Rotating DITHOR and Other Guides
Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2013 12:14 pm
For the past I don't know how long we've not done DITHOR because I was letting Grace finish up Emerging Readers so I could start her and Jayden together. Then I was waiting to be able to order. Then I was waiting for Jayden to finish up Preparing. Mainly because I don't really want to add more reading to Jayden who despises reading as it is and don't want to add more for Grace because we've finally gotten to where she enjoys most of school once she gets started.
Then I had the idea, since we school year round anyway, and my kids are placed well so don't need to go half speed (what we generally do when we do DITHOR with the guides).... why not rotate? So if anyone could tell me why this would be a bad idea, I'd really appreciate it.
A lot of times things sound really good in my head, but don't work out.
FWIW, I consider Bigger to be a great 3rd grade program and CTC to be 5th... so in that respect my kids are 'ahead'.
So my plan is, when Jayden finishes up Preparing, instead of jumping right in to CTC we will do a "unit" of DITHOR. While we are doing that we'll continue math, English, and dictation (because it dawned on me that I don't have to keep those subjects exactly with everything in the guides
silly me) and we'll do some of the science projects we have collecting dust in the school room. As well as a lot of nature study while playing outside in the nice warm weather! Then, after we get done with that unit, so after three weeks, during the fourth week when they are getting their project together, we'll start back with their guides as written. I figure we'll probably do about 6 units between each DITHOR unit.
That should take us about 18 months to get through the 9 genres in DITHOR, which is what it is scheduled for in the older guides and I'm ok with that for my younger ones as well. It should also work well that we'll be starting over about the time that Julianna is starting DITHOR.
It will also have us finishing a guide in a full year, which is what we do anyway for the most part... give or take.
Then I had the idea, since we school year round anyway, and my kids are placed well so don't need to go half speed (what we generally do when we do DITHOR with the guides).... why not rotate? So if anyone could tell me why this would be a bad idea, I'd really appreciate it.
A lot of times things sound really good in my head, but don't work out. FWIW, I consider Bigger to be a great 3rd grade program and CTC to be 5th... so in that respect my kids are 'ahead'.
So my plan is, when Jayden finishes up Preparing, instead of jumping right in to CTC we will do a "unit" of DITHOR. While we are doing that we'll continue math, English, and dictation (because it dawned on me that I don't have to keep those subjects exactly with everything in the guides
silly me) and we'll do some of the science projects we have collecting dust in the school room. As well as a lot of nature study while playing outside in the nice warm weather! Then, after we get done with that unit, so after three weeks, during the fourth week when they are getting their project together, we'll start back with their guides as written. I figure we'll probably do about 6 units between each DITHOR unit. That should take us about 18 months to get through the 9 genres in DITHOR, which is what it is scheduled for in the older guides and I'm ok with that for my younger ones as well. It should also work well that we'll be starting over about the time that Julianna is starting DITHOR.
It will also have us finishing a guide in a full year, which is what we do anyway for the most part... give or take.
The only drawback I see is that a steady diet of reading in small bits each day is important to reading progression and growth, especially for your dd who is younger. Do your dc read each day on their own? I know sometimes dc just finishing the Emerging Reader's Set may not be quite there yet, but it is good to keep the 'reading ball rolling' once they are on a roll. You could perhaps use the ERS supplemental titles to keep her reading each day, or maybe Level 2 DITHOR books and work through them slowly? Pretty creative idea though - I remember doing DITHOR to get started in the summer one year, and we had an absolute blast with it! As we were not doing full school, we had time to really get creative with it... this buried treasure hunt that ended in the garden comes to mind!
