heartofdakota.com

Hi everyone,
I am getting ready to start Bigger with extensions, Little Hearts and Little Hands with my kids (5 doing school and two 1yo's) I have everything for DITHOR for my girls doing Bigger and its not that it doesn't look good, but it just looks kind of teacher intensive. It is already hard to find a quiet time to focus and be able to read aloud or teach my girls doing Bigger.
Has anyone just assigned the DITHOR books for the level that they are on and had them do a mix of reading to you/reading independently and just talk a little about the genre, and the book itself, kind of like narration on what they read? I want them to read the books for DITHOR but I am thinking the rest of it might be too much for right now.
Any ideas on why this would be a bad idea or has anyone else done this?
Thanks,
Sherry

If you are just starting out with HOD, some families start their core guides first, to get in a rhythm with those. Then, about 3-6 months in, they begin DITHOR. Or vice versa, some start DITHOR first for a genre, like in the summer or over a break, and then begin their core guides. Waiting a bit to do DITHOR is just fine, waiting forever is not (IMO). DITHOR provides reading instruction in areas that just don't teach themselves. They are the areas I see on standardized testing, state standards, and upper level material (i.e. middle school and high school). DITHOR is the next step in reading after dc can read fairly well independently. I think it is incredibly important to do, and once you have done one genre, it is easy to teach. The "Getting Started" section in the Appendix walks you through starting nicely. I don't find it teacher intensive, but rather great fun to do! It feels like a book club I get to be a part of with my dc, yet teaches the reading skills they need to have. So, wait if it's best overall, but start at some point - you don't want to miss out on DITHOR and all that it teaches! HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

Hello~

Just wanted to pop on and agree with Julie~DITHOR looks teacher intensive and I was rather scared of it for a bit! Once I jumped in (after about 3 months of using HOD), I realized that it was actually pretty easy to implement and GREAT FUN. My kids LOVE DITHOR and love the fun kick~off to the genre ideas and end of genre projects. Very good book lists too! Take your time going through the manual and it begins to make more and more sense.

I'm not disagreeing with pps, but I did decide to wait, umm...quite a while , before diving into DITHOR. Basically for the same reason that you're describing-it looks very intimidating to me, and I just didn't think I had it in me to run that along with the 3 other guides I was teaching. My dd is the only one at DITHR abilities right now, and during her 3rd and 4th grade years I just had her read books off the list from the different genres. Basically exposure to each of them. Some she enjoyed more than others and read more books in those areas, but she did read from each of them. I did buy the DITHOR books, and we did worksheets from the student book here and there, but very sporadically. She found them to be really hard (probably because we didn't do the entire program as written.) Anyway, I've chosen now-very late 4th grade/beginning 5th grade year with Preparing to start DITHOR. We're doing 4/5 student book with it. She's seeming to pick it up okay. I don't know that I feel that strongly that I need to do a formal lit program much before late elementary, but I do definitely feel it's important now. So, yes, I did something similar to what I think you're describing.

I'm going to go out on a limb here-might be labeling myself as bad teacher of the year with it -but I'd say not to worry about DITHOR this year. You have plenty on your plate with 7 very small children, and 5 of them in school! Sometimes you just know that doing everything is not realistic, and I think if you're following the main guides (Bigger, LHFHG, LHTH) closely and then giving exposure to different genres with some discussion about each, you're going to be fine.

I agree with the ladies' wise advice here that it is fine to go ahead and get started on your main programs first and wait to start DITHR until later in the year. Or, if you don't get to DITHR this year, just know in the back of your mind that DITHR then needs to be a priority for your older kiddos the next year. To encourage you, I'll link a couple of threads that may help you set aside some of your worries about DITHR being too teacher intensive.

Link: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=10995
Link: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11159

I'll also mention that my boys have truly learned to read with moral discernment through using DITHR, which is something that is so important. Plus, I wouldn't want to forego our literary-style discussions that we've had through the years with DITHR either. So many needed skills are wound within the teaching of DITHR (and so many state standards) that you'll definitely want to address this important area in the years to come. Just remember that in the upper guides, DITHR is only done 3 times a week. So, if desired, you could start out that way doing DITHR to cut down on the time needed for it in Bigger. Even doing a few units will help you get underway. DITHR doesn't need to be done daily to be effective, so with your large family-size in mind, I'd shoot for 3 times a week.

If you have other questions, ask away! We love to help!

Blessings,
Carrie

Well, I think I will take some time today to look over the book again and really see if we can pull it off. Maybe it is not as complicated as I had thought. Thanks for the links and thoughts! Sherry

Sherry,

In your busy situation, I would probably lean toward starting DITHR about 3-6 months after you get going with your other guides. By then, you'll have a good schedule going and a good feel for the guides. To start the year, you could just have your child in Bigger, read a half of a chapter up to a chapter aloud to you each day from the DITHR books. Then, have a quick discussion or ask for a quick narration. Later, you can move into doing the actual DITHR 3 times a week.

Try not to get bogged down in overthinking DITHR when you do start. Just pick a genre, plug in your book's page numbers from the book pack, and dive in. For example, on the first day of a new unit of DITHR, I always just read through the possible ideas for the kick-off and pick one to do the next day. Then, I put the kids page numbers for their books in their calendar, and I'm done for the day with DITHR. I do this right during my normal "reading instruction time", so no pre-planning required.

The next day, we do the kick-off. Then, we just continue on through the DITHR plans, doing a day in a day. When we've had a lot of writing in our other subjects for a day, or if I happen to be behind, I do the writing for my child in his student book. Sometime, I'll do most of the writing, and just leave one portion for the child to write. Other times, I'll write needed information for our lesson on a markerboard while we're discussing, and have the child copy it in his Student Book at the end. Remember that DITHR is meant to focus on reading, not writing. Writing is just a sub-benefit to DITHR.

Blessings,
Carrie

I have to say that I too was thinking about skipping DITHOR but after reading this thread I decided to really take the time to read the dithor manual. I am so glad that I did! It is awesome. My thoughts on it completely changed. I think it is now one of the subjects I am most looking forward to. The projects look so easy and they are deep. It's not a boring book report. It's real life application. Simply brilliant. I can't wait to start!!!

Shelly