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I am getting ready to start Folk Tale with my son. I have used DITHOR for Humor and non-fiction, both times one book easy to schedule. This time I am looking at using multiple books. I currently have Bears on Hemlock Mountain and The Minstrel in the Tower chosen. I can schedule these two books fine but I would really like to use a few of the other books on the book list, however they are short books. One is a 32p picture book and the other I assume to also be a picture book is 46 p. I know if I asked my son to read these over several days he would just read the whole thing. Currently he is into knights and musketeers. I am wondering how you go about scheduling picture books. I am thinking that they would be just one day but I know the recommendations state that books should be read for 5, 10 or 15 days. Because my son is young I am really focusing on picking books based on his current interests. I am guessing we will go through Level 2/3 twice but that all depends on where he is when we finish the first time. He is already learning more about different types of books then I thought possible at this age, and loves to read. Any help will be greatly appreciated. If I am unable to schedule the shorter books and make the program work sucessfully, he will read longer ones for Drawn time and I will provide the others for his free reading time and story times as a family.

Thanks for you help.

Karen,
I think you have two options. The first is, schedule it out over a couple of days or 5 days (whichever you prefer) and don't let him read ahead. Then, he is anticipating what will happen next. I think Charlotte Mason said something about it being better to keep them wanting more. It keeps them excited and engaged as well as helps their prediction skills.

The second option would be, schedule a book a day and just do whatever activity lines up with that day. This might be really fun for you, because you can look at each book and see which activities you would want them to line up with.

Oh, and I just thought of another option! You could let him read the book all in one day, but do the activities over the course of a couple of days. So, you read a book and do activities with that book for the next 3 days. All it would do is reinforce what he read the first day, as well as teach great comprehension and retention.

Here's what we're doing just to give you one more idea I pick the first book for the genre and I decide 5 or 10 days. Then, I'm taking her to the library and she picks the next book. I do have some criteria on what she can pick, but it's not a battle or anything. We started with Biography this year and she was ECSTATIC that she got to pick what she would read next. That might be something to try too, give him all the books and ask which one he would like to read for the next 5 days.

I guess I shouldn't have said you only had two options! Don't you love the flexibility of DITHOR? I love this program.

Blessings!
Dorinda