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I will be using DITHOR this fall for a 7yo 2nd grader (turns 8 in Oct), and for a 10yo 5th grader (will turn 10 July 21).... 7yo will do Beyond, 10yo will do Preparing..They were both in public school last year. I know for a fact that my soon to be 10yo did not read one novel at school last year!! She just read many snippets and answered questions. I did have her read a few novels at home, but to be honest, she is a competitive gymnast and got out of school at 3:20 and had to be at the gym by 4:00 T/TH/F.. she got out at 7:30pm and by the time we got home, she ate took a bath and quickly finished any homework and was out in her bed quickly! She also had gym on Saturday's from 8am-12am. So, as you can imagine, we were burning the candle at both ends, and we just did not have a ton of time for reading at home... the days she was off, we were usually doing homework or allowing her some hard earned free time. Ok... now to my 7yo. He was reading very well when he entered 1st, (homeschooled for K), and was the strongest reader in the class. I learned close to the end of the year that he was not placed into a reading group, because his skills were beyond the rest of the class. He sat at his desk with a book his teacher gave him, which were silly books at that, or colored, did busy work, and on some days entertained himself by cutting his crayons that flew across the room..(but that is another story ) He has honestly not progressed in his reading at all... he is at a stand still because he was not challenged! GRRR WHY OH WHY did I put them in school for a year! So, now, on to my questions...

1. Where should I place my 7yo? We are doing Beyond and I had originally thought we would do the Emerging Readers that are scheduled, but I think he could do the DITHOR 2 book pack... However, I dont want to challenge him too much, as I want everything to be fun because he hates anything "school" right now. I also thought that I could work through the Emerging Readers at a quicker pace and move on to DITHOR 2 book pack by Christmas. He has already just about finished the Beginner's Bible and has read several of the Emergent readers that I had him read to me at home last year. I just don't want to bog him down with the worksheets in DITHOR, not sure if he is ready for that yet... but maybe he is? What would you do here? I used Sonlight LA with my older kiddo's years ago (way b4 HOD existed) and I have noticed that their 2nd grade program is the same level as the Emergent Readers in HOD, and then DITHOR 2 readers are actually more advanced for the most part than Sonlight's 3rd grade readers.... Sigh, so that confuses me even more!!!! I am assuming that HOD schedules readers on the advanced end, while Sonlight schedules them on the lower end?

2. For my 10yo.... If she has never done DITHOR before, is it ok to start her with the 4/5 workbook or does it matter? She will do the girl interest 4/5 book pack.

Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated!!

For the 7yo, I like the idea of doing the ER books first. The questions Carrie has int he guide are not easy, so it is more than just reading the books. Then you could start reading the Level 2 DITHOR books. You could do the workbooks or not - it is up to you. Maybe just do reading and narrating for the spring, and then around the time you start Bigger you could add in the 2/3 workbook. I know Julie has said her goal is for her kids to complete each workbook once. So, if you do the 2/3 workbook with Bigger, that would be "perfect." You could do 1 genre at the end of Beyond so you don't have to start Bigger and DITHOR at the same time too.
For the 10yo, I think the normal recommendation is to start with the 2/3 workbook normally, regardless of reading levels. Since she hasn't done any real literary analysis, the 4/5 workbook might be a bit much for her. Personally I would buy both the 2/3 and 4/5 workbook and then decide once you have them in front of you. Maybe you just do 1-2 genres out of 2/3 and then move to 4/5. If you find that the 4/5 is fine,t hen you can save the 2/3 for your son.

As you can see, reading programs vary from curriculum to curriculum My 6 year old dd is a very advanced reader and can read many of the Level 2 and Level 3 book pack books but the number of words on the page overwhelms her. So while she is practically finished with the ER books, we are reading many of the alternate reading books in the guide for now. And many of these, she reads in a day or two. This way she still has larger print on the pages with lots of space in between and the books have more pictures. Once she finishes them, I will let her do the Level 2 books if she wants or just pick stuff from the library (we actually just came off of a long stint from reading books from the library and she enjoyed several 3rd grade reading books like A to Z mysteries, Magic Tree House, American Girl, etc.). For my son, who is 8 and going to do Bigger, he is reading the Level 2 books without doing DITHOR at this time (He also came off a long stint from the library too but I am ready for a change LOL). You can definitely start DITHOR at any time. But we won't start doing the DITHOR analysis until after Christmas at the earliest. I will say, I do ask a question or two about what he read. He also narrates to me each time he reads (he more does this out of excitement verses me even asking him to do it). The story time in Beyond and Bigger is wonderful! It teaches many of the same concepts taught in DITHOR. So that is why I am waiting to start DITHOR with ds. But I think you know your son best about his reading. If he likes the Early Readers and seems to have a good attitude about it, then I would have him read them. Several of the books seem to step it up comfortably with phonics and volume. And if he can read them with confidence, then you also know he will be fine with the Level 2 and Level 3 books. And just because Sonlight does the books at a different time than HOD, that is fine. HOD isn't so grade focused IMHO. It is more level focused. To me, this is very freeing I never feel behind with my kids. Some of the books the kids read in Preparing are very challenging and some weren't. I showed another homeschool mama my list that my dd was going to read and she was very impressed. I loved the fact that all of the books were interesting and that my dd really increased in her reading level and speed by the end of the year. And in general for school, my goal is just to increase their skills and to work on that till they reach the next level. If you are curious about the reading level though, HOD does tell you which grade reading level each book is on their website. I like looking at that when I assess how difficult a books should be. I like to vary my kids reading some so I will give them a challenging book or an easy one based on what they are doing. I have been very pleasantly surprised at how well they have done with some of the more challenging books.

As for which level of DITHOR to start with, if your 10 yo places in reading the 4/5 level books, I personally would go with DITHOR level 4/5 student book. The main difference (from what I have seen) between the level 4/5 and level 2/3 student workbooks is the volume of writing. The level 4/5 seems to have more writing activities and the level 2/3 has more oral or more drawing. Plus, if she is reading the more complicated story lines, it will be more difficult for it to be compatible with the level 2/3 student workbook. My dd used the level 2/3 workbook last year and she read 2 books last year that were more difficult than the level 2/3 books and we found that it was less compatible because the stories were much more involved and complicated.