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Hi- Next year I'm planning on doing Bigger Hearts with my oldest ds and we're looking forward to it! I already have the guide and I was noticing that there is literature study built in with the Storytime box as well as with DITHOR. It seems like with my ds doing DITHOR and the Storytime box, my ds would be getting two different literature studies... is this too much? I really want to go ahead and do DITHOR with him, so should we just do the Storytime box without the questions?

Thanks!

We're doing both right now. It's true that they cover the some of the same literary information, but they are different as well. I feel like they compliment each other well. At the first of the year, we were a little off in our timing between the storytime and the DITHOR genre, but now we're doing the same day in each at the same time. I'm actually liking the overlap and how we get a more in depth view of the genre. One thing that you get in the storytime that you don't get so much in DITHOR is narrating. Both you and the dc narrate the storytime book in the course of the week. I don't think you would want to miss doing that as it really helps build narration skills. I feel like the scripture memory verse and character traits that go with the genre really get cemented even better when looking at them in both storytime and DITHOR. You could choose to do one or the other, but really they are both great and the information doesn't seem redundant. They are both valuable in their own right.

Hi Sara!

I think most of us doing Bigger and kind of new to HOD have asked this exact question. (I know I did... ) You're meant to do both Storytime and DITHOR in Bigger. They focus on different skills even though they do both cover the literature study of the different genres/story elements/character qualities. In Beyond and Bigger, the storytime covers the genres so that if your child is not yet reading independently enough to use DITHOR, that is already covered within the guide. You're meant to do both the storytime box and one of the options for reading though.

We found the opposite of Patty. We ended up with the genres "matching" for DITHOR and Storytime a couple times, and found that we really preferred that they be different. It works either way! We found that we liked coming back to the different character qualities/story elements after a time.

We have wonderful memories of Bigger! You'll love it!
Kathleen

Thanks so much to both of you! That really helps to know we're supposed to do both!

I'm so glad you decided to do both, as they fulfill different purposes! Plus, they're both fun to do. We found our ds needed all of the skills taught in Bigger Hearts to do PHFHG well. By doing both, your ds should be well prepared, and should have a good time with them both along the way too!

In Christ,
Julie