DITHOR -Sorry for being a pest, but....

[cozyfamily]

I am concerned that I am not going to have enough time to implement BHFHG and DITHOR. Between having a precious dd who processes information slowly and my work schedule, I have to be realistic about how much we can get done in a day. Both my dc and myself need some "down" time in the afternoon before I head to work at 3 pm (3 days per week). I like to keep my two days off open for field trips and errands. As much as I think DITHOR would be helpful to my dd, who is a struggling reader, I'm concerned about adding one more structured thing into the schedule. My older child would use DITHOR too, but works independently on most subjects.

Beyond the time spent reading by the student, how much time is needed for the exercises in DITHOR?

[lmercon]

I can't help with the amount of time DITHOR takes as I've not used it yet. I do know people who use it, and love it. Have you considered doing it half-speed and taking two years to cover one level? That may work well for your schedule and for your dd's abilities.
hth,
Laura

[DHT1999]

We didn't even find DITHOR until this past spring when my oldest son was a fourth grader. I'm not sure what aged child you are teaching?? But, I just wanted to share that we didn't even know about DITHOR until we were wrapping up fourth grade. We only did one unit, Biography, before taking our summer break. The only reason I started it in the late spring was to get a feel for it, to see if it's something I thought we would want to fully implement next year. And, yes!! I love it and we will definately be sticking with it. Starting it when my son was just a few weeks shy of 10 years old was fine. Up until now, we have only done oral narrations and beginning written narrations. We have always discussed what we read but nothing to the extent of DITHOR. But, it's ok!! I'm glad we found it for the future but narrations up until this point have been sufficient for us.

I understand about the need for a quite and unscheduled afternoon as I sometimes have to go into my part-time job at 4:30 in the afternoon and then I work all-night. So, I sometimes need my own free time in the early afternoons, just to rest, do housework, or get ready for work. I think that having a more structured curriculum like HOD (more structured than how we haven previously gone about it around here) will help me to feel like we have accomplished enough each day. While doing the Biography unit, my son (then 9) was spending about 20 minutes of time with it. I was working directly with him for about 10 minutes. We were doing it everyday. I don't think Bigger Hearts schedules it everyday?? I could be wrong.

Anyways, just do what you can do, keeping the big picture in mind. I found DITHOR was very flexible and worth the time. But, I don't plan for us to use it everyday when we start Preparing in the FAll. Actually, I think if your child is a struggling reader, you should consider waiting on DITHOR and not feeling bad about that. Your child may not be a struggling reader in six months or so! Then, DITHOR will be so much more enjoyable. I definately won't start it with my younger son until his reading skills are such that he is reading easily and for pleasure. He still has a little way to go!

[Kathleen]

Since Bigger has the genre study in the storytime box of the plans already, you wouldn't absolutely have to have DITHOR this year. It does say to do something for reading every day in the plans...whether your child is finishing phonics, doing emerging readers, or DITHOR. So, you'll want to be meeting the need to have your daughter reading in some form every day. If she's struggling as a reader, my guess is that going through at least some of the emerging readers would be a good fit. They do a great job of moving a child from phonics to reading shorter chapter books well. There would not be a big time committment there either as they're scheduled in bite-sized chunks.

I did DITHOR this year with Bigger and we needed about 20 min a day. I know I've seen Carrie say that you should need 20-30 min at level 2/3. I think it depends on how difficult the books are for your child to read. This year I know that I could have gone with harder books as some of them were too easy, but I would still say that DITHOR was VERY beneficial to us! It is a wonderful program!!

I wouldn't look at improving your child's reading as something to "add on". It's something that you're going to have to work on in some form no matter what curriculum you choose to do it. For us, DITHOR was actually less of a time committment than the reading program we used the year before. I'd take a look at what will meet your dd's needs best for reading (Emerging Readers, DITHOR, or something else), and give it a try.

You're going to have a great year with Bigger! We finished last week, and have nothing but good things to report about every unit!
Kathleen

[Carrie]

cozyfamily,

The ladies are giving you excellent advice! If your little guy is a bit of a struggling reader, you may want to consider doing the last half of the Emerging Reader's Set with him before heading into DITHR toward the end of next year (and even then only do DITHR 3 days a week). You could begin the Emerging Reader's Set around Buffalo Bill and just follow the last half of the reading assignments and questions.

Here's a link to the Emerging Reader's Set: http://www.heartofdakota.com/emerging-reader.php

The schedule for the Emerging Reader's Set is in the Appendix of Bigger Hearts.

Just a thought!

Blessings,
Carrie

[cozyfamily]

Well, this makes me smile! Over the past couple days I've been reading replies and thinking on it some more and decided to just order BHFHG for now and see if the latter part of the Emerging Reader program would be the best place to start. I figured I could always order DITHOR later. I just logged on again to check for more replies and, lo and behold, I find this very advice from you, Carrie. A great confirmation! I can't wait to dig into BHFHG when it arrives!

And by the way, I am seriously regretting not starting last year when I first looked into HOD. I had never noticed until a couple days ago that you offer a full week of lesson plans for potential users to read through. After reading through the 5 day sample, I cannot wait to begin!

[kiloyd]

I will be using Bigger next year for me ds. i've also thought about DITHOR and decided to start without it and see how our schedule is and like you I can always start it later in the year.

Katherine
ds 7 Beyond
dd 4
dd23mo