DITHOR: Do you choose the books for your child?

[Sue G in PA]

I was curious if you chose the DITHOR books for each genre FOR your child or if you allowed your child to choose his/her own? Last time I did DITHOR, I let my child choose the book from a handful of about 3-5 books that I had pre-selected. I have all of our books grouped by genre on our bookshelf in preparation for doing DITHOR this year so it wouldn't be too difficult for my kids to select the books that interest them. We will start with Biography and I can already see that my sports-minded boys will want to read about their favorite basketball player or football player. What do you all do? Thanks.

[my3sons]

This is a nice feature of DITHOR that you can take advantage of if you'd like. I think it would be neat to do this, if you have multiple books to choose from that you know are excellent or if you frequent the library. I used to choose my ds's books with his interests in mind when I just had 1 child doing DITHOR, and he was young. But once the book packs came out, I have to admit I just get the set every year. I know they are great books, and I am burnt out on the search for excellent literature for my dc on my own. I know that sounds sad, but it is true. Honestly, after so many years of reading 10 books to find (maybe) 1 keeper for the kiddos to read, I'm ready to hang up my "good book hunting shoes" and run with HOD's choices instead. However, I do enjoy looking for free reading books that are good. I have a different standard for those, as I want total excellence for my DITHOR (and Storytime) books, but am willing to settle for "good" and "morally sound" for free reading materials. I think if you have some good books on hand to choose from that you'd deem worthy of savoring, and your dc would enjoy choosing them, it's a fantastic idea to go that route! Great question!

In Christ,
Julie

[Sue G in PA]

Thanks so much, Julie. We have developed quite an extensive library over the years. We do not keep "twaddle" books or "Mcbooks" in our home library so the choices I have on hand are good literature (many that are on the HOD lists). Not to sound arrogant (I hope it isn't coming across that way ). Having been through so many good homeschool programs/curriculums and having frequented this board as well as many others, I've created quite an extensive list of good books worth owning (and typically not found in our public library ). I'll have to think/pray about this. I think for now I will just select a handful of books from our library for each child to choose from). I'm so excited to start DITHOR this year. Having tried it 2 years ago and have it fizzle out, I was skeptical. But, I am coming at this with new eyes and am really excited.

[Kathleen]

I'm not nearly as up on good literature as you & Julie, I'm sure! We love HOD's picks - and are learning as we go. I think you could easily let your child pick books from good ones you have.

Here's how we incorproate "picking" AND using the HOD book packs. I purcahsed the 4/5 boy pack last year and let Grant pick the 5 books/genres that we'd do that year. Now this year we have 4 left and he wants to read King of the Wind for adventure (a genre we did last year). Sooo...I let him pick the order we'd do the genres left in and then finish up with the adventure repeat.

Kathleen