Would it be ok? DITHOR question

[Kims]

Would it be ok to not start DITHOR until 4th grade? I am just not sure my son will be able to handle it in 3rd. I mean I know we have several months for him to mature but if he still happens to not be ready then I don't want to push him. As I look through the student book I have I can see where it will be great for him but am just not sure he could do the work.
I don't want him to miss out. My other thought was we could do a lot of it orally and I could do the writing for him. He may mature enough by next school year but just want to know what the best option is.

[MomtoJGJE]

My oldest did DITHOR in 3rd... For the writing, I just had her answer orally and I wrote down (on a separate paper) the things from what she said for her to write. Her biggest problem with the writing was remembering what she wanted to say. I also condensed a bit.

For the program in general we actually did it half speed and took breaks. She just finished level two a few months ago. It took well over a year for us to complete. Maybe even closer to two? She might have started in 2nd grade, I just don't remember. I had her read every day, but I spread the reading out over 30 days instead of 15. One day she'd read and we'd do the guide and the next day she'd just read. Then when we finished a genre we'd take a break for 2-3 weeks.

Since she finished it I've just been waiting for DD2 to finish up the ERs so I could start them together.

[my3sons]

I think MomtoJGJE had some great suggestions! We also began DITHOR half-speed and enjoyed that. My concern with completely waiting would be that he is not receiving reading instruction this whole year then, as just reading is good practice, but not the same as receiving reading instruction. It is just fine to wait 2-3 months into a guide to begin DITHOR the first time around, as dc are often getting used to doing the core of the guide well, but after that, I do think it is important to begin formal reading instruction with DITHOR, even if it is half-speed. I think he will make great progress this way and do even better with it next year! When we began DITHOR, we focused on reading from our books well each day, developing good oral reading skills, discussing the questions that are in DITHOR, and enjoying the kickoff and the final projects of DITHOR. We accepted shorter answers in the Student Book, and I did more of the writing. We focused less on lengthy, detailed answers in written form at first, and accepted concise answers if they were correct. We also used the markerboard to help with spelling later on. HTH!

In Christ,
Julie

[Kims]

Thank you ladies that helps. My plan is as soon as he is done with the readers we are doing now, which we are one book away, I will start the level 2/3 readers. I may pull some other books first since I want to wait a bit to start them. But when I do I will use DITHOR similar to what you have said. I will just find what works for us/him. I plan to school loosely through the summer so may start then since I will have less other stuff. Not sure yet.
Now I need to get the TM as I have the student book.