Help! How to use dithor w 2 levels

[TinainOK]

I have scheduled a time slot to do dithor at the same times w 2 kids, one in level 2/3 and one in 4/5. My plan was to have the 4/5 son do indep. reading of his book, while I listened to level 2/3 daughter read to me. Then get together to do the workbook at the same time using different level workbooks. After one day of school, I realized I had overlooked the fact that level 4/5 only does dithor 3 days a wk and level 2/3 does it 5. I had remembered level 4/5 had a 4 day wk so I was going to only do 4 days a wk w level 2/3, but now I see I'm 2 days off! How do you keep them at the same day of work w/out limiting level 2/3 progress? Am I looking at this totally wrong? It says you can use it with more than 1 level at the same time, but does it not mean actually together at times? I've studied and studies this and I'm totally confused! Any help would be appreciated.
Thanks,

[pjdobro]

It is tough when you are coordinating with one that is done 5 days a week and one that is 3 days a week. In looking at your signature and seeing that your level 2/3 is just 7 years old, I think I would just do DITHOR with the worksheets 3 days a week and cover it more slowly. Seven is about the youngest that you would want to start DITHOR and it wouldn't hurt at all to stretch level 2/3 out over a 2 year period. I'm assuming she is more of a beginning reader at 7. So given that, I would probably want her to still read on those other 2 days a week. I would do that one of two ways. I would either just stretch out the DITHOR book longer and have her read it to you everyday of the week or I would have an alternate book for her to read to you on those two days. I think I would lean towards the first idea and just stretch the DITHOR book out reading it 5 days a week but only doing the DITHOR activities with her 3 days a week when you are doing DITHOR with your other dc. How does that sound? Which guides are you doing with your dc? Is it Beyond and Preparing ? I'm thinking if she is doing Beyond, I would definitely want to take DITHOR more slowly so that she does level 2/3 while doing Beyond and Bigger and doesn't move into level 4/5 until Preparing. Does that make sense?

[MelInKansas]

I think Patty's suggestion is perfect. 7 is young to start DITHR, some kids could do it, but my DD is a very good reader and the activities/workbook pages in DITHR were a challenge for her. She is now 8.5 and they are still hard but she is just now able to do them on her own without a lot of help from me. And even then I have to talk to her about the 2 word answers.

Keep your 7YO reading 5 days a week, or whenever you do school, to keep them growing in reading skills. Another option besides stretching the DITHR books, would be to add in one more book per genre. Then the extra days account for the extra book, but you still would do the activities for the book they are currently reading. Does that make sense?

Probably in about 1.5 years I will be doing the same thing when my DDs are 8 and 10.

[TinainOK]

Thanks ladies for the ideas! I know I need to keep my 7yo reading daily that's part of my frustration about doing it w 2. dithor looks great and I think I'll like it, but it's caused me the most confusion from the beginning! I think I understand how to teach it ok, just not how to coordinate 2 together in it. Since I've received the 2/3 workbook, I've thought that it really looks too challenging for 7yo dd. When I called hod before purchase, Carrie's husband recommended I start it later in the year, but then I REALLY couldn't do the 2 together. She is a good reader, but I'm thinking of scraping dithor for her because I think it's going to push her too much and frustrate her. So if I do that, do I put her back in the emerging readers, which I already owned most and didn't buy but really about 1/2 are way too easy, (maybe just start w the harder ones) or go ahead a read the girls set I purchased for her and then next yr when I do dithor w her choose maybe the classic set? I hadn't thought ahead to where it would place her in the future if we start now. I finally got to a point where I felt I needed to just start using it to figure it all out. All the numbers times 2 was really confusing me! I'm also wondering how it will work out genre wise for next yr w the 2 together (hopefully) in dithor w dd not having done it and ds having 1 yr. I guess it all works out somehow in the rotation!

Yes, I'm using Beyond for dd and preparing for ds (10 this month) Does the next level up for the 2 of them match up w number of days a wk for next yr? We've only done 1 day of school last Fri and did the kick off together. As I was preping for Tues school is when I began to see more number/day issues causing me problems. I thought I had very carefully prepared, but I obviously forgot some info and didn't really understand how to combine the 2 levels!

[MelInKansas]

You can do two different things. My DD was definitely past Emerging Readers, so we went ahead with DITHR but I had to walk her through the assignments and do a lot of hand-holding. She couldn't really compose sentence answers when we started, and needed help with the spelling. Some people do DITHR 2/3 level and do all or most of the writing for their child. That's what I did for the first 1/2 of it. What she has gained is an understanding of story elements and ability to analyze what she is reading. It was more work for me, to be sure, but I think it was worth it. She LOVED the book projects, but I think if you do DITHR together you don't necessarily do the book projects since those would be different for each child. I guess you could have both of your kids do the 2/3 project. It's not like they are "babyish." Stuff like writing a thank you note to a character, making a "mask" of a character and then doing a presentation as that character, and a diorama of a scene from the book.

Anyway, being 2/3 of the way through the DITHR year with my DD I see either route as being valid and really just whether you want to put the work in to do the DITHR with your younger one or wait. Reading the 2/3 books, if those are on her level, and talking through comprehension of them would probably suffice for one year. Again, you might then have to add a few more books because if you read 20 days worth, instead of 15 days reading and 5 days of project, you would need more to read or need to spread out your books for 20 days instead of 15. I hope that makes sense.

And to answer your other question: you will have the same problem next year if you are using Bigger and CTC. Bigger is a 5 day/week plan and has reading scheduled 5 days/week. CTC is a 4 day/week plan and has DITHR scheduled 3 days/week. So to keep everyone together in the genres and on the same day of DITHR you would have to have the younger one only doing DITHR 3 days/week. Which would probably be fine. I probably have only done DITHR 4 days out of 5 with my DD because sometimes we just don't have (or don't make) time.

I don't know what I will do once my 2nd is in DITHR, because it will be the same way for us. With my guides, I just keep right on going, I don't care what day of the week it is or where the other kids are at. But with DITHR it might be good to do some projects and things together, and to do the kick-off together and things like that. So I might try to make it work out so they can stay together.

[mom23]

When my son was done with the ER's I did not feel he was ready to dive into DITHOR. We spent the last half of last year just having him read. I picked optional books that were listed in the Emerging Readers list, or other library books that looked that level. I think your idea of just having her read the girl interest pack that you bought is a great one. Like you said, next year you could add in the DITHOR activities with another book option. I don't think I'd do the ER's if she's already ready them (you said you had most of them already) or if they are too easy.