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Hi!
I haven't actually used anything yet, just looking and planning for next year. I am looking over BHFHG and DITHOR. What are the Book Projects (optional book) compared to DITHOR. I know they seem more like hands on crafts. What is the purpose compared to DITHOR? I have ds9, ds7, dd4 and ds2. I am looking to have fun this year and ease into the basic academics while touching on history and science. My emphasis is Bible, character, habits, and hands on fun! Should I do both books or choose one? It seems like a bit of repetition with both.

Also,what is the real purpose of DITHOR and can I wait until next year to start it? It seems like critical thinking and genre study. I've read all the info on the site, but still feel unclear. Do I need this yet? I really am excited about the book choices.
Thanks for your help!

rjperez1 wrote:Hi!
I haven't actually used anything yet, just looking and planning for next year. I am looking over BHFHG and DITHR. What are the Book Projects (optional book) compared to DITHOR. I know they seem more like hands on crafts. What is the purpose compared to DITHOR? I have ds9, ds7, dd4 and ds2. I am looking to have fun this year and ease into the basic academics while touching on history and science. My emphasis is Bible, character, habits, and hands on fun! Should I do both books or choose one? It seems like a bit of repetition with both.

Also,what is the real purpose of DITHOR and can I wait until next year to start it? It seems like critical thinking and genre study. I've read all the info on the site, but still feel unclear. Do I need this yet? I really am excited about the book choices.
Thanks for your help!

Welcome to the HOD Board! DITHOR provides reading instruction for all independent readers past the emerging reader's stage, so I'm sure you'll want to do it with Bigger Hearts. I wrote a pretty detailed post awhile back about my experience with DITHOR, and rather than retyping it, I'll just post it here:

We have used DITHR for many years, and we're still excited about using it again next school year. It is just a joy to teach, and it really does so much to teach my dc about wonderful literature from every genre, as well as teaching them comprehension skills, story elements, and character trait skills.

We do DITHR 3 days a week, and it takes about 30 minutes a day (although I only help with about half or less of the 30 min.). Any prep. I have for this takes 5 minutes or less (usually making a copy of the workbook page, or grabbing a few items from around the house). I use the Guide and Level 2/3 of the student books. We are going through 5 of the 9 genres this year. (Last year, we did DITHR 3 days a week with Level 2/3 as well, but we did the other 4 genres.) So, in 2 years, I will have taught all 9 genres of Level 2/3. (Many moms do DITHR daily, and do all of Level 2/3 twice, just using harder books the second year of doing it. So that is an option too.) I only have one child in DITHR this year, however, I will soon have one child in Level 2/3 and one child in Level 4/5.

I also tutored for 3 years using DITHR with multiple children in multiple levels as well, prior to homeschooling my own children. I had 45 min. sessions, and covered several levels during that time. We'd begin by filling out the reading pace sheet with each child. Each "level" of reader read a different book that fit their reading level, but we all did the same genre. The guide lists which level needs the teacher and when. Usually, I started with either Level 2/3 or 4/5, depending what the guide said. The 2/3 level always read out loud to me, and the 4/5 read a page or two to me and read the rest silently. The 6/7/8 only read a paragraph or not at all out loud to me and read silently. Then I gave directions for independent work in their different levels of workbooks, and also did the discussions at that point.

On the "all together" days, which are noted in the guide, we all did the lesson together, each child bringing his own book for the lesson. These "all together" lessons come up once every 5 days of plans or so, except for at the end of each genre when 5 days can be done all together if the group project is chosen. We always chose the group project when I had children in all 3 levels - it was fun and easy to do together!

As far as grading, we don't give grades for it. I do expect my ds to do his very best work on his student book pages and his projects - and he is not finished until his best work is shown. I use the Appendix's tips to help him become a good oral reader.

As far as what I love about DITHR.... Ahhh, where to begin?!? Well, I realized when I began using DITHR that I was missing entire genres from my home collection of books. I guess I was buying genres I loved. I have all boys, so you can imagine the genres I love are not typically the genres my boys love! That was a big realization for me. The balance of reading from every genre consistently was a huge bonus for me. I also like to choose what my children will read and the pace we are going to read at. It is important to me that my children continue to LOVE reading.

Through tutoring, I realized that many children start out loving reading, and begin to almost hate it over time if it is taught in a way that makes them do TOO much with a book (i.e. if they had to do their spelling, vocabulary, worksheet after worksheet, questions upon questions, creative writing, book reports... overload!). DITHR is NOT like that. The questions are well-chosen (according to Bloom's Taxonomy, I believe), but they are short and do not take forever to discuss. The worksheets are more like graphic organizers, and they are always different (you know how some curriculums reuse their workbook pages over and over - kids get tired of that just like we do!).

The kickoff and the wrap-up projects are an awesome way to keep the love of reading flowing too. They require little or no real preparation, and the amount of days planned for them is more than adequate. Plus, they're just plain fun (and this is coming from a gal who doesn't really love projects all that much)! I had 6th. grade boys that I tutored that had begun to hate reading that grew to love it again because of DITHR and the kickoffs and wrap-ups! The character trait is another thing I love. I like linking everything I can to Biblical training, and DITHR already does that for me in a very natural, meaningful way. It gives us a plan for talking about book characters who make wrong choices.

Finally, I enjoy teaching reading in a way that almost feels like how I'd talk to my best friend about a great book I was reading. It's conversational... sort of like a book club... only with all of the parts of the story, genres, etc. taught and woven into it.

I love the book packages that HOD carries as well. Sometimes I've used them completely, or subbed in books for the ones we'd already read; and other times I've used the Sample Book Ideas list HOD carries to choose books.

You also asked about the Book Projects. At the end of each genre unit, there is a wrap-up project. There are 3 projects to choose from each unit. One of the 3 is always uses the Book Projects book. These projects are creative/artistic in nature, and are based on whatever book the child read. While the Book Projects book is not necessary for doing DITHOR (since there are always 2 other projects to choose), we have found it well worth the $6 or so it costs. My ds has chosen these many times over. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

Since the Level 2/3 DITHOR is the only one that still has the Book Projects book available, is it possible to to use the Grade 2 book with the other levels of DITHOR above 2/3?

Hope that makes sense !!!

Thanks!

Terri

MommyInTraining wrote:Since the Level 2/3 DITHOR is the only one that still has the Book Projects book available, is it possible to to use the Grade 2 book with the other levels of DITHOR above 2/3?

Hope that makes sense !!!

Thanks!

Terri

Hi Terri, and yes, that would work just fine! In fact, we'll be doing it that way this year. The projects are open-ended enough to let the dc get as in-depth as they want to. I really like that the kids' projects all look different from one another, and allow each child's personality to shine through. The book projects books are easy to use and have helped my ds carry over those project ideas into his free time and other subject areas as well.

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks for the detailed responses! I understand much better, now. I have 2 littles that I want to make sure I pay enough attention to next school year. I think this looks great, but a bit overwhelming for us. Can I take it very slowly, maybe just 2 or 3 this year? Is that worth it?

rjperez1 wrote:Thanks for the detailed responses! I understand much better, now. I have 2 littles that I want to make sure I pay enough attention to next school year. I think this looks great, but a bit overwhelming for us. Can I take it very slowly, maybe just 2 or 3 this year? Is that worth it?

You can do as many as you'd like each year. We try to shoot for doing 1/2 the genres each year, which is 4 or 5 genres (though with Bigger Hearts we do all 9 genres). If you do DITHOR 3 days a week, that will get you through half of the genres. If you'd like to start with doing 3 this year, that would still very much be worth it. Whatever you get done with DITHOR will benefit your dc's growth with reading! DITHOR covers all reading skills necessary for each level, so it is always a huge relief to me that I'm teaching reading standards well by using it. It really isn't overwhelming once you start - I promise. Here's a link to a past thread that may help:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=4319

In Christ,
Julie

Oh absolutely not! DITHR is amazing! It gets so much deeper than the story time portion of the manual. I think of the story time portion as a time when I can model reading to my sons, spend quality time with them enjoying a good book, and help them practice narration. For instance. Today in the Bigger manual, my older son narrated about 6 pages in George Rogers Clark. However, in DITHR, he just finished reading 4 pages aloud to me and showing me the wonderful collage he did for Day 5 of his reading in Jed Smith. He did so much better on it than I had expected him to do. He really captured the character of Jed Smith. He told me that he wanted to illustrate the positive and Godly things about Jed. He is learning so much with DITHR.