water2wine wrote:Ok didn't want to take the other thread off but...I've looked at them and thought about them and now I have to know about them. Could you tell me about them. How much time do they add and how often do you do them? Is it a end of the book celebration thing? I've got to hear.
Be honest though...is there a ton of stuff to buy and gather or are we talking about something on the easy level of it's somewhere in the house kind of like Bigger science?

Hi w2w! We're doing one right now, and I haven't had to go out and get anything. They are always able to be completed in 5 days at our house, which is what is allotted in the DITHOR plans. We only do them at the end of the genre. They are always the Option 2, Book-based project, in the DITHOR Teacher's Guide. I will say that my ds doing DITHOR right now is not artistically inclined, but he does often pick the Book-based projects after I've explained the 3 choices.
Each book project usually has a run-off page, directions, and a short easy-to-complete reflection page for at the end.
Here's a few examples of them from the Gr. 2 book used with the Level 2/3 of DITHOR:
character tube puppet:
cardboard tube (i.e. toilet paper or paper towel or wrapping paper tubes)
colored paper, yarn, optional movable eyes
Directions in brief: cover tube with colorful paper and use that as the base for a puppet of the main character from one of the books read; make a puppet out of that by adding "clothing" and details of your choice
fill out pattern page (3 rectangles with 3 lines to be written on each:
Name of Character, Title of Book, He or she is the main character because..., What problem does the character have?, How is it solved?, My favorite thing that this character says is...
cut out and color pattern page statements and mount on cardboard or colored paper, use your puppet to share your information with your family
O.k. That's the one we're on right now. Other projects are: diorama, character mask, main character mobile, accordian book, patchwork of facts, animal research, adventure thank-you note
You can probably tell that these are short projects that have a nice balance of "create-a-little-on-your-own" and "follow these directions though" guidance. It's been great for us!
I will say that I can see it taking a long time if you have a child that LOVES to create and goes on... and on... and on... with it. However, one of my friends who has a child like this sets the timer and give 20-30 minutes for 5 days of school time to work on it, but then allows child to work on it as much as he wants outside of "homeschool" time. It still has to be done by day 5. That works great for her son!
Is that what you were wondering?
In Christ,
Julie