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Hello all! Forgive me if this has been asked but I haven't been paying much attention to the Dithor threads because I really didn't think that we would be using it this year. So my question is, can dithor be done at half speed? I have a dd who just turned 7 who has blossomed with reading over the summer. I had already purchased my materials including the emerging readers before she really took off. I have really been considering buying dithor for her but am a little concerned with the amount of reading that would require as she still tires relatively easily. Right now she will read for about 15 minutes at a time. Could someone give me an idea of how much reading is involved per day? I'd also love to hear if anyone has done this half speed. TIA Blessings

We just started DITHOR for this year, today. We did one unit, Humor, last spring and will be doing more of the genres this year. You can really tailor the amount of reading to your student by the length of book you choose and the amount of time you use it over. For instance, last spring when we did the Humor unit, my dc read the other 2 Frog and Toad books that they hadn't yet read in the Emerging readers and one Minnie and Moo book. So the amount of reading per day was 1 chapter of Frog and Toad, which is about the same amount as in the Emerging Readers. Today we started the genre, Biography, and my dd will be reading the Captive Princess and Amelia Earhart over the 15 days. That is about 20 pages of reading a day, but I wanted to challenge her a bit so I chose longer, higher level reading books. My ds will be reading 2 different biographies of Thomas Edison and reading about 10 pages per day. In both cases, their reading will only be about 15 to 20 minutes per day. The difference between the Emerging Readers and DITHOR would be more in what you do after you read or sometimes before you read. There is more analysis, discussion and activities that go along with DITHOR.

I really loved the Emerging Readers for their simplicity of use, the ability to get the dc to begin thinking more deeply about what they read, and gradually improving their reading level overall. You might want to look them over and have your dd try doing a few days of it and see if it seems too easy. You can even begin 1/2 way or later through the emerging readers to get to the more challenging books. Even though it was below my dd's reading level when we did them, I thought it was still a benefit to her in helping her think more deeply about what she read and also improve her reading aloud fluency. They were still a stretch for my ds when he started them, but they really helped bring him up in his reading level. So I think they work in different ways at different levels and all of the books are wonderful books!

DITHOR can be done half-speed from what I read. What you would do is schedule the reading over 30 days instead of 15 and only do the activities every other day. I have been considering doing this myself just because of the schedule we have right now. We have 2 days a week when it is difficult for us to get in that extra 20 minutes to a 1/2 hour for DITHOR so I have been considering just having those be independent reading days. After looking over my material for DITHOR though, I think we'll be able to go full speed with no problems since there are only about 3 activities a week which take much more time than just the reading. You might want to take a look at the DITHOR sample: http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/d1.pdf. You would only be doing the level 2/3 activities. So that can give you an idea of what is involved each day in DITHOR.

Hope that helps give you some ideas to ponder.

I just wanted to jump in and say I'm having my ds who just turned 8 reading a few of the last ER aloud to me before starting DITHOR. I'm thinking it takes us about 10 min to read and answer questions. The last few books are simple chapter books, but they are so good, and ds and I both always want to keep reading. I'm a good girl though and we stop where we should. I figured this is just getting us thinking along the lines of DITHOR and not overwhelming me at the start of our school year. I don't know if that makes sense. If I were you, I'd definitely still get DITHOR, but dont' miss the ER either.

Thank you for the responses. We did jump into the ERs with with Wagon Wheels as dd had already read the Frog and Toad books and has been working on a similar children's Bible in the evenings over summer break. She seems to really enjoy the readings even though they seem quite easy for her and she also enjoys the questions. I think I'm just impatient to start Dithor . I'm going to continue with the ERs and stop trying to rush things. Thank you for helping me sort this out.
Blessings

Oh, I would enjoy the ERS to its fullest! Good call. But, if you do finish earlier with it than the end of the year, we did DITHOR half-speed with our 7 yo for a portion of last year and enjoyed it. I had Riley read the same book for 30 days so that the readings were shorter. So on one day I had him just read out loud to me, and then the next day he read and we went through the lesson in DITHOR. Worked great! I did write his answers for him in his DITHOR Student Book first, as he dictated them. Then I wrote them on a marker board (as the guide suggests), had him copy from that, and now he writes it on his own this year. But, do enjoy the ERS first, as it's a blast and does an awesome job of building reading comprehension with the questions based on Bloom's Taxonomy (great prep for DITHOR). HTH!

In Christ,
Julie