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EDITED: I asked the wrong question! What I had read was that you could use just one storytime book as a read aloud to multiple children if you were doing more than one HOD guide! That makes life easier! LOL So, scratch the DITHR part...those are seperate books for the child to read alone (while read alouds are for mom to read). Sorry for any confusion!

Tree House Academy wrote:Okay...I was reading on another thread how you can use the storytime books with DITHR so you know what is going on and can help the child. Is this just in special cases or circumstances or is that what you recommend?? We have always done two different books - but I have also always had a hard time helping my son when he gets stuck in DITHR since I am not reading the book with him. Of course, level 6/7/8 has proved to be very independent and so far he hasn't struggled much at all.

Thanks!!

We definitely recommend doing two different books, one for Storytime and one for DITHOR. Though all of HOD's book recommendations are living, Carrie chooses the books and the pacing of them quite differently based on the Storytime skills and the DITHOR skills. Some are chosen for their read-aloud quality, and others for their independent reading appeal. Uh-oh, I'm worried where we recommended using the Storytime titles for DITHOR! The only time I can think I've done that is for special circumstances, a very tight budget and no library available, a child had read all of the DITHOR books suggested already and a mom wanted to buy a package of 9 genres, health concerns, etc. I'm am VERY glad you asked this and am sorry if I somehow confused the matter in a previous post as I'm sure Carrie wouldn't have!

I do not preread the books for DITHOR (though I wish I had the time to do so, not to better the discussion, but because I think I'd enjoy them too). I do have each of my dc read at least 1-2 pages out loud to me every time it suggests to do so in the plans, which is all the time for Level 2/3 (and a lot of times he reads more like 3-4 pages out loud to me), and quite regularly with 4/5 (about every other time or so). I think this is super important for me to do, as it not only helps me keep abreast of what's generally happening in the book, but also keeps my dc practicing reading out loud and honing that skill. I do use HOD's book packs and recommended length of reading days for each book. This results in short amounts of the book being read each time, which helps me know better what's going on too. A neat thing about DITHOR is that moms can opt to choose their own books too. One thing to keep in mind when doing this is that the CM short lesson, fewer pages of reading each day, only 1-3 books per genre, and the idea of sitting with a book for awhile and drawing it out, all go a long way to keep us in touch with the reading by just hearing a few pages read out loud too.

I also skim the book's pages my ds read for the day as my ds is getting his Student Book out. When I say "skim", I truly mean "skim"! I usually have him read either the first 1-2 pages out loud to me, or the last 1-2 pages out loud to me. Then, after he's done reading, I look at the pages for the day that he read, skim the first one unless he read it to me, flip to the middle of the pages he read and skim that one, and skim the last page of the reading unless that was what he read to me. You'd be surprised how much I know what's happening in the book! It takes only a minute or so, but I really am pretty on top of it that way. (Though if I'm not careful, I can get caught up in just reading it all myself - great books have that effect.)

I think it's important to choose books for DITHOR that dc have not read or heard read before. In fact, I was just in that "boat" last night. I was trying to choose DITHOR books for my dc. I printed the DITHOR book packs off the Internet and asked each of them what they'd already read. This was a good reminder for me to put away the DITHOR books in a special place, as middle ds has read some of them that ds reread after finishing them in DITHOR. I really like to save the DITHOR books for DITHOR. When a child hears the parent read their DITHOR book aloud for Storytime, they are "hearing" the book a second time when reading it for DITHOR. CM was a big proponent of "hear it once" and retell it. She did not believe in rereading, as this just teaches the habit of not listening attentively the first time, since a child has the thought that he can always read it again later.

In any given year, the Storytime skills that are taught are usually quite different than the DITHOR skills taught, though there is some intentional overlap in Bigger Hearts, as that's a foundational year for understanding the general distinction among genres as well as an introduction to learning story elements and Godly character traits. It can become overkill to use the same book for all of the Storytime skills and then turn around and use that same book for all of the DITHOR skills. This is exactly what Carrie wanted to avoid by having separate books for them!

So, for all of these reasons, you are absolutely, 100% right to be using 2 different books always for Storytime and DITHOR. Sorry if I may have confused the matter at some point, but I am so glad you asked this here (and my response is for everyone reading this, as I know you know a lot of this already) !

In Christ,
Julie

Thanks Julie...I will see if I can find the place where I read that. I do think it was one of Carrie's posts, though. Maybe I just read it wrong (or, like you said, a special circumstance).

UPDATE: Okay, I read it right and posted the question wrong! LOL It came from the thread by Allison in KY and it was written by carrie, but what she said was that if you were doing more than one guide, you could use the storytime book from only ONE guide and read it to both kids, I think. That makes sense!

Here is the post with the snippet cut out:

Carrie wrote:
...the storytime books to himself? Those were chosen to be read aloud, and if you are already doing a read-aloud with another HOD program, you would skip the storytime in CTC.

Blessings,
Carrie

I just asked the wrong question. I am glad, though, that this is an option as I was always reading more than one book to the kids even though both wanted to listen to the other's book! LOL SORRY for the confusion. I am going to go up top and ammend my first post so no one reads this and gets confused!

Oh, no big deal! That's a relief actually. Probably someone else may have been wondering anyway!
In Christ,
Julie

I think at some point someone mentioned using one of the CTC storytime packs that you did NOT choose for storytime as the book selections for DITHOR 6/7/8. SSince CTC has a history related storytime pack and two other options for book packs, that seemed like a great idea since there aren't yet DITHOR book packs beyond level 5/6!

I think you're right, and I think it may have been me. Thanks, Tamara!
In Christ,
Julie