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If I were to do Bigger with my 7 and 9 year old next year, (both just finished Emerging Readers this year) would it be more important to use 2/3 DITHOR or the Bigger Storytime box? I don't think I have the time to do both and they seem a bit of an overlap. Any opinons?

Thanks,
Shannon

You are reading aloud to some of your younger children, correct? Have the older children listen in to this storytime. (I know that is a common recommendation for mother's with multiple children in varying HOD guides.)

I can't recommend skipping DITHOR (or another reading program) or Storytime---I think that these two things are just too vital! We start our day with read aloud and then DITHOR!

I had to make that call. I picked storytime.

Maybe alternate days? One day do a read-aloud, and one day to DITHOR? Both work on such important, but different, skills. Or, shift your Storytime to evenings and use as a bedtime story? If your DH is willing, perhaps he could do the storytime reading?

Just a thought...

I agree with Tricia. They definitely work on totally different skills and are both important (and fun ). For storytime you're reading aloud to them, so they're working on listening and responding with narration, character analysis, other literary things...and then for DITHOR they're working on their own reading skills which are so important to keep improving. DITHOR can be used 3 days a week, so you could spread it out a little like that. (This is the way Preparing does it once you get there.) You could do all 3 of your kids on the same genre and do DITHOR "together" using different books at their levels but moving through the plans together. Then with the younger ones in 2/3 you could alternate the days they read aloud to you, or have one start by reading 3 pages to you and then finish silently and let the other start silently and read the last 3 pages to you and the lesson for them would be totally together. I know there are some days with DITHOR that it says all levels together, too, if you're hitting the same days. I don't know if that's helpful or not, but thought I'd throw those ideas out there.

I like the idea of putting storytime as a bedtime story, too. This never worked here because we never knew if Dad was going to happen to get home before bedtime or not, and the kids love a little play time with him if he pops in. (And since I'm it all day with them, I wear out by bedtime and it would NOT ease my schedule to have that in the evening!) But, if my husband did come home between 5 and 7, I could see this working really well because there would be a team going into nighttime.

Kathleen

I agree about them covering different skills, and both sets of skills are important. I wouldn't want to skip either, and if I was having difficulty getting them both in, I'd pick very short books for each of them and still get the skills in that way. However, if the short books idea doesn't gel with you, I like the idea of rotating the 2 as well. Storytime one day, DITHOR the next, and so on. You'd only need half of the Storytime titles, and half of the DITHOR titles then. Your DITHOR days would be a tad longer than your Storytime days, but you could put them in any order you wanted. Yet another idea would be to get audio books for the Storytime, and listen to them over lunch. Then, you could just finish up with the box's discussion together after that, which would take just a few minutes.

I think it is important to recognize what we can get done in the day to day, make room for the most important things, and then make decisions about how best to go about prioritizing those things. So, this is just an idea! It is important for each of us to do that, as only we can know what fits our families best. Also, only we as moms have the panoramic view of things in our minds. For example, not getting to Storytime or DITHOR ever is not good, but not getting to one of them for one very busy difficult year knowing you'll be getting to it another year is quite different. HTH as you weigh what's best for your family.

In Christ,
Julie