heartofdakota.com

My almost 8 y.o. will be in grade 3 in the fall and is probably reading at an early grade 2 level. We've been doing Sonlight's language arts, but I can't really say she's learned much of anything from it. I think she needs to begin a better language arts programs. We'll be doing Beyond in the fall, but I'm having her work on emergent readers more befre she starts DITHOR. Should I just hold off on LA teaching til she's in DITHOR or start R&S 2 when we begin Beyond and do R&S 3 with DITHOR or use some grade 2 LA workbooks I got kicking around the house and start R&S 2 when we start DITHOR?

I'd say go for it in getting started with R&S 2, and holding off on DITHOR. My dd is in 3rd grade and is actually above R&S 2 level probably, but we do it about 75% orally and treat it as excellent review. It starts with nouns, then verbs, then pronouns, then adjectives, etc, and has TONS of review. I don't necessarily think it has anything to do with DITHOR, so you'd certainly be fine doing R&S and emerging readers until her reading skills picked up and she could go into DITHOR, maybe mid-year.

I am actually going to stick with the 2/3 level that I have for 4th grade because we've not been moving through it as fast as I'd like and the exercises are meaty enough to engage my strong reader. My dd is more of "plow through it" kinda gal - she takes pride in quantity read, so I have to slow her down to make sure the comprehension is there.

HTH!

Thanks for he advice!

You'd definitely be fine with R&S 2 before DITHOR. (They're even in separate boxes in the plans. ) Like Amy said, you can just begin DITHOR whenever you finish the emerging readers. No problemo.

Kathleen