box day arrived..confused about a couple things..help.

[wensuetay]

Hi. So happy we got our "box" and to get started:) We will be doing school through the summer. But, I am confused ecspecially about DITHOR...I really don't get how to do it? And I have read through archived posts. I have 2 boys who will be doing DITHOR level 2/3. One reading level2/3 books and one reading higher level books but still doing level 2/3 student book. I am not sure how we do all this? HOw do I schedule all the reading with DITHOR, storytime and extentions? If my oldest son is doing DITHOR which they read on their own, right? or aloud to me and then he also is supposed to read his extentions on his own too. Can the extention books be the books he reads for DITHOR? Otherwise it would seem like a lot of reading for him with the extentions and DITHOR books. And I still just don't get how to choose how long a book should take to read? Also in the guide it says their is an option of reading aloud the DITHOR and then choose the group project? Does this mean I can use DITHOR as read alouds and use the same book for both boys and do a group project? So confused.
Now for storytime box in the guide..I have always done our read alouds at night for the boys bedtime story, but it seems like that wouldn't work because of the explanations I need to read to them in the storytime box as well as read the book. IS there a way any of you do this? Because doing our read alouds for bedtime has always worked out so well and saved time during the day. So, if any of you do this please let me know how your family works that out!
I guess I am feeling overwhelmed with the amount of "stuff" to do with three boys and 2 different guides and DITHOR and not exactly knowing how DITHOR works. It seems like a lot.. ANy help would be great. Thankyou!

[MomtoJGJE]

IF it's too much for him to read DITHOR and extensions then I would suggest he doesn't need the extensions. They can both read the same book and do the same work with it OR they can read different books and do different projects, it will not work the way it's intended for you to read the book to them as DITHOR is their reading instruction.

For doing Storytime at night, you can just start the read aloud the day before and ask the questions the next day, but you have to make sure they are awake and listening to the whole thing. That's why I had to stop reading at night. BUT I can get more advanced books, read a few pages during the school day for them to answer questions/narrate about and then read longer sections at night so that we can get through the books.

[doubleportion]

My dh does the storytime book at night with our dd. She is doing PHFHG. I do the reading through history with her during the school time though. We haven't found it a problem and it is a huge help to me.

Can't say about DITHOR. We are new to it too.

Edie

[my3sons]

Hooray for box day! I am glad you got all of your things and are having a chance to look through them. I will be happy to answer your questions here as best I can!

...I have 2 boys who will be doing DITHOR level 2/3. One reading level2/3 books and one reading higher level books but still doing level 2/3 student book. I am not sure how we do all this?

Both of your sons will do the Level 2/3 plans in the green DITHOR guide. They will each do an orange Level 2/3 Student Book. They will be reading different books. I would read through the Introduction, Getting Started (in Appendix), and 1 genre of DITHOR's plans. This will give you a good idea for how your days will go as the plans for each of the genres follow a routine.

HOw do I schedule all the reading with DITHOR...

The "Getting Started" section of the DITHOR teacher's guide (in the Appendix) explains how to do this. Basically though, you just divide the number of pages of the books you chose for each of your dc out, and fill in their Reading Calendar in the front of their Level 2/3 Student Book. Which book(s) is each of your dc reading for their first genre? How many pages do they have? I can help you with that part if you'd like.

If my oldest son is doing DITHOR which they read on their own, right? or aloud to me... Also in the guide it says their is an option of reading aloud the DITHOR and then choose the group project? Does this mean I can use DITHOR as read alouds and use the same book for both boys and do a group project?

Dc read their DITHOR books. Every day in the Level 2/3 plans in the DITHOR Teacher's Guide, it says, "Listen to your students read part or all of the assigned pages out loud to you. Use the Reading Strategies list and the Qualities of Good Reading list provided in the Appendix to help you know what to emphasize. (We put sticky notes on these to refer to these great helps as needed.) So, each day your dc will read aloud part or all of the pages jotted in on their reading calendars to you. We usually have our dc read at least 3-4 pages to me for Level 2/3, and the rest of the pages (if there are any) on their own.

The "Getting Started" section (#5) says you may want to choose a book to read aloud to the group that corresponds to the genre you selected. This is an optional idea that is encouraged...

Reading aloud a book that corresponds to the genre would be an additional thing to do rather than a replacement of dc doing their reading. This is not necessary to do if you are doing a core HOD guide along with DITHOR, as through the years read alouds for Storytime are from each of the genres already. So, I wouldn't worry about this as you are obviously doing a core HOD guide along with DITHOR. We just do the Book projects or group option with our different books if we choose it.

...and then he also is supposed to read his extentions on his own too. Can the extention books be the books he reads for DITHOR? Otherwise it would seem like a lot of reading for him with the extentions and DITHOR books. And I still just don't get how to choose how long a book should take to read?

Yes, he is supposed to read his extensions on his own. No, the extension books should not be read for DITHOR. They are not from all of the genres. If the extensions and DITHOR together are too much for your ds, then you should drop the extensions and just do DITHOR. DITHOR is their reading instruction. Extensions are added if more is needed, if DITHOR and the extensions are too much reading then more was not needed. I already mentioned how to divide the pages for DITHOR and will help with that more if needed. The extensions are all planned out for you in the Appendix of the guide. The pages for each day are listed out neatly for ease of use, so this is all figured out already.

...Now for storytime box in the guide..I have always done our read alouds at night for the boys bedtime story, but it seems like that wouldn't work because of the explanations I need to read to them in the storytime box as well as read the book. IS there a way any of you do this?

What guide(s) are you doing? The Storytime books can definitely be read at bedtime. The follow-ups are important to do, but can easily be done at bedtime as they generally take about 5 minutes. The readings are short. You just take the total number of pages in the Storytime book and divide it by 20, as noted in the first week of plans in the HOD guide. This usually results in a small number of pages being read, around 5-12 usually, which can easily be read at bedtime, so no worries there. I like to write on a sticky note about how many pages to read each day (i.e 5-6 pages) just so I easily remember.

I hope this helps! All of those books are going to be wonderful once you begin reading them.
In Christ,
Julie

[wensuetay]

Thankyou all for your replies ..definitely helps. I did read through all of the guides but still was confused..I am a person who needs to see things done rather than read how to do them I think.
Julie, We are doing BHFHG for my older boys and BLHFHG for my younger son.
Thankyou so much for detailing everything for me.
Since I have already bought the extentions for my older son who is 10, It seems like I could use some of those readers as long as they fit in the DITHOR genres, right? Rather than get different books when I have already purchased those..He actually loves reading and is a very strong reader but it just seemed like maybe too much with the regular pkg, the extentions and the DITHOR. We could try all though.
The genre is biography and my 7 yr. old(8 in Sept) chose Peter the Great which has 32 pages and my 10 yr.old chose Carry On, Mr. Bowditch which has 251 pages. He is doing higher level books with the 2/3 student book because he is a reluctant writer and has not had formal writing experience. And now that I just wrote that out..I see that they will not be finishing at the same time. Are we supposed to pick books that they finish at the same time?
Thankyou again.
Wendy
Luke,10
Landon,7(8 in Sept)
Liam, 5(6 in Dec.)

[wensuetay]

P.S.
I just saw that Carry on Mr. Bowditch is actually on the 6/7/8 grade list, so I asked him if he wanted to choose another and save that for next year and he really wants to read it now, so.....
Just thought I would let you know that I realized it was on the 6/7/8 rather than the 4/5.
Thanks.
Wendy

[Kathleen]

Wendy,

I'm guessing that it will all make much more sense to you as you dive in and just do it! Just do exactly what all the boxes in the guide tell you to, an you'll be good.

For DITHOR, you will want to follow the plans. You'll be reading the plans for 2/3 in the book for each day. In DITHOR each genre is going to last 20 days. 15 of those days your children will be reading from their books. The last 5 days are for a project to wrap up the genre. So here is what I'd do...
-Pick a fun kickoff idea from the list Carrie has at the beginning of the Biography section, and plan to do it. Some are super easy (like having each child go find 5 things to put in a bag that tell about themselves) and some are more elaborate (like a fieldtrip to where someone famous grew up). Then follow the directions/questions to talk about biographies after your chosen activity. I personally haven't chosen an elaborate kick-off yet, so we just do this during our planned reading time in our day.

-Day 1 This will be the 1st day that your children will read from their books. You might want to glance at the plan 1st so that you know if you need to plan anything ahead. (Days 1, 6, and 11 sometimes you do.) Sometimes you'll want the books or cover picture to be a surprise for you students.

-Your student WILL be reading for exactly 15 days in their DITHOR book. You're right about that. So, for Carry On, Mr. Bowditch, your son would read 17 pages per day. (If this sounds like tooo much, help him pick an easier book. ) Then, for your younger son, I'm guessing you'll want to use more than one book for the 15 days. Peter the Great has quite a few pictures, so if you stay with that one I would have it last 5 days. I personally would steer away from it as your son will be reading it for Independent History the next year in Preparing. At that time it will fit right into the history you're using. But if you choose to stick with that, maybe you'd want to add Squanto for 10 days? Here is the book shop on the website. http://www.heartofdakota.com/bookshop.php You could go there and look at the choices within the DITHOR packs and genre-based storytime sets. If you click on Biography on the left side, you can see all the biography options and their reading levels. You could definitely look at your library for these titles, too, and not order more books. That's a great way to save money with HOD! Usually you can find DITHOR books and the genre-based storytime titles pretty easy.

[Kathleen]

My typing screen was getting a little "bouncy"....must be getting long-winded. But I had a few more things I was going to say.

-Now for your daily DITHOR time, I'd do the "all together" days all together before you have the boys read. Usually the plans steer you this way. Do the lesson. Then these days usually have your child read the pages on their own. On the other days, I think that I'd usually start by having Luke head off to get reading. I'd listen to your Landon read his pages aloud. Then you could opt to either have them answer the follow-up questions together or seperately. I'd end by listening to Luke read 3 pages or so aloud.

For your evening storytime, you could opt to do one read-aloud for all 3 boys. Bigger and Beyond both use genre-based titles for storytime. You may want to pick from Beyond's choices to keep it short enough for Liam. But some of the Bigger titles would probably work for him, too. I'd still do the follow-up from the storytime box. If you're doing it this way, maybe use Beyond's box? They are super-short follow ups that would be easy to do at bedtime. You might want to get Carrie & Julie's advice on the follow ups. I haven't ever done this with my kids - yet.

You'll get it! And I'm sure that you'll have a VERY enjoyable school year with your little guys!
Kathleen

[wensuetay]

HA! I posted b4 you got a chance to finish. Thanks again. I have always read our bedtime stories in my older two boys bracket so Liam will be okay with Bigger's books.
Thanks for all your advice:)
Wendy