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Yes, this is at the end of the school year But I want to make sure we head into DITHOR the "right" way...

Right now, Jayden can read well.... she's easily reading the last few ERs.... She can comprehend well. BUT she does NOT like to read. Because of that, if she's done well with the rest of the school day... paid attention, worked hard, etc. I'll read some of her reader for her. We'll alternate a page, or I'll get her to read the first and last page, or just any number of amounts that she reads or I read for her. About the most she will not be upset about reading is 3ish pages... we just finished up "Tornado" and some chapters I made her read the whole thing, but I'd say she averaged 3 pages per chapter. Is that all right? I know she CAN read it, and I know if she DOES read it she understands it....

I guess, going into DITHOR, if I do it half speed, will there be less she'll have to read per day? Like if I have her reading every day, but do the program half speed, so if it says read the book in 10 days, she'll get 20.... is that something I could do? I really would like to transition her to reading her own stuff since she CAN... I'm not talking about completely right now because she's just 7, but I'm concerned that when she's old enough to do her independent reading work she won't want to do it and I'm just pandering to her now. Does that make sense? Is that something to be concerned about?

I'm sorry if this doesn't make any sense I was up until 3am with the baby and had to get up at 6 something with the big kids and this morning has been miserable.

The beauty of DITHOR is you can pick your books if she can only read 3 pages a day then the book you pick needs to be scheduled that way. no more than 45 pages..

A suggestion: Instead of doing half days, which I found hard to do. For My eldest daughter I choose to do one genre a month and then she had a month off to just "enjoy" reading. After 1 year she had covered all the genres.

Now she does like to read but it still takes her forever to finish a book!

I think what you are doing is just fine. You want to foster a love of reading, so taking turns sounds great to me. I think that's what we did with Michael.

I didn't even to DITHOR last year with him and he was 8 and doing BHFHG. He reads a lot though on his own now. He transitioned this year to reading to himself at bedtime instead of me reading to him.

I'm thinking about doing DITHOR this coming year for 4th grade.

Katherine

We eased my ds into DITHOR this year by having him read a bit each day, but only doing the DITHOR plans every other day - essentially what you were suggesting in your post. We enjoyed that, and it worked well to ease him into it. I usually had my ds read 2-3 pages out loud to me, and then read 2 pages independently. Then, the next day, I had him read 2-3 pages out loud to me, and then we did the DITHOR lesson. I wrote his answers for him at first in his Student Book. After a month or so, I wrote his answers on markerboard, and he copied them into his Student Book. After a few months of that, he just wrote his answers in the Student Book, and I wrote any words he needed help spelling on a markerboard for him. We are on summer break now, but next year, he'll be ready to do DITHOR full-speed. This was a good way to ease him into it. We have enjoyed DITHOR so much at our house. My oldest ds has been doing it for many years, and it's fun to have my next ds doing it now too. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

Great ideas Julie. I think I'm going to try the "read every day", "do DITHOR every other day" method with my son as well. I will also try your method of easing him into the Student Book. Yesterday I helped him with the vocab exercise where I did the first one and, surprisingly, he did the other two successfully on his own.

Shawneinfl wrote:... Yesterday I helped him with the vocab exercise where I did the first one and, surprisingly, he did the other two successfully on his own.

Way to go little guy! He sounds like he'll do so well with DITHOR! I'm glad you have an "easing-into" plan in place, and I think you'll enjoy DITHOR. I wish I had been able to do reading this way as a child. When I think of the dry anthologies I read and the countless worksheets I filled out, it just makes me sad. But, I guess I get to do "real reading and learning" now with my own kiddos, so that's a blessing too!

In Christ,
Julie

Ok, that makes me feel good that it works for someone else doing it that way.

Katherine - She will not read on her own really... I'm hoping the summer reading program will entice her to do more, but I'm thinking it won't.... She has the capabilities, but just isn't a reading person.

We are also going to have her eyes tested again. Two years ago they gave her reading glasses that didn't really seem to do anything, and it seems like they cause more issues than they help (she's constantly missing letters and messing up words with them on.... the only thing they help with is that she will actually hold the book a good distance away)

You don't want her to dislike reading. I'd keep doing what you are doing and also find some good books to read aloud to her. I would think that you could foster the love of reading by her listening to good stories.

Katherine

yeah, I was doing great reading really good stuff to them at bedtime (the only time I can get all of them still and quiet enough to listen to a story) and then Evie got old enough to eat the books or grab the phone (I was reading some books off the reader on our phone) and so we are back down to made up or memorized by mommy stories at bedtime. Other than that and during school we don't have much time for reading when there aren't a million and 7 interruptions. I'm trying to make all the school reading extremely fun and interesting, and like I said, she reads well... She's just like DH... if it's not important to him at the moment he's not going to read it... he does not read for fun. I read though, and I like reading her books too, so she sees me reading and enjoying books all the time.

I'm hoping that making her read SOME and helping her out with the length will help a lot. I'm debating getting DITHOR a bit early and letting it be all she does as far as formal school while I'm teaching her to cook.... Letting it be the only thing might help her enjoy it more... especially if we do it half speed... Basically do one genre before we start Bigger.... She loves biographies anyway, so I'm hoping Bigger will really boost her reading as well.

MomtoJGJE wrote:...I'm debating getting DITHOR a bit early and letting it be all she does as far as formal school while I'm teaching her to cook.... Letting it be the only thing might help her enjoy it more... especially if we do it half speed... Basically do one genre before we start Bigger.... She loves biographies anyway, so I'm hoping Bigger will really boost her reading as well.

I really like your idea here! What a neat way to begin it, as a special thing for just the 2 of you to do and enjoy. You will be reading excellent books with your dd in Bigger Hearts, so that will cover your reading aloud time well - no need to feel guilty about not getting read aloud time in now. I always think a good start to DITHOR is foundational. Since it is our dc's reading instruction, all of those reading skills we need to teach them are within it, and I think you'll find DITHOR an excellent way to teach them. I used DITHOR tutoring dc long before I started using it with my own dc, and the kickoffs and the final projects were ways to draw even the most reluctant of readers into reading. If you start it early with your dd, you may want to take some time to pick a kickoff she'll especially enjoy personally, as first impressions are lasting. Anyway, I also think you'll be glad you've started DITHOR a month early, so you've got that down by the time you start Bigger Hearts. What a great idea - I am going to remember this for others starting DITHOR!

In Christ,
Julie

I think you're doing a good job easing her into reading and hopefully fostering a love for reading. I've worked as a tutor for seven years, and I've seen many kids go from not really liking reading--and sort of seeing it as a burden--to reading comfortably and happily once they get more practice and find something they really enjoy reading.

I like the idea of doing just DITHOR at first. That sounds like a nice start to the year.

The more I think about it, the more we'll have a nice little "curriculum" for a month or so before we start Bigger. We'll be doing on genre of DITHOR roughly half speed, I'm teaching her to cook and read recipes, she also wants to learn some "real" card games (rummy, hearts, etc.) AND around the same time AWANA will start back up and she's in the first TnT book now with a goal of finishing all the TnT books in 2 years.

So, for us, easing into this BUSY year seems to be unfolding perfectly!