, but most of the time it didn't. I actually preferred to be on different genres, I found. It seemed more meaningful to talk about a character quality that we were highlighting in a specific genre and then come back to it when we hit that genre again in either DITHOR or storytime.

So, I would do the daily plans in the guide exactly as they're written, and then you can choose whichever genre you'd like for DITHOR. I let my son pick the 1st book he wanted to read for DITHOR from the pack that we'd ordered, and we started there (which happened to be fantasy). It will work however you use it! You'll just want to make sure to get through all 9 DITHOR genres before you start them again.

Kathleen