When to begin DITHOR w/ dyslexic child

[psreit]

My daughter is finishing ER books. Her reading has improved, but she is not reading much independently. How do I know if she is ready for DITHOR? I saw that there are independent activities in it. I pretty much have to sit with her during writing activities as well as reading. I have some other books for her to read if need be. I am thinking about the fall. If I would begin DITHOR with her in the fall, would I get 2/3 for a 12 yo? I'm just not sure where to go after ERs.

[psreit]

Bumping up. I really need some guidance in this area. Is DITHOR meant for a child who is not working/reading independently?

[Mumkins]

I'd probably start with 2/3. I think there's very little, if any, independent stuff.

[psreit]

Mumkins-Thanks. I just want to make sure I have Angie on the right track with her reading. I am so happy as to how much her reading has improved, but I still need to follow along with her. The same with her writing.

[Nealewill]

Have you called HOD?

I will say that the books cover similar material. The lower the book level, the less the amount of writing. That beings said, the lower the book level, the more hands on activities or discussion.

[psreit]

Daneale - I was looking at the book packs and the 2/3 sample online and I think that would probably be the best option. I'm assuming the activities for 2 and 3 are the same, just different level of reading. Is that right? I'm going to look at some of the books from the two levels at the library. I want to challenge Angie in her reading, but not frustrate her, so I need to decide on the books she will use. I'm thinking we'll use the level 2 books, just to keep building from the ER books. I'm thinking the amount of reading in 2 would be a little less than 3, so that would be another factor. I can tell when it is getting to be too much for her eyes. As she progresses to a higher level of reading, the print becomes smaller and will make reading more difficult. Angie is so excited when she can read a whole page without any help from me, so I want her to really develop a love for reading. I don't want it to be a chore. Right now she is reading the CLP Nature Reader and is doing very well. The print size is good for her and there are some challenging words. I don't want to spoil what she has gained this year.

As far as activities, she doesn't mind doing some writing. She just still needs me to oversee this as well, to make sure she is following directions, to make sure she is not skipping lines/words in her copywork, and for spelling help. She IS making progress, but is not ready for much independence. She does enjoy when I let her do some work independently, but I still need to keep her focused in certain areas. Attention is another one of her weak areas. The educational specialist, who gave us some guidance in math and reading two years ago, even made the comment that Angie's educational needs are complex. We are dealing with more than dyslexia, so making educational decisions has been difficult. I'm thankful we are back in HOD and don't need to be searching for 'something that work's' any longer. So, it's important that I place her at just the right level.

[Nealewill]

You can definitely do the level 4/5 work book with the level 2 or level 3 book pack.

Are you planning to buy the book packs? If not, then I would just get a few of each from the library. I did buying the books packs for both the level 2 and level 3. Level 2 is easier than Level 3 but all of them are very interesting books. My youngest and son are going to start DITHOR in April (I think). For them, I took all the level 2 books and all the level 3 books - put them in piles on the floor by genre and I let them each take turns picking from the pile of which book stack they wanted to do. For a few of the genres, and because I am not letting them read the same book, one child wasn't overly excited about the book they ended up with. For that, I just picked something from the $5 book list. That list is great! Do you have it? If not, I highly recommend it. A few of the books were fairly challenging in the level 2 and level 3 book packs. For example, Toliver's Secret was one my oldest read last year. It has been one of her favorites thus far. But it has small print and my youngest probably won't be wanting to read it by the time she starts that genre in DITHOR. So I ordered a different book from Amazon (used) and it was one of the selections from that list. For us, I let the kids read some of the genres over a longer period of time than 15 days. I am just flexible with it. I did the same thing for my oldest. I always buy the book packs (my husband jokes about how much I love to spend his money on school LOL). We keep them here at the house and have a book shelf dedicated to the books. My kids usually end up reading the books on their own even if they don't read it as part of DITHOR. Over the summer, we don't do school but my kids have to read for 1.5 to 2 hours a day. I love that I am creating a wonderful library that they can enjoy. They regularly just picks books from this shelf rather than going to the library. I feel like these books are very engaging and honestly, my kids love the books. The library is a bit more hit or miss. And I love that these books typically have a Christian theme. It isn't necessarily every book but it happens quite often. I digress....In general, I am flexible with the schedule and what they read for DITHOR.

I feel like the workbook and book packs are fairly flexible. You don't need the workbook level to necessarily match up with the book pack level if that makes sense. This year my dd finished up the level 2/3 workbook and she read some of the level 4/5 books in doing so. I anticipate that this will be the trend as we have just started the level 4/5 student workbook. She is on target to finish all 3 workbook levels by high school but will probably not always match book level with workbook level.

[psreit]

Daneale - What book list are you referring to? I'm not familiar with that.

I looked at the samples for 2/3 and 4/5 and it will be a hard choice. I wish I could see more pages in each book.

[Nealewill]

HOD sells a $5 book list. It is titled Sample Book List Ideas. It is sorted by genre and level. It is a really nice list!

http://www.heartofdakota.com/drawn-into-packages.php

[Nealewill]

As for the 2/3 verses the 4/5 books, I think the 2/3 books are easier. They sell the level 2 books and then the level 3 books. Both are great! The level 2 books seems to have shorter books with less pages and the books consistently seem to have larger print. But some of the books in the upper levels don't seem to cumbersome. Last year my oldest read Doll People and it was definitely one of her favorites. That book wasn't too hard but it was longer. But they are all great!

[psreit]

Thanks for the recommendations, Daneale. It has helped to solidify my decision.

The book list sounds like a good idea. I don't know how Carrie finds such good books. I like to follow her suggestions for the most part. I would be totally overwhelmed trying to decide what books to use if I had to choose from all the books in the library. Out of all the 2 and 3 books in the two book packs, there are 12 that our public library doesn't even have, and we have a pretty good sized library. We do have a small Christian resource library that could possibly have a couple of them, but if not, I may end up buying some of them, because I think they look good. I want to keep my cost down, but I don't mind buying a few.

I think I am going to go with 2/3. Since there is not independent work in that level, I think that would be a good place to start. We'll go through each genre one time and see how independent Angie becomes by that time. Maybe then she will be ready to move into 4/5 with a little independent work, even if she is still reading books from 3.