Finishing ER's... Not sure if ready for DITHOR. .??

[momof3kids]

Hi all!
We are a few weeks from finishing up our year! Whoot whoot!... But I am not sure about my second son moving I to DITHOR when we start Bigger. He is finishing ER's now, just started The Courage of Sarah Noble, he can read 2-3 pages and is ready for a break. His reading is good, but also has some vision issues so I know the smaller print/ more words on the page can be more of a challenge for him. He doesn't really enjoy reading, but likes to get his work done so he usually will come back to it and finish later when I ask.
So, any suggestions...??? Are there books he could be ready before moving into DITHOR ?.... Just don't want him to get frustrated since he really has been trying.
Hold off doing DITHOR for a while...???
Thanks again in advance ladies! So mch appreciate the help!
Blessings

[StephanieU]

So he can read The Bears of Hemlock Mountain for example, but it is hard for him to read the quantity of pages a day that is necessary?
Have you added in the supplemental titles from whatever unit the nature reader starts through the end? Those would be good options as well as the books Carrie lists right after the ER books (on the same page as the last day of the ERs).

Some of the Level 2 DITHOR books might be okay, as they aren't any harder than the last ER books. But the book by Avi for example might be too much...
For the vision issues, have you considered ebooks? Would making the print larger on a screen help him? I know some people with vision problems find ereaders helpful and others find reading on a screen harder.

[MelInKansas]

DITHOR can be used with any books. How old is your son? The question on "whether he is ready for DITHOR?" really hinges on whether or not he is ready for more analysis of the books he is reading. The DITHOR activities and book have them learning about setting, characters, mood, etc as well as doing the studies of Bible characters and discussing the book characters in terms of Biblical qualities. Many people do most of DITHOR 2/3 orally rather than having the child complete the workbook pages on their own. I waited to start DITHOR until my daughter was 9, and she's a fairly average reader.

If you think the analysis and understanding of what he's reading would be too much then I would suggest what Stephanie said, find some books that he can read that challenge him and just keep on having him read and discuss what he has read. We used a lot of the supplemental titles in the ER book list to stretch that out a bit. Or you could start level 2 books just as readers and not use DITHOR yet. Or you could start DITHOR with some easier readers, or lengthen out the days of reading. I know with "Sarah, Plain and Tall" I had her read that in 10 days instead of 5 and we only did DITHOR activities with it every other day, because to finish it in 5 days would have been very long readings each day.

[momof3kids]

Thanks ladies!
I think I will try and find some if the extra ER titles in the library and have him read those. For him, it's more an issue of being able to see smaller print chapter books.... Also thinking about a Kindle....
Thanks agin for th input!
Blessings