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Wow, I so don't understand how this works. I understand the color coding for the the books, the E is Emergent reader, B is boy and G is girl and Green is if you doing the Drawn into Reading.

But....sheesh! My head is spinning. I am interested in doing the "Beyond" program. My dd is between emergent and a independent reader of course depending on the book, but she doesn't like it so she's not strong at reading at all. So with this in mind, I have no idea where to go. We've gotten through most vowel blends of oa, ea (as in long e), ei, etc. but have not done oi yet or the more than one sounds of vowel blends like ea as in heart.

So with that said... I have no idea which book set I would be looking at. Do you choose 1 of the 3? Classic, boy or girl? And Drawn into Reading is for completely independent readers, right?

Yikes! I'm confused. What would I get?

I think Drawn is supposed to be independent reading, but here's an idea for you. In the appendix of the Beyond book, there is another list of suggested readers that are just slightly more advanced than the emerging readers. I think I would try those, and then use the interest packs for storytime reading. You can use just the girl interest pack, or you can mix and match. Just as long as you match the book to the genre being studied.

I will be much easier to understand once you have the Beyond book in your hands!

Oh yeah....I also wanted to say welcome! We're glad you're here and hope you love HOD as much as the rest of us do!

Welcome. I will also being doing beyond next year and my ds is also between an emergent reader and indepenant reader. Here is my plan. I am going to do the independant reader schedule with him at a comfortable pace for him - which will most likely be faster than the schedule. Then as Melanie suggested I will use the extra readers in the appendix to cement independant reading before starting Drawn into the Heart of Reading.

As far as the book packs boys, girls or classic these are used as read alouds. So you can pick and chose within the genre.

mom2boys030507 wrote:As far as the book packs boys, girls or classic these are used as read alouds. So you can pick and chose within the genre.

Welcome! I wanted to say that if you have older kids you can use these are their DIIHR as well. I just bought the girl interest to use next year with my then Beyond kids and we will use these this year between two of my older girls one on DITHR level 2 and One in DITHR level 5 and it split perfect between the two. So it is a great way to then possibly reuse those books or as I am doing use them with older kids. I probably will pick new books for my Beyond girls when they get to the Bigger level.

But as far as with Beyond. We will use the Emerging as for them to read (I am currently using it actually with my dd that has special needs and is 10!) then the Girls Interest Books will be read aloud to them in Beyond. So two book packs for that level and those reasons. BTW it confused me too at firts but now I see how great it is in practice so hang in there with it!

One of the most useful things Carrie has tucked away on her web site is here:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/drawn-into-packages.php
sample book list for $5.00

it lays books out by genre, and then gives the grade lvl each book is at. So if you have lots of books in the house or like to use the library this can be very helpful. You may want to just order that for now and look the books over then create your own reading list for your little one. You can always order books separately or you may find one of the book packs works perfectly.

Thanks Tansy,

I just added it to my cart!

annaz,

Welcome to Heart of Dakota! We're glad you're here.

First of all, I know the Book Shop area of our website can be a little overwhelming. The place you really need to go when looking at Beyond is to the Beyond Packages page. Here's that link:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/byd-little ... ckages.php

As far as what your child will read, it sounds like you will need to see if she is at the Emerging Reader Level, and the link to those books is here:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/emerging-reader.php
The Emerging Reader books are scheduled in the Appendix daily for your child to read-aloud to you. There are also 3 questions for each day of reading for you to ask/discuss with your child.

If the Emerging Reader set looks too easy, then you may want to check out the Level 2 Book Pack to see if that is more your dd's level. That link is here: http://www.heartofdakota.com/drawn-into-optional2.php

The Level 2 Book Pack is meant to be used with Level 2/3 of Drawn into the Heart of Reading. (You are also welcome to choose your own books to use with DITHR if you prefer.)

If the Level 2 Book Pack looks too difficult, you may want to do just the last half of the Emerging Reader Set, following the last half of the schedule in the Appendix of "Beyond...", and then go on to DITHR Level 2/3 after that.

As far as the Boy, Girl, and Classic sets, those are designed for you to read aloud to your child. So, you can pick just one of those sets or create your own combination of you prefer.

Hope that helps! Ask away with any other questions you have. The ladies on the board are so wonderful at jumping in to help!

Blessings,
Carrie