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My friend is thinking about switching her dd to HOD next year. She will be six and writing, maturity, and otherwise she probably fits nicely in Beyond. However, the little girl can easily read the Courage of Sarah Noble. Should I recommend that she start DITHOR as a first grader? Will it be too much writing? Should she just keep reading and start next year? What do you recommend when a reader takes off early like that?

No.

She will have plenty of time later for DITHOR. I did DITHOR with my 2nd grader along with Beyond. In retrospect, it really was not necessary. I would have been better off working more on the skills written in Beyond--like beginning narration skills or more of the copywork.

I too am wondering what you ladies do between the ER's and DITHOR if your kids are too young? I may be in that boat soon. Is it advised to read the books from 2/3 but not do the activities? I think I read that somewhere.

Thanks,
Amy

Oh I am so right here as we write! My son transitioned easily. My daughter finished ERs and would probably have been fine to wait but she does love the DITHOR book. So I've gone back and forth. Ultimately we've decided to have her narrate most of her answers to me and we do it together. I will maybe have her do level 2/3 3 years then, which is no biggy since we can do whatever books with it, or she might surprise me and her skills jump up - that is not uncommon either. Just thought I'd share!

Do the ERs.
My daughter was an avid reader when I did them with her. I did it mostly to make sure she had good comprehension, but also to help her to read clearly and fluently aloud. This has worked out perfectly! We will be beginning DITHR here soon and I feel great that I spent that time making sure she was absolutely prepared to move on by herself.

Mercy

We just kept reading books for awhile after finishing the ER before beginning DITHOR. I would not start DITHOR with a child before age 7 at minimum, and if that young would plan to do a lot orally.