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We had a pretty good first day of homeschooling. Not as smooth on my part- I kept forgetting a book in another room and completely forgot a section to put on my schedule. duh!

I' m using HOD with 3 dc with my 2 year old running around.

My 8 year old dd is excellent in reading/ spelling/ english .....we did dictation and she just sighed at how easy it was- I went toward the back and i knew it would be a breeze for her too. Any suggestions on what to do ? Part of me just wants to pick up a harder chapter book and do dictation from that.


Also- Since she loves and excels in reading she REALLY wants to read the book for Storytime and not have mom do it. Is it ok to do this?

I need to challenge this girl or she will lose interest...any thoughts or suggestions would be great!

What level is your dd8 doing in dictation? Do you have the following year's manual so you could do an appropriate level of dictation? I started on one level and my dd found it too easy, so we just jumped to an appropriate place in the next level. You do not have to start at the beginning of the dictations. Choose an appropriate place to begin, and start there!

Regarding storytime, I am not sure what level you are doing, but I know that the storytime box aims at teaching a range of LA skills like narration, personal associations, biblical connections, character analysis, themes/genres/plots etc. These are important for future years, so I would not be too quick to allow my dc to do that independently. It is such a nice time of snuggling on the lounge together too!

HTH,

Corrie

My dd is doing Bigger and we do not have next years manual as this is our first year homeschooling and she's our oldest.

I really don't think skipping some will help as I have looked ahead at the others and feel it will be too easy.

Thanks and appreciate your ideas and suggestions!

You could look for the next level of Dictation Day by Day by Kate Van Wagenen on google books, as it's in the public domain. I remember Carrie saying that she did edit it, changing some words and skipping passages with inappropriate content, so you might want to be careful of that. I think I remember someone on the hod yahoo group recently posting about this as well.

I agree that you probably want to still read the storytime selections to your daughter so you can work on those LA skills together that are covered in that box. Perhaps you could get the extensions and let her read those on her own. That would up the level for her, give her more challenge, and let her feel more in control of that part of her school.

I know that the dictation can seem easy especially for a natural speller. There is more to be gained though than just spelling including grammar and editing skills. I particularly liked the attention to detail of their work that it has been instilling in my dc. If it is still too easy, you can try towards the end of the level 2 and if that is still too easy, I would recommend that you go ahead get the Preparing manual so you can move up to an appropriate level. The Preparing manual contains level 2, 3, and 4 in dictation so you can surely find an appropriate level in there. It seems to me as I was looking at level 3 this year that it takes a substantial jump up in difficulty from level 2.

Sometimes something looks too easy, but really isn't. My DD was breezing through dictation, I skipped her ahead and she was still breezing through, but I didn't have time to really look and skip ahead again at that time. Well, all of a sudden she started missing stuff. Not indenting, adding words to lines or taking away words from next line (making one whole sentence on a line)... missing punctuation, etc. So sometimes even though it seems like it's not much of a jump to us, it is for them.

I would not let them read the story time selections on their own on a consistent basis. The skills built in that section are really important. Maybe she could read the history reading herself if she wants more reading?

Hooray for a good first day! I am the quintessential "forget a book in another room and lay it down" teacher. I have even been known to leave entire totes in another room. I do usually know where the dc are though, no small task with 3 busy boys. I'm so glad dd is able to spell well - that is such a blessing - a God-given ability that is worthy of some real celebration. Dictation done HOD style builds steadily upon itself year to year, and that is the key to moving dc along in their spelling/writing in a purposeful way. Just choosing a passage randomly from a book won't replace the careful thought put into the 8 levels of dictation written by the same author, so if I were you, I'd either move her to the middle of dictation in the guide she is doing, or get the next guide and use one of those upper levels of dictation instead. Be sure that she has absolutely everything correct to move on - right down to remembering to indent, using perfect punctuation, and having perfect spelling. This dictation goes up through 8th grade, believe me, there's a level that will stump her, even if she is one super duper speller.

Dd sounds like she is a terrific reader too - another thing to celebrate! You can challenge her by choosing more difficult DITHOR books, as these books are meant to be used for her reading instruction. With dd being only 8 yo, I wouldn't let her take over the Storytime. She needs to hear you model good reading, and learn to listen well before giving that up. Storytime is reserved for parents to partner with their dc and model good oral reading skills, as well as teach important skills after each reading. However, you can challenge her aplenty with DITHOR titles. One other suggestion would be to split the Storytime readings - she reads half and you read half. That will keep you in the loop and modeling good oral reading, but let her read a portion of it independently. Just an idea! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie