DITHOR 4/5 books and placement questions

[Mumkins]

I'm purchasing 4/5 for my 4th grade DD. I'm using the girl pack. But there's only 1 girl pack. What about the next year? I hate making up my own stuff.

Will there be a second pack or will I need to just pick them off the book list?

Also, I see a lot of the books are 5.0 or over. Will they be too much for her? Should I arrange the units ascending from 4.0?

ETA- In below posts, I find out I can do 2/3 with the 4/5 books. How do I decide which is better for her?

[my3sons]

I'm purchasing 4/5 for my 4th grade DD. I'm using the girl pack. But there's only 1 girl pack. What about the next year? I hate making up my own stuff.

Will there be a second pack or will I need to just pick them off the book list?

Also, I see a lot of the books are 5.0 or over. Will they be too much for her? Should I arrange the units ascending from 4.0?

In Bigger Hearts, DITHOR is scheduled 5 days a week, so you'll get through all 9 genres and your entire book pack. In PHFHG and on up, DITHOR is scheduled 3 days a week, so you'll get through 4-5 genres, which is half a book pack, and the next year you'd finish out the genres and the set. Have you looked at Book Pack Level 3? It ranges from 3.0 - 5.1, which may be a better fit overall:
http://www.heartofdakota.com/drawn-into-optional.php

I can't remember if your dd did that set already though? If so, you could do the 4/5 girl set this year, and then half the 4/5 boy set (whatever appealed to you and to her) the next year. (My ds has read most of the girl set and enjoyed them too. I don't shout out they're from the girl set though. )After that, you could do the 5/6 Girl set over 2 years and be set for awhile. I love the sets too - I'm thankful I'm not choosing anymore. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[Mumkins]

Ok, there's the problem. I'm doing Bigger with her but I'm doing DITHOR 4/5. She's 4th grade, but turning 9. Should I just do it 3 days a week then? Which 3 days are scheduled? Is there anything I should know about what is written is the Preparing guide? The 4/5 books look like ones she'll really enjoy. I'm also near the end of my school budget. Should I just order the student book, ignite your writing and half of the books from the book pack? Is everything I need for ignite your writing in the DITHOR teachers guide or will I be missing too much from the Preparing guide?

Sorry for a ton of questions, it never occurred to me that it would be different, I thought I could just do DITHOR when it said to do it.

[Kathleen]

Just so you know...the level of student book you choose to use with your child is in no way tied to the level of reading of the books you choose to use. You can use any level of of books with any student book to meet your individual needs! This past year, my 9 yo was in Preparing, and we chose to use the 4/5 boy pack along with the 2/3 student book. The amount of writing goes up when you use level 4/5 student book...and I'm sure there are a few other differences in the plans and discussions you have (but we haven't got into it YET - tomorrow!). Anyway, my son was ready to read the 4/5 books, but writing is not a favorite thing so we waited to move up in the student book. Other moms are using the 4/5 student book and books from the level 3 pack. Whatever works for you! (Like Julie mentioned, level 3 isn't just 3rd grade books, they're actually reading levels of 3rd-5th grade.)

I think if I were you, I'd do DITHOR as scheduled in Bigger. It's scheduled less frequently in Preparing on up because of the other LA that's in the guide. I think your balance will be good doing the reading daily as it's planned there. DITHOR and the other HOD guides do not schedule Igniting Your Writing for you. I think that HOD sells it for moms who may not be using HOD and are looking for a way to round out their LA without the HOD guide while using DITHOR as their literature program. Does that make sense? Are you planning to use it because you feel that you need to be adding in more writing for your daughter while doing Bigger? Creative writing lessons are written into Preparing when you get there using Robert Louis Stevenson's poetry. They were a hit at our house, but I wouldn't rush to get there if your daughter places in Bigger. They'll be perfect when you get there!

Kathleen

[Mumkins]

She probably could have placed a little higher, but I really wanted to combine. I think she needs to start some writing. She's writing a bit on her own, maybe a 1/4 to 1/2 page at a time. She is 4th grade, so I wanted to up it a little for her. I do have an unused 2/3 student book here though. DS isn't ready for that yet.

How do I decide which to do?

[my3sons]

Kathleen already gave some good advice here! I think that I'd use the 2/3 Student Book with your dd, along with daily reading of DITHOR, using either the Level 3 book pack or the Level 4/5 Girl Pack. The year of DITHOR daily is an excellent way to start it, and makes the following years at 3 days a week easier. Igniting Your Writing is not scheduled in any guide, but is meant to be added to DITHOR if you are not using an HOD core guide. It is not hard to schedule, but I do think you may want to wait on it at least a month to get a feel for the amount of writing required in Bigger Hearts, as it's more than Beyond. Here are some posts in regard to that:
Amount of writing in BHFHG:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3005
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1516&p=11829

Igniting Your Writing can be started at any time. It has 3 levels - start-up, intermediate, advanced. You'd probably do the Start-up with her. It has separate units, you can just get through as many as you do. It is very easy to work through, and has a well-laid-out teacher's guide that requires no prep or planning to do. I do think giving Bigger Hearts a month to test out the amount of writing first would be a good way to see if you still feel more is needed. Once dd is in PHFHG, creative writing is included. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[Mumkins]

Oh, OK. I thought IYW was part of it. I think we could use the 2-3 book. Will it be too much reading to go through all the books in one year. Should she do 4-5 as for 5th and 6th and 6-7-8 for 7 and 8. (Sorry, most punctuation showing up as French symbols and IDK how to fix it so I am leaving it out)

[my3sons]

Oh, OK. I thought IYW was part of it. I think we could use the 2-3 book. Will it be too much reading to go through all the books in one year. Should she do 4-5 as for 5th and 6th and 6-7-8 for 7 and 8. (Sorry, most punctuation showing up as French symbols and IDK how to fix it so I am leaving it out)

I don't think it will be too much reading, as she's not reading her history or science as of yet in Bigger Hearts. For that reason, I think daily DITHOR fills that need in an easy and excellent way. We try to go through all of Level 2/3 twice with different books the second time through in our home. I just think it gives a great foundation. Then, we'll go through Level 4/5 over 2 years once, and through Level 6/7/8 once over 2 more years. Not that this is the only way to do it though! There are many "right" ways to use DITHOR, depending on what dc need. I'd guess you could go through all of 2/3 for her fourth grade year, half of 4/5 for her fifth, half of 4/5 for her sixth, half of 6/7/8 for her seventh, and half of 6/7/8 for her eighth grade year. But, that's just one thought about it. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[Mumkins]

Thanks Julie. I'll have her read it all this year then. She's doing some side reading of Canadian stuff, but I'll try to keep that to maybe just a few the whole year.