If your child isn't ready for DITHOR til grade 4

[Mumkins]

My DD greatly struggles with reading. She will be 9 in Dec, half way through 3rd. We will be using the ER set with Bigger, Lord willing. So, that will leave us with DITHOR for 4th grade. Should she begin in DITHOR 2/3 still or how does that work if one does ER for 3rd?

[Tidbits of Learning]

That is a bit of a tricky question. My ds11 did the ERS during 3rd and has a Dec. b-day so he was 8 turning 9. We happened to move into a charter the following year, but when they tested him. He tested as reading on grade level or above for 4th grade. He has dyslexia/dysgraphia and something just seemed to click for him that 2nd half of 3rd grade with reading. Over that summer, he read for fun and chapter books as well. They were all twaddle as some would say, but they were his interest-Goosebumps, 39 clues, that type of thing. He is 11 now and in 5th grade and we are back with HOD doing PHFHG and he is using the Bigger storytime novels with the 4/5 student book...and that was an accident too. I had a 2/3 book and a 4/5 book left over from his sister's half using them year ago...I thought he was doing the 2/3 book and only realized the other day that I had given him the 4/5 book and he is doing ok with it as well.
All that to say, you never know when it will click for your struggling reader or how much ground they will make up or cover in a set amount of time. If I would have planned out with ds11 during Bigger what level of reading to do the next year (4th) grade-based on him still being in the ERS at 9, I may not have realized he could read more and do more. He went from the ERS in 3rd grade to Charlotte's Web (GLE 4), Pippi Longstocking (5.2), Henry Huggins (4.2), and The Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler (6.8 ) read in that order during his 4th grade year.
Anyway, just wanted to give you encouragement. Most late bloomers just blossom and make up a lot of ground. I would wait to decide what level DITHOR to do until after finishing the ERS and reading over the summer. You will probably be pleasantly surprised at the growth your dd will make.

[MelInKansas]

If you are doing the ER in 3rd grade with Bigger you would want to do the DITHR 2/3 after that. Here's why (I think): 2/3 has them reading aloud to you still, and you are still working on phonics or vocabulary work with it. You are listening in order to help them with words they don't know yet or have trouble reading. I think the activities and concepts covered aren't much more complex for 4/5 it's just that the reading, and more of the activities, are done independently. My DD (3rd grade now) is finishing her first round of 2/3 and I am considering doing 2/3 level again just because her first time through she wasn't able to complete the assignments in the student workbook independently as suggested. Though I know many people do a lot of it orally if they start it with a younger child (say 2nd grade) because their writing skills aren't quite there yet. I will re-evaluate this before we start. But I think 2/3 is really the best thing after finishing the ER. Now if your child can skip the level 2 reader books, that should be fine. After doing the ER set and reading a lot of early readers from the library, my DD probably could have started with level 3. Those might be more interesting for your DD since she will be older. But you can figure that out when the time comes.

Keep in mind that you could us the 2/3 student workbook and activities with any reading level of books, even adjusting through the year if you found that to be necessary.

[Nealewill]

I don't think it is a big deal if your dd does Level 2/3 books. My dd started this year in Preparing and she was using the level 3 books. She is now able to easily read books at a 5th or 6th grade level no problem. But that was not the case at the beginning of the year. We have really enjoyed the level 3 books and she is reading some of the level 4/5 books now.

[Mumkins]

Thanks ladies:)

So, if I do 2/3 in grade 4 with Preparing, how should grade 5-8 look with DITHOR?

[Nealewill]

What I didn't realize with the DITHOR is that you really don't necessarily cover 9 books in a year. It is written to cover approximately 5 books a year with 5 project per year. In the guide, DITHOR is schedule 3 days a week. For the first 15 of those days, you read and do an activity based on the reading. Then you have 5 days to complete the book report project that you choose. You could do all 9 in a year if you wanted or you could do 4 or 5 a year if you wanted. We get the book packs because we complete 5-6 a year but then my kids just read the other books because they like to read (Okay - my oldest is reading the other books because she likes to read by my youngers are already library junkies )

As for completing the levels: I started with level 2/3 with my oldest who is in 4th grade. The level 2/3 still covers the same type of info as the 6/7/8 book but it is less writing and the level 2/3 is written better to the length and depth of the level 2/3 books. Because the books are shorter, the plots aren't nearly as intricate, and less happens, using the level 6/7/8 student book with a level 2/3 book would be complicated. And visa versa, using a level 6/7/8 literature book but the 2/3 student workbook would not be a good fit. So the workbooks increase in writing and analysis as you move up in student workbook level. The goal (for me at least) is to complete each genre in the 2/3 workbook, 4/5 workbook, and the 6/7/8 workbook one time. I may or may not achieve my goal since we started in 4th grade. This year we have covered 6 genres already. In total, you are studying 9 genres 3 times = 27 workbook genre activites to go through. If you take 27/5 = 5 with 2 remaining. So over my 5 years between 4th and 8th grade, I only need to complete DITHOR 5 times a year with 2 years completing an extra book that year and I will go through the program. And whatever you do get done, having a goal of at least hitting each genre at least twice and as many as you can 3 times through, your child will have great exposer to looking at literature and being very prepared for the high school literature analysis. Just my thoughts and my game plan her at my house.