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I bought the emerging reader set to use with my DS. After looking it over, I've decided to have DD read some before moving on to DITHOR. Is there a point in the ER program when they read to themselves instead of out loud?

Hi Holly!

No, for the Emerging Readers, they read to you. It's a progression from easy readers to beginner chapter readers with pictures, to no pictures. It really takes reading off, once you finish either The Reading Lesson or Reading Made Easy. DITHOR, I believe is more reading to yourself, but I know many mom's transition slowly into that too.

LeAnna

You could have your children read silently on their own for pleasure. But, when using the Emerging Readers, I think the point is that you're helping them work on good oral reading skills & fluency (which can't be done if you're not listening and they're not doing it out loud). And, they're building comprehension with being able to understand what they're reading. You're checking this with the follow-up questions in the guide. For level 2/3 of DITHOR, the guide suggests that the child read their pages aloud to you almost every day as well. There's a checklist to help them work on skills of being a good oral reader. Then...as you move into the upper levels like 4/5, the child is only reading 3-5 pages aloud to you and the rest silently.

We're just starting the Emerging Readers with my daughter, and I'll have her practice reading the pages on her own before I listen to her. She can practice out loud or silently. (Then she can look at all the pictures and try to figure out the bigger words on her own before I listen. )

Kathleen

I agree with what's already been said, but I wanted to also encourage you that the readings in the ERS are super short. We had our dc practice on their own first too, and this gave them a chance to work on sounding out words on their own before reading them out loud to me. This helped us clip along with the reading when they did it out loud for me. It took maybe 10 minutes tops. I also caught errors in pronunciation this way, which is why I still have my fifth grader read a page or 2 out loud to me with DITHOR. It's a 5 minute thing that packs a big punch in correcting errors. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks for the replies. That all makes a lot of sense.