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We are beginning our HOD journey a week from today. My oldest child will be in Missions to Modern Marvels; he is in 8th grade. I see that DITHOR is not scheduled daily. I remember reading though that Carrie recommends doing DITHOR before high school. Should I have him do it daily? Is it enough preparation for high school to do it as scheduled in the guide? If I do it as scheduled, what genres are most important to cover? We have read lots of literature (coming from Sonlight) but not really any literature analysis.

I would just have him do DITHOR when its scheduled. You can actually pick and choose which genres to do, and if I were you I would pick some he might be less familiar with and could use exposure to or understanding of. Like, we read lots of Historical fiction for fun, but probably not as many Biographies. Folk Tale is just an interesting one to understand and there are interesting activities that go along with understanding what that is. Since you have a boy, he may already be well familiar with Adventure books.

Since you have not completed any formal literature study before and this is his first year doing one through DITHOR AND if you are planning to have him go into the WG English package next year, then I personally would have him try and cover all 9 genres this year. The guides schedules it so that you can complete 5 genres a year. Since there only 3 levels, the goal is that a student who has used HOD the entire time would cover all 9 genres at each level over 6 years. Basically, that is only covering 1/2 of the books a year for 6 years. Since your son is new to DITHOR and hasn't studied lit yet, you could have him read DITHOR 5 days a week, giving him the first 3 weeks of a month to cover the reading and then the 4th week to complete the project. This would help him to complete the DITHOR program in 1 year. If that seems too overwhelming, I would just try and cover as many genres as you can this year. And then some have had their kids finish DITHOR over the summer.

southernca wrote:We are beginning our HOD journey a week from today. My oldest child will be in Missions to Modern Marvels; he is in 8th grade. I see that DITHOR is not scheduled daily. I remember reading though that Carrie recommends doing DITHOR before high school. Should I have him do it daily? Is it enough preparation for high school to do it as scheduled in the guide? If I do it as scheduled, what genres are most important to cover? We have read lots of literature (coming from Sonlight) but not really any literature analysis.

Welcome to the HOD Board, southernca! We had the pleasure of doing Missions to Modern Marvels with our oldest ds a few years back, and what a neat guide that was to do! As you can see from the ladies' responses already, DITHOR is important preparation for high school literature, and it is somewhat flexible how many genres are completed. Level 6/7/8 is quite independent. It sounds like your ds is a strong reader, but having done WG's literature ourselves, the more genres ds can complete this year the better. I think it may be a good idea to start DITHOR 3 days a week as you begin MTMM, so ds can learn the ins and outs of his typical school day first. Then, if he can handle the pace, I'd try to do DITHOR 4 days a week and get through as many genres as you are able to comfortably, without stressing him out too much. Anything he does in DITHOR will help him with what he will be asked to do within the WG guide for high school. HTH, and I hope you have a super start to school!

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks so much for the help! I truly appreciate it. I think Julie's advice is good. I feel we need to understand all the HOD work first and then maybe I can try to accelerate with him. I do want him to the World Geography guide next year. Thanks for the replies all! We start school Monday with three guides and a toddler, so I am feeling excited but a bit overwhelmed too! I appreciate this board.