heartofdakota.com

Hello,
My name is Vickie, and I'd like to do more with Drawn Into the Heart of Reading this next semester of school. My husband works at a college so I think of our year in terms of semesters.

I have three children, dd 13, ds 10, and ds 6. We are expecting a baby in July.

Vickie

Welcome to the boards Vickie!

I hope to use DITHOR in a couple of years, we're not quite up to the "independent reading" stage yet. You'll have to keep us posted on your book studies!

I forget...which state is the Tarheel state? is it one of the Carolinas?

Melanie (in the Show-Me state )

Welcome to the boards! I also would like to use DITHOR in the future. You will find a lot of helpful people here.

Gina

hi! this is a most friendly place!

we've used DITHOR since it was published and couldn't imagine a different program! we love it-we're trying to figure out a way for ds #1 to use it next year when he's in high school!

Vickie,

Welcome and congratulations on your soon to be arrival! DITHOR looks wonderful but, is out of reach for my kiddos until they are older.

Candice

The Tarheel State is North Carolina. My family is at least 4th or 5th generation Tarheels and we all enjoy watching UNC play basketball.

Vickie

Welcome! I'm using DITHOR for the first time with my 4th grader. I like it, but shee doesn't, because reading is NOT her favorite activity-she prefers math. However, it is improving her retention and comprehension, so we'll keep it

Hi! I used to tutor children with DITHOR before I used it homeschooling my own children. As you can imagine, every child I tutored in reading didn't like reading very well before I even started using DITHOR with them, because they felt reading was not their strong point.

I'm happy to say that they all began to love DITHOR, once I made a few changes (not changes to the program, mind you, changes to what I was doing)! Here's a few things that worked for us:

1. I kept the books they were reading a bit BELOW their reading level. This boosted their confidence, and helped them enjoy the reading more, rather than getting stumped too often.
2. I picked 3 books and let them choose which one they wanted to read. When they made the choice, they didn't argue about the book selection.
3. I kept the readings each day very short, often stretching the book out over 15 days or we read 2 shorter books - better to make them experience success with a little than overwhelm them with too much.
4. Start with the genre they are most interested in, and pick high-interest books.
5. Buddy read - I read a paragraph, they read one, and back and forth. Later, we switched to alternating pages, and eventually they took over the reading.
6. If writing was a barrier, I wrote their answers for them on the paper first. As the year went on, I wrote half of the answers on the paper, and I wrote the other half of answers on the marker board for them to copy on the paper. Eventually, they did the whole paper on their own.
7. I tried to get into the discussions as much as I could. I acted like I couldn't wait for our time together, to hear them read and talk together (which became true as the year progressed). I'd say something like, "I'm just dying to hear what clue they'll find next. Do you really think Kurt took the falcons? Let's get reading and find out!"
8. We ALWAYS did the kickoff and the wrap-up activities, and we tried to do it with ENJOYING the process in mind, rather than trying to expect a detailed discussion or a perfect product.

With these ideas in place, the children were pretty much reading on level within a year or two of using DITHOR - and just as importantly, they began to LOVE to read! Hope some of these things might help - I have a passion for children learning to LOVE to read. I think DITHOR totally delivers that result over time and is about the best thing out there for turning reluctant readers into passionate readers!

P.S. I used DITHOR tutoring other children for 3 years before using it with my own kiddos - I guess I should change my tag to reflect that. I just was thinking of my own little "honeys" when I typed my tag!

Hi Vickie,
Welcome to the board!

I'm not a really into sports much, but we did just buy my nephew a NC baseball cap for Christmas. He's a huge fan to the dismay of my brother. We like causing turmoil with gifts

We haven't used DITHOR, yet, but have read good things about. Enjoy!

Laurie