Help Fitting in DITHOR

[marybeth33]

My 12 yo dd will do Rev to Rev in the Fall with extensions. She is a great student and reader, but we have not done any formal literature study. We are thinking of starting DITHOR over the summer. We are wondering if during the school year, we could use either some of the read alouds or some of the extensions as part of DITHOR. Using them to cover historical fiction, realistic fiction, etc. And if so, suggestions on what might work?

[marybeth33]

Also wanted to say that we started DITHOR with our 9yo several weeks ago and we love it! She has huge gaps due to early trauma. I was worried about filling these. When I looked more closely at DITHOR I realized it was designed to cover just the issues I thought we needed to find a "program" for. God is good! If only I had read the post about doing ALL the boxes!!! We might not be finishing Bigger, but we might be in a better place. DITHOR for her over the summer also.

[my3sons]

My 12 yo dd will do Rev to Rev in the Fall with extensions. She is a great student and reader, but we have not done any formal literature study. We are thinking of starting DITHOR over the summer. We are wondering if during the school year, we could use either some of the read alouds or some of the extensions as part of DITHOR. Using them to cover historical fiction, realistic fiction, etc. And if so, suggestions on what might work?

We started DITHOR over the summer, and really enjoyed that! It was fun just to really throw ourselves into fully and then get used to the routine of it before adding in the other school subjects. We have now used DITHOR for many years, and we continue to love it.

In RevtoRev, dc do DITHOR 3 times a week (as scheduled in the RevtoRev guide), and therefore get through about 4-5 genres throughout the year. If you start DITHOR over the summer, you could actually probably do several genres. Then, you could take a few months off, start RevtoRev, and resume DITHOR a few months into RevtoRev. This would give you and dd some time to focus on working through the rest of the plans in RevtoRev, and hitting your groove with those.

In DITHOR, it is almost better to choose books that are at a very comfortable level for dc. I know your dd is an excellent reader - hooray! But, I am wondering if using the extension books for this purpose would be too much? The number of pages she'd be reading and the difficulty of the books may not be at an ideal level for her to do DITHOR. Likewise, the schedule for reading the extension books in the Appendix of RevtoRev should be followed rather than the DITHOR time format, as the extension titles are linked to the history being read. Also, both the read alouds and the extensions were chosen for different purposes than the DITHOR titles were chosen. I think if at all possible, I'd go with 4-5 DITHOR books, probably from the 7/8 Girl Interest package. You could use half the books from the package this year, and the other half the next year when dd does DITHOR with MTMM. These types of books will be a better foundation for reading the girl set for lit down the road in the "World Geography" guide anyway.

So, for these reasons, I would just choose 4-5 genres for dd to complete with DITHOR this year, and I'd choose books she finds highly interesting, fairly easy, and shorter on the length (I am thinking the 7/8 Girl Interest or something comparable). DITHOR 6/7/8 will be challenging aplenty, as much will be new, but with choosing books that are at a definite comfort level, she'll be fine, especially since she will have completed half of the 4-5 genres in the summer, more than likely, leaving only 2-3 to do during the school year.

One more thought I had I'l share. I am wondering about dd reading the extensions, as she is just 12 yo. Even if she is an excellent reader, it would be better to focus on doing the core of the RevtoRev guide along with all of its skills, as well as doing DITHOR fully, than to spend time on the extensions. Only you can know what will be better here, but typically, HOD would recommend the extensions only for 13 and 14 yo dc - and only then if they were needing more of a challenge than doing all of the RevtoRev guide (including DITHOR). So, really, at 12 yo she doesn't need to do the extensions. However, if you were really wanting her to read the extensions, or if she was really wanting to read the extensions, you could just have dd keep the extension schedule in her room with the books and read them at night each day, or whenever it is convenient. Then, the history would be extended, but she would not be doing the additional extension follow-up assignments on top of all of her RevtoRev/DITHOR work. If you bought the extensions from HOD and have not used them yet (i.e. they are in an unused condition), and you bought them recently, you can return the extensions and exchange them for DITHOR Girl Set 7/8. That is just an idea - but you will know best here!!!

Also wanted to say that we started DITHOR with our 9yo several weeks ago and we love it! She has huge gaps due to early trauma. I was worried about filling these. When I looked more closely at DITHOR I realized it was designed to cover just the issues I thought we needed to find a "program" for. God is good! If only I had read the post about doing ALL the boxes!!! We might not be finishing Bigger, but we might be in a better place. DITHOR for her over the summer also.

I'm so glad your 9 yo dd is enjoying DITHOR! It truly is a wonderful reading curriculum. It keeps the passion of reading flowing while teaching many important skills. You can always finish Bigger half-speed and do all those boxes you mentioned - that may be more of a challenge than full-speed without doing all the boxes - but again, you will know best!!! I think you will enjoy doing DITHOR with your 2 dc. HTH, but keep asking questions until you are set!

In Christ,
Julie