Starting DITHOR 6 weeks in

[WigglesMom]

I started BHFHG and LHFHG with my dc 6 weeks ago. I had planned to do DITHOR 2/3 with both girls, but after starting decided to start dd7 with Wagon Wheels of the emerging readers and move forward there first. Now I am ready to start DITHOR with dd9 (just had b-day need to update my siggy) but reading through the kick off and getting started I am feeling overwhelmed. She will be reading from the 4/5 list but doing 2/3 student book. She was reading on 3rd grade level in kindergarten and has been reading since she was 3. I wanted to start off in the 2/3 student book though.
I feel a little lost getting started. I kind of put the teacher's guide away when I decided that we wouldn't start until 6 weeks in and I just picked it up and I am feeling kind of lost. We are reading Snow Treasure for storytime and we have The Black Stallion picked out for our adventure DITHOR read. The whole getting started section just overwhelmed me. I am kind of debating whether to just let her read this year and start DITHOR next year. We have been doing a reading list in the mean time and I had just decided that we would start DITHOR at 6 weeks. I am wondering whether it will be such a big change for her and for me.
We have just been reading and writing in a reading journal and doing some craft type things with some of the books. This will be very different and now I am unsure whether to start it this year or just continue with the reading list we started.
We are taking a little break this week. We are having company and I am cleaning house. So I am going to look at the teacher's guide some more and see if I feel a little less overwhelmed before we start back Monday.

[LynnH]

I am new to all this and won't be starting Preparing and DITHOR until August, but I also was feeling overwhelmed looking at the Teachers guide for DITHOR. I sat down yesterday with the first book he will be doing which is the Jed Smith book. I took the teacher guide and student guide and really looked at how it would work. I divided the reading into 8 pages a day and wrote that all out and then I picked just one kick off activity we could do that I thought would be easy to do. Then I looked at each day's required work and reading. I even read the first 8 pages of the book and looked at the activity he would need to do and realized that it really wasn't as overwhelming as I thought. In fact as I did that for the first 4 days I realized it really won't be near as tough to do as I thought. I think it looks overwhelming because everything is spelled out in detail and for all 3 levels in the teachers guide so it looks daunting. Maybe if you take yourself through the first week you might feel better about it.

[Daisy]

I agree, Lynn! Once I sat down with both books and the biography and just walked through a few days, it all started to come together. Starbucks! 30 minutes of quiet and a coffee. You'll be good to go.

[my3sons]

I agree too - I think because it doesn't have the boxes we all know and love, and it schedules plans for 3 different levels, it looks different at first. You can just read through the kickoffs and pick 1 fun one to do. Then, just divide the total page numbers in Black Stallion by 15, since there are 15 reading days. My Black Stallion copy has 224 pages in it, so that would be about 15 pages a day. Just jot the pages in the reading calendar in the student book, read over the plans for level 2/3, and you're ready to go.

In Christ,
Julie

P.S. Now you've got me craving Starbucks, Daisy!

[Carrie]

In all honesty, Val, just skip the "Getting Started" section and do as the wise ladies on the board are advising you to do. I have a tendency toward detail-itis, which can be too much at times.

Truly, just follow these simple steps to begin:
1. Choose the genre you want to do.
2. Choose the first book to read (make sure it matches the genre).
3. Plug in the page numbers in the calendar.
4. Choose one simple kick-off.
5. Begin.

When you finish a book, if you don't happen to have the next one ready to go, give your child a day off from DITHR and give yourself a chance to find the next book and plug in the page numbers. When you get to the projects, just sit down with your child and skim through the options and let her pick with you, or give her a day off of DITHR while you pick a project that suits your schedule.

Then, pick DITHR back up the next day. DITHR is very forgiving and flexible in this way, yet it will give you the solid coverage in reading your child will need at this stage in her life.

Remember, you're also only trying to get through half of the genres this year, so you have plenty of breathing room to get that done. Typically, DITHR at 3 days a week works great for us!

Blessings,
Carrie

[Kathleen]

In all honesty, Val, just skip the "Getting Started" section and do as the wise ladies on the board are advising you to do. I have a tendency toward detail-itis, which can be too much at times.

Truly, just follow these simple steps to begin:
1. Choose the genre you want to do.
2. Choose the first book to read (make sure it matches the genre).
3. Plug in the page numbers in the calendar.
4. Choose one simple kick-off.
5. Begin.

When you finish a book, if you don't happen to have the next one ready to go, give your child a day off from DITHR and give yourself a chance to find the next book and plug in the page numbers. When you get to the projects, just sit down with your child and skim through the options and let her pick with you, or give her a day off of DITHR while you pick a project that suits your schedule.

Then, pick DITHR back up the next day. DITHR is very forgiving and flexible in this way, yet it will give you the solid coverage in reading your child will need at this stage in her life.

Remember, you're also only trying to get through half of the genres this year, so you have plenty of breathing room to get that done. Typically, DITHR at 3 days a week works great for us!

Blessings,
Carrie

Val,

This will work! It's exactly what I did last year when we started. (I am so bad about reading through all the intro stuff. I did actually get to it on a cozy winter evening. ) We switched the 1st 2 steps that Carrie listed though. I let Grant pick the 1st book he wanted to read from our DITHOR pack, and that determined the genre we'd do. Once you dive into the daily plans, it's truly as open-and-go as the guides are.

And, I did what Carrie mentioned and used "school time" for ME to read through project options/new kick-offs. I thought I was being slightly lazy , but it worked for us. We did DITHOR every day - except when I was getting organized for a new project/kick-off. And hey, if Carrie reccommends it, now I'm feeling pretty good about doing it that way.

DITHOR is a wonderful reading program! Grant loved the books he read, and we learned so much. I think it's great at helping the kids learn to think for themselves as they read. They are directed to come back to God's Word to analyze what the characters do and say, which is a wonderful skill to have! Grant even used some of his projects for 4-H talks this year.

Have fun!
Kathleen