DITHOR Q's. Level 2/3 or 4/5??

[Mom2Monkeys]

My DD will be 9 on the 15th of this month. She's going into 4th grade and loves to read. She will be reading books from the 4/5 book packs. I'm just not sure if we should use the 2/3 workbook/plans or the 4/5 workbook/plans. We've only done 2 genres from 2/3 and that was last school year in 2nd grade. We haven't picked it back up since then I'm looking foward to getting back into it! On a side note, I'm going to be alternating days with whatever level we choose in order to pick up some phonics lessons in Phonics Pathways for her. She is a wonderful reader, can sound out unfamiliar words, great comprehension, but has never had phonics (she just sorta read all of a sudden at age 4) I feel like she has slowed down in her progression and want to make sure we don't stall out on. Maybe that effects what level I should choose...

How do these levels differ in the plans? in the workbook? in the reading requirement? in the time commitment?

[Kathleen]

Grant's favorite thing is NOT writing... So this year while he was a 9 yo doing Preparing ("4th grade") we used the plans and student book 2/3 for DITHOR again. He also read books from the 4/5 pack. It was perfect! This year we're going to move up to level 4/5 which I know ups the writing and amount of student pages there are per genre. (I don't have the book in hand yet to tell you specifically though.)

So, doing the 4/5 book pack for her with the 2/3 student book may work for you, too. I think it depends on how much writing you want/need.

Kathleen

[Mom2Monkeys]

Kathleen, did you have him read aloud the whole reading as it directs in 2/3 since the 4/5 books are quite a bit longer? I worry that's too much reading aloud for her (and for me!). Would following the 2/3 plans, but using the reading aloud schedule of the 4/5 plans work? (as in, read aloud when 4/5 says to do so and not 2/3). Did you use Little Pilgrim's Progress or another book for that genre that you could suggest..I ask b/c she's read that one twice in the last year. She really enjoys it, but for DITHOR, they should not have already read the book, right?

I guess I could always jump up to 4/5 later in the year if I felt the need. I just found I have both the 2/3 and the 4/5 workbooks, so I'll give them both a good look through to make my final decision.

Oh! One last question...I don't have a way to copy the pages, and don't want to write in the workbook. Would it be reasonable to use a clear page protector and a good wet-erase marker (since dry erase would just rub off too easily) or will we need to be referring back to completed pages as we progress?

Any other thoughts anyone? I'm all ears!

[Kathleen]

I had Grant read aloud 3,4,5 pages or so every DITHOR day. (I honestly haven't looked to see if that's what the guide says for level 4/5, but it worked great for us!) I let him read the rest silently. I usually either listened as he began his reading or as he ended depending on what I was doing. Occasionally I let him pick 3 pages to read aloud because I didn't make it before he was done. The exception to this was the book Dragons of the Deep. He absolutely LOVED this book!!! But, it has some vocabulary in there that was tough to pronounce! But, because the pages to read daily were also much shorter - like maybe 5 - he read that all aloud to me.

This year from the boy 4/5 pack, he read Jed Smith, Dragons of the Deep, Sign of the Beaver, Black Stallion, Buffalo Bill.

I think if I were you, I'd pick a book she hasn't read yet for DITHOR. There are so many great choices...that way you can get to more of them!

Kathleen

[Mom2Monkeys]

So you were doing Preparing with him, and it's not scheduled every day in there, right? We're still in Bigger, and it's scheduled every day if I remember correctly. So I might have her just a bit of the reading outloud since she'll be doing it daily. DD is getting Dragons of the Deep for a bday gift! I saw samples and it looks AWESOME!!!! Can't wait!

She wants to start with Mystery and has already read all the Scripture Sleuth books, so we're going to start with The Doll People.She wants to do Fantasy next, but I'm not sure what to use since both boy and girl options use Little Pilgrim's Progress and she's read it. I think we'll skip it for now and do Realistic Fiction next b/c we have both of the boy option books for that already I'm getting excited! I've got all my books laid out to make some mental notes and decide which level to go with. I think I'll choose genre order based on the reading level of the books we have for it, which is a mixture of the boy and girl packs. That way we are working up to the harder level books. I'm just rambling now...sorry! Going on 18 waking hours!

[my3sons]

Hi Tamara! Kathleen said exactly what I was going to say - I'd do Level 4/5 books with Student Book 2/3 and 2/3 plans. I'd also have her read 2-4 pages out loud to you and finish the rest out independently. Using a fresh book is important, so I'd just look at the HOD book shop categories of genres and choose one she hasn't read (my ds has enjoyed some from the girl interest set too, so check out the boy interest sets as well for her as there is some overlap of interests usually ). I wouldn't try to use the plastic page protectors, but would instead just copy the pages or order a new one year's down the road. You should be set for her for the next 3 years even if you write in it, because she can use the 2/3 this year, half of the 4/5 the next year, and the other half of the 4/5 the following year (since you already own it). Unless your next kiddo needs one, you should be a-o-k for awhile. HTH!
In Christ,
Julie

[Mom2Monkeys]

Hi Tamara! Kathleen said exactly what I was going to say - I'd do Level 4/5 books with Student Book 2/3 and 2/3 plans. I'd also have her read 2-4 pages out loud to you and finish the rest out independently. Using a fresh book is important, so I'd just look at the HOD book shop categories of genres and choose one she hasn't read (my ds has enjoyed some from the girl interest set too, so check out the boy interest sets as well for her as there is some overlap of interests usually ). I wouldn't try to use the plastic page protectors, but would instead just copy the pages or order a new one year's down the road. You should be set for her for the next 3 years even if you write in it, because she can use the 2/3 this year, half of the 4/5 the next year, and the other half of the 4/5 the following year (since you already own it). Unless your next kiddo needs one, you should be a-o-k for awhile. HTH!
In Christ,
Julie

ahhh yes, that's right. It will be a while before i need another 2/3 book. DS6 is just going into 1st grade! Makes sense. He likely won't be ready for DITHOR until 3rd grade since we're en route to finish phonics in 1st, emerging readers in 2nd. Thanks for that little nugget Julie!

I saw last night that optional phonics review or vocab work is included in the 2/3 plans each week. So we'll be using 2/3 for sure, and use that day for our phonics review that I thought I was going to have to work in as extra! And I found the 2/3 workbook to be a great fit for her when going through it last night. The 4/5 just had too much writing for her right now. Most of our books for her that we have are from the 4/5 boy interest set. LOL She's just that kinda kid. In fact, I actually own most of the books from 4/5 boy and girl sets, so we have plenty of choices. I'm going to search for a replacement for Little Pilgrim's Progress in the book shop right now! I find that so exciting. Hehehe

[Mom2Monkeys]

Ok...sooooo....I just looked in the book shop and looks like I have quite the reader b/c any on her level in the fantasy genre, she's already read! I'll have to find my book ideas list and head off to the library! This is a wonderful problem to have! (also quite wonderful to know that HOD and I have the same taste in books!)

[pjdobro]

That is awesome that she loves to read so much and has already read such great quality literature! I'm going to be doing pretty much the same thing with my dd this year. I'm going to be having her read level 4/5 books and do the 2/3 workbook. I need to get her to slow down and really savor the books instead of devouring them and I think moving up the length and difficulty a bit, hopefully, will do that. One book that I was thinking of having my dd read for fantasy this year is The Wind in the Willows. It's listed in level 6/7/8 in the sample book list, but I've seen it listed other places as grade 4-6. I think my dd will really like the characters. It's been ages since I read it so I'll have to look it over again to make sure it's not too difficult, but it was one of my very favorite books growing up. I was thinking too if your dd has read The Cricket in Times Square and loved it, you might try Tucker's Countryside or one of the other George Seldon books in the series. Those are just a couple thoughts that I had. I'm looking forward to trying to pick out some really fun books for my dd this year too. Like you I have a bunch of books here and have a good portion of the books that HOD offers. They have such great taste in books! Have fun hunting and if you feel like sharing what you choose, I would love to hear. It might give me some ideas for my dd.

[Mom2Monkeys]

Have fun hunting and if you feel like sharing what you choose, I would love to hear. It might give me some ideas for my dd.

We went to find a few after searching online a bit (more like scouring ever page I could find!). I'm going to glance over them and decide which would be the best, but a couple of my DD's top picks so far are The Castle in the Attic and The Cat Who Went to Heaven. I have to check out the actual reading level on these and the others to see which one or two will fit best. If I go with the cat one, it might be more of a 5 day book I think. The castle one might be too advanced right now. I've got one more that I put on "order" at the library that should be in for me to view soon...It's called something like Magic to Burn. I don't recall exactly...sorry! My dd really wants that one from the description she read, but we'll see. It's all up in the air till mommy gets a chance to skim them for content or finds her HOD book ideas list!

[pjdobro]

I'm LOL because I too had lost my sample book list and just found it again today. All three of the books you listed are on the list in the Level 4/5 fantasy list. So you did great! I'll have to check those out too. The cat one sounds particularly interesting since we love cats around here.

[Mom2Monkeys]

I'm LOL because I too had lost my sample book list and just found it again today. All three of the books you listed are on the list in the Level 4/5 fantasy list. So you did great! I'll have to check those out too. The cat one sounds particularly interesting since we love cats around here.

Well I'll be a monkey's uncle! LOL I wonder if that's why they're our top picks then I can scratch the skimming plans now and toss the extras! Does it say in how many days each of those 3 are to be read? (maybe we should PM from this point since this is part of the list that must be purchased???)

I told my DD I didn't think the cat one would work, but she insisted b/c she loves cats. She has good HOD kind of taste in books I see

[pjdobro]

The sample book list doesn't have a number of days to read each book. I think that is up to the teacher to decide what works best for the student. When I'm reading a book, I hate stopping in the middle of a chapter so for me unless the chapter has a natural dividing point or is really long, I tend to figure the number of days based on the number of chapters. If they are really short chapters, I might assign two per day. I just like things to come out even like that. I think I'm little bit OCD.