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Good morning~

Sorry to keep asking so many questions~I'm trying to grasp the nuances of HOD, primarily DITHOR.

1. Are the student books nonconsummable~or will each student need a DITHOR book? I'm teaching twin girls.
2. When I look at the sample of Beyond Little Hearts for His Glory, it appears that aspects of DITHOR are already in there (i.e. teaching what a biography and other genres are, etc.). Is DITHOR necessary for a 2nd grader (thinking ahead to next year) or does the main teaching guide teach these concepts in a gentle way?

Thank you so anyone who can help me with this!! ~Holly

Holly, we haven't purchased DITHOR yet but we're planning to start about half way through the school year so I'm interested to hear what others have to say in response to your questions. I do know that DITHOR begins when the students have completed the emerging readers. So, it would depend on the child whether or not you would start in grade 2 or not. Does that make sense? ie I'll have a second grader using DITHOR and a third grader using the ER for part of the year and then moving into DITHOR. HTH

Hi Holly,

I will try to answer your questions:

You will probably need a student book for both your girls as they will be writing their answers directly in the book.

We did Beyond and DITHOR last year with my then 2nd grader. DITHOR is a bit advanced, and some wait until 3rd grade, but it went well because my dd is strong in reading and writing. There is a little bit of overlapping between the Beyond guide and DITHOR, but not much because DITHOR has SO MUCH more. It is really a great program, and my dd really improved in her read-aloud skills through the year. It also encourages the student to think deeper and make connections about what they are reading.

Thank you, Tmisek! That's the information I was looking for. ~Holly

We've used DITHOR many years now, and you are going to love it! The minimal overlap that is planned is intended, and we found it actually helps younger ones retain the foundational concepts better earlier. Here's a rundown of the skills covered in BHFHG's Storytime box:

*Day 1: introduce and study different types of literature
*Day 2: model narration to foster comprehension
*Day 3: identify and analyze a different story element for each genre
*Day 4: relate personally to one Godly character trait, compare Biblical and book characters, and make a bookmark as a reminder of the trait
*Day 5: practice narration by retelling the story

Only Days 1, 3, and 4 relate to DITHOR, and as they are done after the parent has read the book aloud, they are more in a guiding/modeling sort of way than they are in DITHOR. In DITHOR, the child is responsible for the reading, as well as learning these skills and many, many more skills. For this reason, the slight overlap was wonderful, as I could "help" more with it during the Storytime sessions, and expect more from my child during the DITHOR sessions. On a sidenote, we tried doing the same genre in Storytime that we were doing in DITHOR, and we also tried doing different genres. It was fun both ways! We ended up preferring to do separate genres just to be reading different types of books, and also as it gave a natural review for the ones we'd done before in Storytime when they came up in DITHOR. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

Perfect! That makes sense~I'll go ahead and order DITHOR for her when she's a 2nd grader. We don't currently use HOD for the older girls~3rd grade~(unfortunately!)~but DITHOR looks so good, I may have to buy it and have them do it with the curriculum they are doing for this year. Thanks for the help! ~Holly