heartofdakota.com

I have been using "Teach your child to read in 100 easy lesson" (misnomer, the lessons are NOT always easy). We are on lesson 80 and have been doing at least 4 of them a week, so in 5 weeks maximum we'll be done. She is reading very well, especially when sentences are short and she feels she can read it.

I'm a little lost as to where to go from here. I feel like she is a reader, and while we will still need phonics lessons to continue learning the more obscure rules, I want her to read books also. But then I find that there are not many easy reader books on her level. Bob books are way too easy now. The library doesn't have a whole lot, though we do grab 2-3 easy readers every time we go and I've been happy with about 1/2 of what I've found there. I'm searching on Amazon and Rainbow Resource even and not finding a lot. I don't really want easy reader books about Disney Princesses, even though we like Disney Princesses!

When do you start DITHOR? It says 7, and I'm not really clear on what "emerging reader" means. How do I know when she's ready for that?

I also have the Scaredy Cat books and I think maybe even CDs. I'm thinking about starting them, just as a stopgap and trying to find other books she can read along with that, buying them if I have to.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Hi Mel,

I finished 100 Easy Lessons with my then 6 year old about 3 months ago, but we had previously done some structured phonics work also. After finishing the book, my son was able to start the emerging readers and he has been loving the first book which is the Beginner's Bible. Emerging readers is for kids who need to strengthen their reading skills and reinforce the phonograms learned through easy to read interesting books. It sounds like your dd might be ready to start these also. If you have a christian bookstore near you, you can go and have a look at the 2 bibles HOD offers so you can scroll through and see whether you think your daughter is ready for them. Maybe another idea to cement her reading is to get some good phonics flash cards (I can not advise you in that area as the ones I use and love are Australian, but they are very similar to Spalding style which I think is American.) I do the flash cards with my son every now and again as he still has not learned all the phonograms and there are some fun games you can do with them for revision also. This only takes 5 minutes a few times a week and it really helps with learning and reading new words.

All the best.....

Corrie

After we finished 100 Easy Lessons last fall with my son (who turned 6 then) in October, we did about 2 months of just reading books from library that were either suggested in the back of that manual or ones with the same reading level. Then we just started the Emerging reading list books with the "Beginning Bible". He did just fine.

The Emerging Reader's schedule is in the Beyond and the Bigger manual. The first book has a 2.0 reading level and would be a great place for your daughter. I've been enjoying these books with my son. Carrie has definitely chosen quality reading material. There are supplementary titles listed in the manual as well and we've enjoyed many of those too!
Here is more info: http://www.heartofdakota.com/emerging-reader.php
HTH

Thanks for the thoughts everyone! I will definitely check out the emerging readers list, I may start getting some of the books just to have, even if she's not quite ready yet we'll probably be there before I know it!

School is starting up again next week, so I also need to start getting ready for that again!

After we finished phonics in LHFHG, we started the Emerging Reader's Set. We got the Beyond guide and began with "The Early Reader's Bible" which took about 9 weeks to go through using the pace planned in the schedule in Beyond. We then did "The Beginner's Bible" and moved through the rest of the ERS as scheduled in Beyond. This was perfect for my ds! Doing both Bibles instead of choosing one added 9 weeks to the ERS, and it eased my ds into it. Because my ds was familiar with the Bible stories, it made him more confident reading them, as opposed to beginning with books he knew nothing about. The readings in the ERS are bite-sized, and the questions are wonderful for building good reading comprehension. The ERS is written specifically for the transition between phonics and longer chapter books. It sounds like your dd is in that transition, and I think she'd LOVE the ERS! When we finished the ERS in the middle of Beyond, we just started DITHOR Level 2 books reading them very slowly, and we eventually added the 2/3 DITHOR Student Workbook and did half-speed DITHOR. Worked great! HTH - congrats on your sweetie taking off in reading!

In Christ,
Julie

Okay, a question to clarify. Why do I need the Beyond Guide? I assume maybe it has a schedule for the reading of the Bible, and maybe questions to discuss it? If I do that, then what will I do when I'm doing Beyond? I guess maybe we'll be in DITHOR by then? I appreciate the input from anyone who's done this before.

Thanks!

Hi Mel,

the Beyond Guide has a reading schedule and comprehension questions for the Emerging readers....

if you complete the Emerging Readers schedule before you finish the Beyond manual then yes, you would move onto DITHOR. The DITHOR schedule is very flexible and can be started at any stage throughout the guides so that is not a problem if you are ahead in that area!

All the best,

Corrie

MelInKansas wrote:Okay, a question to clarify. Why do I need the Beyond Guide? I assume maybe it has a schedule for the reading of the Bible, and maybe questions to discuss it? If I do that, then what will I do when I'm doing Beyond? I guess maybe we'll be in DITHOR by then? I appreciate the input from anyone who's done this before.

Thanks!

My 2nd DD also finished up 100 Easy Lessons before we were done with LHFHG. We already had the Beyond guide and Emerging Readers. After I tried going through early readers from the library I finally gave up and started her on the Emerging REaders The Early Reader's Bible actually has questions at the end of each chapter in the book, so if you are not wanting to buy the Beyond guide until next year I would suggest starting with that. We are now in Beyond. She struggled a bit going from level 2 books to Level 3 books so I held off a bit and added a couple more Amelia Bedelia books and Josephina's quilt books in and she whizzed through them and on to the Level 3 with no problem. She is now in chapter books.